Norichika Aoki surprised with name in Brewers lineup card in Japanese kanji

PHOENIX — After a first week in unfamiliar surroundings running through unfamiliar drills with unfamiliar teammates, outfielder Norichika Aoki arrived at Maryvale Baseball Park on Saturday to a welcome sight: His name on the Brewers lineup card, written carefully in Japanese kanji.

“I’m just happy that they took the time to learn how to write my name in Japanese,” Aoki said. “It’s really good.”

That someone was Brewers bench coach Jerry Narron, whose lineup cards are daily works of art. He writes all of the names in calligraphy, and since 2001, when Narron was with Texas and Ichiro Suzuki debuted in Major League Baseball with Seattle, has used traditional symbols for the Japanese players. Narron consulted with Aoki’s translator, Kosuke Inaji, to learn Aoki’s name.

Why does he do it? “It’s respect,” Narron said. Aoki’s symbol is far less complicated than Takashi Saito‘s, the veteran reliever who pitched for the Brewers last season…

via Norichika Aoki surprised with name in Brewers lineup card in Japanese kanji | brewers.com: News.

Norichika Aoki reports to Brewers training camp, feels like a rookie

PHOENIX – After seven seasons as a star in Japan, Norichika Aoki feels like a rookie again. Aoki reported to the Milwaukee Brewers spring training camp Thursday and admitted to being a bit overwhelmed.

“I feel like it’s a brand-new feeling being able to play in this environment,” Aoki said through an interpreter. Brewers manager Ron Roenicke listened to Aoki and quickly tried to make the 30-year-old outfielder comfortable. “He doesn’t have to come into this camp thinking he has to make our team,” Roenicke said. “He talked about being like a rookie, he doesn’t need to come into this camp thinking he’s got to make our team.” Aoki arrived two days before the first full-team workout Saturday.

The Brewers are counting on him to add depth in an outfield that includes NL MVP Ryan Braun, who had his positive test for a banned substance overturned just hours after Aoki arrived in camp.

Aoki spent his entire professional career with the Yakult Swallows. He hit over .300 in six of his seven full seasons and was a three-time batting champion in Japan’s Central League. He was the league’s 2005 rookie of the year and is a six-time

via Norichika Aoki reports to Brewers training camp, feels like a rookie | StarTribune.com.

Major League clubs are more cautious with Japanese talent pool

Mariah Carey throws first pitch in Japan Baseball League game

The Japanese market could be back on a bull run.

Yu Darvish’s six-year, $60 million deal with the Rangers made him a big leaguer on Wednesday, but will the right-hander also become the vanguard of a Japanese renaissance?

The buzz over the 25-year-old Nippon ace — before, during and since his posting — has already transcended what recently has been a bearish market.

Major League Baseball executives for the most part have lost their infatuation with this market, discouraged by a string of disappointing results.

Yet, eight years after the New York Mets moved Jose Reyes to second base to clear a spot at short for Kaz Matsui, the Rangers opted for future with Darvish rather than making a run at free-agent slugger Prince Fielder.

The excitement over Darvish is understandable, because there aren’t many 25-year-old right-handers with his stature, repertoire and accomplishments.

The Rangers matched their enthusiasm with their bidding dollars, taking negotiating rights with a bid of $51,703,411 — topping the five-year-old record of $51.1 million by Boston for Daisuke Matsuzaka. Similarly, the value of Darvish’s contract will top Dice-K’s $52 million deal.

Such high-upside comparisons have become the exception. Only a few days ago, the New York Yankees declined to sign Hiroyuki Nakajima, after having earned negotiating rights with the shortstop considered a Matsui clone with a modest $2 million bid.

“Nakajima had about the same stats in Japan as Kazuo,” said Robert Whiting, an author and renowned expert on Japanese baseball and ballplayers. “Clear evidence that the love affair with Japan is over.”

This could be particularly true of position players, the last of whom to make a true impact was Hideki Matsui, whose debut season with the Yankees was nine years ago. Milwaukee is hoping that Norichika Aoki will be the next; the Brewers reached a two-year deal with the 30-year-old outfielder on Tuesday, two days before their own negotiating deadline.

