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Where EAST meets the Northwest
DEVELOPING TALENT. The last decade of Major League Baseball represented the heyday of importing Japanese players. After Ichiro Suzuki’s (top left photo) groundbreaking 2001 debut, American teams began paying top dollar for Japanese players. Unfortunately, several of the players became high-profile disappointments, which has led to teams bringing Asian players over at a younger age to mature in the minor leagues. Several of these players should soon move into the majors, where they will join a group of rising Asian Americans already establishing themselves in the major leagues, among them, two faces from the Pacific Northwest: Oregon’s Darwin Barney (bottom left photo) and Washington’s Hank Conger.
From The Asian Reporter, V21, #07 (April 4, 2011), page 9.
A new era for Asians in major-league baseball
By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter
Don’t look now, but there’s a major change of thinking in Asian-American baseball. Recent disappointments among eastern imports have led teams to bring players over at a younger age, creating an influx of Asian players who should soon arrive in the majors. They will add to a group of rising Asian Americans already establishing themselves in the major leagues, including two faces from the Pacific Northwest.
The last decade represented the heyday of importing Japanese players to our major leagues. After Ichiro Suzuki’s groundbreaking 2001 debut, American teams began paying top dollar for Japanese players such as Kazuo Matsui, Kenji Johjima, Kenshin Kawakami, and Daisuke Matsuzaka — who all became high-profile disappointments. Notable exceptions have included Hideki Matsui, who has carved out a nice career, and the brief dominance of relievers Kazuhiro Sasaki and Hideki Okajima. But the vast majority of Japanese players have been merely average, and the next Ichiro-like miracle hasn’t emerged.
That’s hardly surprising, since Ichiro is a remarkable player in any league. After a record-setting career in Japan, he’s set American major-league records for hits in a season and for most consecutive seasons with 200 or more hits. He collected the most hits between 2000 and 2010 despite starting a year after his competitors. If he remains healthy and productive in 2011, he’ll add to the 2,000-hit mark he reached last season and continue on the road to becoming the first player elected to both the American and Japanese Halls of Fame.
American teams, realizing that they’re not going to find another Ichiro anytime soon, have soured on paying inflated prices in that futile quest. Instead, they’re investing money in scouting younger (and cheaper) Asian players and holding the line at paying elevated prices for Japanese veterans.
The latest pitcher to try to cross the Pacific this past offseason, Hisashi Iwakuma, couldn’t come to terms with the Oakland Athletics, who reportedly offered Iwakuma a tenth of his asking price. The Mets had much more success with the cheaper, lower-profile Hisanori Takahashi, acquired the year before and now playing for the Los Angeles Angels. The Mets paid the 35-year-old lefty just $1 million and he delivered a 3.61 ERA in more than 100 innings, even stepping in as the closer to collect eight saves in eight chances.
And the minor leagues are fairly crammed with younger Asian players who have been signed at a deep discount. Chicago has led the way with aggressive scouting in South Korea that netted top prospects right fielder Jae-Hoon Ha and pitcher Dae-Eun Rhee. Chicago made shortstop Hak-ju Lee an important part of its recent trade for starting pitcher Matt Garza. Taiwanese center fielder Che-Hsuan Lin and Japan’s Junichi Tazawa could join the major-league club this year, and the Houston Astros anxiously await the return of fireballing Taiwanese lefty Chia-Jen Lo from elbow surgery.
When these prospects reach the majors, they will join a recent influx of Asian-American players that includes local product Darwin Barney. Barney played with Oregon State’s 2006 and 2007 national champion teams and was recently selected to the College World Series Legends team. Although his ceiling was initially seen as relatively low, Barney reached the majors last year in his fourth professional season.
He hit .286 in the minors without much power, but Barney can play both second base and shortstop, versatility that led to his promotion after a trade opened the Cubs’ utility infielder spot. Barney entered this year hoping to make the Opening Day roster in the same role, but has instead earned a share of the starting time at second base by hitting .359 in spring training.
Fellow Asian American Kurt Suzuki was also seen largely as a defensive asset when the Oakland Athletics drafted him as a catcher. Instead, Suzuki has proven to be both durable and productive, playing 130 games or more each of the past three years and batting .266 with 12 home runs and 67 RBI. He’s expected to be an important part of a competitive Oakland team that added designated hitter Hideki Matsui in the offseason.
An even greater offensive force behind the plate is Hank Conger, a catching prospect with Pacific Northwest roots. Born Hyun Choi Conger in Federal Way, Washington, Korean American Conger was nicknamed "Hank" in honor of slugger Hank Aaron. Conger has done his namesake proud, clubbing 47 home runs in the minors over parts of four seasons, but he’s been held back by various injuries.
A healthy Conger came into his own last season, earning MVP honors at the all-prospect Futures Game and finishing the year at Triple-A hitting .300, leading to a promotion to the big leagues with the Angels. This year, he’s vying for a starting catcher job, though his shaky defense may keep him in the minors to begin the year.
In the years to come, Asian development projects like this will become far more common, while big-name eastern imports will likely cease in favor of lower-profile, short-term acquisitions. Just as teams looked to Latin America in the ’80s and the Caribbean countries in the ’90s, this decade of baseball is likely to feature an increasingly Asian flavor. And like those earlier movements, it will create a greater involvement in the baseball programs of those Asian countries, a far more sustainable model than the high-priced signings of recent years. In the process, the two countries’ leagues will become even more closely knit, a vital component during Japan’s post-disaster rebuilding.