Update on North American Players in Japan, Part IV: “E”, “F” & “G”

Brian Falkenborg, Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks. He’s a 31 year old right-handed pitcher who was the 51st player selected in the 1996 MLB Draft. He pitched in a total of 64 major league games over parts of six seasons for the Orioles, Cardinals, and two different times with both the Dodgers and Padres.

His career 5.59 ERA pretty much tells you how much success he had in the States.

In his rookie season in Japan, he’s having mind-blowing success as a set-up man. In 29.1 innings pitched in 25 appearances, he’s got a 0.92 ERA with 18 hits allowed, two BB’s, and 35 K’s. He’s 3-0 with one save so far this year.

The Hawks’ current closer is 27 year old Takahiro Mahara, who already has 112 career saves, a career 2.96, and nearly 3-1 K’s-BB’s ratio, so it doesn’t look like Falkenborg will become the Hawks’ closer any time soon.

However, Mahara had injury problems last year and his current 2.91 ERA so far this year is his highest since 2005. Falkenborg might move into the closer role if Mahara gets hurt again.

Jose Fernandez, Orix Buffaloes. He’s the youngster, at 34 years old, of the Buffaloes’ assemblage of power-hitting foreigners; along with Tuffy Rhodes, Alex Cabrera, and Greg LaRocca. Fernandez is mostly playing 1B and DH this year (the Pacific League uses the DH, while the Central League has pitchers hit).

Fernandez had cups of coffee for the Expos in 1999 and the Angels in 2001, where he failed to impress.

At age 26, he had a terrific season in the Pacific Coast League, hitting .338 with a 1.045 OPS. According to Wikipedia, he played in Korea in 2002, and the Chibe Lotte Marines signed him for the 2003 season.

He was star right off the bat, having probably his best Japanese season in ‘03; hitting .303 with 32 HR’s.

He spent ‘04 and ‘05 with the Seibu Lions, and ‘06 through ‘08 with the Rakuten Golden Eagles. He hit .302 in ‘06 and .301 last year, and he clubbed 33 HRs in ‘04, and 28 HR’s in ‘06.

In short, he’s been a solid and consistent hitter in Japan through 2008.

He appears to be showing his age this year, however. He’s hitting only .233 with six HR’s in 176 AB’s so far in ‘09, and he’s been riding the pine and only pinch hitting for most of the last week or so.

He’ll need to have a strong second half to keep his Japanese career going into 2010.

Justin Germano, Fukuoka Soft Bank Hawks. Padre fans will certainly remember Germano, who went 7-10 with a 4.46 ERA in 2007.

The 4.46 ERA looks pretty good until one remembers that Petco Park is now almost certainly the worst hitters’ park in the majors. He pitched poorly for both the Padres and their AAA team, the Portland Beavers, in 2008.

This last off-season, the Hawks signed Germano to a one-year contract for 50M yen (approximately $525,000). Germano is only 26 years old this year, and his minor league numbers suggest he’s got great control and knows how to pitch (he has a 4-1 minor league K’s-BB’s ratio), although he likely does not have great stuff.

He may have had some injury problems coming out of Spring Training, because the Hawks started him in their minor league team. He didn’t pitch especially well there, going 1-2 with a 4.68 ERA in four starts. His K’s-BB’s ratio was over 5-to-1 though, and the Hawks called him up.

With the Hawks, Germano has been great so far. After three starts, he’s 3-0 with a 2.60 ERA. In 17.1 IP, he’s allowed one walk and has six K’s.

Because of his age, if Germano can establish himself in Japanese baseball, he could have a long career there. Or, if he dramatically improves as a pitcher over the next couple of years, MLB organizations will be interested in bringing him back to the States.

Ryan Glynn, Yokohama Bay Stars. Glynn is a 34 year old right-handed pitcher who pitched in the majors for the Rangers, the Blue Jays, and the A’s (mostly for the Rangers). The Ballpark at Arlington is a tough place to pitch, and Glynn’s career major league ERA of 6.24 reflects that fact.