However, mounting skepticism also relates to pitchers, who rode the first wave from Japan but have had little sustained success since Hideo Nomo.

Shortly before Darvish was posted in mid-December, in fact, the posting period for Hiroki Sanada ended with the Yokohama reliever becoming only the third player to not draw a single bid.

Pitchers, at least, have continued to show an upside, even if only in bursts. Matsuzaka was 33-15 in his first two Red Sox seasons, the same period during which lefty Hideki Okajima was a feared weapon in Boston’s bullpen. Although he didn’t make the move until he was 33, Hiroki Kuroda put in four solid seasons in the Dodgers rotation, with an overall 3.45 ERA in 114 starts, prior to signing with the Yankees as a free agent. Takashi Saito has relieved for four postseason teams in his six Major League seasons, working in a total of 322 games with an ERA never higher than 2.83.

Position players in the footsteps of Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui? Very little encouragement: None have hit higher than .268 (infielder Tadahito Iguchi and catcher Kenji Johjima). Very little power: Kosuke Fukudome hit 101 home runs in his last four seasons in Japan before getting a four-year, $48 million deal with the Cubs, and has totaled 42 homers in four Major League seasons.

“There used to be a feeling that if a guy was a superstar in Japan, he’ll be a superstar here. I don’t think you can say that anymore,” said Jim Duquette, now with MLB Network but eight years ago the Mets general manager who pursued and signed Kaz Matsui. “It’s become more a case of ‘buyer beware.’ We’ve seen the track record, and it hasn’t been great.”

The assimilation of Japanese ballplayers into Major League Baseball unfolded in steady, well-defined stages.

The pioneers were starting pitchers (with the historical exception of reliever Masanori Murakami of the 1964-65 Giants), led by Nomo, who joined the Dodgers in 1995. His 43 wins in his first three seasons included a no-hitter in the pitchers’ hell of Coors Field.

They were followed by setup relievers (Shigetoshi Hasegawa was an underrated weapon for the 1997-2001 Angels), then closers (Seattle’s Kazuhiro Sasaki, the 2000 American League Rookie of the Year who saved 119 games from 2000-02).

Next came small-ball outfielders (Ichiro in 2001 became the first regular), then sluggers (Hideki Matsui, a.k.a. Godzilla). Finally, middle infielders (Kaz Matsui), which is where the tide appeared to turn.

Kaz Matsui, who had been such a dynamic and exciting threat in Japan, forced Major League talent evaluators to begin taking a hard look at the factors that influence — or can prevent — crossover success.

The depth of the talent on big league teams is the biggest hurdle; it is a game without letup.

“You try to evaluate talent in Japan, but they don’t face the same caliber of pitching night in and night out,” said one Pacific Rim scout. “Pitching here is a lot deeper than it is in Japan. The top relief pitchers in Japan who come here become middle relievers.”

It is also a game with a different pace and mentality.

“Japanese baseball is not a very aggressive game,” Whiting pointed out. “You seldom see brushback pitches, or pitchers retaliating for hit batsmen, or basepath collisions. Japanese infielders seem intimidated by the tougher American game. [Kaz] Matsui seemed afraid of the inside fastball and the spikes-high slides of baserunners trying to break up the double play. Tsuyoshi Nishioka didn’t know how to handle the double play.”

Whiting was referring to the Gold Glove batting champion for whom the Twins paid $15 million a year ago, between the posting fee and a three-year contract. Nishioka batted .226 in 68 games — 120 points below his 2010 average for Chiba Lotte — but spent around two months on the disabled list with a fractured left leg, suffered when he couldn’t avoid a takeout slide by the Yankees’ Nick Swisher.

“It’s just a tough adjustment, all in all,” Whiting continued. “A player has to learn 30 different parks, different umpires, different strike zones. A batter has to learn 30 different pitching staffs. Pitchers have to learn 30 different batting orders.”

Competition shock is accompanied by culture shock, which cannot be minimized for players from such a tradition-bound country as Japan — which, not so incidentally, is also quite a bit smaller.

