Kenshin Kawakami and Braves are reportedly close to a deal
by gondeee on Jan 9, 2009 4:41 PM EST
in Braves Related Free Agents
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PrintThis 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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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
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
-4 Billion
I would rather us sign Corky Miller to a minor league deal and I hate Porky Corky
N. Tyler Ayers
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
Reminds me
of Estrada a little, in a weird way.
by mattdiaz4life on Jan 10, 2009 8:15 PM EST up reply actions
Whoopy!
Finally Wren does something! Right or wrong he does something!
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