The Rakuten Golden Eagles signed him before the 2006 season, and Glynn has had a successful Japanese career until this season. His best year was 2007, when he went 9-8 as a starter for the Nippon Ham Fighters, with a 2.21 ERA.

Glynn’s been kind of a hard-luck pitcher in Japan, with a 25-38 record despite a career 3.53 ERA.

However, he has not pitched well at all for the Bay Stars in 2009. He’s 2-9 with a 5.60 ERA so far this year. Unless he turns it around in a hurry, he’ll likely be demoted or released by the All-Star Break.

Dicky Gonzalez, Yomiuri Giants. Gonzalez is a 30 year old right-hander who pitched mainly in the Mets’ system, and had cups of coffee for the Mets in 2001, and the Rays in 2004. The Yakult Swallows signed him before the 2005 season.

Gonzalez’s Japanese career has been up and down. He went 4-2 with a 3.09 ERA in ‘04, 4-6 with a 5.07 ERA in ‘05, and then went 9-7 with a 3.15 ERA with 95 K’s in 25 BB’s in 114.1 IP before blowing his arm out in ‘06.

He missed the entire 2007 season, and only pitched in eight games as a starter in 2008, which probably means he had Tommy John elbow surgery in late 2006.

This year, the Giants acquired Gonzalez from the Swallows, and it looks as if he’s completely back from his injury. After five starts at the Giants’ minor league team, he was recalled, and is now 6-1 with a 2.11 ERA, 33 K’s, and only four BB’s in 55.1 IP for the Giants.

Alex Graman, Saitama Seibu Lions. He’s a 31 year old left-hander who played his entire U.S. career in the Yankees’ organization. He had very brief cups of coffee in ‘04 and ‘05 (total of 6.1 IP) in which he got hit hard.

He signed with the Seibu Lions in 2006. He was a starter that year, going 4-6 with a 4.21 ERA in 13 starts. At some time in the 2007 season, he became the Lions closer, probably out of desperation since he finished the year with a 4.08 ERA, and finished the year with 17 saves.

Last year, he was one of Japan’s best closers, notching 31 saves and posting a 1.42 ERA with 42 K’s and 13 BB’s in 57 IP.

This year, however, he’s apparently had injury problems, because he’s only pitched in six games. He has three saves, but is also 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA.

The pitcher the Lions have been using as their closer in Graman’s absence, Chikara Onodera, has been adequate, but his 3.38 ERA (and other numbers) don’t suggest that he’ll keep the job once Graman is healthy again.

Seth Greisinger, Yomiuir Giants. Detroit Tigers fans surely remember Greisinger, who was the Tigers 1st Round pick (6th overall) of the 1996 Draft. He went 6-9 for the Tigers in 1998, with a 5.21 ERA in 21 starts. He hurt his arm in 1999, and played in only three minor league games that year, and didn’t pitch at all in 2000 or 2001.

When he came back, he was essentially a 4-A pitcher. He had a 6.21 ERA in eight starts for the Tigers in 2002, and a 6.18 ERA in 12 games (nine starts) for the Twins in 2004. In 2005, he pitched well enough in AAA to get a single start with the Braves late in the season.

By that point, Greisinger was already 30 years old, and apparently the Braves didn’t see him having a place in their future because he spent 2006 pitching in the Korean Baseball Organization for the Kia Tigers. He went 14-12 as a starter with a 3.09 ERA, and was signed by the Yakult Swallows for 2007.

Greisinger was one of the best starting pitchers in Japan in both 2006 and 2007. In ‘07, he went 16-8, leading the Central League in wins and innings pitched (209), with a 2.84 ERA, 159 K’s, and only 31 BB’s.

However, he wanted a big raise after his huge 2007 campaign, so the Swallows released him, and he signed with the Yomiuri Giants in 2008.

This is a trend in Japanese baseball: a foreign player has a big year entitling him to a big raise, and the player ends up with the Yomiuri Giants, the wealthiest team in Japanese baseball. Greisinger got a five-fold raise (up to roughly $2.5M) when he signed with Yomiuri.

