Global Baseball Company

Cuban Friday: Summit of the Americas, WAQI, Felix Perez and Luis Tiant

2009-04-17T15:01:00.001-05:00

Cuba is the focus of the upcoming Summit of the Americas, and the focus of today's post.

Earlier this week, United States president Barack Obama removed some restrictions on American money and goods flowing toward Cuba. Today, the head of the Organization of American States said he will ask its members to readmit Cuba after isolating the country from talks over the past 47 years.

This dovetails nicely with something I wanted to mention here. Native Cubans recently lost their only ability to hear MLB games on the radio when Florida Marlins broadcasts on WQBA 1140 AM in Miami (with Cuban broadcasters Felo Ramirez and Luis Yiki Quintana) changed over to WAQI 710 AM prior to this season. This effectively eliminated any chance for native Cubans to keep track of MLB baseball. This is all being reported to me by my contacts there—I can't actually find a press release announcing this change, although WAQI 710 is now the official Spanish-language home of the Florida Marlins. Check out this forum; it seems the bandwidth is bigger now under WAQI.

So...what gives? It seems like they should be hearing it better than they were. Perhaps it's getting jammed? Anyone?

***

Also in the news, Jorge Arangure Jr. of ESPN reports that talks have broken down between the New York Yankees and exiled Cuban prospect Felix Perez. It's on ESPN Insider so I won't bother linking (it requires a subscription) but it looks like Perez is being detained with visa trouble in the Dominican Republic, and the Yanks have some questions about Perez' actual age. According to Arangure, Cubans aren't subject to the same age investigations as other Latin American prospects, so he isn't likely to face the one-year mandatory suspension for prospects who lie about their age. He quotes one international scouting director on Perez:

"He had a well-built mature body with some stiffness. I never saw the speed he supposedly has, and his swing was a bit stiff. I just did not see a carrying tool or ability in the range they were talking about."

Sounds like there's at least one scout out there who hasn't given up the romantic notion that big-league ballplayers need to sell jeans...

Perez is (for now) twenty years old and comes from the Isla de Juventud (Island of Youth). He's a left-handed hitting centerfielder who Baseball America calls "a raw talent." In two seasons in the Nacional Series he hit only .271.

***

Finally, the Boston Globe ran a moving piece on former big-league pitcher Luis Tiant. Tiant, a three-time All-Star and winner of 229 games, journeys home in a forthcoming documentary titled, The Lost Son of Havana, opening Apr. 23 at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. If anyone goes, post a review here...

FBI Investigation into MLB Scouting Still Ongoing

2009-04-15T12:23:00.000-05:00

The FBI continues its investigation into Major League Baseball’s Dominican Republic scouting programs. The whole thing is bound to get messier, so I want to establish a timeline now before there are simply too many conflicting stories to straighten out. Basically, for the past year, the feds have been investigating the skimming of bonuses from Latin American prospects by MLB personnel. Here’s how it’s gone down:

July 2, 2006: The Washington Nationals sign sixteen-year-old Dominican shortstop Esmailyn Gonzalez to a $1.4m signing bonus. Gonzalez is discovered by Nationals special assistant (and former World Series MVP) Jose Rijo. After signing, Gonzalez makes it clear he wanted to sign with the Nationals because of Rijo.

May 16, 2008: The Chicago White Sox fire scouting director Dave Wilder when they discover he is under investigation by the FBI for skimming off bonuses paid to Dominican Republic prospects.

July 14, 2008: ESPN reports that Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden and special assistant Jose Rijo are under investigation for their roles in the ongoing scandal surrounding the signing of Dominican Republic players. Bowden and Rijo deny any wrongdoing. (The relationship between Bowden, Rijo, and the Domincan Republic dates to the late 1990s and early 2000s when Bowden was GM of the Cincinnati Reds. He used Rijo’s training facility to cultivate talent for the Reds’ organization.)

Aug 5, 2008: The New York Times reports several New York Yankees scouts have been placed on leave pending an investigation by the FBI into their Latin American scouting practices. Six to eight teams are reportedly under investigation.

Aug 16, 2008: The New York Yankees fire two scouts who reportedly took kickbacks from Dominican players they helped sign. The Yankee employees are identified as director of Latin American scouting Carlos Rios and Ramon Valdivia, the team’s Dominican Republic scouting director.

Feb 17, 2009: Esmailyn Gonzalez reveals that he falsified identification papers and is not (by now) nineteen years old, but actually twenty-three years old. Oh, and his name is actually Carlos Alvarez Daniel Lugo.

Feb, 26, 2009: Jose Rijo is fired.

Mar 1, 2009: Jim Bowden resigns.

Mar 30, 2009: ESPN’s Peter Gammons reports that MLB commissioner Bud Selig has given MLB security an open checkbook to try and clean up the mess in the Dominican Republic. Possibly as many as 70 prospects—some "big names" apparently—are being detained while the government sorts through the plethora of potentially-falsified names, birth certificates, etc.

So what are people saying? ESPN The Magazine's Jorge Arangure Jr. lists six ways to fix Dominican Republic baseball. The Magazine also ran a nice feature recently on what it's like to be a prospect in the DR.

It's clear to me, anyway, that no matter the problems, the system as it stands now is ruthlessly efficient at one thing: churning out MLB-caliber ballplayers. How we protect those ballplayers is the question.

MLB New Import Tracker (Apr 5-13, 2009)

2009-04-13T12:22:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the first installment of the 2009 MLB New Import Tracker, where we track the progress of each international signing at the major-league level throughout the season...

Kenshin Kawakami, SP—#11—Atlanta Braves
Birthplace: Tokushima, Japan
After winning his first (and only) start this week, Kenshin Kawakami is on pace to win 32 games. He drew an easy matchup with his first assignment, taking the hill against the Washington Nationals. He struck out eight, walked four, and allowed four runs in six innings to get the win.

He had a shaky first inning (blame those "It's my first game in America" nerves), when, after getting two quick outs, he walked the next two batters and gave up a run-scoring single to Nick Johnson. He also served up a two-run bomb to Ryan Zimmerman in the third. But in his last two innings of work he retired the side in order.

It's nice to see his career strikeout rate carry over (so far) in the U.S. (Of course, the Nationals' lineup is also chock-full of free-swingers.) But Kenshin's fastball was clocking in the low 90s, and he mixed this with a mid-80s slider and a changeup that registered at 67-68 mph. No sign so far of the shuuto.

His next start comes at home against Anibel Sanchez and the Florida Marlins.

Koji Uehara, SP—#19—Baltimore Orioles
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Like his fellow countryman Kenshin Kawakami, Koji Uehara is now on pace for 32 (or so) wins after besting the New York Yankees 7-5 in his MLB debut.

Uehara went five innings, allowing one run on five hits and a walk. There were some troubling signs, however. Not only did he fail to strike out a single batter, he coaxed only three groundballs (compared to 12 flyballs), which will not continue to be a recipe for success at Camden Yards. He's gonna have to keep the ball down...and find a way to miss a few bats.

Regardless, East Windup Chronicle liked what they saw while also acknowledging the danger signs I mentioned above. But his performance against the Yankees was exactly what fans of Japanese baseball have come to expect: pinpoint control, keeping hitters off-balance with a split-finger fastball and that fancy new changeup he learned in spring training.

Fans of the NBL were keeping an eye on this one, as Uehara faced-off against former Japanese star Chien-Ming Wang, as well as Hideki Matsui (otherwise known as "Godzilla"). Matsui went 0-for-3; Yang was pegged with the loss, his first on the road in his last nine tries, dating back to 2007.

Unfortunately, the matchups don't get any easier for Uehara: in his next two starts he'll face the Texas Rangers (in Arlington) and the Boston Red Sox (at Fenway). Let's hope he figures out how to keep the ball down before then...

World Baseball Classic: More Deep Thoughts

2009-04-09T22:31:00.003-05:00

Former big-league pitcher Todd Jones is blogging for The Sporting News. In his most-recent post he tosses out a few reactions to USA's 2009 performance in the World Baseball Classic. This one jumped out at me:

OK, Team USA's starting pitching wasn't great. Here's one way to fix that: use your top prospects. They don't have to worry about preparing for a long season. Get the young guns ready early, then have them take off some starts after the tournament. There would be less worry about injuries, and you'd still be growing the game by showcasing the future.

This is not a bad thought. In fact, it's a pretty good one. Not only would these prospects take the hill each game feeling like they had something to prove, even the most-highly regarded draft pick would be less of a finacial risk (and less of a financial investment at that point in their career) than an established frontline starter. What better way for the young guns to prove themselves than on an international stage in the intensity of a playoff-like atmosphere?

Sadly, I suspect MLB teams value their kids too much to let them fly around the world unattended, with no one to monitor their regimens or tuck them into bed at night. Letting a guy like Carlos Silva jet off to Miami to pitch for Venzuela is one thing. Letting a kid with tremendous upside, somebody like Trevor Cahill for example, is quite another.

Still, Jonesie may be onto something.

Women's Baseball to 2016 Olympics?

2009-04-08T22:03:00.005-05:00

The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) announced yesterday they hope to add women’s baseball to the 2016 Olympic slate. Quoting IBAF president Dr. Harvey W. Schiller:

"There has been a great amount of talk about adding women's baseball over the past year, but recently the growth of the sport in places where baseball is already popular, as well as the request by new federations to increase the number of young girls playing in baseball, has led us to move ahead and amend our 2016 proposal."

