According to the New York Times, the Mets have been in contact with the agents for the Japanese LHP Hisanori Takahashi.
The 34-year-old Takahashi had a 2.94 ERA in 25 games last year in Japan, while striking out 126 batters in 144 innings.
Takahashi said he has been offered a major-league contract, reports Roch Kubatko of MASN Sports.
So far this off season, Takahashi has been linked in rumor to the Giants and Orioles…
Kubatko provides the following scouting report of Takahashi:
- His best pitch is a screwball.
- He won’t eat up a lot of innings, which is why he’s better suited for the bullpen.
- Lefties hit .300 against him last season.
To see video from of Takahashi pitching to former Mets prospect Craig Brazell, click here.
This has “bad idea” written all over it.
Why is that, just out of curiosity? I’m not saying you’re wrong. I am just curious why you feel this way, right out of the gate.
Well if you want to put the right spin on this we could say;
“With the starting pitching we are stuck with in 2010, we could use all the bullpen help we can get.”
Because he’s not an innings eater according to the report, and the Mets need that (though on second thought, another lefty out of the pen isn’t bad, though a screwball pitcher negates some of that lefty-on-lefty advantage), because though his ERA was good his k/9 wasn’t great and the hitters in MLB tend to be better than the Japanese hitters, so that’s likely to suffer even more. Finally, lefties hit .300 against him. That’s a lot and harkens back to what I said about not having the lefty-on-lefty advantage. And finally +1, he’s 34, so he’s no spring chicken and his best years, whatever and whenever they may have been are most likely behind him.
Lefties hit .300 against him last season.
a 34 year old lefty who gets clobbered by lefties and who has never been in MLB before?
Bad idea? He’s the Japanese Greg Maddux!
i think it’s another horrible move, go sign Smoltz and make an offer to Sheets. A lefty who can’t get lefties out in Japan is useless here. Imagine what Howard, Utley, McCann, these guys are going to eat him up not to mention the righties that he cant get out
You guys were bellowing last night about signing a player just for the sake of signing a player, well here it is. Now they look even more stupid for not getting the Piniero deal done.
PIniero to Angels. Looks like Sheets will pitch for his old Pitching Coach Maddox and the Texas Rangers and now we are talking about another Japanese pitcher. This is really getting totally absurd. I believe with have lost credibility with other free agents. Mr. Wilpon when is Omar’s review coming up
When is Wilpon’s review coming up? This fish stinks from the head. I won’t defend Omar, but I will say that more and more it appears that the Mets operation is dysfunctional. We’ve all heard stories about decision by committee, we remember that Omar would only take the job if he had complete autonomy which indicates he believed there was an issue going in, and which he has seemingly lost by now anyway. The common denominator behind the Mets struggles in putting together a well planned, well oiled organization (from the draft, through the minors to managing the big league club) is the Wilpon family.
I also wonder if the fact that there’s a good chance Omar and Jerry Manuel don’t make it to the allstar break has scared off free agents. Would have been better to have fired them long ago. I’m still scratching my head over Omar getting a 3 yr extension after the 2007 debacle.
Just looking for warm bodies to fill out a roster I guess. Since the Mets’ front office appears “plague ridden”, perhaps they felt that they can only sign people from out of the country who may not know that the Mets are screwed up right now.
Considering all the negative news about the Mets missing out on signing various free agents, if they sign this guy there will be a huge moan and groan…..I cannot believe this is the only pitcher that Omar can find to fill out the roster.
Stop this insanity!
Which insanity are you speaking about…there is so much going on out there by both the players and the management; let alone the Mets
My concern is that when the METS do sign a Japanese player, they turn out to be a dud or just OK at best. I feel that they are unproven against MLB hitters and, why would we want to add yet another unknown to a rotation of unknowns. Can Maine regain his fourn, will Perez bounce back, Is pelfry going to get over his “braincase” antics on the mound and how will Santana pitch after his surgery? So we add another what if to this list of what if’s? It just seems like a roll of the dice to me, and, if it fails, it will be just another on th elong list of METS poor decisons.
Hopefully Maine can give the Mets something this year… I can’t believe they can count on Perez to do anything… that’s a bigger risk than signing Sheets. Bottom line is other than Santana they are all back of the rotation guys.. and signing Garland or Doug Davis would be adding more of the same. They need a legit #2 behind Johan.
What is it with us and these Japanese guys? Why can’t we sign someone who is proven in the MLB? You wanna take a risk on a guy? Take it on Sheets. End of story.
If we do not pick up another SP, Omar can kiss his job goodbye unless everyone in the rotation has a career year.
Maybe the Mets figure if they “talked” with guys outside the MLB, they won’t know what the Mets are saying which means they’ll sign quickly with the Mets. It’s going to take more than Takahashi for fans to start believing in this organization’s decision making again.
Jeff hasn’t fired Omar, and won’t until the fans come with pitchforks and torches, because so long as Omar is GM, Jeff can continue to play baseball exec.
No other competent baseball guy would take job after Omar unless given complete control. If Jeff fires Omar, Jeff fires himself.
I hear that Northern Tool has a special on pitchforks this week. Do you know where I can find a torch?
Wayne Krivsky, would probably take the job.
They really have no room for a guy like this in the pen, and he clearly isn’t MLB starter material if he cannot even average 6 IP while pitching well once a week. Those numbers are hard to fathom…
more to the point, the innings a guy like this would throw can be covered by Misch, Figueroa, Stokes, etc etc
I’d seriously put a big red “X” right next to his name.
Keys:
Japanese baseball has it’s better players and is considered a very good league, but having a 2.94 ERA in 25 games in the Japanese leagues is nothing like 2.94 ERA in 25 games in the MLB.
His best pitch is a screwball. X
Screwballs are know to mess up pitchers arms more than other pitch!
He won’t eat up a lot of innings X
Great Just what we need!
Lefties hit .300 against him last season. X
First of all, he throws a screwball, which is really hard for a left to hit, because it is the equivalent of a righty throwing a normal curve to a lefty, which is harder for a lefty to than if it was a lefty throwing a normal curve. So his Screwball must suck if lefties have a .300BA against him. Thas baaaaaad. Imagine that in the majors. I predict seeing him doing alot of “chuck and ducks” as Rex Hudler says it.
second of all, UH OH…
“Screwballs are know to mess up pitchers arms more than other pitch!”
I take that back, but I do not think it’s a very good pitch, except when it is great, it would get smashed otherwise.