Sawamura Awards

Terrible? That bad? I understand your point but I think you're exaggerating -- a lot -- to make it. Name one pitcher in Major league history who led his league in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, produced the third best ERA, and was then released. Take all the time you need; I can wait.

That he lead his league in these stats is great.

However, he also had 15 losses, for a lowly .500 winning percentage. That is bad.

Daisuke Matsuzaka is a good pitcher, but he needs to learn more consistancy, in order to be a great pitcher.

Wait, Matsuzaka is a good pitcher now? He was terrible a couple weeks ago...

Matsuzaka is good, but vastly overrated. If his fastball is on, it's virtually unhittable, but his control can get the better of him, and when there's no zip, the ball flies off the bat. But he is potentially dominant, if he starts conditioning himself a little better...

Speaking of which, is anyone else concerned about young Igawa? The guy just faded last year, and I can't help but think the poor guy is just plain overused. Hoshino-kantoku was so afraid to use his bullpen early in the year he'd keep him in there for the entire game, pushing pitch counts to 120+. Not healthy for a 22 year old. Does anyone have any info about if there is history here with Hoshino abusing his young pitchers (Kawakami, Noguchi during his Chunichi days), or is he just out to butcher Igawa's career? (Torakichi, fellow Tigers' fan, I hope you share my concern. Igawa is our only hope for anyting.)

- Does anyone have any info about if there is history here with Hoshino abusing his young pitchers (Kawakami, Noguchi during his Chunichi days), or is he just out to butcher Igawa's career?

Can't say I have any info about that, but he is proudly old school, i.e., he feels that starting pitchers should pitch the entire game where possible, and, as you point out, last season he tended to make his pitchers do just that. In his defence, it could be said that apart from Marc Valdez, the bullpen was full of hacks (until they "discovered" Yoshino later in the season).

Even so, Hoshino-kantoku got his fingers burned on a number of occasions last season by making his starter go right through to the ninth; several times we were leading in the seventh, only for our tiring pitcher to be hit around the park in the eighth and ninth.

- Torakichi, fellow Tigers' fan, I hope you share my concern.

About Igawa? Well, yes and no. More about Hoshino-kantoku's what-an-honour-it-is-to-pitch-a-complete-game tendancy. Being an optimist, however, I don't think we'll see much of that this season, because we've acquired people like Pote and Williams, who Hoshino would want to utilize.

Daisuke Matsuzaka may be a top pitcher in Japan, however, until he learns to be consistant, he will never pitch in the Major Leagues.

It seems that at least one other person agrees with me. Matsuzaka is overrated.

It'd be nice if you guys provided some proof to back up your Matsuzaka-is-overrated statements. Like his career stats:

51 Wins, 29 Losses, 3.43 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, .218 BAA, 7.99 K/9

It's the amount of innings the Lions' 22-year-old ace has pitched (661) and not his stuff that makes his pitching in the Major Leagues unlikely.

BTW, here are Igawa's career stats for comparison:

25 Wins, 26 Losses, 2.86 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, .257 BAA, 8.44 K/9

It really depends on your perspective here. Are you a Joe Morgan type, who believes Wins are more important that ERA and WHIP, because a winning pitcher knows how to win? Or a Rob Neyer type, who believes ERA and WHIP (and K/IP, K/BB) are more important?

Personally, I'm more a Rob Neyer type (though I do disagree with many things he says). Their WHIPs are almost identical, but Igawa's ERA is superior, K/9 is higher, and he had very little run support, especially in 2001 (no, I'm not providing stats for this claim because I don't know where to find them. If you do, please do let me know). Further, Igawa's K/BB ratio is about 2.45, while Matsuzaka's is about 1.87, which generally implies greater potential.

I'm not saying the Igawa has been a better pitcher than Matsuzaka. They've only pitched two full seasons (Matsuzaka was hurt for much of last season), and are only 23-ish. But I do project better things for Igawa than Matsuzaka given the stats above. Given that Igawa isn't forced to pitch too many innings in following years, ....

I'm more of a Rob Neyer type as well and I never said that Matsuzaka would end up having a better career than Igawa. I was only pointing out that their stats are close -- too close for one to be overrated and not the other, IMO.

That said, I think BAA (Batting Average Against) is another indicator of potential and Matasuzaka has Igawa beat by a wide margin in that regard. And I would argue that Matasuzaka, who's more than a year younger than Igawa, has been the more valuable pitcher to date. Which would you rather have, a 2.86 ERA over 51 games or a 3.43 ERA over 73 games?

Workload is a concern for both pitchers, but that's par for the course in NPB. I hope they both last long enough to reach their potential.