Turning Japanese

That's an old 80's song. Not to mention a reference to the Mets. GM Omar Minaya holds true to his theory that if you throw a billion darts, eventually one will stick on the board. My response is one will eventually stick, but how close can you get to the bullseye? And the space between 3 points and 20 points is not much.

Anyway down to business. The Mets have signed a pitcher from Japan, Yusaku Iriki. And with our history of Asian players, I am cringing. Shinjo was servicable for a year. So was Masato Yoshii. But need I mention Kaz Matsui? Or Kaz Ishii? Or Dae-Sung Koo? Or Hideo Nomo? Or Shingo Katayama (the Japanese Greg Maddux who turned out to be more like the Japanese Mike Maddux)? Or Takashi Kashiwada?

Iriki has a fastball that tops out at 90-93 mph. His repitoire also includes a curveball, slider, changeup and shuto. A shuto is a two-seam pitch which breaks down and outside to righty batters, reminiscent of Masato Yoshii. And he can supposedly start or relieve.

So there are a lot of options for the pitching rotation this year. We'll see if Mr. Iriki fits the bill better than at least say, Koo-Koo-Ka-Joo.