Kenshin Kawakami and Braves are reportedly close to a deal

by gondeee on Jan 9, 2009 4:41 PM EST in Free Agents Comment 38 comments

This report is from the Daily Yomiuri Online, and the headline seems a bit misleading, but promising... though, in this off-season, I am not hanging my hopes on any type of media report:

Free agent right-hander Kenshin Kawakami is close to reaching a deal with the Atlanta Braves, it was learned Thursday.

The 33-year-old Kawakami, looking to jump to the majors after spending all 11 seasons of his pro career with the Chunichi Dragons, is working out the details through an agent and a deal could be struck soon.

A major league source said the Braves have hotly pursued Kawakami, the Central League MVP in 2004, and expects a contract to be ready by the end of next week.

See, exactly. I don't know how they can call the "end of next week" close. This is just some liberal headline writing. Later in the artile there is this:

There still remains a chance that Kawakami could join one of a number of teams that have pursued him, including the St. Louis Cardinals and Baltimore Orioles. But if all goes smoothly, it appears he is bound for Atlanta.

Yeah, we've been there before.

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Here is his website, if you can read Japanese. I can’t. I will just keep a lookout for tomahawk to appear.

http://www.kk11.jp/top.html

by cmp on Jan 9, 2009 4:59 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

OH MAN! I’m so excited we’re going to sign a player! There’s no way that this report is premature…right??

(sorry, not a knock on you posting it, Gondeee, if its taken that way).

by soup du jour on Jan 9, 2009 5:04 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

CHONE projection

Here.

I’ve read some pretty negative reports on him. Anyone else wish we still had Davies?

by Land-Man on Jan 9, 2009 6:06 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

wtf CHONE

the 90th percentile has him pitching 136 innings. Does he have a fatal disease or something?

by Rafael Belliard's SLG % on Jan 9, 2009 6:27 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Japanese pitchers have more rest between starts. The concensus is that he’ll tire towards the end of a MLB season. But 136 does seem awfully low.

by Land-Man on Jan 9, 2009 6:40 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think I’ve seen that 6-man rotations are the norm in many Japanese leagues. My comment was 50/50 joking (obviously!), but you’re right: 136 does seem low. In 04-06 he pitched 180+ innings each season and topped out at 215 in ’06.

by Rafael Belliard's SLG % on Jan 9, 2009 6:51 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Forget IPs

It’s impossible for Chone to predict that ahead of time.

KK’s projection is pretty good. 7.75 K/9, 2.34 BB/9, 3.31 K/BB. Not too d*mn bad.

Formerly Uncle Charlie of Minor League Ball

by Yakker on Jan 9, 2009 7:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The CHONE IP projection is the average likely outcome. Let’s use a simple example for this. If Chone predicts a 68% chance of pitching 200 innings and a 32% chance of pitching 0 innings then you’ll get 136 IP as the result. In reality, it may be something like 15% chance of 200 IP, 15% chance of 180 IP, etc.

by VictorW on Jan 10, 2009 9:01 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The Japanese baseball season is far shorter than that of the MLB, only about 120 games, and no team operates with a coherent starting rotation; managers believe they’ll have the advantage of surprise by announcing the starting pitcher when delivering the lineup card to the ump. Also, rainouts are decided by the home club up until game time, and often to get more rest, the home team will declare a postponement on a pretty flimsy pretext. (About a three-week stretch of the season is reserved for making up rainouts.) So as a rule, pitchers get more rest and throw a lot fewer innings than those in MLB, although they’re treated far less gingerly during spring training.

As for the vague headline, that’s just a quirk of the language. It’s impolite to state anything as fact, so most everything seems to be written in the equivalent of a conditional tense.

by Tokyokie on Jan 9, 2009 6:50 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Interesting

+ 1 for the info

by Rafael Belliard's SLG % on Jan 9, 2009 6:56 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

good to have you around here, dude

i’d like to thank you for the info as well.

by get swoll yunel on Jan 9, 2009 7:43 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Wow

That is so cool. Waiting to the last minute to announce lineups? Calling rainouts as strategy? Japanese baseball sounds Awesome.

Formerly Uncle Charlie of Minor League Ball

by Yakker on Jan 9, 2009 7:47 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Japanese baseball games are a blast. If you’re ever in Japan, I heartily recommend attending one, but sit in the unreserved seats in the bleachers (and see somebody other than the Yomiuri Giants in the Big Egg). In every park, right field is for the home-team fans, left field is for the visitors’ supporters, and all them are really, really loud whenever their team is batting. There are self-appointed cheerleaders leading rhythmic cheers, a couple of guys with trumpets to play the team fight song, folks waving really long banners and best of all, each team has a unique ritual (for instance, the Yakult Swallows fans will open cheap vinyl umbrellas after every Swallows home run and wave them and sing a song that says, more or less, “It’s raining home runs.”) Join in the fun (the cheers are pretty easy to pick up), and the Japanese fans will wonder what the hell a gaijin is doing at the ballpark, but they’ll basically shrug and decide that if you’re cheering for their team, you’re all right and accept you.

