The Tigers have turned to the Pacific Rim to bring in another reliever candidate (yeah, here’s the nearly as confusing translated version). Fu-Te Ni is a lefty reliever from Taiwan. What we can ascertain, thanks in large part this comment and this post from East Wind Up Chronicle, that he will be starting in AAA.
Commentor Yu-Hsing Chen did all the lifting on this on, including digging up some YouTube-y goodness:
Ni is 26 and from the above video his fastball appears to top out at 87 mph. It looks like he has a breaking ball that sits in the mid 70’s. It appears that he had garnered some interest from the Mariners as well. Ni is billed as The Taiwanese Okajima.
This is the second Taiwan signing for the Tigers in the last 2 years with Chao-Ting Tang debuting in the GCL this year.
Why does Canada seem to have an entire LH lineup against him?
The linked article said that lefties have hit .326 off of him. I wonder if he’s a righty specialist, rather than a lefty specialist? Some guys have dramatic reverse splits.
appears to throw a lot like Jamie Walker does…he just talks different…built like Walker also
scouting report says he and sit around the low 90s and have touched mid 90s.
He started as more of a reliever / swingman in Taiwan, so maybe he pick up a few ticks as a reliever, he did throw a lot of innings (in CPBL terms anyway, seasons’ around 100 games) the youtube above was also held in early march last year, and CPBL seasons start later than MLB. so they were probably not in top form yet.
he’s not particularly anti lefty in his career in the CPBL. though the high BAs can sometimes be attributed to the less than steller fielding of the league in general (he’s ratios are significantly better against lefties). but from his delivery and breaking ball you figure he should be quiet effective against lety.
his two primary breaking ball is a slider and a spliter, I have a hard time really seperating the two (except when looking at the grip of course) he does seem to have pretty good command of the slider being able to vary the break on it and throw it for strike or lure pitches.
it’s only slightly higher than the average minor league contract, so the Tigers really have nothing to lose, if lucky they get a pretty solid reliever, if not it’s still a interesting step foward to see how CPBL players translate to the majors in general.
He’s signing mostly because his old team was disbanded this year, a combination of bad economic time, bad draw of CPBL in general, and a gambling fraud scandle (Ni was not implicated)
if he does throw a splitter maybe he can teach Chuck Hernandez how to throw one…oh that’s right Chuck’s gone…..
Question for everyone: Out of all the guys that missed the HOF, who would you draft 1st for your baseball team?
Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven, Lee Smith, Jack Morris, Tommy John,
Tim Raines, Mark McGwire, Alan Trammell, Dave Parker, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, ect…
I’d pick Alan Trammell. Good SS’s are hard to come by. If roids are allowed then I’d take McGwire instead.
I wouldn’t draft any of them. They’re all old 🙂
Blyleven for me, no question. Dale Murphy and Andre Dawson competing for second.
Oh, and Jim Rice to the Hall?
A stretch of thirteen out of fourteen years with an OPS+ over 125.
Ten years with over 65 walks.
Six years slugging over .500.
Feared enough to have 127 career IBB.
Fairly slick defender at admittedly low difficulty positions.
Kind of a douche.
By the way, this has been a summary of Jack Clark’s HOF credentials. Jim Rice has none of this. Veteran’s committee, it’s never too early to right wrongs.
Worse than a guy who has no chance of sniffing the Hall without an admission ticket + played in Boston = Hall Of Fame. Lots of HOFers = awesome, venerable franchise. It’s a vicious cycle.
Rickey Henderson, on the other hand, no doubt, first ballot, top-ten-all-time player.
I really can’t wait to hear Rickey’s induction speech. It will shatter the record of 3rd person references, this much I can guarantee. I also can’t wait to hear Manny Ramirez’s speech when he goes in. That is, of course, if he makes it at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Knowing that guy, he might accidentally go to Canton or something.
Good call Chris in D, Ricky’s speech is going to be a riot. I recall seeing a clip after he became the all-time leader in SB. He gets up in front of the mic and says “now I am the greatest of all-time”.
I’m certain he won’t be quite so modest this time around.