KND Report: AL West

April 8, 1:29 AMAsian-American Sports ExaminerMichael Street

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This is the logo for the KND Report—
it says "Kattobase Nihonjin Dairiigaa!"

This is the third day of my roundup of the Asian major-leaguers we can look forward to in my first series of KNB Reports.

KNB is short for "Kattobase Nihonjin Dairiigaa!" which means “Let’s go Japanese major leaguers!”

The translation comes courtesy of Steven P. Venti of BHK Limited http://www.bhk-limited.com, an excellent resource for English-Japanese and Japanese-English translations.

Steve suggested this phrase, drawn from the traditional Japanese baseball cheer, “Kattobase Dairigaa!” which literally translates as “Send the ball flying!”

The batter’s name usually comes after the “Kattobase,” so we added “Nihonjin,” which means “Japanese major leaguers.” He also produced the Kanji for the KNB logo, at right.

Even though the phrase is Japanese, my KNB Report will cover all Asian players, including Asian-Americans.

Today, I'll be covering the AL West, with major-leaguers and significant minor leaguers.

Los Angeles Angels

The Angels are not as progressive as their crosstown and crossleague rivals, the Dodgers, but the Angels are getting there. They've got a few players in the minors, notably Pil-joon Jang, a South Korean right-handed pitcher they signed late last year. The highly regarded 20-year-old is a bit like Junichi Tazawa, in that he skipped the KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) draft in order to go straight to the American major leagues.

First, he had to complete his two-year mandatory military service, but with that out of the way, the 6'2" 190 lb. is ready to start his growth in the U.S. minors.

When he does, he'll join Young-il Jung, a South Korean pitcher who threw all of 9 innings for the advanced Rookie League Orem Owls in 2007 before going under the knife for TJ surgery. Given the typical 18-24 month recorvery time, he should resume climbing the minor league ladder this season.

Last on the list is catcher Ikko Sumi, who spent last season with the Arizona Rookie League Angels. Ikko is best known at this point for being the son of Mitsuo Sumi, former reliever for the Yomiuri Giants, Yakult Swallows and Nippon Ham Fighters.

Mitsuo Sumi won the 1981 Fireman of the Year (the Japanese version of the Rolaids Relief Award) and recorded 99 career saves, 20 of them in that career 1981 year, when he also recorded a 1.47 ERA.

The younger Sumi spent 2007 in the Dominican Summer League, where he put up an unimpressive .176/.345/.231, with that spread between BA and OBP mostly due to the 9 times he got hit by a pitch in 91 ABs. He improved a bit in the Angels' rookie league, .241/.354/.259—this time he only took one for the team twice in 54 ABs.

Regardless, he's got a ways to go before we see him in the bigs.

Oakland Athletics

Oakland has one of the premier Asian-American major leaguers baseball players in catcher Kurt Suzuki, nicknamed "Kurt Klutch" from his years at Cal State-Fullerton. CSF won the 2004 College World Series, the same year Suzuki won the Johnny Bench Award as the top catcher in the college ranks.

Suzuki marched through the minor-league ranks, accumulating a .283/.376/.419 line, and was called up to the A's in 2007. He played a half-season before clocking his first full season in 2008, where he put up a .279/.346/.370 line, numbers dragged down by a September in which he hit .234/.322/.273.

But his importance is in his defense and game-calling, and he threw out 37% of baserunners in '08 and the pitching staff improved by 0.4 runs per game and 0.29 in ERA—this on a 2008 team that lost Dan Haren and only had a half-season from Joe Blanton. Having Suzuki behind the dish for the young rotation Oakland has this year will be extremely important, and any offense he might provide will just be gravy.

The only other Asian player of note in the Oakland organization is also a significant one. Taiwanese second baseman Yung Chi Chen had been working his way up the Seattle ladder, and spent all last season with their AAA affiliate, the Tacoma Rainiers. Seattle had been grooming him as a potential utilityman, giving him time at SS and 3B, too.

But they exposed him to waivers last November, and Oakland grabbed him up. He'll start the year with the AAA Sacramento River Cats, and wait for a chance to get to the big leagues.

Seattle Mariners

Few teams in baseball have brought over as many big-name Japanese players as Seattle, thanks to their Japanese ownership and their Pacific Northwest location. And nobody has been bigger than Ichiro Suzuki, the player who proved that Japanese league hitters can not only survive, but excel in MLB.

I've sung Ichiro's praises elsewhere on this site, but his accomplishments of note include eight straight seasons of 200 hits and 100 runs, something nobody's done since Wee Willie Keeler, the first player ever to accomplish this (Lou Gehrig also managed eight seasons of 200 H and 100 R, but he didn't do it in consecutive seasons).

If Ichiro can do this again in 2009, he'll become the only player to achieve this kind of consistency. The problem is, he's hit the DL for the first time in his career, for a bleeding ulcer, something that's not too surprising given how hard he pushes himself. He's expected to return after missing the minimum fifteen days, which means he's going to miss the first eight games of the season.

That's significant because in 2008, he got his 200th hit with nine games to play. If he's going to reach that record-setting level, it's going to be exciting.

His current teammate Kenji Johjima was brought over to lesser fanfare, and the catcher's been somewhat of a disappointment, recently being seen as an impediment to the progress of Jeff Clement. Johjima's offensive numbers in Japan were strong, with a career .299/.360/.517, bolstered by a career year in 2004 when he hit .311/.432/.655 with 36 HRs, 25 2Bs, and 91 RBI in 116 games.

His 2005 year with the SoftBank Hawks might have been an indication of impending decline, as he fell back to .309/.381/.557. His first year in Seattle continued that downward slope, as his .291/.332/.451 were good, but not nearly so strong. In 2007, he fell further to .287/.322/.433, before hitting the floor at .227/.277/.332 in 2008. His RBI fell from 76 to 61 to 39 in that time as his playing time decreased in favor of Clement.

Fortunately for Johjima, Clement didn't do much better, as the whole team blundered into the league's first 100-loss season by a team with a payroll over $100M. Part of that payroll was the three-year, $24M extension, signed about three weeks before the Mariners fired GM Bill Bavasi, well known for throwing too much money at players on the decline.

Where some American players might have decided to coast, Johjima pledged to improve himself this offseason. His WBC performance certainly showed some of that improvement as he registered a .333/353/.467, which earned him a few starts in the cleanup spot. His spring average was .455/.455/.818, for as much as preseason stats were worth.

Whether the Mariners can climb out of the cellar this year and possibly contend in a weak division will depend on how Ichiro and Johjima perform.

There are precious few Samoan ballplayers in major league history, but Matt Tuiasosopo is trying really hard to become another. Samoans dominate in the NFL, which is where Matt's brothers Zach and Marques and play and where his father Manu played. The third baseman could have followed them, but chose instead to sign with Seattle.

He's moved quickly through their system, showing good batspeed but not a very good batting eye. As you might expect from a guy who could have played football, scouts like his build and his strength. His power finally showed up last year in AAA with the Rainiers, and if he can continue to improve, he might make a good replacement for Adrian Beltre.

Texas Rangers

Texas has had its share of Asian ballplayers, including Akinori Otsuka and Chan-ho Park, but they currently have no players of note in their system.