What made Koji so great?

[Sin Duda]

Ten years ago today, the 2013 Red Sox won perhaps their most improbable World Series of the four this century, and none other than someone who was almost an afterthought in Spring Training was on the mound to throw the final pitch. In 2013, Koji Uehara was magical once he moved into the Closer's role May 17 ... 1.09 ERA, 21 saves, 9 walks and 9 ERs the whole season in 79 IP. His WHIP was 0.565 (not a typo).

Of Boston's four wins against the Tigers in the ALCS, he pitched 5 innings, saving three and winning another on his way to MVP.

He couldn't even break 90 mph, he wasn't what you would think of as someone coming to America to play baseball - hesitant to interact, stoic. No, Koji and his over-the-top exuberance endeared himself to his teammates and entire nation, Red Sox Nation, and we will never forget him. But how did he do it?

View: https://youtu.be/YeJoI5gAlAE?si=Z6_96mDwGIGts4CB

 

[soxhop411]

The Diamond Digest had a really good and in-depth article breaking down your exact question back in 2020

https://diamond-digest.com/2020/02/04/koji-uehara-the-2013-red-sox-a-year-of-unexpected-dominance/

However, it was not all smooth sailing for the Red Sox team. They had one apparent Achilles’ heel in the early parts of the season: the bullpen. Both Joel Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey got a shot at the closing duties, and both ultimately lost the position through a combination of poor performance and injuries. This eventually left the role of closer in the hands of Koji, who got the job at the end of June. And oh boy did he excel.

In 74.1 innings, Koji posted a 1.09 ERA, 21 saves, and struck out 101 batters. This gave him an ERA+ of 379, which is outstanding. It would be outstanding for any pitcher in any sized body of work, but both of these things work against Koji here. As mentioned, he threw 74.1 innings that year. This was the 18th highest total among all relievers in 2013. He was also 38 years old. A thirty-eight year old man prevented runs at a historic rate in an abundant work load. Such dominance at such an advanced age is unheard of. Here is a list of players to post an ERA+ of 200 or more in their age 38 season or older, sorted by most innings pitched.

its a long read but its well worth reading in its entirety

 

[opes]

It was a combination of a fastball and splitter that had about the same speed, but he had ridiculous movement on his splitter. His 2nd half of 2013 was even better than the first. The use of his splitter increased by a large margin, and basically ignored his cutter and and curve. It was all 4-seams and splitters from then.
Heres a great write-up: https://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2014/1/30/5360070/boston-red-sox-koji-uehara-2013-dominance

 

[Andy Merchant]

Nobody ever seemed to walk or get on base against the guy, and he pitched a lot of innings for a closer in his 2013 season. It was almost like there was an invisible magic hand at play that year. At the time it reminded me a lot of when Eck started closing for the A's: Not much in the way of hits or walks, plenty of strikeouts, gave up the occasional home run, and as close to a sure thing as you could get.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Nobody ever seemed to walk or get on base against the guy, and he pitched a lot of innings for a closer in his 2013 season. It was almost like there was an invisible magic hand at play that year. At the time it reminded me a lot of when Eck started closing for the A's: Not much in the way of hits or walks, plenty of strikeouts, gave up the occasional home run, and as close to a sure thing as you could get.

He was just so damn efficient, especially once he was made closer for good. For the season in 2013, he averaged 14.4 pitches per outing. To put that in context, Craig Kimbrel in 2017 (his best year in Boston) averaged 17.1 pitches per outing. Jonathan Papelbon in 2006 (best year in Boston) averaged 17.3 pitches per outing.

 

[Al Zarilla]

Koji in 2013 was a pretty good comp to Eck and without the Kirk Gibson.

 

[Niastri]

Uehara had great control with both his splitter and fastball, and great movement on his splitter.

But what made him great that season was his perfect tunneling of his pitches.

They looked exactly the same until after the batter had to commit, then the fastball stayed flat, while the splitter dove to the ground.

The batters had to swing without knowing what pitch was coming, a nearly impossible task.

This is why Koji got so many strikeouts looking... The batter would freeze because he couldn't tell what pitch was coming.

 

[Ted Cox 4 president]

Great compilation of highlights. The joy and enthusiasm were wonderful. Those high fives!

 

[tims4wins]

View: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzCwEKPuWAp/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

[kieckeredinthehead]

I always felt Koji, in addition to everything stated, was really good at being unpredictable. With two pitches, batters can just sit on one or the other. It’s really hard to be completely random, but Koji seemed like he was very good at that, and/or at knowing which pitch the batter was expecting. If anyone knows where to get raw pitch sequence data from that season I’d love to test it.

 

[StupendousMan]

One of my proudest moments on SoSH was starting this thread on Aug 10, 2013.

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

They look like they literally “break”. They look fast coming out of his hand and appear to just completely slow down about 6 feet away from the plate

 

[Max Power]

If Statcast were around back then, Koji would probably have a crazy high spin rate on his fastball. He was like Paul Sewald this year, where he threw a fastball that had below average velocity, but batters always swung through it.