Right. Because baseball—not not to mention women's softball—is so insanely popular all over the world they cut them both from the 2012 Olympics.

The press release cracks me up, so much so I need to continue to quote verbatim:

Currently over 500,000 young women play baseball around the world, with the number growing exponentially every year. Two weeks ago, Eri Yoshida became the first female to pitch in Japanese professional baseball, striking out the first batter she faced and touching off an immediate growth of young Japanese women interested in baseball.

As if hundreds of thousands of Japanese girls suddenly threw away their strapyas, grabbed their brothers’ baseball mitts, and ran outside for a game of catch! How anything can touch off an immediate growth of anything else is beyond me—isn’t growth something that is inherently measured over time? It all just seems a bit...overly cheery. Color me skeptical.

Look, I’m not against gender equality when it comes to athletic disciplines. You hear people complain about it sometimes, especially in regards to the NCAA, where maybe a University is perceived to support a women’s discipline just because they need to even up with the men. And even if that does happen from time to time, it's not necessarily a bad thing. And as for athletes like Danica Patrick (wait, are race-car drivers athletes?) or Michelle Wie, who reguarly compete against men, I say go for it.

But all athletic events are not created equal. Women excel at some (or are just more interesting to watch), while men excel at others. I dig women’s skull more than men's; the same goes for soccer, polo, fencing, and yes, sometimes even basketball. But do we really need gender equivalents in every Olympic event? Let's hope not.

For example, I'm sure we're all in agreement that the longer we avoid men's rhythmic gymnastics, the better off we all are. The women's event is punishment enough—and always on during prime time, at that!

It's not that I don't want to watch women play baseball. I do. A League of Their Own was cool. But surely the IBAF has better things to do…like making sure men’s baseball makes the 2016 Olympics.

World Baseball Classic: Pay to Play?

2009-04-06T22:15:00.003-05:00

At parties, people tend to know that I'm a baseball fan, so they'll start conversations with me about the MLB season or, most recently, the World Baseball Classic. I had a conversation last night about this most recent WBC, and it got me thinking about a couple of things, namely the apathy of most American fans toward the tournament and (ok, I'll say it) the whining by some of the U.S. players as the tournament wore on.

At this party, a friend of mine was mimicking a certain American ballplayer, imagining his internal dialogue as said player anticipated the WBC: "What? They expect me to play hard? For free?" And of course, being (as usual) slow on the take-up, it hadn't really occured to me until then that the somewhat lackadaisical performance on the part of the Americans might boil down, not to fear of injury or lack of mental preparation, but to the simple fact they're not being paid to play.

In the early part of the twentieth century, MLB players would barnstorm during the off-season—John McGraw would take his New York Giants down to Cuba; Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig toured the American plains putting on home run exhibitions; etc. In Peter C. Bjarkman's A History of Cuban Baseball, the author details how these barnstorming tours—though largely ignored by American fans at the time—were more than merely a chance for Negro league or Cuban players to pit themselves against American All-Stars like Ty Cobb...they were the only place in the world where fans could watch white players and black players and Latin American players face-off against one another and measure their talents and achievements. MLB was segragated; few Latinos played in the big leagues. And only recently, through the well-meaning activities of the Committee on African-American Baseball (a nominating committee for The National Baseball Hall of Fame) have some of these long-overlooked baseball stars (like Martin Dihigo) begun to receive their historical due.

That injustice could be several posts by itself, and is in fact the subject of many fine, book-length works. But to go back to the point my friend made at this recent party: those players who barnstormed in Cuba and Mexico and Venezuela were not doing it for philanthropic reasons, or even nationalistic ones—they were getting paid. As much as $1,000 per game, according to Bjarkman, if the player was Babe Ruth in 1920.

Maybe Major League Baseball, flush with cash by increased attendance, the success of the WBC, and the meteoric rise of MLB Media, really oughta think about kicking those players who choose to participate in the WBC a little coin. I know, I know. It's a shame that in this day and age we should even have to talk about such a thing...why can't they just play for pride...blah, blah, blah. But if each country pays out $100K per player for each tournament victory, or for each time their nation advances to a subsequent round, maybe we'd see more players—especially American-born players—more eager to volunteer their spring trainings toward reprsenting the Red, White and Blue.

(There are counterpoints to this argument of course, drawn from everyday life. Most attorneys work a few per diem cases each year; doctors frequently volunteer their time in under-served parts of the world. And who doesn't know an accountant who does taxes for each and every one of his friends and relatives...for free? So maybe it's enough that, given that they're donating their time to entertaining the masses, the WBC participants play at all...)

As for the indifference of the American fan base, there may not be much we can do. As a country, Americans have been largely indifferent to baseball played outside the United States for more than a century...only in the last twenty-five or so years have we even had the courage to recognize (and post-humously elect to our Hall of Fame) players like Dihigo who, as the only player elected to the Hall of Fame in four countries (the US, Cuba, Venezuela and Mexico), was not only dominant for his era but arguably one of the best players of all-time.

Anyway, it was interesting—if not altogether heartening—to read that American indifference goes way back... there's historical precedent. That's all I'm saying.

MLB New Import Tracker 2009: Kenshin Kawakami

2009-04-03T23:52:00.002-05:00

Thirty-three-year-old Kenshin Kawakami became the first Japanese-born player in Atlanta Braves history when he signed for three years and $23M this past December. At his first American press conference, he immediately ingratiated himself with the hometown media, introducing himself by saying:

“Hello, my name is Kenshin Kawakami—y’all can call me Kenshin.”

Pretty funny stuff.

The Braves either outbid or out-bargained several other ballclubs to sign Kenshin, including the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles. GM Frank Wren and current advisor (and former GM) John Schuerholz wanted to bring a Japanese player to Atlanta, and they found their man in Kenshin, who posted a career 112-72 record over 11 seasons for the Chunichi Dragons of the Nippon Baseball League.

His career strikeout-to-walk ratio is just south of 4/1; in 2004, his banner season, he went 17-7 with a 3.32 ERA and 177 Ks en route to taking home the Sawamura Award and being named MVP of the Central League. In 2006 he became the highest-paid pitcher in Japan.

Stateside fans saw him most recently in the 2008 Olympics—he entered the Bronze Medal Game against the USA in relief, with the score tied at four, and gave up a double and two-run homer to cost Japan their shot at a medal.

In Atlanta he'll slide into the fourth spot in the starting rotation behind Derek Lowe, Jair Jurrjens, and Javier Vazquez.* This should be a nice, low-key way for Kenshin to get a taste of big-league baseball. He's not being relied upon to be the ace of the staff, and there's nowhere more laid back than Atlanta (any TBS broadcast proves this point—watching the Braves on TBS provides nearly as good a nap as any Grand Slam tournament).**

Stuff-wise, according to NPB Tracker, Kenshin features a cut fastball which tops out in the low 90s. He can follow that up with a slow curve, a shuuto (which is sort of a "reverse slider" that, thrown by a right-hander, breaks down and in on right-handed batters), and a forkball. The same article goes on to say that Kenshin and new MLB import Koji Uehara (who I previewed here) taught Kenshin the forkball, and there's a friendly rivalry between the two men. Should be fun to watch them compete as we track their progress over the course oftheir first major league seasons.

Kenshin will make his first start at home in Turner Field on Friday, Apr. 10 against the Washington Nationals.

*By the by, do the Braves suddenly have the most international rotation in baseball? By my count their five-man rotation represents America (Lowe), Dutch Curacao (Jurrjens), Puerto Rico (Vazquez), Japan (Kenshin) and Mexico (Campillo). They've got Pool A of the World Baseball Classic covered...

**Which is not to say I don't mourn the loss of Braves-game coverage here in Chicago, I do. When TBS went off the air up here, I felt it keenly. Keenly, I tell you. Now I have to try and nap on Saturday afternoons with a white noise machine, when once all it took was Skip Caray saying "Welcome to Turner Field..."

MLB New Import Tracker 2009: Koji Uehara

2009-04-02T22:10:00.004-05:00

The regular MLB season starts Sunday night, so I'll be previewing our new imports over the next few days, revving up for The MLB New Import Tracker that'll keep you updated throughout the season on all the international free agents making their MLB debuts. We start with Koji Uehara.

I previewed Uehara back when he declared his free agency in April, 2008. He was coming off a very rough 2007, and things hardly smoothed out: although he was once considered the equal of Daisuke Matsuzaka, for most of last season, the Yomiuri Giants used him as a swingman. He started in 12 of his 26 appearances, posting a 6-5 record with 1 save and 72 strikeouts in 89 innings. However, he pitched so poorly for a stretch that he was demoted briefly and almost failed to make the 2008 Olympic squad. He turned things around in Beijing, finishing out a 6-1 victory against Chinese Taipei, then earning his first Olympic save against Canada two days later.

For the Baltimore Orioles, the MLB team that signed him to a two-year, $10M contract (with an additional $3M to be made in performance bonuses, including 34 starts or 200 innings pitched), Uehara joins their rotation as the No. 2 starter behind Jeremy Guthrie. The AL East is a tough division on which to cut your major-league chops…although plenty of pitchers, including Dice-K, have done it successfully.

