While searching the net today for baseball news, I came across an interesting article over at mlbtraderumors.com. The article listed in order of predicted effectiveness in America, Japanese players that can come over to America this offseason. I already talked about one of them, Hiroki Kuroda, but his ranked number 3. At number 1 is Hitoki Iwase.
Mlbtraderumors.com describes him as someone that loves Okijima would love. He has a very nice slider and fastball around 93 mph. Mlb4u.com describes his slider and fastball to Otsuka. He has the most saves in a single season in Japan at 46. Over the past three years, his ERA has been 43, 40, and 46. His ERA has been 1.88, 1.30 and 2.10 (carear 1.91). He throws lefthander and is 32 years old.
Assuming that Sanchez is availble towards the begining of the season, this might not be a bad move. Sanchez the right handed setup and the Iwase the lefthanded setup. Heilman, our current setup, is also right handed. This just seems like a nice calculated risk. I normally do not like Japanese pitchers, but his ERA is so low in Japan, I really cant see him going about 3.25 in America.
Sorry to dissapoint you, but if Iwase had his choice, he would go to Boston. We already have two successful Japanese pitchers on the staff, we have a great pitching coach in John Farrell (who helped invent Okajima's split/change up), and we just won the world series.