 

[Green Monster]

Look no further than 9 BB's over 79 IP.......The guy threw strikes and rarely got himself into trouble

 

[bohous]

I realize this adds nothing to the conversation, but Koji is the highlight of my 2 favorite Sox gifs. That whole 2013 team was so much fun and obviously he was a huge part of that.

 

[Sin Duda]

I realize this adds nothing to the conversation, but Koji is the highlight of my 2 favorite Sox gifs. That whole 2013 team was so much fun and obviously he was a huge part of that.

View attachment 73197

View attachment 73198

The top one is one of my all-time favs too. If it rolled another couple seconds, you'd see Victorino's expression go from "what the f?" to "oh, it's Koji".

 

[bob burda]

If Statcast were around back then, Koji would probably have a crazy high spin rate on his fastball. He was like Paul Sewald this year, where he threw a fastball that had below average velocity, but batters always swung through it.

I’d read something like this somewhere, that he did have unusual spin rates and it caused his fastball to jump or have “late life” as it got to the plate. He got many swings and misses on it. I don’t think you could chalk it up just to the batter not expecting it or being “caught in between” the fastball and splitter.

There also may be something particularly tough about a high spin fastball in combination with what I assume is a low spin rate splitter/forkball?

Without doubt I never saw any pitcher pitch up in the zone with an 88-90 mph heater and produce swings and misses along with weak contact the way Koji did. Even in 2013 that was nothing level velocity (and it was probably nothing level velocity for the whole 50 years I’ve been watching baseball),

 

[mikeford]

I will never forget his love of cat face ASCII art in his post season blog. What a lovely man.

 

[Reverse Curve]

For me (stats aside), Koji's greatness stems from his unabashed joy of playing baseball. One of my all time favorites to don the colors...!

 

[mwonow]

For me (stats aside), Koji's greatness stems from his unabashed joy of playing baseball. One of my all time favorites to don the colors...!

Agreed - he had a "Kojiness" that was kind of like Ortiz's "Papiness" - infectious joy that just drew you (me, anyway) in.

 

[Saints Rest]

I always felt Koji, in addition to everything stated, was really good at being unpredictable. With two pitches, batters can just sit on one or the other. It’s really hard to be completely random, but Koji seemed like he was very good at that, and/or at knowing which pitch the batter was expecting. If anyone knows where to get raw pitch sequence data from that season I’d love to test it.

I seem to recall reading somewhere back then about the fact that Koji actually had three variations on his splitter, driven by the way he put pressure on one finger or the other or both. This allowed him to throw one pitch that could break left and down, right and down, or straight down. So in effect, he had four pitches adding to his ability to mix things up. And he threw all of them for strikes.

The net result was an efficiency as a closer unlike anyone, on any team, I can ever remember seeing. My favorite thing to do in following that team (and Koji in particular) from afar was to check the box score for total pitches thrown and total number of strikes. It wasn't just that he rarely walked anyone; he rarely threw balls at all. I also loved to see the times when he would get three outs with less than 10 pitches. Just a joy.

I will add to the chorus of looking back on Koji with a high level of fondness, putting him in my top 5 players over the last 20 years.

 

[moretsyndrome]

I made it to exactly two games that year and got to witness two of his three blown saves, both by crushed homers. In true 2013 fashion, they came back to win them both anyway, so no love diminished for Koji. The second game - vs Toronto and won on an error in the 9th - was when I started to feel that the team was onto something, somehow.

 

[Tokyo Sox]

This kid is a senior at IMG in Florida now, LHP & OF I think:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhdCVe8XFIQ

 

[Smiling Joe Hesketh]

Yes, and I read an interview with Kaz a while ago about his experiences at IMG and how he liked it. It was funny, he calls his dad "Pops."

 

[bohous]

The top one is one of my all-time favs too. If it rolled another couple seconds, you'd see Victorino's expression go from "what the f?" to "oh, it's Koji".

I tried posting a longer one for that reason but file too big and got tired trying to resize it.

 

[Sin Duda]

I tried posting a longer one for that reason but file too big and got tired trying to resize it.

Check out 0:57 to 1:07 of my originally posted video.

 

[chrisfont9]

Our dog Koji, born October 1, 2013.

Naming dogs after people is not always a great idea, but we all were so taken by his infectious spirit that we couldn't resist.

 

[curly2]

The Rangers are trying to win their first World Series because they failed in 2011 because they were a pitcher short in their bullpen in this game. It's incredible to think that Koji was on the team but left off the World Series roster because he had struggled in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

He was just unbelievable in 2013 and a joy to watch.

Koji in 2013 was a pretty good comp to Eck and without the Kirk Gibson.

Actually, his Kirk Gibson was the immortal Jose Lobaton, who hit a walkoff in Game 3 for the Rays in Game 3 of the ALDS off a pretty good splitter. It's proof that everyone who makes it to the majors--even a guy with a career .607 OPS--can play.