Uehara suffered a mild hamstring strain Mar. 9, so, with some extra time on his hands, he learned a new pitch: a changeup, which he can apparently throw for strikes. The hamstring seems to be on the mend; the changeup is now officially part of his repertoire.

But what kind of repertoire are we talking about? An injury-prone control artist in Japan, he’s never walked many batters, which (on his good days) made him Greg Maddux in his prime, or (on his bad days) led to fits of gopher-itis. He just turned thirty-four; he hasn't pitched over 100 innings in a season since 2006. Maybe the Orioles' trainers can keep him healthy, but given that the MLB season is longer the NBL, asking Uehara to take the mound every fifth day over the course of an entire season might, in the end, be too much to ask.

Neither ESPN nor The Bill James Handbook 2009 dared venture a projection; Ron Shandler’s Baseball Forecaster labeled him “a gamble.” Baseball 81 has him making 28 starts, throwing 162.5 innings, and going 6-10 with a 4.25 ERA and 120 Ks. (Theirs is the only projection I can find that thinks he'll stick in the starting rotation all year, an idea that might be, at heart, overly-optimistic.) But if they're right, I think the O’s will take that. And if Uehara stays healthy, that sounds like a fair projection.

Lots of questions marks, which is why we don't see nearly the hype and fanfare that welcomed players like Dice-K, Ichiro, or even Kaz Matsui when they made their big-league debuts. Uehara makes his first start Wednesday, Apr. 8 at home against the Yankees.

Straps: A New Toy for a New Season

2009-03-31T21:48:00.005-05:00

They're coming. The only question is when. Already insanely popular in Japan, merchandise giant Sharp Sangyo Co. rolled out these tchotckes in the Venezuelan Winter League...and they're coming to a U.S. stadium near you.

You can "strap" them to your car keys, your PDA, your belt loop, or the brim of your baseball cap. For those couples who just aren't satisfied wearing identical Johan Santana jersies, they can buy Straps that match. When a Cubs fan taunts a White Sox fan, the Sox fan can just say, "Yo. Talk to my Strap." Maybe these things will help make our heated rivalries a little less personal. (No honey, I wasn't criticizing you, I was talking things through with your Strap...)

Maury Brown on The Biz of Baseball sums it up perfectly:

Questions remain... Will the Randy Johnson strap be too tall for your pocket? Will the Bobby Jenks strap elicit comments like, "Is that a strap in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" The possibilities may be endless.

Here are the Top 10 strapya charms I want to see:

1. Alex Rodriguez: in one hand, a vanity mirror, in the other, a syringe.
2. A.J. Pierzynksi: with spring-loaded "boxer" fists.
3. Dustin Pedroia: half the size of most strapya charms, it also talks smack nonstop.
4. Mark Prior: his would have been one of the most popular charms, but sometimes its arm just falls off for no reason.
5. Ichiro Suzuki: dispenses zen-monk wisdom when you press his baseball cap. Also carries a lightsaber.
6.Drunken Cub Fan: half-full Old Style beer in one hand, a baseball he brought to the game in his other (just in case he happens to catch a homerun ball, he can throw the one he brought back on the field).
7. Bill James: his charm unfolds like a Transformer robot and turns into a device that is both slide-rule and pencil sharpener.
8. The Molina Brothers: actually a three-headed hydra monster featuring the faces of Bengie, Jose and Yadier.
9. Dan Marino: this charm is immensely popular at Dolphin Stadium in Miami, Florida, as less than half of Miami's population is even aware they even have a professional baseball team, or that the stadium is used more than 8 times a year for anything but football.
10. Jim Leyland: not sold to anyone under 18 years of age, as this charm can be used as a cigarette holder and, when hassled by the media, unleashes profanity-laced tirades.

The minute somebody runs into one of these here in the States...let me know.

South Africa: The Next DR?

2009-03-29T21:39:00.004-05:00

In the March 23 issue of ESPN The Magazine, Alan M. Klein, author of Sugarball: The American Game, the Dominican Dream, predicts South Africa will become "the next Dominican Republic" in terms of supplying players to the US.

In the same article, an unnamed MLB official says:

"You can sign a kid for six or seven figures out of Venezuela or the Dominican Republic or Mexico, or you can sign them for five figures out of South Africa."

Already a rugby and soccer powerhouse, South Africa is still making up for decades lost to apartheid. The nation has invested millions in gyms, sports facilities and equipment, and MLB has taken notice, selecting the country to represent the African continent in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classics. The South Africans didn't fare so well, but much like China, their even being there was a major victory in and of itself. Anyway, for countries such as these, when it comes to competing in international baseball, it's all about the future.

For its part, MLB seems serious about building South Africa's baseball infrastructure. Since 2006, they've added two scouts and a full-time national coach-in-residence for South Africa, built a national training center in Cape Town, and upgraded four fields in Johannesburg.

No South African has ever reached the major leagues, although there are currently six minor leaguers in six different MLB organizations.

World Baseball Classic: Sorry America, It's Not About You

2009-03-27T08:43:00.006-05:00

After two World Baseball Classics, the word is out: Americans don't care about the WBC. But the truth is, stateside sports fans, it's not about you.

Sports Illustrated reported this week that EPSN's viewership for the 2009 World Baseball Classic was up 30% from 2006, but that its "1.3 rating was well below the 2.0 average for last year's MLB Sunday-night games." Contrast this with Japan, where a first-round game between Japan and South Korea earned a 37.8 rating (about 45 million viewers), the highest since the Japanese "played Cuba in the WBC final."

The article goes on to mention the mere 13,224 fans who took in USA's dramatic second-round comeback against Puerto Rico (in Dolphin Stadium) and the 15,000+ fans who watched Japan and South Korea in Petco Park. Although the semifinal game between South Korea and Venezuela drew 43,378 fans to Dodger Stadium, and although the Saturday Round 2 game between the USA and Puerto Rico drew over 30,000 fans in Miami (a city that hasn't had that many fans out for a baseball game since the Marlins' championship of 2003), Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig called attendance "disappointing."

And then there's this gem from USA's Kevin Youkilis, which is quoted in the article but which I also seem to keep running into everywhere:

"It definitely hurts a little bit to know that you're always the away team in your own country."

I'm not going to bash American fans for not being more patriotic—truthfully, I have a hard time chanting "USA! USA!" in the face of fans from other countries that are economically, socially, and/or politically much worse off than the USA. I can't separate baseball from the geo-political realities of the countries these players represent, so I tend to sit back without much rooting interest one way or another. I say this without any condescension: as an American, I have no idea what it's like to be from (or in some cases, what it's like to have fled) these other countries, and chanting like crazy for the good 'ol U.S. of A., waiving all our freedom and opportunity and surplus in the face of others, well, just seems like poor taste. And when it comes to the World Baseball Classic, I just want to see good baseball.

But I do watch the games, and apparently most of the American baseball audience doesn't. I've heard everyone from my boss to a talk show host on WSCR 670 The Score say how little they care about the WBC, how stupid it is. What they don't get is that it's not about them: it's not about the American audience one way or another. In fact, the less the USA wins, the more successful the World Baseball Classic becomes. The stated goal of the WBC is to "grow the sport around the world." It's economic, folks. Major League Baseball has gone global. It's all about revenue stream. And whether American fans watch the games or not, MLB and its affiliates continue to stretch their market...and prosper.

Some things to keep in mind, as far as continuing to grow the American audience. First, 13,000+ fans for a Tuesday night game, in March, in freakin' Miami should be considered a brilliant success. At a time of year when the best matchups, in the best spring training sites, are lucky to draw 10,000? And most are drawing around 3,000 per game?

Second, I'm not convinced Miami is really the ideal place to hold the tournament—I think you lose plenty of potential customers who, the minute they hear "Miami," say "No way." Who's down in Florida this time of year? People accustomed to Fort Myers or Sarasota, who like to amble into a spring training game for ten bucks and leave in the fifth inning once all the scrubs come in. Fair or not, the very idea of driving to Miami, navigating Miami, and seeing a game there scares a lot of people away. There's a stigma there. It's like holding a game in Detroit, but with more sunshine.

A follow up to this second point is that while California is an ideal place to hold games that appeal to the Asian market, it's terribly inconvenient for 70% of our country. World Series that pit west coast teams always have low ratings: those of us in the eastern or central time zones simply can't stay up that late. Not on a weeknight. And I would have loved to attend the final round games, but it's $400 bucks for me to fly in California (not to mention expensive once I get there) while only $200 for me to fly to Florida and eat my meals during early-bird specials. Unfortunately, there's no perfect solution to this, but time zones absolutely play a role.

Third, if I hadn't, completely by accident, discovered MLB Network in the 400s on my Comcast cable, I wouldn't have seen any of the games but the Japan/South Korea finale (which ESPN was gracious enough to air). I don't know if MLBN was showing the games for free or if I always get that channel or what, but I was lucky to find it. So while the USA is raging back to beat Puerto Rico and advance, the major sports channels—ESPN, Fox— are showing poker and motorcross. If you want American fans to watch, you have to show the games on a channel they can actually find. Until two weeks ago, I thought all the 400s were music channels.

