Posted by Michael Street on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 12:37 am

In honor of Thanksgiving, we’ll look this week at the biggest Asian flops in MLB. This may seem perverse in the season of giving thanks—but just be thankful for the stars we have had. If every Asian import had turned out like these guys, Hideo Nomo might have been the first and last of the Asian Invasion in baseball.

I’m not looking at guys who merely underproduced, but who so spectacularly failed to achieve expectations, their signings have to be seen as flops. Some of these guys were briefly good, and many others fared worse. But the threshold for Irabu, for example, was so much higher than Yasu Yabuta that the latter isn’t as much of a flop, since Yabuta’s expectations (and salary) were far lower.

1. Kei Igawa. When the Red Sox won the Dice-K prize in 2007, Yankees fans consoled themselves that they’d won second prize, the lefty Kei Igawa. Igawa had made an early splash in NPB, often among the league leaders in strikeouts and winning the Sawamura Award (NPB’s Cy Young) in 2003, along with league MVP.

Between 2001-2006, Igawa averaged 180+ Ks, 29 wins and only twice had an ERA over 3.00. Those two years were 2004-5, when he started to slip a bit in terms of production, but he still averaged 10.2 K/9 in 2004 and 7.6 K/9 in 2005. The Tigers made it to the Japan Series twice while he was with them—amazing for a franchise a bit like the Cubs, having won only one title since 1947—though neither the Tigers nor Igawa fared well in those contexts.

New York bid $26M for the right to negotiate with Igawa, then followed that up with a 3-year, $20M deal. Igawa’s expectations were lower than Daisuke Matsuzaka, but most commentators at the time considered him ahead of Akinori Iwamura, the other big signing of that offseason. He wasn’t projected as a top-of-the-rotation guy, but seemed like he’d make a good fit as an excellent mid- to back-rotation guy, if not a good long man, all with the possibility that he might regain his once-dominant form.

Igawa failed to live up to even those modest expectations. In his first start against the Baltimore Orioles on April 7, he gave up 7 ER in 5 IP, but settled down over his next two starts, holding Oakland and Cleveland to a .195 BA and a 3.19 ERA.

Then he blew up again, failing to get out of the fifth against Tampa Bay after coughing up 7 ER again. He rallied to a 6.0 IP, 2 H blanking of the Boston Red Sox that would be the pinnacle of his MLB career; after his next 4.0 IP, 8 ER shelling against the Mariners, earning him a demotion.

After a handful of good startes for Wilkes-Barres, he was again promoted and again failed to produce. In six starts, he only saw the sixth inning once, and never gave up fewer than two runs; he surrendered 7 HRs in that time, 21 ER and registered a 5.97 ERA and 1.77 WHIP.

But he continued to pitch well enough at AAA to earn one more late-season callup, once again put up a clean slate, this time against Tampa Bay in 5 IP on Sept. 22. The Yanks had seen enough—and invested enough—to give Igawa another crack at the bigs in 2008. But a 6-ER, 3 IP outing against the Tigers on May 9 was the only other look he had.

He would only pitch two more major-league innings, this time in relief. Though he’s done well in AAA, with a 29-18 record and 3.98 ERA in two seasons, averaging 7.1 K/9 and 2.93 K/BB. The problem at every level has been his home run numbers—he averages 1.1 HR/9 in AAA and 1.9 HR/9 in the bigs.

$46M for those kind of numbers makes him the Butterball of Asian MLB turkeys, and the kind of disappointment that’s sure to hurt other NPB hurlers hoping to make the switch to the bigs.

2. Hideki Irabu. You’d think the Yanks would have learned their lesson with the “fat toad” they signed in the late nineties, certainly the biggest MLB signing of an Asian pitcher since Hideo Nomo.

Irabu had been one of NPB’s best pitchers with the Chiba Lotte Marines, where he tied the NPB record with a 98 MPH fastball. Initially a reliever, he gradually worked his way into the rotation before breaking out in 1993. Between 1993-1996, he would average well over a strikeout per inning and record ERAs near or below 3.00.

He soon became such a valuable chip that the perennially poor Marines traded him to the Padres through a “working agreement” they had at the time. Irabu then ignited a well-known media kerfuffle by refusing to play for anyone but the Yankees. This led to a swap that brought him to New York, where he signed a $12.8M, four-year deal.

