Japanese Baseball NPB Draft Analysis - Shigeru Kaga - Yokohama BayStars

Shigeru Kaga - Pitcher - Sumikin Kajima
 
  DOB : 4/13/85  
  age : 24  
  throws / hits : R / R  
  height cm : 181  
  weight kg : 84  
  height inch : 71.3 Yokohama BayStars 
  weight lbs : 185.2 round 2

Shigeru Kaga is a sidearm thrower who uses his motion well on his fastball and slider. Kaga is good at many things and not superior at any. His mental grasp of the game right now is average pro level, as well as his life on the ball, curve and off-speed pitches and location. He has very good command. The only thing he lacks is a flaming fastball. I see Kaga developing into a steady, but not stand-out, pro pitcher at the NPB level. He is a very rounded pitcher who has room to grow into a slightly above average player. Kaga has a nice build and he uses it perfectly in his form. He still has room to grow but can not be counted on in long stretches due to lack of experience as a starter. I seem him as a good fit in middle relief, not dazzling but good enough to get to the closer.
    
Outlook: Yokohama has Sanada and Takazaki as middle relievers but neither is great. I can see Kaga developing into a middle relief role with Yokohama in 2011 or 2012. I doubt they will use him much before that. Tokohama has a recent tendency not to start the youngsters too soon. Frankly I do not understand this strategy, since Yokohama is dead last in almost every pitching stat recordable. This being the case, do not anticipate seeing Kaga until 2011 at the earliest. He still has room to grow and should be a playable plug-in pitcher to help patch the shambled Yokohama pitching staff int he future. 

Brandon Siefken has covered Japanese pro and amateur baseball since 1991. He is currently an intern for a Major League Baseball team and has been quoted in Bloomberg, The New York Times and other publications regarding Japanese baseball. Brandon is a regular writer for Bob Bavasi’s JapanBall.com site and has authored several articles including “The Kuroda Index” and “Yu Darvish: A 315 Pitch Scouting Report.”

Each year Brandon publishes the “Japan Baseball News Weekly” ( http://www.japanbaseballnews.com/?page_id=1543 ) with updated weekly stats for every player from April to October. Brandon can be contacted at brandon@japanball.com.