Today: TEX Prospect Kazuo Fukumori
Kazuo Fukumori is a Japanese-born professional baseball player who was signed as a free agent by the Texas Rangers during the 2008 pre-season. A right-handed relief specialist, Fukumori spent parts of many seasons acting as the closer for Yokahama and Tohoku, though his up-and-down success prevented him from locking down the job for any length of time.
Fukumori lacks a dominanting fastball, but he locates his 88-90mph fastball well, and pairs it with a high-quality sinker that can be a strikeout pitch. A loopy curve-ball provides a third look, but it's not a pitch Fukumori uses often.
Despite his ninth-inning experience, Fukumori will likely be used as a setup man, and that's probably ideal. The deceptiveness and novelty of Fukumori's stuff and delivery will be enough to confound hitters a couple of times, but the Rangers won't want anyone getting a long enough look to learn his ins and outs.
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