Heavy Load in Japan, but a Star Is Used to It When a high-profile Japanese pitcher comes to the United States, the news cycle breaks down into three parts: How good is he? How much will he cost? How much has his arm been abused? The first two stages are well-worn ground in the case of Masahiro Tanaka, who will trade the maroon and gold of the Rakuten Golden Eagles for Yankee pinstripes this season. The third stage, which is rather vital in considering one of the biggest contracts ever given a pitcher, will go a long way in determining the success of the deal. Tales of ridiculous pitch counts are nothing new with Japanese pitchers, and Tanaka's career is no exception. In terms of pitches per start over the last five seasons, he narrowly beats Justin Verlander, the major league leader in that time span, 113.5 to 112.9, according to the website NPB Tracker. But Tanaka was occasionally asked to do things few American pitchers would ever attempt. In those five seasons he exceeded 125 pitches in a game 29 times. Verlander did the same thing 18 times in that period, and no other major league pitcher did it more than 10. On the other hand, Tanaka averaged only 24 starts the last five years, partly because Japanese teams play fewer games. In the last five years, Verlander started 169 games. So in that respect, Tanaka has had a lighter load. Then again, Verlander never did what Tanaka agreed to do in last year's Japan Series. The Golden Eagles, possibly knowing that Tanaka's days in Japan were numbered, let him throw an absurd 160 pitches in a Game 6 loss, and 15 more pitches the next day to save Game 7. The problem with judging pitch counts is that while most evaluators will agree that an enormous number of pitches can be dangerous (just ask Mark Prior), there are outliers who have had sustained success despite a heavy workload. The most recent example is another Japanese pitcher, Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers. In his last three seasons in Japan, Darvish averaged more than 120 pitches a start. But in his two seasons since then, both with the Rangers, he has seemed no worse for the wear, finishing second in the American League Cy Young race last season. Darvish has still been a workhorse by American standards, averaging 108 pitches a start and throwing more than 120 pitches eight times. Then there is Livan Hernandez, who defected from Cuba in 1995 and pitched in the majors for 17 seasons. He averaged more than 110 pitches a start in six seasons, including an incredible 120 in 1998. Seemingly immune to abuse, Hernandez threw more than 125 pitches in a game 72 times, with a career high of 153. The Yankees will hope that like Darvish and Hernandez, Tanaka is an exception to the current rules generally governing pitch counts. With a solid 6-foot-2-inch physique and a classic drop-and-drive delivery, Tanaka has held up well over the last few seasons. What the Yankees hope to avoid is what the Boston Red Sox went through with Daisuke Matsuzaka. It was no secret that Matsuzaka had thrown a lot of pitches in Japan, but when he came to the United States, he was given a clean bill of health. He was an effective, though rarely extraordinary, pitcher in his first two seasons in Boston, but things fell apart for him in 2009, when he managed just 12 starts because of weakness in his throwing arm that he later said was a result of an undisclosed hip injury. He ultimately had Tommy John surgery. Whether Matsuzaka's failure can be attributed to his workload in Japan, to his ill-advised trip to the 2009 World Baseball Classic or to something done by the Red Sox can never be truly determined. Regardless of the speculation, his experience has not seemed to change the way of doing business in Japan, where pitchers generally believe that high workloads are beneficial. But it is worth noting that when Japanese pitchers come to the United States, whatever is responsible for their endurance in Japan seems to fade away. Of the 17 Japanese pitchers who have started at least one game in the major leagues, just three (Hideo Nomo, Hiroki Kuroda and Tomo Ohka) have thrown as many as 1,000 innings over all, and just one, Darvish, has averaged more than 100 pitches a start.