Masahiro Tanaka, 24, is a starting pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in the NPB. He has applied for international free agency and will most likely sign for NYY when the Japanese play-offs are done.

He won again last night (2-0) over Chibu Lotte in the NPB play-offs. Tanaka is 25-0 for the season having posted an unbelievable 1.27 ERA in the Japanese regular season. He won his last 4 games of 2012 season too, so he hasn't lost since August 2012.

Against Chibu yesterday, he pitched a CGSHO - 9 innings, 7 hits, 1 BB, 9K. He was nearly taken over the fence twice in the 8th but survived. He was throwing 93 MPH strikes in the 9th inning.

This guy is awesome.

How good is this guy Suisse?, I see the Yankees are splashing the cash.

John23 wrote:How good is this guy Suisse?, I see the Yankees are splashing the cash.

My buddy here does a podcast called Coming To America Baseball, and in this link he talks about Tanaka with John Gibson of Japan Baseball Weekly. He has spoken about Tanaka a lot but I thought this small clip (from 16:10 - a lot of guff before) was interesting. Phil is a NYY guy and he is doing some freelance scouting for MLB teams but he is unsure of Tanaka at the highest level, as opposed to Gibson.

It is from September. They talk about Tanaka for about 10 minutes. "We haven't seen him put in a really good pitching performance recently. He is just winning games because the team is good." Gibson has some good insights towards the end of the Tanaka segment.

Here in the US they are saying that his upside is only that of a number 2 pitcher. I'm in Seattle and the Mariners were linked with him. However, our 1-2 combo at the top of the rotation is actually one of the best around, we didn't want to pay stupid money for a 3 pitcher, and the Yankees were determined not to be outbid for him. Their rotation is pretty bad and after we stole Cano from them the younger Steinbrenner was determined to bring in a big name. The fact that A-Rod's salary has become available to them helped their cause as well.

He has also pitched a lot of innings already. At the same age Felix Hernandez had pitched 200 fewer innings.

Still, he looks pretty good.

Caveats apply as it is entirely possible that the information contained in the above post is either an attempt at a wind-up, an attempt at a joke or just plain wrong.

West Brit wrote:He has also pitched a lot of innings already. At the same age Felix Hernandez had pitched 200 fewer innings.

They do that a lot in Korea and Japan. Work the sh!t out of their pitchers, especially at an early age.

Workloads in young pitchers should be monitored heavily as the body is still growing and pitching is an unnatural motion at its core. Throwing upwards of 140 pitches a game borderlines on child abuse!

Lee Su-min, a 17-year-old pitcher for Daegu Sangwon High School in South Korea, has thrown 974 pitches in seven appearances this season, six starts and one relief outing. He's thrown a complete game in every start. In his most recent start, Lee threw a whopping 178 pitches in 9 2/3 innings.

Now, obviously with this kind of workload, there's a reason the coach is doing it. Lee is a stud. He has a 0.44 ERA with 88 strikeouts in 62 1/3 innings this season. And due to the circumstances, both Lee and his coach believe the workload is acceptable.

A friend of mine, Yoo Jee-ho, works for Yonhap News Agency. He's been following this story for a year now, and wrote this article back in May. It is a real debate that sadly doesn't get enough air time.

You might see FA Yoon Suk-min playing in the Majors next season. Yoon used to play for my team here, the Tigers, and was the golden boy of Korean baseball way before Ryu Hyun-jin had a very good debut season for LA last year. He was League MVP in 2011 (despite the Tigers not making it further than round 1 of the play-offs) and collected a KBO title in 2009 one year after winning the gold medal for Korea at the 2008 Beijing Games.

But he's 27 now and has had a lot of problems with his elbow. He missed the first month and a bit of 2013 before returning as a closer. He form dropped alarmingly and he then moved back to the starting rotation. His form didn't pick up and he was eventually moved back to the pen in August but as the Tigers pretty much lost every game from there on in, he was the least used closer in the League. I saw his last start in late July. He pitched a complete game but got the L in a shitty 1-0 loss. When he was fit and on form, Yoon could easily clear 7 innings and racked up a few CGs in 2012.

4. Suk-min Yoon, RHP, free agent — We seem to be about a week away from a decision on where the South Korean will land. When Masahiro Tanaka was out there, teams considered him the best free agent pitcher, and now Yoon could be that guy. Concerns about an injury to his elbow have subsided, as medical reports have been studied closely by teams. There’s lots of competition for him. The Red Sox, Blue Jays, and Orioles in the AL East have made bids. The Diamondbacks also remain interested, but at this stage “it could be anybody,” according to a National League general manager.

That is a quote from an article on February 9th in the Boston Globe.

The word in Korea is less positive. He was told he wouldn't have to do any try outs but when he started asking for huge money on long term deals, clubs wanted to have a look at him. But no-one has tabled an offer yet. It seems MLB teams are worried about his form and so the money and length of contract are putting them off. Yoon could well end up in Japan instead.

I'm surprised the Mariners didn't pick him up, his profile sounds quite familiar. We've signed a bunch of veteran starters on minor league contracts with spring training invitations, all of whom are coming back from Tommy John surgery after missing 2013, hoping that one or two of them make it. Why not add another one to the mix?

Caveats apply as it is entirely possible that the information contained in the above post is either an attempt at a wind-up, an attempt at a joke or just plain wrong.

Major League Baseball (MLB) repeats as the most attended sports league in the world, reporting a 2013 regular season total of attendance of 74,026,895 (sixth highest total in its history).