“I remember talking to Kaz about it,” Duquette said, “and he said the travel really wore on him. In Japan, you’re not on the road as much, you don’t do as much flying, with the crazy hours, as we do.”

“Different food, different language. A guy might have the physical ability and still be unable to make the mental adjustment,” Whiting cautioned. “You just never know how a guy will do in the Majors until he actually goes and tries to do it.”

That even goes for a beguiling prospect such as Darvish, on whom Major League talent mavens have kept a close watch for years. “He’s extremely talented,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman, “but in terms of how it transitions and everything else like that, it’s hard to say. I wouldn’t even want to speculate.” The Rangers are paying the price for finding out, confident that it will be money well spent.

via Major League clubs are more cautious with Japanese talent pool | MLB.com: News.

Prospect: Norichika Aoki, OF Milwaukee Brewers

While the big news this week was The Yu Darvish Sweepstakes going to the Texas Rangers. The Milwaukee Brewers made a move to bolster their outfield in 2012.The Brewers will pay $2.5 million to the Yakult Swallows to negotiate with outfielder Norichika Aoki. Milwaukee has 30 days to settle on a contract with Aoki’s agents. So what does this 29 almost 30-year-old (Birthday January 5) bring to the table? This year he hit .292, 4 HR, 44 RBIs in 144 games for the Yakult Swallows. He has won 3 Batting Titles and has a career batting average of .329. Aoki could be a wise move to replace a possible loss of Ryan Braun. While he doesn’t have the power that Braun he is a proven on-base threat. Melvin said this in an interview following the announcement, in The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “We looked around at some other outfielders. I can’t say it was specifically tied to (Braun’s situation). There might have been some thought of that.” He continued, “I think what you read is he’s(Norichika Aoki) someone who doesn’t have extra-base power, more of an average-type hitter. He is very typical of most of the Japanese players in that regard. Pretty good defender. ”Doug Melvin’s other options in left-field are Nyjer Morgan who is likely to split time with Carlos Gomez in Center Field. The Japanese Central League star has been compared to another batting champion, Ichiro Suzuki who played for the Orix Blue Wave, with his ability to slap hits to the opposite field. While he doesn’t have the raw power potential of prized Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes, the lefty would likely fit near the top of the line-up if both sides can agree on reasonable compensation.

The Bat

Norichika Aoki is a good contact hitter who knows how to get on base. His career OBP of .401 is excellent. He sprays the ball to all fields and in Ichiro Suzuki fashion, can turn a single into a double. He’s developed a little pop in his time with the Swallows. Aoki has a unique approach. While scouts consider him a very polished and patient hitter, Aoki has no problem changing his stance or position in the batting box to get him self going; he’s not one to stay in an extended slump. A very intelligent hitter – but with a declining skill set.

The Glove

Norichika Aoki runs great routes to the ball and has pretty good range. His arm however, is below average and on the decline. He will not patrol centerfield i Milwaukee. Left field is his most likely spot. He won’t make a lot of errors, but then he also won’t be gunning anyone down at home.

Our Instinct

For all the comparisons to Ichiro Suzuki, Norichika Aoki is lacking. Even with Ichiro being in his declining years, he’s still a better player than Aoki. Aoki is likely heading for a platoon situation, even with the potential of Braun being out for 50 games. If Aoki can hit .280 with 5 HRs and 10 SB the Brewers should be happy. He’s a team player, and you can expect him to drag a bunt when asked to, pinch hit, and pinch run. That’s assuming that he takes the contract the Brewers will offer him. He certainly could end up back in Japan if the money isn’t there. My guess would be that Brewers get it done and Aoki will enjoy some success at Miller Park, which despite the success of Fielder and Braun, isn’t a launching pad. It’s a park that plays well for a line drive hitter, and Aoki is exactly that type of player.

via Prospect Instinct | Norichika Aoki, OF Milwaukee Brewers – 青木 宣親 | Baseball Instinct – Do You Have It?.

