Wada's Return May Be Sooner than Expected: Showalter

[OFFNY]

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Generally, it takes 12 months or more for a pitcher to return after Tommy John surgery. Wada had the surgery this past May 11th, but Showalter stated that it's possible that Wada could be back sooner than that (the earliest projected return date, which would be May of 2013.)

http://www.csnbaltimore.com/blog/orioles-talk/showalter-wada-may-be-ready-sooner-many-people-think

[tntoriole]

This is good news. Oriole scouts were higher on him than on Chen, even.

[RVAbird]

This is good news. Oriole scouts were higher on him than on Chen, even.

Do you have a source for this? Every scout I talked to last year had Chen in his own tier above Wada.

[Frobby]

This is good news. Oriole scouts were higher on him than on Chen, even.

Not that I heard. Certainly the national pundit types like Keith Law were higher on Chen. But I look forward to seeing what Wada can do.

[tntoriole]

I guess i was just recalling Wada signing first and DD being pretty high on him while saying he "didn't know anything about Chen".

Two very different pitchers but Wada's 2011 JBL stats were very good.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-duquette-on-teams-wants-wada-scott-bergesen-roberts-and-more-20111215,0,616203.story

[RVAbird]

I guess i was just recalling Wada signing first and DD being pretty high on him while saying he "didn't know anything about Chen".

Two very different pitchers but Wada's 2011 JBL stats were very good.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bal-orioles-duquette-on-teams-wants-wada-scott-bergesen-roberts-and-more-20111215,0,616203.story

Yeah, I think you might be mistaking the front office's initial praise for Wada with the idea it was higher on him than on Chen.

The reports I got and read were consistent - long shot back end ML starter, but lacking the dominant stuff to be a late inning arm. FB 86-88 (maybe a tick lower post-surgery), average change and breaking ball, slight frame, recent elbow surgery. Most likely a solid middle reliever.

[mcinww0]

I seem to remember the Orioles being higher on Wada too for some reason. Wada's getting paid 2/$8 and Chen's getting 3/$11, but Wada's older.

[weams]

Tsuyoshi Wada / LHP, BAL

Born 2/21/1981 (31 yrs old)

Aichi, Japan

Height 5-10

Weight 170

Bats/Throws L/L

172 | 6/1/2012

One of the best available veteran pitcher available from Japan this year, Softbank Hawks lefthander Wada is the all-time record holder for college strikeouts in Japan, ringing up 476 younsters in three years. More recently, he Wada registered a 1.51 ERA in 184 2/3 innings for Fukuoka last season, with a nice with 8.2 strikeouts per nine innings. As is typical of Japanese pitchers, his fastball only brushes 90mph on occasion, but he also brings good control of a confusing array of other pitches, including a plus change and a good slider. Now in Baltimore, won't be an ace, but he could be a solid contributo

http://www.scoutingbook.com/players/p2906

[weams]

Wada has strong statistical track record to recommend him. He’s shown to be a durable starter over the last 9 seasons who averages a little under one strike out and one hit per inning. In addition to that, despite his high strike out rate and 32 complete games through 2010, his pitch counts have remained relatively low for a frontline starter in Japan. He has also done a pretty good job staying healthy, only missing time twice in his career to this point. Most recently, his 2009 season was cut short to injury, but in 2010, he bounced back well enough to earn the Pacific League MVP award, and to help lead the Hawks to the best record in NPB in 2011.

http://www.npbtracker.com/2011/10/scouting-wada/

[RVAbird]

http://www.scoutingbook.com/players/p2906

I'm not sure what kind of source scoutingbook.com is, but most of that description seems like the kind of fluff you'd see in a news article rather than an actual scouting report.

Normally, I'd slap a 30/40 on an 86-88 MPH FB. I'll give Wada the benefit of the doubt with movement/deception/command and grade up to 40. I see your source has called the change "plus," but several reports I got labeled it ML average. According to this velo chart, he seems to have only a 6-8 MPH differential between the cheese and the change. I'd have a tough time projecting it more than 50/55 in MLB. The breaking ball seems inconsistent according to reports, his third best pitch. I won't attempt to give it a grade but anecdotal reports don't suggest plus.

