Tag Archives: Naoyuki Uwasawa

NPB news: March 30, 2025

Our first weekend’s worth of games wrapped up Sunday, when the Nippon Ham Fighters, Lotte Marines and Yomiuri Giants each completed series sweeps. Naoyuki Uwasawa made his Hawks debut only for his nemesis, Neftali Soto, to turn the game Lotte’s way, with Lotte’s go-ahead run scoring on a fluke play. But first, a word from our sponsor.

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Sunday’s games

Fighters 7, Lions 5: At the roofed stadium formerly known as Prince, one long streak ended and another kept rolling.

Nippon Ham opened the season with three straight wins, something no team in the franchise had accomplished since 1962, when the Toei Flyers went on to win the franchise’s first Japan Series. Yuki James Nomura was a wrecking ball, doubling in a first-inning run, hitting a three-run third-inning homer and a two-run shot in the fifth.

Franmil Reyes went 3-for-3 with two doubles, a walk, three runs and an eighth-inning leadoff single that led to the Fighters’ final run after he was pulled for a pinch-runner.

New Lion Tyler Nevin tied the game 1-1 in the first with a sac fly to deep right that Chusei Manami nearly made interesting with a picture-perfect throw to the plate. Shuta Tonosaki homered in the fourth for Seibu, whose starter, Kona Takahashi, suffered his 12th straight losing decision. Leandro Cedeno, who joined Seibu over the winter from Orix, went 2-for-4 with a two-run eighth-inning double.

The Fighters’ Drew VerHagen allowed two runs over five innings to earn the win.

Continue reading NPB news: March 30, 2025

Fairness to Uwasawa

In a story I wrote about Yoshinobu Yamamoto and his three compatriots attempting to land pitching gigs in MLB this winter, I fear I may have done a disservice to Naoyuki Uwasawa.

In Nashville this month, I had the unexpected pleasure of a visit from agent Mike Seal, who is representing Uwasawa in his contract talks. Seal, who I know as a straight shooter who is well thought of by MLB executives, had been disappointed to read a quote I got from an MLB scout based in Asia, who thought that Uwasawa so desired to play in MLB that he would even a sign a split minor-major contract.

“He’ll get a competitive major league contract,” Seal said. “There’s no way he’s signing just to sign.”

On Sunday, the scout responded by saying that the pitcher had mentioned a split contract himself.

Sometimes players need to listen to their agents, unless of course the agent is Scott Boras and what he’s advising you to do has more to do with his agenda than the player’s.

As Seal knows well, having represented Ryosuke Kikuchi, there have been position players who for one reason or another have turned around and gone back to Japan rather than take what the market offered them. I hoped to convey that even though Uwasawa is not at the absolute top of teams’ wish lists, he would be able to find work.

Seal said Uwasawa had a good fastball. In 2022, batters swung and missed at it 19 percent of the time, the best among starting pitchers in a league with Roki Sasaki and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who got whiffs 18 percent of the time. Of course, that isn’t the whole story on his fastball, or Uwasawa, but he does have good command, and pitchers who can locate their fastball and throw a few good secondary pitches, can get a ton of strikeouts in MLB these days against batters who are trying to put every pitch in the seats.

My take is that while his pitches are above average in Japan and close to MLB average, he does have a ton of them, giving him lots to work with as he adjusts to what works and doesn’t. The desperation for starting pitching in MLB is probably going to drive teams to him, and according to Seal, Uwasawa is a gregarious hard worker who speaks English well and is eager to learn, which will be key, because players shifting from one brand of baseball to another often have to make lots of adjustments before competing and once it starts.

I wish him the best.

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