Foreign Player Signing Summary
I haven’t done a great job of staying up to date with NPB transactions this offseason. To catch up on things, here’s my tally of who’s signed so far this autumn:
- Bryan Bullington signed with Hiroshima
- Chad Tracy signed with Hiroshima
- Dennis Sarfate signed with Hiroshima
- Jonathan Albaladejo signed with Yomiuri
- Carlos Torres signed with Yomiuri.
- Micah Hoffpauir signed with Nippon Ham
- Marcos Vechionacci is about to sign as an ikusei player with Hanshin.
- Robert Zarate signed as an ikusei player with Hanshin
- Wladimir Balentien signed with Yakult
In addition, Hiroshima added Scott McClain as a US-based scout.
This year, I published my list of picks for Japan-bound players over at FanGraphs. So far I’ve gotten two correct, Bullington and Torres. I took a long look at Sarfate and Albaladejo, but I left Sarfate off because of his walk rate, and Albaladejo off because I thought he’d get a job in the Majors. I also asked FanGraphs’ readers to suggest players who could go over, and so far that list has produced one correct prediction, Hoffpauir.
29/11/2010 at 6:30 pm Permalink
Seems like Hiroshima has added some real quality here.
29/11/2010 at 7:41 pm Permalink
Hmm…strange contract.
http://www.nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/40421748/ns/sports-player_news/
“He would be allowed to return to the Carp if he doesn’t make the major league roster next spring.”
29/11/2010 at 9:25 pm Permalink
Kyle — Hiroshima also kept Schultz, Gio Alvarado and Dioni Soriano, so they’ll have some depth among their suketto ranks.
passerby — That is a weird one. Perhaps he has an opt-out from Colorado that allows him to go back to Japan if he has an offer. Hiroshima wasn’t exactly beating down the door to keep him.
30/11/2010 at 6:26 am Permalink
Yeah, Chad Tracy is about the biggest name I can remember going over, at least in recent memory. On a side note, one guy I thought was headed home for sure was Darrell Rasner. He is just so terrible, and his demeanor so poor, I’m astonished. I know he did OK at the end of last season, but their had to be better options? Any word on his salary for 2011? I hope its not the $1,000,000 he got last year!