A guy with a 40 FB, two above-average (at best) secondaries, and plus command/pitchability might have #3/4 upside coming out of high school. But for a 31 year old with no physical projection, a slight frame, two elbow surgeries in four years, and a lengthy career of pitching on five days rest, the chances of sticking in a ML rotation look quite slim.

Maybe you can point to Koji Uehara and think positively about Japanese pitchers with below average FB velocity. But, suffice it to say that it is atypical for a player from any league to see a K/9 bump of about 40% after transitioning to the American League, bullpen or otherwise. I'm thinking solid 7th inning arm if he's healthy.

[weams]

I'm not sure what kind of source scoutingbook.com is, but most of that description seems like the kind of fluff you'd see in a news article rather than an actual scouting report.

Normally, I'd slap a 30/40 on an 86-88 MPH FB. I'll give Wada the benefit of the doubt with movement/deception/command and grade up to 40. I see your source has called the change "plus," but several reports I got labeled it ML average. According to this velo chart, he seems to have only a 6-8 MPH differential between the cheese and the change. I'd have a tough time projecting it more than 50/55 in MLB. The breaking ball seems inconsistent according to reports, his third best pitch. I won't attempt to give it a grade but anecdotal reports don't suggest plus.

A guy with a 40 FB, two above-average (at best) secondaries, and plus command/pitchability might have #3/4 upside coming out of high school. But for a 31 year old with no physical projection, a slight frame, two elbow surgeries in four years, and a lengthy career of pitching on five days rest, the chances of sticking in a ML rotation look quite slim.

Maybe you can point to Koji Uehara and think positively about Japanese pitchers with below average FB velocity and think positively. But, suffice it to say that it is atypical for a player from any league to see a K/9 bump of about 40% after transitioning to the American League, bullpen or otherwise. I'm thinking solid 7th inning arm if he's healthy.

Yeah, Koji has that extreme release point, so that is always going to be an outlier when he is compared.

[soxhotcorner14]

This guy i'm actually really anxious to see come spring. This guy can be viewed as an additional FA pickup this year if he pans out. We've had a pretty good track record with Asian guys so far. I hope he continues that trend.

[tntoriole]

http://www.npbtracker.com/2011/10/scouting-wada/

Interesting information...thanks.

[tntoriole]

I'm not sure what kind of source scoutingbook.com is, but most of that description seems like the kind of fluff you'd see in a news article rather than an actual scouting report.

Normally, I'd slap a 30/40 on an 86-88 MPH FB. I'll give Wada the benefit of the doubt with movement/deception/command and grade up to 40. I see your source has called the change "plus," but several reports I got labeled it ML average. According to this velo chart, he seems to have only a 6-8 MPH differential between the cheese and the change. I'd have a tough time projecting it more than 50/55 in MLB. The breaking ball seems inconsistent according to reports, his third best pitch. I won't attempt to give it a grade but anecdotal reports don't suggest plus.

A guy with a 40 FB, two above-average (at best) secondaries, and plus command/pitchability might have #3/4 upside coming out of high school. But for a 31 year old with no physical projection, a slight frame, two elbow surgeries in four years, and a lengthy career of pitching on five days rest, the chances of sticking in a ML rotation look quite slim.

Maybe you can point to Koji Uehara and think positively about Japanese pitchers with below average FB velocity. But, suffice it to say that it is atypical for a player from any league to see a K/9 bump of about 40% after transitioning to the American League, bullpen or otherwise. I'm thinking solid 7th inning arm if he's healthy.

Thanks for the information...a large part of his success in Japan presumably is almost exclusively due to his ability to change speeds, locate and disguise pitches. Hopefully this will translate into either a useful bullpen contributor or a back end starter.

[sevastras]

I seem to remember the Orioles being higher on Wada too for some reason. Wada's getting paid 2/$8 and Chen's getting 3/$11, but Wada's older.

Chen was viewed by this board as a starter and Wada as a bullpen guy. You can see in this thread --------->http://forum.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php/118352-Rank-the-O-s-pitchers-by-their-ceiling?highlight=wada That most everyone on here viewed Chen as having a higher ceiling than Wada.

It is actually a fun post to go back and look at.