No more Nomo

As Bugs & Cranks has already blogged about, the Royals have released Hideo Nomo.

Some of you probably didn’t realize he was still in the major leagues, and I don’t blame you. Nomo pitched in only three games for the Royals, giving up 9 runs in 4 1/3 innings. Before that, he hadn’t pitched in the majors, when he had a horrible 2005 in Tampa Bay.

Nomo was at his best in the mid-to-late 90s, and was of course the first Japanese pitcher in the modern era to pitch in the majors and do well. I remember going to Dodger games in ‘95 and ‘96, at the height of Nomo-mania. The fans went crazy when he pitched, and he was an amazing player to watch because of his stuff and his crazy windup to home plate.

Nomo was very mediocre for the next several years, until he came back to LA and was all of a sudden good again. That didn’t last for long though. Check out this four-season span (stats from Baseball-Reference):

2002: 3.39 ERA, 16-6, 193 K in 220 IP
2003: 3.09 ERA, 16-13, 177 K in 218.3 IP
2004: 8.25 ERA, 4-11, 54 K in 84 IP
2005: 7.24 ERA, 5-8, 59 K in 100.3 IP

Nomo’s career is likely over now, which is unfortunate, because it was great to see him pitch when he was at his best.