Greisinger’s 2008 was almost identical to his 2007. He went 17-9, again leading the Central League in wins and innings pitched (206). His ERA was 3.06 in ‘08, and he recorded 167 K’s, and only 31 BB’s.

Greisinger is off to a slower start in 2009, but is still pitching well. He’s 7-4 with a 4.01 ERA after 13 starts. He turns 34 on July 29, so his 2007 and 2008 seasons will probably be his best in Japan.

Aaron Guiel, Tokyo Yakult Swallows. Royals and Yankees fans will remember this now 36 year old Canadian outfielder. He played for almost a decade in the Angels’, Padres' and Royals’ minor leagues systems, before finally making it to the major leagues with the Royals in 2002, at age 29.

In 2003, he played semi-regularly for the Royals, hitting 15 HRs and 30 doubles in 354 AB’s, by far his best major league season.

From 2004 through 2006, he split time between AAA and the majors, hitting 30 HR’s at AAA Omaha in 2005, and finishing his major league career with the Yankees in 2006, hitting seven HR’s in 132 major league AB’s that year.

34 is an old age to start one’s Japanese career, but he made the Yakult Swallows look good in 2007. Although he only hit .245 and struck out 147 times, he also hit 35 HR’s, and was walked or hit by pitches a remarkable 111 times in 611 plate appearances.

He was hurt last year, and hit only .200 with 11 HR’s in 225 AB’s. He took a steep cut in pay from more than $1M to about $450,000 to come back to the Swallows for a third year in 2009, to prove he still had something left.

He does. He hit his 11th HR of the season today, and he’s batting .290 with a .924 OPS.

Marcus Gwyn, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Gwyn is a 31 year old right-handed pitcher, who pitched in the A’s and Angels’ minor league systems in the U.S. He got a three game, 5.1 IP cup of coffee for the Angels in 2007.

He was a having a fairly strong season with the Angels’ AAA team, the Albuquerque Isotopes, in 2008 with five saves and 37 K’s in 44 IP in 2008, when the Golden Eagles signed him to finish out the season in Japan.

This is now a fairly common occurrence: if a 30+ year old player is having a fairly strong AAA season and a Japanese team comes calling it is usually because one of their foreign players signed before the season hasn’t panned out

The MLB team won’t stand in the way, and will release the new player from his minor league contract so he can go make some real money in Japan. The Giants did the same for 37 year old Scott McClain when the Hiroshima Carp wanted to sign him in May this year.

Needless to say, it’s in the U.S. teams’ benefit to do so. Giving veteran 4-A players a chance to make more money in Japan keeps all the other 4-A players playing in the minor leagues hoping either for an injury at the major league level, or to attract interest from a Japanese club.

The upshot is more depth in U.S. AAA ball. Of course, the U.S. team only lets the player go if they think they don’t have any real need for the guy.

In 19 games for the Golden Eagles last year, Gwyn went 1-1 with three saves and a 3.86 ERA. He had 16 K’s in 18.2 IP.

He’s doing better this year. In 25 games so far he’s 1-1 with two saves and 2.39 ERA. He has 25 K’s in 26.1 IP.

The Golden Eagles have an excellent bullpen, and seem to be closing games by committee, with four pitchers including Gwyn having at least two saves so far this year.

The Golden Eagles seem intent on developing 25 year old Koji Aoyama as their closer for the years to come. However, they have three veteran pitchers (Gwyn, Shinichiro Koyama, and Kanehisa Arime) pitching better than Aoyama so far this season, so all four have been getting save opportunities.

More U.S. clubs should do this when they have bullpen depth but don't have a pitcher who is a lights-out closer. This would give teams more opportunity to take advantage of individual match-ups, to take advantage of the hot hand, and to keep the relievers rested.

However, most U.S. major league teams prefer to have their pitchers assigned to given roles, even if doesn’t really make a lot of sense.