Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker tweeted an article a few hours ago reporting that Japanese submarine pitcher Shunsuke Watanabe intends to pitch in the United States. The article is in Japanese, but I take Patrick’s (and Google Translate’s) word for it.
You may remember Watanabe from the 2006 World Baseball Classic. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the pitching motion certainly will:
That is some serious submarine action. Dan Quisenberry looks down from Pitching Valhalla watches that and says “damn.” Chad Bradford, when reached for comment, presumably said “dude, that’s nuts.”
But optics are one thing. Baseball significance is another. And as far as that goes, well, eh. I dunno. At this point in his career Watanabe does not exactly profile as someone who is gonna do well here. He’s 37 for one thing. For some reason he only pitched in six games last season for Chiba Lotte, which could suggest an injury. Either way, though, Newman says his velocity is only in the 70s. While he has deception on his side he doesn’t strike guys out at all. Really: over the past few seasons he’s struggled to reach three Ks per nine innings.
And if he doesn’t deceive hitters? According to his Wikipedia page, back in a 2004 exhibition David Ortiz hit a 525 foot home run off him, which was the longest ever homer hit in the Tokyo Dome.
Anyway: could be interesting. Could amount to absolutely nothing. But you’re gonna want to watch him pitch if he does make the jump.
