Well the Winter Meetings are over and the excitement is starting to fizzle out. Don't get me wrong there is still a lot of excitement for baseball left, but it's just a different kind of excitement now. Instead of an all out free agent frenzy along with the prospect of big trades, the baseball world is already starting to move towards the inevitable opening day can't come fast enough mindset. Although that type of mindset isn't necessarily bad, I would be lying if I said I wasn't beginning to feel it a little bit, but there are still a quality number of free agents on the market waiting to be signed. Today I'm going to look at one particular market in particular that most of us, me included don't keep up with quite as much. Today I will try my best to overview the international market for everyone who may not know all that much about some of the guys who will be playing for our teams as soon as next year even. I'll be looking at current free agents and guys who have already signed alike, and I will do my best to convey my knowledge to you guys. Please remember that there is often not a whole lot of info out on these guys yet and although I'm trying my best to get the ideas out to you guys, sometimes it's just possible to develop a clear picture of all these players. I will take a look at some of the bigger guys first and I'll let you readers comment as to who you want me to add soon after. One by one for the forseeable future we will look into the MLB's future stars. Who's going to be the next Yasiel Puig or Yu Darvish you may ask? Well let's dive in and start with the biggest name out there today.
Masahiro Tanaka - Masahiro Tanaka is without a doubt the most talked about international player on the market right now. Tanaka is 25 years old and currently on the Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League. Tanaka has been in the league for 7 seasons and he has absolutely dominated over that time, and when I say dominated, I mean the hitters didn't even have a chance. In 7 years he is 99-35 with an ERA of 2.30. He had a K/9 rate of 8.5 which isn't unheard of but when you compare it to his 1.9 BB/9 rate, it looks a lot better. Over those 7 years he threw over 1300 innings and that is with not starting more than 30 games a year because of Japan's shorter game schedule. The last three years have been his best. In each of the three he had an ERA under two with his average WHIP of those three coming out under 1. Yes you read that right, his average WHIP of his last three seasons in Japan is under 1. As far as pitches go, Tanaka has an assortment. He uses his two seam and four seam fastballs often along with his slider, but his main strikeout pitch is his splitter, which already looks like it would be one of the best in the majors. It has tremendous movement and will definitely account for its fair share of swings and misses in the MLB. He also has a few other pitches in his arsenal, but doesn't use them quite as often. So there's little doubt that he's ready to make the jump overseas, but just how well will he fare? Well the best comparison that I can think of is to Yu Darvish, who made the jump just a few years earlier. First we can compare their numbers. Darvish also played 7 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball League until the age of 25, and finished his career there with an ERA of 1.99. His K/9 rates were also a little better than Tanakas at 8.9, but his walk rates were worse at 2.4 BB/9. Darvish was better in his final year in Japan though, as he had better stats all around despite the fact that Tanaka went 24-0 while Darvish went 18-6. Darvish has a little better stuff overall with a little more heat on his fastball and a stronger curveball, but I would argue that Tanaka has better control and movement on certain pitches, and that's saying a lot because Darvish by no means has bad control or movement. Tanaka also had to deal with the reports of Japanese baseball officials altering the baseballs used in order to help the hitters out, while Darvish had to pitch at this disadvantage. These two men both had amazing Japaneese careers, but because of stronger stats, especially in his last year, I have to give a slight edge to Darvish, but even being compared to one of the best pitchers in the world that closely speaks volumes about how good Tanaka is. I don't think he's quite a pure number one guy yet, but he could very well become one in the MLB. He could very easily have a successful career in the MLB, and should be worth the money that he receives from the team who finally acquires his services. Now if only we could find a way to get him posted...