JABO: Learning From the Japanese Game
There in the Giants clubhouse, behind the stars you’ve heard everything about, are two rare players. They’ve made a circuit that very few players have made before. After surviving the gauntlet, they took some time to pass on what they learned with their travels East.
New Giants’ third baseman Casey McGehee was pretty sure his Major League Baseball career was over when he packed his bags for Sendai in Japan. “Going over there, that was one of the toughest parts, I knew the chances of coming back weren’t great,” the player said before FanFest last week.
But both McGehee and Ryan Vogelsong made it back, and to the same team no less. Of the 167 foreigners that have played in Nippon Professional Baseball since 1998, Brian Cartwright found that only 11 position players have managed more than 100 plate appearances back in America, and only Julio Franco and McGehee managed as much as 300 in one season. Only nine pitchers pitched for more than one season after returning from Japan.
Or: nobody has come back from Japan since 1998 and become a full-time starter like McGehee, and only Eric Stults, Colby Lewis, and Ryan Vogelsong have returned and managed more than 100 innings twice in the big leagues.
Though the game itself isn’t very different there — they bunt a little more, swing a little more, and play for one run more often — it could be that the trip over has that sense of finality to it that you hear from McGehee. You don’t usually come back and become an important part of a good team.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
What I took away is that the Japanese league faces far fewer fastballs than MLB hitters. It sounds like Vogelsong gained new confidence in his fastball after beating Japanese hitters with it.
That’s sort of how I felt, but he didn’t give me that quote to nail it.
McGehee’s a class act. Japan could’ve been his resting place, but he instead remained optimistic, changed his approach, and got his career back together. He had a level swing and hit ground balls through the gaps. For the first half of 2014 he put up numbers that reminiscent of hitters from the dead ball era, with 1 HR and 53 RBI. Unfortunately as the season went on he went through a slump, and at times was visibly frustrated with himself. He would never admit it, but he looked exhausted and overworked by the end of the season. He had 691 PAs and 1409.2 innings fielded, both career highs, but he hadn’t been an everyday player in the MLB since 2011; he did play a lot in Japan but they have a much lighter schedule with more days off and less, more efficient traveling.
I know his first half numbers were inflated by luck, but he should still be a better player than his second half
The Marlins had some specials on McGehee and his return from Japan and he always said he was very humbled by it. He also played for the champions Rakuten Golden Eagles with teammates Tanaka, Andruw Jones, and Matsui. He said that motivated him to play in America again, and he took less to sign with the Marlins even though he enjoyed Japan and was a star there, and success in the MLB was no guarantee.
I hear Andruw Jones is trying to come back too, wonder if he lost weight?
Giants fans probably wish McGehee had stayed in Japan. He’s not going to be helping them beat the Dodgers.