In recent weeks we've heard alot of hype around Junichi Tazawa, whether or not he would be drafted by a Japanese team and be eligible to sign with a team in the MLB.
Well, today Tazawa got his wish, as Japan's 12 proffessional teams passed on him. I was curious to see what this guy could do, because when the Yankees got Kei Igawa, i'd actually never seen him pitch, well for any of you who are just as curious as I am about Tazawa... here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxRKY_Xg5tQ
an article i found on ESPN.com has Tazawa throwing 97 MPH, where if you watch the video i posted, you can clearly see his fastball topped out at 148 Kilomters per hour, which is 92 MPH (http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3672409&campaign=rss&source=MLBHeadlines)
watching the video of Tazawa, i noticed his poor location of his breaking ball at times, having it hang often, ofcourse the hitters in Japan are not as talented as the ones in the MLB, but a hanging breaking ball is a hanging breaking ball. You should have also seen some very generous calls by the homeplate umpire, those pitches would not be called strikes in the Major leagues.
Don't get me wrong, Tazawa should be a solid pitcher in the majors some day, but for those of you who think he is the answer to all of your bullpen problems in 09, you are very wrong, Tazawa is only 22, and needs more time to develop.
ESPN sees the suitors for Tazawa as: The Angels, Royals, Blue Jays, A's, Rays, Braves, Mets, Reds, and Giants
MLB trade rumors (www.mlbtraderumors.com) reports that other teams such as: The Red Sox, Dodgers, Tigers, Pirates, Cubs and Mariners have scouted Tazawa
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