A lot of people have griped about the timing of the Classic. It's spring training, American players aren't up to speed, pitchers don't have their arm strength etc. And Selig appears to have given some thought to holding it after the MLB postseason, in October. This is an interesting debate, with three options. Hold it during spring training, as it is currently (and as it will be in 2013), hold it after the MLB postseason, or take 10 days during the MLB All-Star break and hold it then (much like NHL hockey). From an American perspective, the All-Star break is probably the best time, although I can't imagine how much we'd have to adjust our internal rooting interests to take 10 days off mid-season to suddenly begin rooting for Derek Jeter (if we're Red Sox fans) or Daisuke Matsuzaka (if we're a Japanese-American living in New York). But for the rest of the world, the timing as it stands now is perfect. The winter leagues have wrapped up in South America and the Carribean; the Nippon Baseball League is just getting revved up. Globally, it's the right time.

Others have complained that the WBC doesn't really pit the best players in the world against one another, as huge stars like Albert Pujols (Dominican Republic), Cole Hamels (USA), or Johan Santana (Venezuela) sat this last tournament out. This, though, is a question of insurance...that is, money. You can't blame MLB GMs if they don't want their multi-million dollar investments put at risk before the regular season even begins. And the WBC can't afford to compensate the teams if Pujols blows an Achilles rounding first. I don't know enough about how this all works, but if we figure out the insurance angle, we might actually begin to see the best players represent each country, which would go a long way toward drawing stateside interest. As it stands now, US fans can't help but view it as exhibition. And in a way, they can't be blamed.

Regardless, there's no way Selig or MLB can possibly be disappointed with anything about the World Baseball Classic. The more success countries like South Korea have, the more people start talking about when this player or that player will make the jump to the major leagues. And that, in the end, is the entire point: even when other countries claim the mantel of being the best team in the world, in the end, it all funnels back to Major League Baseball. Which means revenue for the participating countries, yes, but also MLB teams, MLB, MLB Multimedia, and all its sponsors. There are seeds being planted now on a global scale which will, in another ten or twenty years, make baseball not just America's game but, if Selig succeeds, the world's. At any rate, MLB will always be the final yard stick by which all players from every nation are measured.

So, fans of American baseball, it's not about you. It never was. Which probably isn't a bad thing.

World Baseball Classic Finals

2009-03-25T20:32:00.010-05:00

Rocky Balboa vs. Apollo Creed. Nirvana vs. Pearl Jam. Fat guys vs. skinny guys on old NES Ice Hockey...

Korea vs. Japan?

For anyone who cared, (which was, apparently, not most Americans), the final game of the 2009 World Baseball Classic featured Japan and Korea, the best and most-evenly matched teams in the world. Their battles are the stuff of epic prose poems; their rivalry deserves induction into the Classic Matchup Hall of Fame.

In the 2006 World Baseball Classic, both teams found themselves in Pool A. South Korea beat Japan 3-2 in Round 1 but both teams advanced. In Round 2, South Korea again beat Japan 2-1…and again both teams advanced. In Round 3, Japan beat South Korea in the semifinals 6-0 to advance to the championship game, leading some South Korean players to grouse about the tournament’s double-elimination format—to beat a team two out of three times only to watch that team go to the finals without you? It hardly seemed fair, or at any rate made their Cass beer taste a little flat. Japan, of course, went on to win the 2006 World Baseball Classic, while South Korea stayed at home and planned its Olympic revenge.

In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, South Korea and Japan didn’t run into one another until the fourth day of the first round. South Korea won soundly, 5-3. Both teams advanced to the “Knockout Stage” where South Korea defeated Japan again 6-2 to advance to the Gold Medal Game. South Korea, of course, won Gold. No MLB players represented either team—which may have favored South Korea slightly (although again, this should have made a bigger difference for Cuba, which won Silver). While South Korea lost youngsters like Shin-Soo Choo or Jung-keun Bong, Japan lost MLB All-Stars like Ichiro Suzkui, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Kosuke Fukudome. Regardless, South Korea, after squeaking past Cuba 3-2, became the best amateur national team in the world.

Which brings us to the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Japan mercy-ruled South Korea in Round 1, 14-2. But South Korea won the next Round 1 hoe-down, 1-0, to determine seeding. They faced off yet again in the Qualifying Round of Round 2: South Korea won, 4-1. But Japan took the final seeding game, 6-2. The rest is history: South Korea bested Venezuela, Japan sniped the USA, and Japan, once again facing off against a scrappy South Korean team, took the Championship Game, 5-3.

Overall record? South Korea has six wins, Japan four. Japan owns two World Baseball Classic championships, Korea owns an Olympic gold medal. And for all the talk of South Korea playing a more "Americanized" version of the game, these two teams hit about the same:

Team	Runs	HR	SB	Avg	OBP	SLG	OPS
Japan	50	4	11	.291	.371	.393	.764
South Korea	53	11	9	.243	.371	.404	.775

And no, that identical OBP is not a misprint. As for pitching...

Team	ERA	K	WHIP	Shutouts
Japan	1.71	75	1.03	3
South Korea	3.00	60	1.33	3

It’s almost creepy. Almost like that Abraham Lincoln/John F. Kennedy coincidences/flim-flam email that gets sent around every so often.

After the USA lost to Japan in the semi-finals, a sportswriter asked manager Davey Johnson if it were true that playing Japan was like bleeding to death, slowly, from a million paper cuts. He dodged the question, but I bet he wouldn't disagree.

To wrap up, I’m going to go all Buster Olney style and just throw random thoughts at you from around the web, as we close the book on the 2009 World Baseball Classic:

* Ichiro Suzuki, the man I love to quote (because I won’t get to once the regular season begins—MLB players are out of my purview), says he was touched by God before delivering the series-clinching hit.

* Tournament MVP Daisuke Matsuzaka (his second tournament MVP Award) thinks Hisashi Iwakuma actually deserved the award.

* Nippon Baseball League commissioner Ryozo Kato hopes that, with Asian teams having won both WBCs and the 2008 Olympics, one day a real World Series will be held. In the same article, Japanese legend Sadaharu Oh, who is recovering from stomach cancer, weighs in on the South Korea/Japan rivalry.

* South Korean catcher Min-ho Kang may have mixed up the signs from the bench when deciding to pitch to Ichiro in the tenth with first base open.

* Despite the loss, the South Koreans have no regrets.

* Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig questions USA ’s intensity on an ESPN telecast.

* USA relief pitcher Matt Thornton tells the commissioner, in essence, to go f*** himself.

* USA third base coach (and MLB Hall-of-Famer) Mike Schmidt isn’t sure he’d do it again, unless MLB owners and GMs put the same importance on it as they put on the regular season (whatever that means).

* Bud Selig wants 24 teams and double-elimination pool play in 2013.

* East Windup Chronicle has given their Jackass of the Day Award. The entire post is worth reading, but I really am morally obligated to quote the following:

If you didn’t get chills from the Netherlands upset victory over the Dominican (Ruddick poo-pooed it because of poor attendance), and weren’t on the edge of your seat watching Darvish’s electric stuff against Korea in an extra inning final, you know jack sh*t about the game of baseball and have no business writing about it. Period.

Let's leave it there.

WBC Semi-Finals, Saturday Mar 21

2009-03-22T10:00:00.002-05:00

Korea 10, Venezuela 2
Venezuelan manager Luis Sojo learned the hard way that while Carlos Silva may fool a punchless Dutch squad, Olympic champions are not so easily bested.

Reality came hard to the Venezuelan squad as starter Silva was lit up for seven runs (six earned) on six hits (two homers) while striking out...zero. Korean right fielder (and chic fantasy sleeper pick) Shin-Soo Choo hit a three-run bomb in the first; first baseman Tae Kyun Kim homered in the second; and that was all for "Hi-Ho" Silva...away.

Would it be unfair to mention both Felix Hernandez and Carlos Zambrano were on the Venezuelan bench for the start of this game? Or to remind Mr. Sojo that even much-maligned former big-league manager Frank Robinson learned the hard way what happens when Endy Chavez leads off...in fact, I remember Robinson, back in his Montreal Expos days, saying, something like "Batting Chavez leadoff is like starting the game with an automatic out." I can't find the quote though. Anyone?

Venezuela also committed a WBC record five errors in the game.

The fearsome Venezuelan lineup, loaded with MLB bats such as Miguel Cabrera, Bobby Abreu, and Magglio Ordonez, managed almost nothing against South Korean starter Suk-Min Yoon, who now has given up exactly two runs in 16 innings (and 13 Ks) in four WBC games. The twenty-two-year-old righty didn't know enough to be scared:

"Rather than being nervous, I had confidence, even though they are major league hitters," Yoon said. "And I did not know who they were, so I was confident against those hitters. So I don't know anything else."

South Korea will face the winner of the Japan/US game. Regardless of its outcome, after taking home gold in the 2008 Olympics, South Korea has announced itself as an international powerhouse and, if things break their way, they might just carry the banner of Asian baseball into the next decade.

World Baseball Classic, First-Hand Report

2009-03-21T15:38:00.002-05:00

Is it just me, or is March the equivalent of hitting an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet after a forty-day fast? In a normal year, after months of baseball's offseason, I tend to gourge myself on baseball once pitchers and catchers report, preparing for the regular season, prepping for fantasy drafts, an annual visit to spring training in Florida—all important rites of spring. And this year, with the World Baseball Classic, I'm already on baseball overload and the regular season hasn't even begun! Yeah, I can feel my feet swelling up with all that MSG...

