There are more obvious plays off his first name but you come here for creativity.
The Nats signed Shinnosuke Ogasawara for a 2 year 3.5 million dollar contract. The deal remains a low ball try something deal so if it doesn't work out it's not a big thing. But man, it doesn't seem to be working out. The guy had a problem missing bats in the Japanese league, relying on strike zone control and the Japanese Leagues overall low homer rate to get decent results. In Spring though it looks like he can't miss enough bats. They are getting hits and homers off of him at a high enough rate to force him to try to do things to miss those bats, leading to more walks which negates his one strength.
I don't know what you do about this because that was always a possibility. Essentially he's a AA/AAA pitcher with decent results but not much of a prospect called up to see what he can do. We've seen a ton of those and they usually fail, for a lot less than 3.5 million too.
If you want to look to him as a reliever then you might focus on a 2022 that featured a higher than average K-rate as evidence he can step it up. Of course that's basically the only season he's done that in his 20s but it was recent, I guess.
Whatever you think I can't see him starting in the majors. It's AAA for Shinnosuke.
7 comments:
He's going to AAA to see if he can work out his issues. If he does, great! If he doesn't, no real harm done. I view the Nats (finally!) looking to the far east (west?) market as a positive development regardless of how Ogasawara turns out. Criticizing the team for signing him is the other example of the fancycle from "SIGN SOMEONE!!1!" to "NOT THAT GUY!!1!"
Looking to Japan/Korea etc. is good but there could be harm done if it isn't done with purpose. Meaning grabbing a guy from there with poor scouting as opposed to a guy here for about the same cost you know better what they'll do. Or if this guy is truly the AAA guy he looks like, not basically grabbing the free one of those you can try out from someone else and using the 3 million elsewhere.
but all that's conjecture and sometimes you miss, so not much we can say other than "oh well" unless this becomes a pattern over 3-4 years.
Geez, guys. He just arrived.....give him a chance to settle in (in Rochester of course). The batters are different, the strike zone varies by umpire, the culture is different, the food is different, the weather is different, and flying east you can have jet lag effects for a long-time. See how he is doing on May 1 and it may take even longer than that. Work in progress, nothing more, nothing less.
If you add up the gamble guys, sims ogasawara, bell and maybe Soraka, Nats could have had a pretty good player.
Way too early, but it’s March and what else can we gripe about? For the 2025 Nats, I don’t think Nogasawara moves the needle much in either direction. I guess my only long term concern is that if he doesn’t pan out, does that hinder their ability to reel in future Japanese stars? Dodgers getting more and more. Is it west coast (closer to home)? Is it because they win? Or is it because of Ohtani? Probably a combo of the three but I think the latter is the biggest factor. Same with SEA and Ichiro and all the Japanese talent that followed.
Nogasawara’s success has much more to do the with Nats ability to get a foothold in that market. We have a long way to go, but if he fails, we’re that much further away IMO.
It's sad that we have so little to talk about. The roster is not inspiring. I am hopeful that some of the young players (Woods, Crews, Gore) will have break-out years, but even that won't be enough to get the Nationals to .500. Management really has to step up during the next season to bring in some high-end talent.
I am sure being a few hours closer by plane and having larger east Asian communities helps west coast cities recruit, but the Dodgers specifically have an additional advantage from putting a ton of effort into marketing the team and players in Asia. Their players have a big leg up in getting endorsement deals in Japan, China, and Korea and can make a lot of money on top of their contracts from that.
To add some personal speculation: I noticed when I was in Japan that when their sports news covers MLB, it's limited almost exclusively to highlights from Japanese players. That could also be part of why teams with a star former NPB player have more future success with them.
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