As many of you know already, over these next few days I will be profiling some of the international free agents that figure to have an impact on the MLB in the next year or so. These guys are some of the best international players from all sorts of different places that are thinking about making the jump to Major League Baseball. Some of these guys you may have heard of, and others maybe not. There will be many different types of players that I will be looking at, but they all have one thing in common, they are the best of the rest throughout the world. With that, I will be telling you about Kenta Maeda, a 25 year old japaneese starter who might be posted this winter.
Kenta Maeda is a 25 year old starting pitcher who is currently on the Hiroshima Carp in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. The righty is only 6 feet tall and come in at just 160 pounds. His pitches hold true to his stature as he tops out at 91-92 and utilizes control and deception to get hitters out. He's not a big strikeout guy, although he has gotten better in that department the past few years, but he doesn't walk many to make up for it. Even though he doesn't have the flash of Masahiro Tanaka or the velocity of many others, he is the second best pitcher in Japan at the moment and should he be posted, would garner some attention, especially since he is only 25. As far as pitches go, he doesn't seem to have any one true plus pitch, but he instead utilizes a few different pitches in order to get outs. He throws both a two seam and a four seam fastball which top out in the low 90s. The thing that makes his fastball nearly a plus pitch is the movement that it has with a strong sink. The problem with it is that he is not tall enough to get it on a good downward plane. All things considered, it is his strongest pitch and he will need it in order to be effective in the MLB. As far as secondary pitches go, he has a few decent options, but not one go to pitch. He has a solid slider that usually rides upper 70s to lower 80s but isn't anything special. He also features a slow, big curve that usually runs in the low 70s, but once again isn't quite a plus pitch. Every once in awhile he will mix in a changeup, but it doesn't have enough movement to be all that effective. If Maeda does make the jump overseas, he will need to develop his secondary pitches a little more to stick. Even just one plus off-speed offering would help him immensely. His plus command has allowed him to have success with lower quality pitches in Japan, but against the superior hitters of the MLB that might not be enough.
Maeda, much like guys like Tanaka, has dominated in Japan. In 6 years, Maeda owns a career ERA of 2.41 along with a career K/9 of 7.2 and a BB/9 of 1.9. His control has allowed him to have a successful career, but a K/9 that low making the jump to the MLB is concerning. It definitely won't go up against superior hitting, and could end up being his Achilles heel in a league geared more towards power pitchers. Maeda, like Darvish and Tanaka before him, has pitched a lot of innings in Japan and should be able to work a good amount more for the team that signs him. Whether or not the high amount of innings pitched in Japan will come back to hurt him or any other of the Japanese pitchers is still to be seen, but shouldn't be a problem point for his signing. Maeda has a chance to become a legitimate major league starter if his control transfers overseas. I see his ceiling as a number 4 starter in the big leagues, but I think there is a real possibility that he fizzles out in the MLB because he doesn't have the support of great stuff to fall back on. Because of that I think he is a much riskier sign then a lot of the other guys on the market, but what international signing isn't a risk? If he is indeed posted, he will have suitors and should find himself an immediate major league starting gig. Can Japan's second best pitcher find his niche in American baseball? We will just have to wait and see.