So I was down in Miami last weekend for Round 2 of the WBC. I took in the Dutch/Venezuela matchup on Saturday afternoon, planted in the right field bleachers with mostly Venezuelan fans. Sidney Ponson was on the hump for the Dutch, and although the Netherlands came up short, Sir Sidney turned in a performance good enough to get him signed to a minor-league deal with the Kansas City Royals. Carlos Silva started the game for Venezuela in a managerial decision I have to believe was a calculated risk. Under no circumstances would I start Carlos Silva in any game that mattered, but manager Luis Sojo must have felt he could handle the pop-less Dutch squad which, if he was right, would allow him to save his big gun (Felix Hernandez) for Monday's game. The gamble paid off: the Venezuelans won 3-1.

Takeaways from this game included a monster bomb to left-center by Miguel Cabrera, who saluted the roaring Venezuelan fans along the line as he rounded first; the way Magglio Ordonez was soundly booed and heckled in every plate appearance (two strikeouts on the day) for his outspoken support of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez; and two Venezuelan men to the right of me who brought trumpets to the game and serenaded us between innings with lazy melodies from the Old World.

Throughout the weekend, I was constantly surprised and a little humbled by the nationalism of both the Venezuelans and the Puerto Ricans. I can't imagine booing say, Derek Jeter, because he voted for George W. Bush, or bringing a harmonica to the game to entertain nearby fans with old cowboy melodies from the plains. International baseball is infused with something we just don't find stateside: the nationalism adds incredible subtext and, at the risk of over-exhaggerating, an emotional engagement on the part of the fans that is found in few public arenas. Of course, the heckling and the trumpeting was just a taste of what I'd get Saturday night, when Puerto Rico played USA.

The parking lot was packed by the time I arrived, ten minutes before game time (note to reader: when driving in Miami, make sure to have a GPS. I spent more time on the vortex of the Florida Turnpike than I'd ever admit). The offical count was over 30,000 fans in attendance, which is no doubt more than the Marlins will draw in a single game all season. And the crowd, the majority of which were rooting for Puerto Rico, was into it from the beginning. Everybody seemed to have their favorite player (Beltran seemed the most popular) and those around me took turns standing up and waving cardboards signs or Puerto Rican flags whenever their player came to bat. Countless fans, mostly children, carried hand drums like covered tambourines; the beer flowed freely.

You can read an account of the shellacking PR gave to the US here. I can't add anything detail-wise that can't be found in any major news outlet. I can, however, say the crowd's intensity went beyond anything I've sat through, and I've been to postseason MLB baseball, political rallies, and rock concerts that turned into riots. The PR fans outdid the Venezuelan fans earlier that day; they outdid the Dominican Republic fans I sat with in 2006 in Orlando. Was it exciting? Hell yeah. Was it a little bit scary? Absolutely.

At least where I sat in right field, I'd say 90% of the crowd was male. The testosterone was something sweaty and palpable. By the sixth inning, state troopers were lining the entrance tunnels. By the top of the seventh, we'd seen three fights and several fans escorted from the premises. It didn't help that the US was getting it handed to them 7-1 by that point, and it's hard to say who was more responsible for the hostility in the air—the drunken frat boys in their USA jerseys heckling some of the Puerto Rican men who were holding up signs (and obstensibly blocking their view), or some of the Puerto Rican men who egged them on. And no, the alcohol didn't help. And yes, most of the time, those around me were more into watching the fights in the stands than the game on the field. And no, I don't expect you'll read about any of that on MLB or WorldBaseballClassic.com.

By the seventh-inning stretch I'd had enough. I was traveling alone, and if I want to see fights I can go to a Blackhwawks game and sit in the upper mezzanine. I can get plenty of that at home, is what I'm saying, any day of the week. So I left the game early, which I never do, and which was just as well as the Puerto Ricans scored four runs in the bottom-half of the seventh to mercy rule the US.

The Sunday night game was for losers—the Dutch and the United States faced off in a must-win game for both teams. This was another blowout; the US had the game in hand the entire way. After the heat from the night before, it was about all I was up for. Dutch starter Rick VandenHurk had nothing; American starter Roy Oswalt was practically unhittable; Adam Dunn crushed a homer to straightaway centerfield and made a great play snaring a liner on a dead-run toward the line. Note to fantasy players: Dunn looks slimmed down, like he has something to prove. Heck, he does have something to prove: after putting up numbers more or less comparable to Ryan Howard's, he watched Howard sign for $18m in arbitration while Dunn was forced to sign with the Nationals just before spring training. I still maintain the difference between the two—fair or not—is perception.

I had to fly back home Monday so I wasn't there for the US' dramatic comeback against Puerto Rico Tuesday night. I'm a huge fan of the WBC, and I'll write more about that soon, maybe after the drama wraps up. Needless to say, God willing, I'll be back in 2013.

Pool A: Friday, Mar 6

2009-03-06T14:51:00.004-06:00

Korea 9, Chinese Tapei 0
Korea demonstrated why their Olympic gold medal was no fluke, lighting up Taiwanese starter Chen Lee for six runs in the first inning, including a grand slam by right-fielder Jin Lee. Meanwhile, twenty-one-year-old Korean starter Hyunjin Ryu cruised through his three innings of work (there’s a pitch count limit in place, remember), and his relievers followed suit. All told, Korea held Chinese Taipei to four walks and five singles in a neat and tidy game time of 2:48. Korea turned five double plays.

Over 12,000 fans took in the game at the Tokyo Dome, which seems like a ton for early pool play. Maybe the Japanese fans were scouting the only real competition they’ll face in the pool.

Chinese Tapei gets China tonight. The burning question for baseball fans around the world is: will either team score a run?

Korea takes on Japan tomorrow in the most anticipated matchup so far in the WBC. Japan won the 2006 Classic; Korea won Gold in the 2008 Olympics. Boxscore.

In other WBC news, Japanese right fielder Ichiro Suzuki is frustrated by his “slump” thus far (he went 0-for-5 in his first game). Only someone as intense as Ichiro could get worked up over an 0-for-5 in exhibition play:

Of course it’s frustrating. If it wasn’t frustrating to me, I’d give up baseball.

Leave it to Ichiro to make an apparently oxymoronic statement that, upon further consideration, actually rings true. At least for me.

Pool A: Thursday, Mar 5

2009-03-05T14:43:00.004-06:00

Japan 4, China 0
Both teams picked up right where they left off in the Olympics: Japan riding a stellar rotation and China struggling to score. Japanese starter Yu Darvish went four innings, struck out three, allowed no hits, and continued to make American scouts drool over the prospect of him one day playing in the States (“And he’s so good looking, that one,” or so I imagine my grandmother would say). Both teams eked out five hits—all the big league players were held hitless. China turned a double play. (I had to say something nice, right?)

Apparently Japan’s Crown Prince Hironomiya and Crown Princess Masako attended the game. Let’s see if Obama takes that as his cue to throw out the Opening Day pitch at U.S. Cellular Field on Apr. 6...

Despite the convincing win, Japan’s manager Tatsunori Hara was far from satisfied:

“We could have scored more runs…China's pitching ability was very good. I knew they would pitch well but they did better than I expected.”

Remember boys, it’s not whether you win or lose, but how badly you pummel your lower-ranked opponents! Boxscore.

Around the web, check out Shysterball’s take on the World Baseball Classic. His opinion is exactly opposite mine, but Craig is always worth the read. Maybe some day I’ll write a rebuttal.

2009 World Baseball Classic: Cuba

2009-02-10T18:37:00.003-06:00

Cuba finished second to Japan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. Looking at their provisional roster, they’ll field more or less the same team they took to the 2008 Olympics (where they won Silver).

Catcher Ariel Pestano will likely retire after this season (which devastates me personally—he’s my favorite Cuban player), so the smart money has him starting most games in the Classic, even though two other catchers on the roster (Rolando Meriño and Yosvani Peraza) put up better offensive numbers in the National Series.

Around the horn we’ll likely see the same infield as we saw in Beijing, with Hector Olivera (1B), Yulieski Gourriel (2B), Michel Enríquez (3B), and Eduardo Paret (SS). Given his international experience, it’s a good bet Paret will start, despite hitting only .277 in 2009. Manager Antonio Pacheco likes his teams to be strong up the middle defensively, and Paret can still go get it.

The Cuban outfield probably lines up Frederich Cepeda (LF), Giorvis Duvergel (CF), and Alexei Bell (RF), although Bell was hit in the head by a pitch early in the National Series and never seemed to gain his stroke—he hit only .232 with a meager three home runs. If they decide Bell can’t go, Olympic-DH and 2009 National Series home run leader Alfredo Despaigne will most likely take over right field while someone like Yoennis Céspedes (who had a monster year, jacking 15 bombs and batting .301) fills in at DH.

The rotation might end up being pretty solid, anchored by Yunieski Maya who led the National Series with 12 wins, a 1.51 ERA and a 4-1 K/BB ratio. Olympic medal game starter Norberto Gonzalez will be in the mix as well, as will Olympic play-in starter Norge Vera.

The Cuban bullpen always seems to be a bit of a wild card. As fun as it is to watch Pedro Lazo pitch, you really have no idea what he’ll bring to each game. Still, he posted a 2.42 ERA with a 3-1 K/BB ratio during the National Series, so opposing teams figure to get a large dose of Lazo late.

Defensive ability aside (errors did them in during their Olympic Gold Medal game), I look forward to Cuba still being there when the music stops playing.

