Hideki Okajima

[jebnasty]

This guy looks awfully good. Would his emergence put Papelbon back into the starting rotation?

[jbauer2485]

I think the league will catch up to him. I heard he has a pretty deceptive delivery, but he certainly didn't have great numbers in Japan, so that's what I conclude.

[KTM]

Year Team W L SV ERA G IP SO
1995 Yomiuri Giants 0 0 0 1.80 1 5.0 9
1996 Yomiuri Giants 1 0 0 0.71 5 12.2 8
1997 Yomiuri Giants 4 9 0 3.46 25 109.1 102
1998 Yomiuri Giants 3 6 0 4.33 14 62.1 54
1999 Yomiuri Giants 4 1 0 2.97 37 69.2 77
2000 Yomiuri Giants 5 4 7 3.11 56 72.1 102
2001 Yomiuri Giants 2 1 25 2.76 58 62.0 70
2002 Yomiuri Giants 6 3 0 3.40 52 55.2 58
2003 Yomiuri Giants 2 3 0 4.89 41 38.2 29
2004 Yomiuri Giants 4 3 5 3.09 53 46.2 53
2005 Yomiuri Giants 1 0 0 4.75 42 53.0 56
2006 Hokkaido Nippon 2 2 4 2.14 55 54.2 63

Kinda inconsistent, but not too bad. Saito had poor numbers, and hes been pretty good.

http://www.japaneseballplayers.com/en/p ... d=hokajima

[Omaha Red Sox]

I heard he has a pretty deceptive deliver

He basically doesn't look where he's throwing. It's crazy. I couldn't find a very good picture, aside from this:



EDIT - Found a video.

[olsonea]

To the OP, no way Papelbon goes back into the rotation. Not with Lester so close to coming back. Not only would they lost Pap from the back end of the pen, but they'd lose him for the two or three weeks it would take to stretch him out at Pawtucket, and for what? He's really an unknown quantity as a starting pitcher at the major league level.

[238yo]

he's been great so far

[SweetAurillia]

I heard he has a pretty deceptive deliver

He basically doesn't look where he's throwing. It's crazy. I couldn't find a very good picture, aside from this:



EDIT - Found a video.

Wow thats pretty interesting. He pretty much looks at his target first in his windup but when he actually throws he faces the ground, I assume it lets his body lean more into the pitch and lets him throw harder?