Hideki Okajima, no. 37

Birth Date: December 25, 1975 in Kyoto, Japan

Height/Weight: 6'1", 195 lbs.

Contract: 2 years at $2.5 million (through 2008)

Okajima played in 66 games last season; during which he pitched 69 innings. He faced 272 batters and Struck Out 63 of them (23%). 50 of those batters got hits off him, 6 of which were home runs. He walked 17 batters and hit one with a pitch. He allowed 17 runs, all of them earned. All of which resulted in a very impressive Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched of only .971.

In Japan he played ten seasons for the Yomiuri Giants and one season with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters (tee hee). He was mostly a set up man in Japan, though he did occasionally work as a starter. He has a fast ball that sits in the mid to high eighties, he has a splitter in the low eighties, and a curve ball in the low to mid seventies. His best pitch is his changeup, which sits in the low eighties.

Francona has described Okajima as quiet and cautious. In Japan he was known for being serious. He seems very polite, very respectful, very Japanese. He seems very sweet; when he first arrived at spring training last season, he admitted to liking romantic movies citing Ghost, Pretty Woman, and Autumn in New York as his favorites (possibly those were the last ones that he'd seen or the first that occurred to him.)

I think that next season probably won't be as successful for Okajima. Part of the allure of Japanese pitchers is that the first year they're here they can be hard for American batters to figure out; during their second season, however, that element of surprise (if you like) is gone and they become much more hittable. He seems intelligent, though, so maybe he can beat the pattern.