Koji being Koji, he went back to being lights-out the next game and the Sox won it all.

 

[jasail]

I don't have much to add here, but that 2013 team could be my all-time favorite Sox team (all due respect to '04). The group had a lot of fun playing the game and it was infectious. It seemed to lead to wins (and a lot of them) and ignited a fan base that was pretty miserable after the debacle that was 2012 and raw after the Marathon Bombing. Just absolute lightning in a bottle. Koji was a huge part of that. Guy came out of nowhere to be a strikeout machine and an absolute workhorse. The team was greater than the sum of its parts but Koji was indispensible.

 

[jacklamabe65]

In retrospect, Koji-san is one of my top-five favorite Sox players of all time. He was like the hottest of goaltenders in a Stanley Cup Playoff with the energy and vigor of a teenager. We were blessed to witness his greatness that year.

 

[Sin Duda]

I bought into the whole "fear the beard" silliness and just recently saw that Johnny Gomes had started growing his playoff beard in Spring Training!

 

[Sandy Leon Trotsky]

Around 2009 my interest in baseball starting to wane- mostly due to getting married, buying a fixer-upper house, starting a business. I just started more often checking into box scores and only caught a few games each season.... but something about halfway into that 2013 season I was just making time again to make sure I could at least listen to almost every single game while I was working on something again. Boy Ben Cheringon seemed so magical that year even

 

[Al Zarilla]

The Rangers are trying to win their first World Series because they failed in 2011 because they were a pitcher short in their bullpen in this game. It's incredible to think that Koji was on the team but left off the World Series roster because he had struggled in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

He was just unbelievable in 2013 and a joy to watch.


Actually, his Kirk Gibson was the immortal Jose Lobaton, who hit a walkoff in Game 3 for the Rays in Game 3 of the ALDS off a pretty good splitter. It's proof that everyone who makes it to the majors--even a guy with a career .607 OPS--can play.

Koji being Koji, he went back to being lights-out the next game and the Sox won it all.

I watched that Lobaton walkoff game. Kind of proved Koji was/is human, and just a speed- bump in the road on the way to the title.

 

[Red(s)HawksFan]

Around 2009 my interest in baseball starting to wane- mostly due to getting married, buying a fixer-upper house, starting a business. I just started more often checking into box scores and only caught a few games each season.... but something about halfway into that 2013 season I was just making time again to make sure I could at least listen to almost every single game while I was working on something again. Boy Ben Cheringon seemed so magical that year even

Did Cherington even make a wrong move at all that year? His list of notable acquisitions for that season, in order:

(re-signed free agent David Ortiz)
signed David Ross
signed Jonny Gomes
signed Shane Victorino
signed Koji Uehara
signed Ryan Dempster
signed Stephen Drew
traded for Joel Hanrahan and Brock Holt
signed Mike Napoli
traded for Mike Carp
traded for Matt Thornton
traded for Jake Peavy

Probably the closest thing to a bad move was the trade for Hanrahan, but since it also yielded Brock Holt it turned out to be a pretty good move overall. Oh, and speaking of good moves overall that didn't necessarily help 2013, that summer he signed a 16 year old named Rafael Devers.

 

[Granite Sox]

Koji is still a fun follow on X/Twitter

 

[Bunt4aTriple]

Around 2009 my interest in baseball starting to wane- mostly due to getting married, buying a fixer-upper house, starting a business. I just started more often checking into box scores and only caught a few games each season.... but something about halfway into that 2013 season I was just making time again to make sure I could at least listen to almost every single game while I was working on something again. Boy Ben Cheringon seemed so magical that year even

For me, it was 2 things: Ortiz's speech and the fact that it felt like they won every series. Out of 51, they only lost 16 series. They lost 3 straight series (@KC and Toronto, home vs NYY) in August, but that was their only swoon. It always felt like they were in control.

 

[Mighty Joe Young]

Koji was amazing. I’ve never seen such an effective pitcher with what appeared to be complete “dead fish “ for a fastball.

Didn’t he have a “perfect game” embedded in there somewhere - a streak of at least 27 up/27down?

 

[TomBrunansky23]

Koji is still a fun follow on X/Twitter

100%...and it's all in Japanese. Don't care. I'd follow Koji no matter what.

 

[Big Papa Smurph]

Koji was amazing. I’ve never seen such an effective pitcher with what appeared to be complete “dead fish “ for a fastball.

Didn’t he have a “perfect game” embedded in there somewhere - a streak of at least 27 up/27down?

From the 2013 season - Aug 21 to Sep 13

11 games
12 innings pitched (36 batters faced)
0 hits
0 walks
17 strikeouts

 

[Reardon's Beard]

The splitter was unhittable.

Agree with above. Probably a top 5 favorite player of all time for me. Love them closers.

 

[Benj4ever]

Koji is my favorite Sox closer by far. Absolutely loved that splitter.

 

[Over Guapo Grande]

The splitter was unhittable.

Agree with above. Probably a top 5 favorite player of all time for me. Love them closers.

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