East Wings

How well has Japanese pitching traveled? Three of the six
Japanese-born pitchers who have made at least 50 appearances on
both sides of the Pacific, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Hideo Nomo
(left) and Kazuhiro Sasaki (below), have been successful in
North America. Three others, Hideki Irabu, Masao Kida (now back
in Japan) and Masato Yoshii, have been disappointments. Here are
their numbers through Sunday on both continents, with the
pitchers ranked by ERA in the U.S.

--David Sabino

JAPANESE LEAGUES CAREER STRIKEOUTS
PER 9
APPEARANCES W-L, SAVES ERA INNINGS

Kazuhiro Sasaki 405 42-33, 229 2.31 12.44
Hideo Nomo 139 78-46, 1 3.15 10.31
Shigetoshi Hasegawa 142 57-45, 4 3.33 5.13
Masato Yoshii 310 73-51, 61 3.43 5.58
Hideki Irabu 243 59-59, 11 3.41 9.08
Masao Kida 299* 54-64, 29 3.81 7.57

U.S. CAREER STRIKEOUTS
PER 9
APPEARANCES W-L, SAVES ERA INNINGS

[Kazuhiro Sasaki] 70 2-6, 43 3.42 11.06
[Hideo Nomo] 186 71-61, 0 3.92 9.46
[Shigetoshi Hasegawa] 246 26-23, 16 3.93 6.10
[Masato Yoshii] 89 24-31, 0 4.72 5.44
[Hideki Irabu] 85 31-25, 0 5.10 7.13
[Masao Kida] 51 1-0, 1 6.42 6.68

*Before reaching U.S.

COLOR PHOTO: DAMIAN STROHMEYER

COLOR PHOTO: TOM DIPACE