Koji Uehara

by tmsnow on Sep 11, 2007 5:52 PM EDT

Just read a little bit about Koji Uehara and am curious as to where he falls on the Japanese pitcher spectrum. Does he project as a starter or reliever? I think he has closed this season in Japan but I've heard him mentioned as a rotation option for some teams. Will he be another Kei Igawa type player or better? If he's destined for the pen, can he be as effective as Saito or Okajima?

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Per his wiki:

"Uehara has two types of splitters, a cut fastball, a slider and an 88-90 mph fastball with late movement. But his greatest arsenal is forkball, which is almost unhittable. He possesses good command and believes that to walk a batter is worse than allow a base hit."

Sounds like latter years Hideo Nomo to me.

He did well in the WBC, for what it's worth, but then again, so did Jae Seo.

Vice-Chairman of the Sonnanstine Underground Railroad

by Brickhaus on Sep 11, 2007 6:25 PM EDT reply actions

my gut feeling

...just based on what little i know, is that he'd probably be a very effective reliever - just based mostly on the fact that almost every japanese reliever that comes over does well - but more of a mid-rotation guy as a starter - probably better than igawa, i.e. good enough to maintain a big league rotation spot, but not as good as matsuzaka or nomo or anything like that. but it sounds like he wants to start.

by wily mo on Sep 11, 2007 6:51 PM EDT reply actions

Yeah

The way I think of Uehara is that he projects to be what the Yanks thought they were getting with Igawa (rather than what they actually have received this year), #3/#4 starter, relying more on command and deception than stuff.

by Yakker on Sep 11, 2007 7:25 PM EDT up reply actions

Uehara

What I remember from Uehara was that his fastball used to be in low to mid 90's but it flopped to 88~90mph range. But sometimes, he's still dominant in Japan right now, but it's a far cry from his best days in late 1990's. I think his velocity is kind of low to be Okajima or Saito-type reliever in US

by vertigo991 on Sep 11, 2007 8:00 PM EDT reply actions