Patrick » 03 December 2009 » In nichibei, npb » Comments Off on Chiba Lotte Imports Pitching
The Chiba Lotte Marines like what they see in Eric Stults. A source with the team quoted in Sponichi said, “he’s got good breaking pitches and can be a shutdown pitcher in Japan. By all means we want him.” Stults is currently on the Dodgers; 40-man roster, so Sponichi speculations that acquiring could take $900k-$1m, but that should be affordable with Bobby Valentine, Naoyuki Shimizu and Tasuku Hashimoto coming off the books.
Meanwhile, the additions of Bryan Corey and Bill Murphy are reportedly looking done deal-ish. The Marines are also looking at Yankees fireballer Romulo Sanchez, though the are prioritizing Stults.
No update on the old story about Lotte bringing in Greg Maddux as a spring training instructor next season.
It looks like it didn’t take long for the former shoe to drop, at least part of the way.
SoftBank’s negotiations with Justin Germano have indeed stalled, and it now appears that he won’t be back in Fukuoka for 2010. This, of course, fuels speculation that SoftBank could immediately turn to Contreras to back fill for him. In any event, the presence of Contreras certainly gives SoftBank some additional leverage.
Contreras’s son Kevin, who is hoping to take part in an exchange program and play baseball at Fukuoka’s Yanagawa high school, is behind the prospective move to Japan. The Hawks, who play their home games in Fukuoka, would certainly be the most convenient destination for Jose if exchange program works out.
Patrick » 01 December 2009 » In nichibei, npb » Comments Off on Moves & Notes, December 1, 2009
A couple of player personnel notes to pass along…
Sanspo via Yahoo! Japan is saying that the Chiba Lotte Marines have added Dodgers lefty Eric Stults to their shopping list. Based on the one game I saw Stults pitch, a dominant performance against the Giants, I thought he was a pretty good prospect. I didn’t realize he was 29.
According the same article, the Marines are nearly done with a deal for Blue Jays lefty Bill Murphy, who tried out for the team along with Bryan Corey and a couple others last month. Lotte sees Murphy as a middle reliever.
Masahide Kobayashi’s deal with Yomiuri is for one year at 50m yen ($500k) with 100m yen ($1m) in performance bonuses. Here’s a pic of him high above the Big Egg.
Termel Sledge could get an official offer from Yokohama as soon as December 2. Word has it that the offer could exceed 400m yen ($4m) over two years.
Nov 27 (JST): Sponichi publishes a blurb with information from Takashi Saito’s agent, saying that about eight teams are in on Saito. Four teams are named as suitors, all of which seem plausbile.
Nov 29 (PST): I make note of the interest in Saito in a set of bullet points about him and a couple other free agents.
So this rumor, which is entirely reasonable, has come full circle: it originated in Japan, made its way via the blogosphere into the US media, and wound up getting repeated in a different Japanese publication. This isn’t meant to be self-congratulatory, but I think it demonstrates the position of social media.
In two seasons with the Hanshin Tigers, Baldiris hit .205 with a total 4HR and 17RBI in 100 ichi-gun games. He had success at the ni-gun level, hitting .358 to lead the league in his second season.