Ultimate Mets Database - Memories of Satoru Komiyama

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Satoru Komiyama
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Memories of
Satoru Komiyama

Satoru Komiyama
Ultimate Mets Database popularity ranking: 516 of 1233 players

Satoru Komiyama
Born: September 15, 1965 at Chiba, Japan
Throws: Right Bats: Right
Height: 6.02 Weight: 195

Satoru Komiyama was the most popular Ultimate Mets Database daily lookup on September 15, 2011, and October 8, 2016.

First Mets game: April 4, 2002
Last Mets game: September 11, 2002

Share your memories of Satoru Komiyama

HERE IS WHAT OTHER METS FANS HAVE TO SAY:

Ichiro51
April 6, 2002
I like the way Mets put their effort of signing Japanese players, but why don't they ever keep them? Kashiwada was let go back to Japan, Nomo was released during spring training, Yoshii and Shinjo were both traded, now this 36 years old will be lucky if he stay through one season with the Mets.

1-DaWg
June 3, 2002
Who WANTS this guy around after this season? - He STINKS! There's no way this guy's 6' 2" 195 either...he's a toothpick. Good to see he's kept the same form that made him the "Japanese Maddux" - the guy was a sub .500 pitcher in Japan, what made them think he'd be any better here?

murphy
June 3, 2002
The "Japanese Maddux." They must have meant the "Japanese Mike Maddux."

Larry Burns
June 6, 2002
This guy is awful. He cannot spot his pitches and is so easily lit up. He has 2 losses and I am sure it will grow. He makes Japanese imports like Hideki Irabu look like Cy "freaking" Young. I have the turn off the TV when he comes into games, because hope is lost. Send him packing!

STEVE B.
June 13, 2002
Went after Ichiro, got Shinjo. Went after Ishii, got Komiyama. Just typical. After seeing this guy a couple of times I don't think he'll be with us any longer than Yoshii, Nomo, etc. At least I hope not.

Shari
June 15, 2002
I was watching the Met-Yankee game tonight, and I could not believe I saw this guy out on the mound in the top of the 10th inning. I would have had a position player pitch before I put this loser in such a tight game. When is Valentine going to get it? This guy is a big fat zero. Even Burnitz could hit this guy. How many more games does he have to lose for us before he's sent down to the minors or traded?

Mr. Sparkle
June 16, 2002
I'm sorry but this guy pitches like he is in a coma. Coma-yama has been pretty awful. The home run to Ventura to loses the Yankee game that Benitez blew in the 9th was the icing on the cake. He has dome nothing to endear himself to the fans and has been no better than Toby Borland or Jonathan Hurst.

Shari
June 19, 2002
I came home around 9:30 tonight,and the first thing I did as always was turn on the Met game. I saw a replay of one of the Minnesota hitters jacking a ball over the fence, and the next camera shot was Komiyama watching the ball sail over the fence. Maybe if he studied home plate as well as balls sailing over the fences he might pitch decently. I didn't need to see anymore I shut the game before I set a record for fastest rise in blood pressure for a human being. OK Bobby V-what is it going to take for you to realize this guy is nothing big a ziltch running aroung around with Keith Hernandez's uniform number? (Which still burns me up everytime I see this guy.)

Perndude
June 21, 2002
This guy stinks. Can we please stop picking up the second/third tier Japanese league players! The worst part of it all, is we have to watch him smell up the place wearing Hernandez's number. I can't wait to see who the next scrub is to wear number 17.

murphy
July 31, 2002
Forget the Cy Young award. Komiyama gets the Cy Onara award. I will personally pay for his one-way ticket back to the Land of the Rising Sun. What Bobby Valentine ever saw in this guy I will never figure out.
Whoever the Mets Asian scout is, he should be publicly flogged.

murphy
September 3, 2002
I read in the paper today about how much Komiyama hated being in Norfolk. Well, let me give you a clue Mr. Komiyama. If you hadn't pitched like the "Japanese Elliott Maddox," perhaps you could have spent more time in New York.
The Mets hold a $1 million option on Komiyama for next year, and according to the same paper, the Mets are actually talking as if Komiyama might have a chance to come back next year. Are you kidding me? What else does he have to prove? The guy is horrendous. Bobby Valentine continues to harp on this garbage about how Komiyama is finally learning how to warm up properly in order to be a reliever. Give it up, Bobby. Properly warming up won't change the fact that this stiff can't hit 85 on the gun and his junk has limited movement.
Send him back across the Pacific as soon as humanly possible. The Mets can spend $1 million a lot smarter next year than on this trash.

murphy
October 9, 2002
The Mets came to their senses and declined the option on this bum. In a few years, Komiyama will be the answer to a trivia question: Who was the worst Japanese pitcher to wear a Mets uniform?

Mr. Sparkle
October 12, 2002
I think it will be a more universal trivia question, who was the worst Japanese pitcher ever to pitch for any major league team.

Shari
October 13, 2002
No bigger stiff than this guy. I don't know why we end of with the bottom of the barrel from the Japanese league time and time again, especially with Valentine's experience and contacts from when he managed in Japan. The one thing I do blame Bobby V for is constantly inserting him in games when he has proven to be nothing but a no talent loser (wearing Keith's number which burnt me up before he even threw one pitch). Every other team ends up with Japanese versions of Mickey Mantle and Sandy Kaufax, and we end up with the Japanese versions of Mario Mendoza and Mel Rojas. Ponderous I tell you, simply ponderous!

flushing flash
October 14, 2002
Bobby V only managed one year in the Japanese Leagues, and he obviously wasn't paying much attention to the talent around him if he thought this guy was worth signing. He made Masato Yoshii look like Cy Young by comparison.