Norichika Aoki highlights from Japan,

Major League Baseball: A History of the Posting System, and How to Fix It

As Major League Baseball fans currently await the terms of Yu Darvish‘s seemingly inevitable contract with the Texas Rangers—and to a lesser extent the contracts of Hiroyuki Nakajima and Norichika Aoki—the criticisms of the posting system agreed upon between Major League Baseball and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league arise once again.

Last year, the Oakland Athletics won the bidding for Japanese starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma with a bid of $19.1 million, however, contract negotiations broke down, Oakland was returned their money, and Iwakuma returned to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Off the bat, this raised controversy over the posting system’s failures, in that Iwakuma was unable to bring his talents to Major League Baseball due to differences over his potential salary with Oakland. This year, there were rumors swirling that the Toronto Blue Jays may have planned on outbidding everyone for Yu Darvish‘s rights, simply to block other teams from signing him for at least a year. While this didn’t happen, a lot of people in the baseball industry felt that a move like that, coupled with the failure to bring Iwakuma over, would cause the posting system to be looked at and changed.

Originally, the posting system had good intentions, and served a quality purpose. When some Japanese players—namely Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, and Alfonso Soriano—exploited loopholes in their contracts to come play in the U.S., their Japanese clubs were left with nothing and frustrated, as they should have been. The posting system came into play, in which Major League Baseball teams have four days to place a one-time, confidential bid on a player posted, and the winner then receives thirty days of exclusive negotiations with the player. The Japanese club only sees the amount of the winning bid before deciding on whether to allow the bid or not. However, even with its faults, the posting system is a far superior option to the United States—Japanese Player Contract Agreement, which came into play in 1967, following the dispute between the San Fransisco Giants and Nankai Hawks over the rights to left-handed pitcher Masanori Murakami.

Masanori Murakami was sent over to the Giants’ A-ball affiliate in Fresno to learn the game, as something of an exchange student. Murakami excelled, and was eventually called up to the Giants in 1964 as a 20-year-old and became the first Japanese-born player to appear in a Major League Baseball game, having exceptional success as a reliever. Following the 1965 season, Murakami returned to Japan to fulfill his contractual obligations, despite the Giants desire to keep him on their roster. The United States—Japanese Player Contract Agreement came into play, which essentially meant that NPB players would stay in Japan, and MLB and minor leaguers would stay in North America. Eventually, the disparity between the two leagues became more and more obvious (NPB is considered roughly the equivalent of somewhere around AA or AAA baseball today), and in the 1990′s, Japan’s players wanted to come stateside and try their hand at the Majors. Hideo Nomo was the first, retiring from NPB after the 1994 season to come play for the Los Angeles Dodgers, signing a 3 year, $4.3 million contract. Nomo was able to come stateside due to the NPB’s reserve clause only being able to control his actions within Japanese baseball.

The second incident leading to the posting system was Hideki Irabu, who was to be traded from the Chiba Lotte Marines to the San Diego Padres, despite Irabu’s clearly desired intentions on only playing for the New York Yankees. After a lengthy series of debates, the Padres gave in after MLB sided with Irabu, who was traded to the Yankees, and promptly imploded, causing George Steinbrenner to make some not-so-flattering remarks about the portly pitcher. While the posting system is admittedly a fairer balance than the previous agreements and happenings, it’s still by far an imperfect system, one which should be addressed sooner rather than later.

via MLB: History of the posting system

Flashback, Hideo Nomo shuts out MLB batters and Barry Bonds,

Milwaukee Brewers awarded negotiating rights with Norichika Aoki

The Milwaukee Brewers have been awarded exclusive negotiating rights with Japanese outfielder Norichika Aoki, according to the Japanese newspaper Hochi Shimbun. The sides now have 30 days to work out a deal.

The Yakult Swallows accepted the $2.5 million posting fee on Friday, according to Yahoo! Sports. Aoki, 29, made the All-Star team seven times in his eight-year career in Japan. A speedy slap hitter, he has won three batting titles while hitting .329, with a .402 on-base percentage and .454 slugging percentage. He has excellent range in center field, but his throwing arm is considered suspect. Aoki was a member of the Japanese teams that won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009. He also played on Japan’s 2008 Olympic team.

via Brewers awarded negotiating rights with Norichika Aoki – MLB – Sporting News.

