Who Is Ryota Igarashi?
By Mike Silva ~ December 15th, 2009. Filed under: Japanese Baseball.
Update 6:25
Spoke too soon as Patrick Newman of NPB tracker “tweets” that Boston offered Igarashi a two year deal for about $3 million dollars. Like everything else in 2009 this will turn chaotic for the Mets.
David Waldstein of the New York Times is reporting the Mets are close to signing Japanese free agent Ryota Igarashi. According to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker Igarashi “the top free agent coming out of Japan” earlier this season.”
Igarashi throws in the upper 90’s, and augments it with a hard splitter that he throws at around 90mph. He’s also got a slider and a curve that he’ll mix in occasionally, but is primarily a fastball/splitter pitcher. The one thing Newman also pointed out is that Igarashi hasstruggled with his control over the course of his career.
How much he will cost is unknown, but any Japanese import is hard to judge. For every Takashi Saito there is Masahide Kobayashi who fails to make an impact. If he comes cheap (say around a million) then perhaps it’s worth taking him on. I would rather see both teams make a run at Matt Capps for a couple million dollars more since he has a track record of MLB success.
Here is a video of Igarashi for you to check out at your convenience.