Irabu would never complete that contract. After struggling to a 5-4. 7.09 ERA, 1.67 WHIP in 1997, Irabu managed to improve to a 13-9 record with a 4.06 ERA and 1.30 WHIP in 1998. He became the first Asian-born player to win a World Series ring when the Yanks took the crown that year, despite not appearing in a postseason game. This was probably due to the perception that he was playing with fire on the mound, striking out just 6.6 per 9 IP while walking 4 and coughing up 1.4 HR/9.

1999 saw him give back some of his gains, as his record slipped back to 11-7, with a 4.84 ERA, though he improved his control to 7.1 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. He again received a World Series ring, this time with one appearance, when he took the hill during the 13-1 blowout in Game 3; he was responsible for 8 of those runs.

This mediocre performance record and conflicts with Steinbrenner led to Irabu poisoning yet another MLB team when the Montreal Expos traded Jake Westbrook, Ted Lilly and Christian Parker (their top three pitching prospects) for Irabu. He only pitched in 14 games for the Expos, ending with a 2-7 record and a 6.69 ERA and 1.63 WHIP, before they released him in 2001.

He pitched for the Rangers as their closer in 2002, somehow closing out 16 while putting up a 5.74 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, and miserable 2.1 HR/9. Irabu would make $15.5M in MLB for a 34-35 record, 16 Saves, 5.15 ERA and 1.41 WHIP. Only the fact that he made any kind of contribution to the Yanks kept him out of the spot for Top Turkey.

3. Hee-seop Choi. One of the early forays into the Korean market, Choi might have set back the cause of position players from Korea ten years. Amazingly impressive as a young player, Choi never stuck as the slugging 1B everyone predicted he would be, despite several changes of venue.

Signed as a 19-year-old, Choi tore up the minors, hitting .321/.422/.610 his first year as a 20-year-old in single-A ball, then followed that up by hitting .298/.383/.557 at two levels in 2000, with 25 HRs and 95 RBI.

But he started to slip at the plate, with a .53 BB/K ratio that year, something that continued to slow him down in 2001, as he struggled with a hand injury; he hit just .229/.313/.417 at AAA in 2002, when his BB/K fell to .51.

He rebounded in 2002, becoming the Cubs’ Minor League Player of the Year after a .287/.406/.513 season, cranking 26 longballs, 24 2Bs and 97 RBI. Even better, his BB/K shot up to .80—this kind of improvement earned him a late-season callup, but he only managed to hit .180/281/.320 in 50 ABs.

But the Cubs gave him a chance to deliver in 2003, and he started out strong before a collision with Kerry Wood knocked him out of action. At the time, he was hitting .244/.389/.496, with 7 HRs and 13 2Bs, and 22 RBI, though his BB/K was .61. After a short rehab stint, he returned and hit .164/.263//269, with 1 HR, 4 2B and a miserable BB/K of .35.

Chicago didn’t want to wait for a rebound and swapped him (with Mike Nannini) to the Marlins for Derrek Lee. Once again, he started strong and hit .278/.388/.495 with 15 HRs, 16 2Bs and 40 RBI, and his BB/K was .67. Despite this, he was part of the deadline-deal package that brought Brad Penny to the Dodgers and Paul LoDuca and Juan Encarnacion to the Marlins.

Choi chafed with the Dodgers and Jim Tracy, who rotated him with Olmedo Saenz, Jeff Kent and Jason Phillips. He hit .253/.336/.453, with 15 HRs, 15 2Bs and 42 RBI, but struggled with a .43 BB/K.

Though that was a decent year, the Dodgers waived him to make room for James Loney, and Choi would never again return to the majors. Boston signed him and he hit .207/.341/.361 with Pawtucket, which wasn’t strong enough to keep him around, so they cut him, too.

Depending on who you ask, Choi either flopped because he wasn’t actually very good, or because all of the change of scenery never gave him a chance to stick. Sometimes when a player consistently encounters problems getting playing time, you wonder if there was an attitude problem involved.

Nobody spent all that much money on Choi—he didn’t make much more than $2M overall, but the way he performed has set back the cause of Korean position players significantly. There still are several coming up through the minors, with slugging Kyeon Kang of the Rays probably the most advanced, but teams have lowered their expectations, thanks to Choi.

Well, that’s the top turkeys for this Thanksgiving week. Enjoy yours!