Kenta Maeda

Kenta Maeda (前田 健太, Maeda Kenta, born April 11, 1988) is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. He won the 2010 Eiji Sawamura Award with a record of 15–8 and a 2.21 ERA, with 174 strikeouts in 215 and 2/3 innings, and six complete games with two shutouts. He also became the youngest pitcher in Japanese baseball history to achieve the pitching Triple Crown in the same year. He won the Sawamura Award for the second time in 2015.

He is nicknamed "Maeken" by fans and teammates (from MAEda KENta).

Professional career

Hiroshima Toyo Carp

Maeda's first professional year in baseball came in 2008 when he played for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In his rookie season of 2008, Maeda posted a 9–2 win-loss record with a 3.20 earned run average (ERA) in 19 games (18 starts).^[1] In 2009, he was 8–14 with a 3.36 ERA in 29 starts.^[1] In 2010, he performed even better with a 15–8 record, a 2.21 ERA, and 174 strikeouts in 28 starts.^[1] In 2011, his record was 10–12 while having a 2.46 ERA and 178 strikeouts in 31 starts.^[1] The 2012 season became far better for Maeda as his record was 14–7 with a 1.53 ERA in 29 starts.^[1] In 2013, his record was 15–7 with a 2.10 ERA in 26 starts.^[1] In 2014, he went 11–9 with a 2.60 ERA in 27 starts.^[1] In 2015, he went 15–8 with a 2.09 ERA in 29 starts.^[1] He won the Sawamura Award as the league's best pitcher in both 2010 and 2015^[2] and was the youngest pitcher in Japanese baseball history to achieve the pitching Triple Crown.^[3] The Carp chose to make him available to Major League Baseball (MLB) teams through the posting system in December 2015.^[3]

International competition

Maeda competed for the Japanese national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic, and said he would use the tournament to assess his desire to compete in MLB, based on how he fared against their hitters.^[4] Maeda started 2 games in the pool rounds, against China and Netherlands, amassing a 2–0 record with 0.00 ERA, 0.30 WHIP, allowing just 2 hits, 1 walk striking out 15 in 10 innings.^[5] He was the losing pitcher in the semi-finals against Puerto Rico despite only allowing one run in five innings.^[6] Maeda was selected to the all-tournament team.^[7]

Maeda also pitched five shut out innings for a Japanese all-star team in the 2014 MLB Japan All-Star Series^[8] and he pitched in the 2015 WBSC Premier12 tournament, where he allowed two earned runs while striking out 14 in 12 innings.^[9]

Los Angeles Dodgers

On January 7, 2016, Maeda signed an eight-year, $25 million, contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers that included $10 million per year in incentives.^[10] Dodgers also paid a $20 million posting fee to the Hiroshima Carp.

Pitching style

Maeda is a 6 ft 0 in (183 cm), 160 lb (73 kg) right-handed pitcher. With a three-quarters delivery Maeda throws two fastballs (four-seam, two-seam) that sit in 89–92 mph (tops out at 95 mph^[11]), an average change-up, an occasional curveball, and an above-average slider in low-80s, which is his best pitch.^[12] He also has excellent command, posting a BB/9 (walks per nine innings rate) of 1.9 in his NPB career.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• NPB stats