Santana Bows Out of WBC

2009-02-09T21:44:00.003-06:00

Johan Santana will not pitch in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. He underwent off-season surgery for a torn meniscus, and while his recovery is apparently going "great," the Mets have asked him to use spring training to get healthy.

This is obviously a big blow to Venezuela's starting rotation, which figures to be the strength of their "national" team. Even with Santana out, they can still run Carlos Zambrano out there, followed by Felix Hernandez and a bullpen anchored by K-Rod and the mercurial Jorge Julio.

While Venezuela's infield includes Miggy Cabrera and older-than-Moses shortstop Omar Vizquel, they'll have a tough time trading blows with a team like the Dominican Republic (Pujols, Reyes, H-Ram, Vlad, and the infamous A-Rod, just to name five who'll represent the DR. Aramis Ramirez is riding pine for this team, folks. Yeah, they're stacked). They'll need their pitching to keep games against teams like the DR from turning into whiffleball slugfests.

Venezuela will open the Classic in a pool with Canada and the U.S. Not a great draw. But they get Italy in the first game, which should put a W in their column right out of the gate.

Takahashi Signs with Jays

2009-02-06T12:30:00.003-06:00

Thirty-nine-year-old pitcher Ken Takahashi just signed a minor-league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. A 14-year veteran of Japan, Takahashi has a lifetime 66-87 record. He was the number four draft pick in 1995 and has spent most of his career as a swing-man extraordinaire, splititng time between the rotation and the pen.

If he cracks the big league squad, we'll keep an eye on him with our 2009 New MLB Import Tracker.

New Rules for World Baseball Classic

2009-01-31T22:15:00.004-06:00

Yeah... so it's been a long winter and even longer since I last posted. But I'm out of hibernation now.

First thing to catch my eye was this: some rules have been added to the upcoming World Baseball Classic. No suprises here, except:

This rule dictates that, starting with the 13th inning, each half-inning will begin with runners on first and second base, with the batting order intact. The applicability of the rule to the championship game of the tournament is under review by the rules and regulations committee.

I hate this rule in the Olympics, and I hate it more for the WBC. (It's "softball rules," folks!) But with professional teams already risking so much money by letting their star players perform, a safeguard like this just has to be in place. I guess.

Peter Gammons intimated a lot of smart people have thought about a better time to hold the Classic, and no one has a better idea. Personally, I like the idea of taking ten days off mid-season to play the games. But there's probbaly no solution that satisfies everyone.

MLB New Import Tracker (That's a Wrap 2008)

2008-10-13T15:03:00.002-05:00

I want to apologize for the lack of updates this past month. I'm writing copy for The Bill James Handbook 2009, and that's been sapping most of my sportswriting energy. But the good news is, the new Handbook is awesome and loaded with new material. And Global Baseball Company will be running in full over the winter as we keep an eye on all the happenings in the Caribbean leagues and Latin America.

So let's close the book on our new imports of 2008.

Kosuke Fukudome, RF—#1—Chicago Cubs
Birthplace: Kagoshima, Japan
After homering on Opening Day, starting his own cottage industry, and being elected as a starter to the All-Star Game in his rookie season, maybe there was just nowhere to go but down for Kosuke Fukudome during the second half of the season. Because go down he did—like a zeppelin on fire.

According to the Chicago Sun Times’ Chris De Luca, the Cubs now have a $38m problem on their hands. ESPN’s Buster Olney agrees. Fukudome went from being cheered during the season to booed during the postseason. So what the hey?

The curious case of Kosuke Fukudome defies easy explanation. With the exception of July (which was clearly an abberation) his K/BB ratio remained steady. His ability to drive the ball just seemed to melt in the summer heat—his SLG % dropped every month, bottoming out at .253 in August before bouncing back, mildly, to .283 in a part-time role in September. After hitting .305 in April, he hit .193 in August. His BA/BIP was league average—.304. And sure, he hit better at Wrigley than on the road, but what Cub didn't? Even his lefty/right splits are just about even--in fact, he fared a little better against lefties.

On the whole, Fukudome put up a decent line in his rookie season: .257/.359/.379 with 10 homers, 58 RBI, and 75 runs scored. (Looks like John Dewan's Stat of the Week prediction, last December, wasn't that far off.) Is it possible that, like the Cubs' season in general, Fukudome suffered from unrealistic expectations and way too much media hype? What if, translated from the Japanese, this is just the kind of player Fukudome is? Maybe he's not the big lefty bat the Cubs thought they were getting in the offseason. (A lot of us knew this going into it.) But is he a useful player? Sure. Is he $12m a year useful? For a team like the Yankees, Red Sox, or now the Cubs--absolutely. They won't even feel that salary, even if Fukudome ends up platooning in center next season with Reed Johnson.

So okay. Maybe Fukudome isn't the savior that will lead the Cubs to the Promised Land. And there seem to be some questions about his work ethic, skipping optional workouts, not taking extra batting practice, etc. The Cubs are talking about bringing in a private hitting coach for Fukudome next year, on top of his private trainer. And his slump came at the worst possible time, coinciding as it did with the Cubs' playoff collapse.

But given all these things, his first season stateside has to be considered a success. Better than someone like Kaz Matsui, but not as terrific as Ichiro's, or even Tadahito Iguchi—his most similar comp in Japan.

So the season didn't exactly end the way we hoped for Kosuke when the season began. Fine. As Tom Glavine said after getting pounded in his final start of 2007, the one in which the Mets' playoff hopes were crushed, their collapse completed, most seasons don't end up the way you want—that is, they don't end with a World Series win. That's why there's always next year.

Kazuo Fukumori, RP—#14—Texas Rangers
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Apparently, the Texas Rangers were so unimpressed with Kazuo Fukumori they didn't even deem him worthy of a September call-up. It's not hard to see why: at AAA-Oklahoma he posted a 5.48 ERA, opponents hit .300 off him, and his K/BB ratio was just better than 2/1. After a miserable big league performance earlier this year in which his ERA was an insane 20.25, Fukumori needs to do a lot of work to right his ship if he expects to contribute in a meaningful way in 2009.

As the Magic 8 Ball would say, "The future is cloudy."

Masahide Kobayashi, RP—#30—Cleveland Indians
Birthplace: Yamanashi, Japan
In what started out to be a season with so much promise, Masa Kobayashi really finished the year on a sour note. He appeared in only three games in September—with the Indians way out of the race—and posted a 9.00 ERA. His ERA in August was 15.00.

Despite this, when taken in full, his season was not a complete disaster: a 4.53 ERA with a 1.42 WHIP and a 35/14 K/BB ratio. Plenty of employed major league relievers have seasons worse than this, but few have the roller coaster season we chronicled here.

Deep thoughts from Kobayashi can be found on NPB Tracker, here. "There is no yesterday," says the man. Let's hope that's true—that he can turn the page on this disappointing season and come back next year fresh.

In the end, Kobayashi turned in a middling performance that fell somewhat short of expectations (as did the season on a whole for the Cleveland Indians). On the other hand, only two-thirds of the new imports played all season in the big leagues, and he was part of that bunch. Kobayashi will certainly be back next year—not as a closer—but if things break right, and if he can keep the ball on the ground a little bit better, he could still emerge as a successful set-up man for whoever the Tribe employs to close the door in the ninth.

Hiroki Kuroda, RP—#18 —Los Angeles Dodgers
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
If there were any questions as to what kind of player Hiroki Kuroda was—or what kind of man— he answered them Sunday night in Game 3 of the NLCS. The Philadelphia Phillies led his Los Angeles Dodgers two games to none; the Phillies had pitched inside during the first two games, even sailing a pitch behind Dodger left fielder Manny Ramirez' head. According to baseball's moral code, it was time to retaliate, but none of the Dodger pitchers had the guts.

Except for Hiro.

Apparently, Dodger pitcher Derek Lowe and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt called Kuroda over to the bench, along with his translator. They explained the protocol. And Kuroda delivered, sailing a pitch over the head of Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino. The Flyin' Hawaiin was visibly upset, and seemed to be saying "If you're going to hit me, hit me in the ribs, not the head." Kuroda, unshaken, coaxed Victorino into a groundout and then, as he passed first base, exchanged a few words. Apparently, Kuroda's English is good enough to talk smack. The benches empited. No one was ejected. Justice was served.

The media seems to be crediting Dodger catcher Russel Martin for calling the pitch, but immediately after the game on the TBS broadcast, Martin said Kuroda threw the pitch on his own. The party line this morning seems to be, "The pitch slipped." But make no mistake: Kuroda knew the stakes. He looked around at the Dodger pitching staff and realized if you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself. So he risked ejection and reputation in order to protect his batters. In order to send a message. "We will not be pushed around."

Kuroda went six innings in Game 3 and gave up two runs on five hits, walking one, and striking out three. It was his second sparkling postseason performancehe ushered the Chicago Cubs out of the playoffs in Game 3 of the NLDS, pitching 6 1/3 innings of shutout ball.

After a rough July in which he posted a 5.24 ERA, he was downright dominant (and perhaps finally healthy) in August and September. He went 4-2 in the season's final two months, posting a 47/11 K/BB ratio while keeping his ERA below 3.00. In the starts I've seen, including the playoffs, he's simply throwing strikes and—especially in the NLDS—forcing the opposing batters to pound the ball into the ground. It's a recipe for success, especially at Dodger Stadium, where his WHIP is almost thirty percentage points lower than on the road.

