Orix Pursuing Segi

» 31 May 2010 » In nichibei, npb »

Over the weekend, I caught a number of articles on Orix’s pursuit of 1B/DH Fernando Seguignol. The news ranged from Orix “looking into acquiring Seguignol” (Daily Sports) to “have a basic agreement and working on an official contract” (Nikkan Sports). Orix’s two import sluggers Alex Cabrera and Greg LaRocca are both injury-prone and Seguignol is in the Atlantic League, so a deal seems to make sense for both sides. I can think of an option I prefer for Orix, though.

Seguignol is perhaps the poster boy of the recent trend of “recycling” sukketo players, having previously been called in by Nippon Ham and Rakuten. After last season Rakuten replaced him with former Carp Andy Phillips, who played pretty well in Hiroshima but still had his pricey option declined in favor of Justin Huber and Jeff Fiorentino. With Phillips (and Todd Linden) struggling, Rakuten has added a new name in Randy Ruiz. And the beat goes on. Mabye all the teams have been better off if Rakuten had kept Segi, Hiroshima kept Phillips and Orix held on to Jose Fernandez or Tuffy Rhodes.

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  1. Patrick
    passerby
    01/06/2010 at 6:59 am Permalink

    I think this Carp-Rakuten-Orix transfer was triggered mainly by Brown and Nomura, who favored Huber at the beginning. And Orix being Orix.

  2. Patrick
    Patrick
    01/06/2010 at 7:57 am Permalink

    Yeah, Nomura (Kenjiro) really wanted Huber, but the Carp could have kept Phillips and played him in left instead of getting Fiorentino. Hiroshima will be one of the teams that usually goes out and gets new talent, but even they dusted off Scott McClain and John Bale.