Tsuyoshi Wada

[TuckerBlair89]

They will be announcing the Wada signing on MASN at 4pm EST fwiw.

[Don]

I am going to eat my words.

It is an easy contract to absorb and whatever risk he brings to the table can easily be ironed out in any role. He may or may not fit as a starter over the length of the contract, but the value he can bring can be had even in the role of a LOOGY.

He should pitch well as a starter coming out the gate because of the unfamiliarity from the opposition. If they do get a read on him, he can move into another role and still be a value/production player.

[TuckerBlair89]

Don, or anyone that knows:


http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.ph ... oshi-wada/
Why does Wada stop using his Forkball (The Purple Dots) two thirds of the way through the season?

Anyone know why?

[ljmillar22]

Love the graph tuckerblair89, have to say it is odd that the forkball vanishes 2/3rds of the way through, i havent a clue why either. Think i saw a comparison to jamie moyer earlier, which is a bad comparison, but if you look at the graph, Wada hasnt got a slow enough changeup to compensate for a below average fastball.
If in spring training Wada can lose an extra few mphs off his changeup we could be have a very similar player, he will never be a top of the rotation as previously stated by a few members, but should be a serviceable back end starter.

[Don]

Forkball/Change up/split finger change up/etc... all come a similar speeds and every kid in Japan throws a fork ball. The bad part is almost all of these kids have tiny hands and actually throw a split change up.

It really is no big deal, but they all have the same action and results as a pull on the string pitch. As long as he was throwing something with some late drift movement, it is okay.

[TuckerBlair89]

Forkball/Change up/split finger change up/etc... all come a similar speeds and every kid in Japan throws a fork ball. The bad part is almost all of these kids have tiny hands and actually throw a split change up.

It really is no big deal, but they all have the same action and results as a pull on the string pitch. As long as he was throwing something with some late drift movement, it is okay.

Thanks for the explanation. Can't say I am up to speed on my Japanese baseball players haha. But that makes sense though.

VERY interested to see Wada pitch in ST.