Officially, he finished the regular season 9-10, but his record speaks more to a lack of run support than a lack of performance on his part. In fact, according to Bill James Online, his ERA was 1.66 in 21.2 innings pitched against teams with a better-than .600 winning percentage; his strikeout ratio was nearly 20% better against these teams than his season's K rate. If you plotted a graph with the winning percentages of his opponents on the x axis and Kuroda's ERA on the y, it would be a ski-slope—his ERA against sub-.400 teams was a full four runs higher than teams with a winning percentage over .600. So Kuroda's postseason dominance is no surprise—he's a big game pitcher. Plain and simple.

And while he throws his fastball more than half the time, his slider jams righties while his split-finger completely neutralizes left-handed batters...his split-finger almost looks like Jose Contreras' on a good day. His expected ERA was only 3.18—more than half a run lower than his season ERA of 3.73.

Given that he's the only new MLB import still playing games, we have to consider Kuroda's first big league season a rousing success. And for all you fantasy players out there, I'd have Kuroda on my list of pitchers to try and snag cheap on draft day next year. His wins don't at all reflect how good the rest of his peripherals were, so he's almost gauranteed to be undervalued.

Except by the rest of his Dodger teammates, of course.

Alexei Ramirez, OF/2B—#10—Chicago White Sox
Birthplace: Pinar del Rio, Cuba
Let me start with this: There's no way Alexei Ramirez wins the AL Rooke of the Year. Not that he doesn't deserve it. But with all the love for Evan Longoria—who is a heckuva ballplayer in his own right—coupled with the Rays' meteoric rise, Ramirez will be lucky to garner even one first place vote.

Award voting rarely makes any sense. But let me throw a couple things out there for consideration.

Without Longoria, the Rays would most likely have finished, if not in first place, then as the wild card coming out of the AL East. When Longoria hit the DL in August, the Rays never stumbled. They had the bodies to somewhat make up for his absence.

On the other hand, without Ramirez, I contend there's no way the White Sox win the division—heck, they nearly didn't win the division with Ramirez. But the Cuban Missile opened the season in CF, finally taking over full-time duties at 2B about midway through the season. This move to the keystone coincided with the Sox' 3B, Joe Crede, hitting the DL, where he would stay for the remainder of the year. Juan Uribe, displaced by Ramirez from 2B, slid over to 3B and the Sox didn't miss a beat. Without Ramirez? Uribe stays at 2B, and Josh Fields hacks his way through the season's second half—or worse, Uribe slides to third and Sox fans would have been treated to a half-season worth of the since-dispensed Pablo Ozuna at 2B.

So, if the stats are a wash, I ask myself who was the most valuable player to his team. It was Ramirez, hands down. But there's more.

Four grand slams. That's how many Alexei Ramirez hit this year. That tied the all-time record. He hit .380 with runners in scoring position. His clutch rating was 12.4, compared to Longoria's -6 (.241 with RISP). And in an otherwise curmudgeonly and somewhat disfunctional clubhouse, Ramirez' enthusiasm cut through all the B.S. and reminded Sox fans why the game is fun.

Are there holes in Ramirez' game? Absolutely. If the rumors are true, and the Sox expect him to play shortstop and hit leadoff next year, he'll have to bring that OBP up and work a little bit harder on his glove. But few rookies don't have holes in their game. And at $4m a year--especially considering what the Cubs spent for Kosuke Fukudome last offseason—Ramirez is the bargain of the decade.

He's also the 2008 Rookie of the Year. At least as far as this web site is concerned.

Yasuhiko Yabuta, RP—#27—Kansas City Royals
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
"Shake" Yabuta earned a September call-up and pitched quite well, posting a 1.42 ERA and a 5/0 K/BB ratio, while holding opponents to a .143 batting average in 6 1/3 innings pitched. The majority of these apperances were all in junk time, with the game well out of hand, but as an audition these apperances seem to have done him good. The K/BB ratio is especially encouraging, after he walked more than he struck out in both April and June.

Having never seen them in the same room together, I wonder if Yabuta and Fukumori aren't exactly the same person. Yabuta's foray into the minor leagues (AAA-Omaha) also yielded less-desireable results: in 40 1/3 innings pitched, a 5.36 ERA, a .291 opponent batting average, and a K/BB ratio just north of 2/1. His groundball/flyout ratio is the most disturbing trend—it stands at an even 1.00. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he pounds the strikezone, but like Fukumori, he's gotta keep the ball down. Check out the stat lines of these two guys. They're eerily similiar.

For their investment, the Royals were hoping they'd hired a reliable bullpen arm. Yabuta turned out to be less than that, and hardly impressed with his minor league performance. Still, given the Japanese pride factor, I bet Yabuta makes the big league squad out of spring training next year and puts in a performance closer to Kobayashi's 2008.

Tazawa Decision Stirs Controversy, Portends Future

2008-09-16T15:54:00.003-05:00

Much-reported in recent days is the decision of twenty-two-year-old Japanese pitching phenom Junichi Tazawa to try and sign with a major league club without playing in Japan. The Boston Red Sox are said to be the favorite to sign Tazawa. The twenty-two-year-old would join a formidable pitching staff that already includes Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima. However, four Yankee scouts, Atlanta Braves GM Frank Wren, Diamondbacks officials, and The Muffin Man have all been to Japan recently trying to lure Tazawa to their respective franchises. Peter Abraham of The Journal News adds the Dodgers to that mix, and MLB Trade Rumors has thrown the names of the Mariners, Cubs, Tigers and Pirates (the Pirates?!?!) into the ring.

Call me crazy: I just don’t see Tazawa taking the hill at PNC Park. Or Turner Field, for that matter.

Along with Abraham’s article above, NPB Tracker weighed in on the complications and morality of what Tazawa is trying to do. It’s something unprecedented, and these two articles offer the most well-rounded perspectives.

Basically, professional Japanese players can’t be signed by MLB teams until, after so many years of service, they are posted by their NPB team. MLB teams then bid for the right to negotiate with the player, and finally, the winning bid receives a short window of opportunity to negotiate with the player. Only a “gentleman’s agreement,” however, has thus far kept MLB teams from signing young Japanese players before they sign with a Japanese team, which is exactly what Tazawa is hoping to do.

The links above cover the points/counterpoints and cost/benefits of the Tazawa situation. And keeping it all in perspective is necessary, yes, but in this particular case also makes the entire situation seem bleak for the NPB. Back when Jackie Robinson was signed to play for the Dodgers’ minor league affiliate in Montreal, a lot of Negro League owners complained that, if this ‘raiding’ of black talent continued, they would never have a competitive black league that was on par with the white major leagues. What they failed to see, of course, was the future: an integrated major leagues.

I can’t help but see the same currents here, and wonder if history is about to repeat itself on a global scale.

Content Update

2008-09-14T16:25:00.003-05:00

Sorry it's been quiet on Global Baseball Company these last couple of weeks--I blame it on my Olympic hangover. But I did want to let everybody know what I'll have coming out in the next few weeks.

At the end of September I'll wrap up the 2008 MLB New Import Tracker and break down the regular season for our new imports. If all goes well, three of our guys will be playing in the post-season, so we'll keep an eye on their performances through October.

Winter leagues start soon, so I'll be keeping an eye on the competition there, as well as the performance and progress of those major leaguers taking part. I'll have Caribbean series coverage after that, and then it will be time for my favorite rite of spring (every few years, that is): The World Baseball Classic. Hopefully, I'll be able to report live from at least one of the rounds.

On a more serious note, our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone affected by the recent hurricanes, especially our friends in Cuba. It's got to be rough down there right now. Here's hoping they get the aid they need, and that everyone comes through okay.

So check back soon. This winter will bring all kinds of exciting action.

MLB New Import Tracker (Aug 13-27, 2008)

2008-08-26T17:27:00.001-05:00

Kosuke Fukudome, RF—#1—Chicago Cubs
Birthplace: Kagoshima, Japan
Manager Lou Piniella fired a shot across Fukudome’s bow in early August, telling reporters that unless his right fielder began to hit a little bit, he’d be forced to go with other options. Immediately, the hyper-sensitive Chicago sports media types got all crazed, and Piniella came out the next night said he didn’t mean to create such a big stir. Take that for what it’s worth—this is the same manager that has basically admitted to occasionally getting thrown out of games on purpose to take attention away from his slumping (or, in the case of Zambrano/Barrett circa 2007, brawling) players. Either way, his words seemed to take about a week and a half to translate themselves into Japanese, but maybe—just maybe—Mr. Clutch-san is starting to turn his ship around. He came off the bench to blast a pinch-hit homerun on Sunday, then followed that up in Monday’s game by going 3-for-4 with four RBI and a double. That mini-outburst got his OPS for the month of August up to a whopping .538. Two things occur to me: 1) John Dewan’s prediction for Fukudome’s final numbers wasn’t that far off and 2) Don’t count on Fukudome tearing it up down the stretch.

Kazuo Fukumori, RP—#14—Texas Rangers
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Demoted to AAA-Oklahoma.

