Will it be a smooth transition for Braves’ Kawakami?

We’ll soon find out if he’s ready to face major-league hitters, but Braves pitcher Kenshin Kawakami already showed he’s ready to face Southerners.

“Hello, my name is Kenshin Kawakami — y’all can call me Kenshin,” the 33-year-old Japanese star said to a room full of amused media members Wednesday at Turner Field.

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Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com

Kenshin Kawakami smiles in his Atlanta Braves jersey during his nes conference on Tuesday.

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That rehearsed intro was the only thing he said in English, but it set a tone for a news conference that went as smoothly as the Braves hope his transition to major-league baseball will be.

He’s the first Japanese player the Braves have signed to a major-league contract, a three-year deal worth about $23 million.

“We’re very excited,” said Braves general manager Frank Wren, seated at a table between team president John Schuerholz and manager Bobby Cox. Atlanta’s Japanese Consul General, Takuji Hanatani was seated next to Schuerholz, and Japanese reporters outnumbered American counterparts at least 3 to 1.

“We think he’ll represent us extremely well, and be an outstanding pitcher for our organization,” said Wren, whose scouts in Japan followed Kawakami for the past year and determined he was Japan’s best available pitcher who could help the Braves.

The 5-foot-10 right-hander was the 2004 MVP in Japan’s Central League and compiled a 112-72 record and 3.22 earned-run average with 1,328 strikeouts in 11 seasons for the Chunichi Dragons.

He has a just-average 90-mph fastball, but his two best pitches are a cut fastball and a big, slow curveball.

Wren said language shouldn’t be a barrier and that Kawakami understands more English than he speaks. Wren told catcher Brian McCann last weekend the Braves were close to signing the pitcher.

Cox joked, “You ever hear of Rosetta Stone?” referring to a popular language-learning software.

Kawakami, who had been to Atlanta once 12 years ago, arrived from Tokyo on Sunday and had a whirlwind visit that included dinner at Morton’s restaurant downtown — where he was introduced to former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young — and lunch at the Varsity.

Asked what he ate at the Varsity, he smiled and said through a translator, “Hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and Coca-Colas.”

Agent Dan Evans said a dozen teams expressed interest in the pitcher, and Kawakami narrowed the field to five before choosing the Braves. Evans wouldn’t name the others, but it was known St. Louis and Baltimore had aggressively pursued the pitcher.

The Braves were a leader since Wren’s initial presentation to Evans at the Winter Meetings in December. The GM gave a detailed overview of Atlanta’s Japanese community and major Japanese corporations with North American headquarters in the area.

Wren and Schuuerholz twice in the past year went to the city’s Japan Consulate on fact-finding missions, asking about the support a Japanese player might expect from countrymen living in Atlanta.

“Any organization with John Schuerholz as the president is going to do things right,” said Evans, a major league executive-turned-agent who served as Dodgers general manager in 2001-04. “We knew that in Frank and John and Bobby Cox, [Kawakami] couldn’t have a better infrastructure.”

Kawakami had long dreamed of pitching here in the major leagues, but was forced to wait until becoming a free agent because his Chunichi team refused to let him go sooner for a posting fee.

“I want to play the highest level of baseball,” he said through a translator. “You only get to play professional baseball once in your life. This is the time for me.”

Kawakami was 9-5 with a 2.30 ERA and 112 strikeouts in 117 1/3 innings in 2008, when he pitched in a six-man rotation and missed a month for the Olympics and a few weeks with a back strain.

Wren said Braves doctors examined him and found no cause for concern. He also said Kawakami is capable of pitching 200 innings, in part because he has pitched in five-man rotations some years.

Also, Wren said he throws once between starts, unlike many Japanese pitchers who throw multiple times between starts.

From 2004-06, Kawakami had a 45-22 record while averaging 197 innings per season. He was 17-7 with a 3.32 ERA in 2004, when he won his league’s MVP award and the Japanese version of the Cy Young.

In 2006 he was 17-7 with a 2.51 ERA and career-highs of 194 strikeouts and 215 innings.

The two-time Olympian and three-time Gold Glove winner threw a no-hitter against the Yomiuri Giants in 2002.