Going into this season the Red Sox now have four Japanese pitchers that will play large roles on the team. This undoubtably will extend the "Red Sox Nation" to all corners of Japan.
Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima both had extremely large parts in 2007 when the Sox won it all. Okajima was selected to the all-star game as a rookie, and Daisuke planted himself firmly as one of the Red Sox' Best Pitchers. Matsuzaka went 15-12 and finished 4th in the ROY, the following year he would go 18-3, lower his ERA by almost 2.00 , and finish 4th in Cy Young voting.
So far in the 08/09 off-season Theo has added Dodgers closer Takashi Saito, and Junichi Tazawa, a 22 year old prospect out of Kanagawa, Japan.
In three seasons 39 year old Takashi Saito has thrown 190 innings, with 81 saves, 245 strike outs, and only 9 home runs. Takashi will join Hideki in the bullpen to bridge the gap to Jonathan Papelbon. Before coming to America Takashi had pitched 13 seasons in the Japanese Central League, he was 87-80 for the Yokohama BayStars .
The hard throwing 22 year old will start off his season in the minor leagues. Junichi Tazawa was not drafted by any of the 12 Nippon League teams out of high school, so instead played for Nippon oil in the Japanese Corporate League. He dominated with a 1.02 ERA and 95 strikeouts through 88 innings. In the Corporate League championships he posted two straight shutouts, with the second being a complete game. This is where he attracted the attention of MLB scouts, and ultimately decided to come to America instead of playing in the league that rejected him a year earlier.
Topic: Turning Japanese (Read 4657 times)