Masahide Kobayashi, RP—#30—Cleveland Indians
Birthplace: Yamanashi, Japan
In the reality television show that is the Cleveland Indians’ bullpen, it’s pretty clear that Jensen Lewis is now officially the man. With a save last night, he has more saves than anyone else on the staff in 2008—and he’s only been closing for oh, about the last seventeen days. And what of Masa Kobayashi? A couple low-pressure situations in August did nothing to straighten him out: He blew the save on Monday against the Detroit Tigers, entering the game in the seventh inning with a man on first. Kobayashi promptly threw a wild pitch, advancing the runner, then allowed a base hit to put men on the corners before Brandon Inge singled home the tying run. One of the uglier performances you’ll see actually—Kobayashi threw only six pitches, two of which were hit and one of which was unhittable (read: wild). His ERA for August stands at 22.50.

But maybe none of this should be surprising—or at any rate, there were warning signs. May was the only month Kobayashi posted a K rate anywhere near one per-inning-pitched (13 Ks in 14 innings). In April and June his K rate was nearly one strikeout per every two innings pitched, and there’s no way you can survive like that in the big leagues. His K rate is up closer to one per inning since the All-Star Break, but batters are also batting a slow-pitch-softball-like .625 against him for August. That won’t be sustained either, although it is a concern that in five August appearances he’s only logged two innings—he’s just not getting anyone out. Somewhere between the stellar performance Kobayashi turned in during the month of May and the woeful performance he’s turned in since the break is exactly how I see him performing in 2009—a serviceable reliever, but not a setup guy and not, by any stretch of the imagination, a closer.

Hiroki Kuroda, RP—#18 —Los Angeles Dodgers
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
One thing that definitely does not translate into Japanese—at least as far as Hiroki Kuroda is concerned—is that clichéd phrase “the dog days of August.” Only CC Sabathia (and arguably, Rich Harden) are having better months than our Japanese import. Check out this line: in five August games he’s 2-1 with a 2.10 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and a 5-to-1 K/BB ratio (25 Ks against only 5 BBs). While this is not so far away from the line he posted in May, his success might be attributed to a new exercise regimen. Hey, running helps clear my head too, so I can feel where he’s coming from.

Alexei Ramirez, OF/2B—#10—Chicago White Sox
Birthplace: Pinar del Rio, Cuba
I was stoked to flip on the television Monday night and see Alexei Ramirez starting at shortstop and hitting leadoff against the Orioles. He proceeded to go 4-for-5 with two runs and a double. A harbinger of things to come? Count on it. In 2009, The Missile will be the White Sox’ leadoff man and starting shortstop. You read it here, if not first, at least early. Ramirez hit the game-winning single in extra innings on Sunday, after a bizarre baserunning play as sneaky bastard-cum-Hollywood-starlet AJ Pierzynksi kept the inning alive. Ramirez has his OBP up to .343, and since he started getting regular playing time his OBP stands at .357. He’s still not drawing walks, but if he keeps rapping out hits, I’ll stop complaining eventually.

Yasuhiko Yabuta, RP—#27—Kansas City Royals
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Optioned to AAA-Omaha.

Olympic Finals, Saturday Aug. 23

2008-08-23T17:07:00.002-05:00

Before we get to the game, I want to just mention something that struck me as I was watching the Gold Medal Game (yup, I was up at 5 AM to hit record--no tivo for this luddite).

When Korea advanced to the Gold Medal Game, fourteen of their players became automatically exempt from military service. (Korea requires two years in the military from all males, unless they medal in the Olympics or win Gold in the Asian Games.) An unnamed player was quoted as saying, "It's good news, because now it means I can just play the rest of my life." Across the diamond, you had the boys from Cuba, who not only play in their country under "amateur status" but also play perpetually in the shadow of Fidel Castro, who reportedly scrutinizes each game. And then there was Japan, who sent professional players to the Olympics for the first time this year, taking a break from the regular season play.

So when we look at the team from the USA, Matt LaPorta, for example (he of the $2.3m signing bonus), it's hard not to believe that the other three semi-final teams were in fact playing for something more--the chance not to have to enlist, their very livelihoods, or absolute national pride. Not to make too much of this, but considering the stakes for the Korean players, or the Japanese players, adds a deeper meaning to the sport that is more or less completely absent from the salary-driven play of the major leagues. Are major leaguers, as a whole, the best in the world? The better trained? As a group, more physically gifted? Probably so. But even talent can't always overcome the unsettling reality that many of these baseball players from other countries labor beneath. Major leaguers are guaranteed a life of "play." And that shouldn't be taken forgranted, by them or by us.

Korea 3, Cuba 2
What a finish for what may be the last baseball game ever played in the Olympics. The star of this game had to be Korean starting pitcher Hyunjin Ryu, who worked with Mark Burhlesque swiftness and mixed speeds behind a fairly deceptive delivery. Both teams scored in the first--Korea on a two-run, opposite field homer from Seungyuop Lee, Cuba on a monstrous solo shot by Michel Enriquez, and the score held 2-1 until the seventh, when Korea scored on a double by Yongkyu Lee. But with men on second and third and two outs, Hyunsoo Kim flew out to end the threat. In the bottom half, Cuban rightfielder Alexei Belle lasered a solo homerun to right-center, and the score remained 3-2 heading into the ninth.

Cuban reliever Norberto Rodriguez dispatched the Koreans in the top of the ninth. Ryu, cruising past the 100 pitch mark, allowed a basehit in the bottom half of the inning to the leadoff batter Hector Olivera. Enriquez, who had homered earlier, laid down an effective slug bunt and advanced Olivera to second. (Strategically, this struck me as odd. Would anyone ask the New York Mets' David Wright to bunt with no outs and a man on first in the bottom of the ninth?) But it seemed to pay off, as Ryu promptly walked both Freddy Cepeda and Alexei Belle to load the bases. And here's where things got interesting.

It was something neither I nor the announcers (apparently) had ever seen before in a baseball game. After the walk to Belle, the Korean catcher, Minho Kang, went ballistic and jumped in the homeplate umpire's face. That sent both the first and third base umpires running in to break it up, along with three or four Korean coaches. The announcers seemed to think the ump was squeezing Ryu a little bit, although ball four to Belle was questionable at best. In my opinion, the Cubans finally stopped flailing at the low and outside breaking stuff, and learned by some miracle how to take a walk. Needless to say, apparently Kang disagreed. Kang was promptly ejected, causing the Koreans to have to substitute catchers in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded and one out--in a championship game! That would be like Boston Red Sox' Jason Varitek getting tossed in the bottom of the ninth, Game 7 of the World Series. It was something I'd truly never seen. I have to think that Kang must have really said some nasty things to get himself thrown out. Or, maybe Puerto Rican homeplate umpire Rey Cotto Carlos was chaffing in all that Beijing heat, and, feeling testy, gave the kid the thumb.

No doubt because Ryu had been frozen then for a good five minutes, and because no doubt his arm was locking up after 120 pitches, the Koreans brought in relief pitcher Taehwon Chong, who quickly dealt two strikes to second baseman Yuliesky Gourriel before coaxing a game-ending, Gold Medal-snaring double play.

Like I said, quite a finish. Quite a start by Ryu, who as a twenty-one-year-old lefty might project ok in the bigs if he ever decides to make the jump.

A couple impressions: The Cubans were absolutely done in by atrocious fielding. The final boxscore shows one error, but in the top of the first three Cuban players let a ball drop into centerfield for a single; Lee's homer came after what should have been the third out. Enriquez let a ball go between his legs (the error); in the eighth, Belle had a flyball fall out of his glove that allowed the runner to reach. Y. Lee then doubled to put the Koreans up by two. In each of the innings the Koreans scored, they were basically handed four outs. And good teams will make you pay for that.

Korean fans were as loud as advertised, blowing whistles, singing, chanting, and beating on drums. The television camera even caught Cuban catcher Ariel Pestano dancing to the rhythm of the drums between pitches; enough so the announcers felt obligated to comment on it. Hey, at least Pestano, a veteran of three Olympics, was feeling loose.

I was also impressed with every at-bat from Korean rightfielder Yongkyu Lee. He seemed to foul off pitches at will, like a modern-day Eddie Collins. He alone was responsible for maybe twenty to thirty of Cuban starter Norbetro Gonzalez' final pitch count--an entire (long) inning of work. Gonzalez pitched a good game otherwise. He just made a mistake pitch to S. Lee and was worn down early by the quality and peskiness of the Koreans' at-bats.

But the real story here is the Koreans. They run the table en route to their first baseball Gold Medal ever. A combination of dominant pitching, blinding speed, and timely hitting (plus the threat of military service, perhaps) will win out nine times out of ten. Hyunjin Ryu was unflappable, allowing five hits and two walks over 8 1/3. striking out seven. Is Korea the favorite heading into the 2009 World Baseball Classic? Perhaps. Although I'm sure both Cuba and Japan are anxious for another matchup. Boxscore.

United States 8, Japan 4
The USA takes home the Bronze Medal, which is some consolation for failing to qualify for the Olympics in 2004. Japan touched US starter Brett Anderson early, but he settled down to go seven innings in which he allowed four runs and struck out six. Third baseman Matt Brown capped a stellar Olympic performance by going 2-for-4 with two runs and three RBI and a homer; Matt LaPorta also went yard. But the game-winner came on catcher Taylor Teagarden's two-run double in the fifth, which put the United States up for good.

This game wraps up a disappointing Olympics for Japan, who loses four of the nine games despite fielding a team of professionals. They never seemed to gel. Like I predicted, over-engineered. Boxscore.