The New York Mets today signed Japanese right-handed pitcher Yusaku Iriki to a one-year Major League contract.
Iriki, 33, pitched for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japanese Pacific League in 2005. He went 6-7 with a 3.35 ERA in 28 games, 20 starts. Yusaku finished ninth in the Pacific League in ERA and 10th in strikeouts (122). The 5-foot-10, 180-pounder also hurled 150 2/3 innings, allowed 147 hits, 70 runs, 56 earned with 65 walks.
Yusaku is 35-35 with three save and a 3.73 ERA during his eight-year career in Japan. In 212 games with the Yomiuri Giants and Ham Fighters, he’s made 73 starts and registered nine complete games. Iriki has tossed 775 innings, allowed 718 hits, 349 runs, 321 earned runs, with 295 walks and 672 strikeouts.
To which I can only add, there’s some truly fearsome toasting going on if you leave your volume up upon visiting Iriki’s website.
Mr. Koo Part Too? He’ll make the back cover of the New York Post once — hopefully not via the same pun involved in the headline — but unless Rick Peterson can teach this guy to throw left-handed (10 minutes?), I don’t know how the signing moves things forward in a Mets pen that’s already heavy with funky/junky right-handed specialists. Other than by continuing the fine Mets tradition of bringing aboard early-30s Japanese tweener bullpen dudes, that is. Not that I have anything against Masato Yoshii, Satoru Komiyama or Takashi Kashiwada, but any Mets fan who saw those guys pitch would have a hard time having anything for them, either.
I’m just waiting for Harris Bloom to acknowledge that Iriki is not of Latino descent.
The name of the team was the Nippon Ham Fighters. Their nickname is Fighters, not “Ham Fighters.”
Thank you, Gary. I hope Marty Noble stands corrected.
I’d like to add that “Looking Through Gary Garland’s Eyes” is my favorite Adverts song.