If you go to a game, try to go to one of the open-air parks. Jingu, near the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, is probably the easiest for a foreigner to access, and it dates back to 1926, which makes it by far the oldest of the Japanese ballparks. But the Yokohama Bay Stars and the Chiba Lotte Marines (managed by Bobby Valentine) have reasonably new, comfortable parks near major train lines in the Tokyo suburbs.

by Tokyokie on Jan 10, 2009 2:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Good stuff.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Jan 10, 2009 12:21 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Awesome

Thanks for the info. My only time in Tokyo was in November, so I missed out on a game. Next time, I’ll have to plan better. Some day.

Do you live in Tokyo? Such an amazing place, I loved my trip there.

Formerly Uncle Charlie of Minor League Ball

by Yakker on Jan 10, 2009 6:10 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Really cool stuff. Can you tell me anything about getting autographs over there? I get autographs here and, if I can make a generalization, most Asian guys aren’t that great about it. The ones who are good are awesome, but that’s not the norm. I’m wondering how much people getting autographs is part of the baseball culture over there and if that has something to do with what I’ve seen over the years.

by cbwilk on Jan 10, 2009 7:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Bowman is reporting multiple major league sources are confirming the signing.

FIRE FRANK WREN! GO RED SOX! I HATE THE BRAVES! SAY GOODBYE TO MY 9 GAME FLEX PLAN MONEY! YOU'LL NEVER SEE ME AGAIN!

by 10-4 on Jan 9, 2009 10:38 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Video on Kawakami

If you go to You Tube and type in his full name there is a pretty comprehensive vid on him. He seemed to pitch to both sides of the plate against both L and R handed hitters. There are several examples of him eating up righties with a nasty running 2 seamer and his CB has big bite but he appears to take a bit off of it so I would hesitate to call it a power breaking ball. He also exhibited several instances of the comback 2 seamer to lefties (ala Maddux) and showed life up in the zone with good finish and jump on what must be a 4 seamer. Hopefully, it translates here.

by Mike de La Hoz on Jan 9, 2009 10:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

I saw CB in the middle of this and thought you were talking about me. I was like, “What the hell? I don’t know shit about Kawakami!”

by cbwilk on Jan 9, 2009 11:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

question for Choppers...

I’ve heard the Rangers and Braves linked numerous times this offseason – most often with a deal centered around Millwood or Padilla. With both pitchers in contract years (most likely), how would you, as fans, rate your level of interest in each?

I guess you heard Fat Joe left Atlantic.

by Haeger Champ on Jan 10, 2009 11:11 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Zero.

- Oh, Bobby. -

by sdp on Jan 10, 2009 11:39 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

This.

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Jan 10, 2009 12:22 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Zero? Really? I could go negative interest on this one.

by cbwilk on Jan 10, 2009 12:27 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Divide by zero and that’s my personal level of interest.

by Rafael Belliard's SLG % on Jan 10, 2009 2:02 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Padilla, No.

Millwood, maybe.

Formerly Uncle Charlie of Minor League Ball

by Yakker on Jan 10, 2009 6:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

thanks...

that’s a pretty resounding ‘no’. And understandable.

I guess you heard Fat Joe left Atlantic.

by Haeger Champ on Jan 11, 2009 3:00 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Well, we did so well the last time we traded with the Rangers.

by Tokyokie on Jan 10, 2009 12:43 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Here it comes…

I guess I should be one to talk.
There's nights that I can't even walk.
There's days I couldn't give a fuck.
And in between is where I'm stuck.

by Smoltz's Beard on Jan 10, 2009 12:46 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

-100

by Bravofan on Jan 10, 2009 1:02 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

-4 Billion

I would rather us sign Corky Miller to a minor league deal and I hate Porky Corky

N. Tyler Ayers

by TMAC85 on Jan 10, 2009 2:08 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

If anyone feels wikipedia is a viable news source......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenshin_Kawakami
It has a short bio but at the very end, it contains this gem: “He has also just signed with MLB team Atlanta Braves to a two year fifteen million dollar contract. They will announce it tommorow. Kawakami loves sushi and laughed when he heard Jeremy Piven got mercury poisoning.”
funny, yes. reliable? not so much i think

by spahn57 on Jan 10, 2009 2:11 PM EST reply actions 0 recs