Junichi Tazawa - RHP Boston Red Sox
The reeling Red Sox recalled right hander Junichi Tazawa from Pawtucket and threw him onto the breach on Friday night against the Yankees in the Bronx. The designation of John Smoltz may be an indication that the Sox are sizing Tazawa up for a rotation seat, and he should get Smoltz' start on Tuesday, but his long-term role is not yet written in stone and there's the matter of replacing Justin Masterson in the pen.
The 23-year-old was signed out of Japan in 2008 after telling teams in the Japanese Professional League not to draft him even though he was the consensus first overall pick. The Red Sox reportedly outbid the Braves, Rangers and Mariners for Tazawa's services, winning out because Junichi wanted to play with Daisuke Matsuzaka.
Tazawa generates a low-to-mid 90s fastball with his 6-0/180 frame. He backs that up with a heavy splitter and and two breaking pitches that blur the definitions of slider and curve. A little bit of deception in his delivery makes his stuff play up. His fastball, sinker and slider are MLB-quality and his curve is at the "show-'em" stage but should be good enough to sprinkle in, in time. Three pitches (+) keeps him viable as starter and the Sox seem to be in dire need of one right about now.
Thrown into the AA deep-end this year, he more than held his own, posting a .224 OBA with a nearly-neutral BHIP% of .277. His K and BB rates were solid even if his ERA was helped by a favorable 79.8% strand percentage. His K rate took a hit in his 11.1 IP at AAA after his promotion but he continued to limit his walks, posted a 0.71 WHIP, and held AAA hitters to a .180 OBA. Keep in mind that last number, besides being the product of a small sample, is very soft due to an extremely favorable .212 BHIP%.
The entire Sox 40-man is in disarray this weekend and Tazawa's short term outlook is pretty fluid. In the long-term he projects as a decent-to-good #3 starter with a little better than league-average ERA who fans 6-8/9. For the next month or so, you may get a couple of viable starts out of him and Friday's A-Bomb to A-Rod aside, a few decent relief innings. In deep leagues if your staff is as battered as the Sox staff, a speck claim wouldn't be out of line, just keep in mind there is a wide range of possible outcomes here.
Long Term Fantasy Grade - B-
Seas Lvl W L ERA IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 AVG WHIP 2009 AA 9 5 2.57 98.0 8.1 2.4 0.7 .224 1.08 2009 AAA 0 2 2.38 11.1 4.8 0.8 0.0 .180 0.71
Douglas Fister - RHP Seattle Mariners
The M's purchased the contract of 25-year-old Doug Fister from Tacoma on August 7th to shore up their staff for the stretch. The 6-8/193 has toiled in the minors since being taken in the 7th round of the 2006 draft out of Fresno State. Baseball America, at the time, named him the second-best NCAA senior.
Doug's most prominent asset, his height, gives his low-90s fastball great downward plane. That results in a lot of ground balls. His minor league career GB% is 47.9% with a 31.3% FB%. That ratio gets even better vs. RHH at 51.4/26.4.
That's about it. Doug's secondary pitches are less than compelling, but he does pound the strike zone and throw ground balls, which to me sounds like the text book definition of a middle reliever.
Given his age and stuff, Doug's ceiling is obviously limited. By all accounts he's a good guy, the type we should be happy to see finally get his shot. He's been effective with what he has but he doesn't have the secondary stuff to play up his fastball and major league hitters are much better at figuring out ground ball pitchers.
If you are in a place where you are collecting warms bodies and IP there may be a few here. If the M's toss him some starts you may be able to cherry pick a couple of good ones, especially before a book is established.
Long Term Fantasy Grade - CSeas Lvl W L ERA IP K/9 BB/9 HR/9 AVG WHIP 2006 A- 3 5 2.25 40.0 7.9 2.5 0.5 .237 1.15 2007 AA 7 8 4.60 131.0 5.8 2.2 1.0 .297 1.44 2008 AA 6 14 5.43 134.1 7.0 3.0 0.8 .290 1.49 2009 AAA 6 4 3.88 104.1 6.8 1.0 0.9 .308 1.36
This is a small sample of Insiderbaseball.com's Prospect Central that will profile, in depth, 120 prospects this year. Insiderbaseball.com's subscribers get this information as well as exclusive, daily insight, analysis, and news delivered directly to their inbox every day during the baseball season and beyond. Get the edge you need for the stretch run by joining Insiderbaseball.com today.