Yakult Swallows accept $2.5 million bid on OF Norichika Aoki

The Yakult Swallows have accepted a $2.5 million posting fee for outfielder Norichika Aoki, Yasuko Yanagita of Hochi Shimbun tweets. Which team bid the $2.5 million on Aoki is not yet known. Whichever team it is will have 30 days to negotiate with Aoki, who will turn 30 next  month. The Mets, Nationals and A’s have all been rumored to be interested in Aoki.

The three-time Central League batting champion hit just .292/.358/.360 in 2011, but was a career .336/.411/.472 in his first seven years. He is one of just four players to collect 200 hits in a season in Japan, joining Ichiro Suzuki, ALex Ramirez and Matt Murton.

Aoki is a left-handed hitter, throwing right-handed. He won three Gold Gloves earlier in his career, but his throwing arm could limit him to left field in MLB. Aoki appeared for Japan in both World Baseball Classics, earning All-Tournament honors in 2009, when he played left and batted third for Japan.

via Swallows accept $2.5 million bid on OF Aoki – CBSSports.com.

Norichika Aoki, The Next Japanese Slugger?

While most news sources recover from the Yu Darvish bidding fallout and subsequent contract negotiations, the Norichika Aoki buzz/hype has remained silent or nonexisstent.  Perhaps the media overlooks Aoki because at first glance he seems like every other Japanese hitter not named Hideki Matsui or Ichiro, which is to say he looks like a future disappointment.  Perhaps it’s only because they have no idea how to spell or pronounce his first name and Yu Darvish is just plain easier.  Hopefully Major League Baseball teams are more aware of Aoki’s abilities than the media is.

Aoki brings to the table more than any Japanese hitter in the post Matsui-Ichiro NPB era.  In fact, Aoki has been considered by some, the best pure hitter Japan has ever produced since Ichiro.  In his last four years leading up to 2011 Aoki produced an average of .339/.421 31 doubles 16 homeruns and 20 SB.  Fans should take these numbers with a grain of salt because no hitter, Ichiro included, has ever come to America and post the same numbers they did in Japan.  For what it’s worth, Ichiro’s last four years leading up to transition to American baseball were .358/.423 29 doubles 16 homeruns and 21 SB. 

Ichiro and Aoki do not share the same skill set though.  Ichiro is one of the greatest defensive outfielders of all time and has speed to burn, especially coming from the left side of the plate.  Aoki is an average corner outfielder and runs well, but not “Ichiro” well. Ichiro also has some serious homerun power that he sacrifices for the sake of getting on base.  Aoki doesn’t share the same talent, though it seems accurate to describe the amount of pop in his bat as “gap power”.  Still, in a market where back up utility infielders are landing multi-year deal worth more than 10 million dollars, it makes sense to put in a modest bid for Aoki.  At worst it would cost a Major League team is a few million dollars for a capable 4th outfielder.  At best?  I’ll let you decide that.  

But with such solid resume, consistent production and praise for his “hit tool”, it’s hard to envision Aoki being anything but a moderate success in the big leagues.  Aoki seems to bring more to the table than the most recently touted Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome.  Fukudome came into the majors advertised as a solid defensive outfielder with decent power and great plate discipline and didn’t exactly disappoint.  His career .260/.361 line is certainly nothing to scoff at.  I anticipate Aoki will be of the Kosuke Fukudome or David DeJesus breed of player, the type that contributes across the board.  Though never spectacular, it’s usually enough to remain in the lineup on a daily basis.

by Scotty Allen via Norichika Aoki, The Next Japanese Slugger? | December.

MLB: Japanese player Norichika Aoki to be posted

The seven time NPB all-star CF, Norichika Aoki, announced he will be posted on Monday. Aoki is a superb contact hitter and defensive OFer, being one of only 4 Japanese players to manage 200+ hits in a season and has won three consecutive Gold Glove awards. He’s a lefty with great ability to spray the ball to all fields and has developed enough power to go from being a leadoff-only hitter to establishing himself as a legitimate #3 hitter. He is widely regarded as one of the most complete and well-rounded position players in Japan.