NPB Bullet Points: Foreign Players
A few notes on NPB’s sukketo-tachi, all in Japanese.
- Retired Cuban slugger Omar Linares, who spent the last few years of his career in Japan with Chunichi, is returning to Japan as a coach for Cuba’s entry in this year’s World University Baseball Championship.
- Hanshin is saying they’re going to keep both Craig Brazell (30 HR) and Matt Murton (.351 AVG) for 2011. Brazell will be a free agent and figures to get a hefty raise from the $800k he’s earning, while Murton, according to the linked article, has a second year on his contract which is structured as a buyout. I’ve seen this referred to in other articles as an option, which I guess is functionally similar. Either way, the team gets to choose whether to keep him in 2011, though a buyout suggests there is a payment attached if they don’t. That would seem to make it even more of a no-brainer.
- Speaking of Murton, he and Kenji Johjima visited the Osaka University Children’s Hospital on their off-day Monday.
- Brett Harper is off to a torrid start in Japan — 10 for his first 21 with 3 HR. Here’s a pic of him connecting off Kenta Maeda on the 13th.
- Orix has placed new signee Francisco Caraballo on it’s regular roster, and passed on signing Hyang-Nam Choi.
13/07/2010 at 9:30 am Permalink
Caraballo’s do-age.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0taz9msb0A
19/07/2010 at 9:51 pm Permalink
Weird, Murton’s deal sounds like a simple team option, but the original article uses “buy out style” for some reason. Buy out would indicate that he’ll need a new contract for next season, but that’s not the case here.
19/07/2010 at 10:16 pm Permalink
Yeah, but the article also says that the second year is the Tigers’ decision. To me it sounds like they’ll have the option to buy him out of the second year.
19/07/2010 at 10:38 pm Permalink
Yeah, I guess it’s a team option with a buyout clause.