Larry Burns
October 16, 2002
MEMORIES? How about nightmares! If there was one thing I can accept as a reason to can Bobby V is the idea that he could utilize his experience in Japan to get some quality Japanese ballplayers. The Mariners get them, the Yankees get them. We get this guy. What game was Bobby watching that he thought this guy was good----he was pathetic. He made me yearn to bring in Benitez (and if you are not sure how bad that is, read my comments about him). He was guaranteed to choke and surrender 3 to 4 runs and put any game out of reach. In fact, anytime he appeared in a game, usually within 15 minutes I wanted to replace Grant Roberts at the end of that bong to forget the horrible consequences. Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Mr. Sparkle
October 17, 2002
I know what Bobby was thinking- "When I saw thig guy pitch 8 years ago he was pretty good." What Bobby failed to realize is a lot has happened over the past 8 years and now Coma-yama should be working a rice patty instead of playing in the majors. Dwight Gooden was pretty good 8 years ago too but there's no reason to think he can still do it now. That's not to say that Coma-yama was ever in the same league as Dr. K(ocaine) but you get my point.

Gregory Gewirtz
January 25, 2003
Komiyama seemed like a guy who was better cast as a fifth starter with regular work than the seventh guy in the pen, getting irregular work. His stuff was marginal, but he looked okay in some of his long relief outings early on.
Had any of the group of Astacio, Estes, and D'Amico gotten hurt early on, Komiyama would hve finally had regular work, and he might have left a better impression on Mets fans.
It also worked against Komiyama's image, that someone called him the Japanese Greg Maddux, which was meant as commentary on his control, not his overall effectiveness.
As a side note, I was at the game the day before the trading deadline in 2002, when Komiyama gave up several runs on short order to the Astros in a 16-3 rout, or some such score. And yes, we stayed for the whole game.

Shari
January 27, 2003
This guy was just horrendous. He stunk so bad I'm surprised they didn't smell him back in Japan. Total loser with nothing to offer. I was very surprised at Bobby V with all of his knowledge of the Japanese League, that he gave this guy as many chances to blow games as he did.

ETCH 35
January 31, 2003
I don't know what was worse...His wacked out yellow woodshop glasses or his pitching. Face it Mets fans, we have no luck getting quality players from the Far East. The best we can do is get average back-up outfielders like Shinjo and halfway decent 5th starters like Yoshii (But I gotta admit, I like both of the aforementioned guys). We can get natural born American players to come here and do what they do. What's the point. So good riddance to Satan Yo-yo-ma.
By the way...I coulda sworn it was a balk every time he threw a pitch. Wasn't it? I mean his wind-up was so weird. Isn't it a balk if you stop your motion after starting it, like he always did?

Metro2003
March 26, 2003
The only game I have ever left early. This wonderful ace of a pitcher came in against the Astros in what was already a blow out. Murph kept saying that Komiyama had dominated at AAA after being sent down. He got 2 guys out and I thought, "Hey maybe this guy isn't so bad." Boy was I wrong. He got rocked. I mean balls were flying everywhere. I think he gave up a homer and a bases loaded double to Geoff Blum.

murphy
May 13, 2003
After opening day of this season, I was reading an article about the debut of Hideki Matsui with the Yankees. One of the broadcasters on the Japanese telecast was none other than Satoru Komiyama. He wasn't even good enough to make a Japanese roster this year. "Japanese Maddux"...possibly the most ridiculous phrase in the history of the New York Mets.

DavidC
July 11, 2005
To the immense surpise to the Met fans in the US, Satoru Komiyama is STILL active and pitching for a professional baseball team - Chiba Lotte Marines, whom Bobby Valentine manages. Actually he sat out in 2003, made a comeback in 2004 and is still pitching in 2005. Now, he strictly pitches in a relief situation, more like a mop-up role at varsity level. His ERA is miraculously at fours, however he almost always allows inherited runs to score.
Komiyama WAS a good pitcher say about five years ago, and has no business pitching for the Marines, let alone at any professional league on the planet, trying to fool hitters with his eephus pitch which he calls "Shake", and of course rarely get it by here. Whatever the gross infatuation he receives from Bobby V., going back to their days with the Mets, is way beyond my comprehension.

Joe Figliola
December 6, 2006
Would you believe that there is a bobblehead doll of Komiyama?
It's true. Alexander Global Promotions, who made a lot of them in the early 2000s, created one primarily for the Japanese market. I saw it on eBay a couple of years ago and if it wasn't for the high price tag (I think bids started at $49), I would have bought it.
So just when you memorabilia collectors out there thought you had a complete set of AGP Mets bobbleheads... well, think again!

community chest
March 26, 2011
When the Mets cut him, I believe it was Warner Wolf who called him "Come si chiama Komiyama," which is Italian for "What's-his-name Komiyama."

Alex
November 27, 2023
My primary memory of Komiyama is of his sports glasses, they made him pretty recognizable.
I also remember thinking that, during the era of teams signing guys like Ichiro and Kaz Sasaki, the Mets (of course!) went out and got the bargain basement option, Komiyama, who wasn't even that great in Japan (he was 117-141 there). So his underwhelming performance with New York wasn't surprising.
Gotta hand it to him, though, he was awesome at Triple-A (3-1, 1.42, 0.812 WHIP) in 2002.