^ Omitting the more important stat - of games played - you would think.

Minor League Baseball (MiLB) announced that its clubs attracted 41,553,781 fans in 2013, bringing in almost 275,000 more spectators to the stadiums than it did in 2012, which puts the MiLB collection of teams as the second most attended sports league in the world. The Mexican Baseball League is a member of MiLB and its 3,812,376 fans in 2013 are included in MiLB's total attendance numbers.

The third most attended sports league in the world, Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) saw attendance in 2013 grow 3.17% to 22,047,491, which was over 500,000 more than the highest non-baseball league/fourth most attended professional sport league in the world.

^ Again, games played?

After four consecutive years of record attendance growth in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) -- which was jump-started by Team Korea's gold medal performance at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games -- KBO saw a slight dip in 2013 to 6,743,940, after having brought in more than seven million spectators to the stadiums for the first time in 2012. In 2015, KBO will undergo expansion from nine teams to ten teams, and Korea's first roofed/domed stadium in Seoul, which is fitted for baseball, will be completed -- two factors that can re-set the positive record growth trend for KBO.

Oh I agree, it's a silly article. However, that number of people coming through the gates allows us to pay $240m for Robinson Cano i.e. that's still a lot of people coming through the gates in one year (even if it's the same 10k people going to 82 matches) and that makes a serious amount of money for the clubs.

Caveats apply as it is entirely possible that the information contained in the above post is either an attempt at a wind-up, an attempt at a joke or just plain wrong.

50. Jung-ho Kang – Orioles. After hitting 38 home runs in the Korea Baseball Organization in 2014, Kang could be the first position player to make the leap from KBO to MLB. MLBTR spoke to an international scouting director who finds Kang fringy at shortstop, suggesting he’s better suited for second or third base. He doesn’t possess any plus tools, and may profile as a utility guy with good instincts and a little bit of pop. That still has value.

Kang Jung-ho features at #50 on this list, which is not too surprising given he's never played Major League Baseball in his life. Following Jeter's retirement, the Yankees were interested and had their scout in Korea, but that seems to have cooled down a bit now. NY more likely to go for someone with more MLB experience than a kid from Gwangju. Kang lit up the KBO this season and his team, Nexen Heroes, are competing in their first ever Korean Series, which starts tomorrow. He batted .356 (league's 4th best) with 40 home runs (2nd), 117 rbis (3rd) and 103 runs (5th). He also posted a League best .739 slugging and was second on .459 for OBP. These figures are unheard of for a SS, even in the KBO. He's broken every record going, including those of the greatest Korean baseball player of all time, Lee Jong-beom.

One US-based analyst believes that form equates to a .210 batting av in the Majors, and about 10 home runs. His defense seems solid enough, but the scouts aren't convinced, hence the talk of a move to third. I do have a buddy here who works on a freelance capacity for 4 MLB teams and he reckons Kang is going to have a break-out season in the US.

Interesting to see whether the Orioles take a punt with him. Their last Korean experience, RHP Yoon Suk-min was a disaster and spent all year stinking out the minors. But Kang is coming over with a lot of form, whereas Yoon was permanently injured and really surprising he got picked up.

SK Wyerns' Kim Kwang-hyun will also be posted but I've a feeling he'll go the same way as Yoon. Injury problems, and an inconsistent season. MLB is waaaaaay too big of a step up.

33. Jung-Ho Kang, SS: Maybe he’s a shortstop. Maybe not. Maybe he hits for power here. Maybe not. So many questions exist about the Korean league MVP, the most important is where on the diamond he’ll end up. The history of everyday Korean players in MLB is not altogether distinguished. There’s Shin-Shoo Choo, Hee-Seop Choi and ... that’s it.

This guy, not so much;

116. Kwang-Hyun Kim, SP: Fringy stuff from a left-hander who pre-injury was dominant in Korea. Too much of a risk to be much more than a reliever at this point, and his Korean club, SK Wyverns, may want more for his rights than a major league team is willing to pony up through a posting fee.

This guy is the best Korean pitcher in the KBO, and probably second best (Korean) starter anywhere after Hyun-jin Ryu. He plays for my team over here. Looks like Yang will also be posted in the off-season, and the NY Daily News are claiming this guy has a huge future in the big leagues.

Lefthander Hyeon-jong Yang will be posted by the Kia Tigers in the coming weeks, according to a source, thrusting the 26-year-old into the pool of available starting pitchers this winter.

Yang projects as a No. 3 starter in the big-leagues, though according to a scout that has seen him throw, he could develop into a No. 2. With a fastball that sits between 92-95 mph, Yang throws four pitches - fastball, curveball, slider and changeup - using his slider as his out pitch.

The southpaw won the inaugural Choi Dongwon Award this year, Korea's equivalent to the Cy Young. According to statistics on baseball-reference.com, Yang went 16-8 with a 4.25 ERA in 28 starts, his ERA coming in about a half-run lower than the league-average in the offensive-minded league.

He battled back from a career destroying (not ending, just one that looked he couldn't throw straight and gave up a sh!t load of walks in 2012) to make the gold medal winning Asia Games squad in September. Yang is a really good pitcher with a low WHIP but talk of him being a number 2 starter for the NYY seems really far off. He's probably a #5 or a good option in relief.

The Yankees are not expected to make a play for any of the top three or four starters on the market, but they could be intrigued by Yang. Other teams looking for pitching this winter include the Cubs, Red Sox, Giants, Astros and Pirates.