NPB Tracker

The posting period for Yokohama DeNA BayStars reliever Hiroki Sanada has quietly come and gone, with no MLB teams submitting a bid. This wasn’t exactly a surprise, for reasons explained earlier. Sanada is the third NPB player posted to fail to draw a bid following Akinori Otsuka in 2002 and Koji Mitsui (twice) in 2009.

Last year, Seibu Lions lefty Koji Mitsui became a historical footnote when he failed to draw a bid in two consecutive posting attempts in the same offseason. After putting up a 6.23 era in 19 appearances this season, Seibu has released the veteran, and Hochi Sports is suggesting that it’s likely that he’ll try again to catch on with an MLB club. Mitsui might have a better chance at getting a contract without the hurdle of the posting process, but he’s still looking at an uphill battle. Mitsui’s velocity on his fastball didn’t climb much higher than 85 mph this season and was in the low 80’s as of his last appearance.

Other notable players Seibu won’t be bringing back next season include John Wasdin, Hiram Bocachica, and Shinya Okamoto, who was a solid middle reliever for Chunichi for quite a while.

Over the next couple weeks, I’ll be taking a look at player personnel moves made by each NPB this offseason. This series will not cover draftees or impact rookies, only additions and losses of experienced players. The focus will be on foreign players, but notable Japanese players will be included as well.

Coming: John Wasdin, Takayuki Shimizu

Going: Craig Brazell, Matt Kinney

Staying: Hiram Bocachica, Alex Graman, Koji Mitsui

Trending: neutral

Synopsis: very little change for the defending Japan Champions. It was a little bit of a surprise to see Brazell go after hitting 27 homers, but he did have a weak OBP. Shimizu arrives from Yomiuri for cash and should provide some bench/DH depth.

Update, Jan 16: Mitsui will remain with Seibu for 2009 and take another crack at a move to MLB next offseason.

Seibu’s second attempt to post Koji Mitsui this offseason has ended just like the first one did. This is the first time we’ve seen the same player posted twice in the same offseason; not sure why they expected it to go differently the second time. Akinori Otsuka was acquired by the Padres on his second posting attempt, but that was a full season after his first unsuccessful attempt. Otsuka is also one of the best relievers in NPB history, while Mitsui has been marginal.

Seibu team management is going to talk with Mitsui in the next couple of days and decide what direction to take in with him. I guess the two options would be for Seibu to release him outright and let him pursue an MLB contract, or let him rebuild value this season and try again next year.

Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.

American writer Rita Mae Brown, 1983

Sponichi is reporting that Seibu is going to take another shot at posting 35 year-old lefy Koji Mitsui. Mitsui, as you’ll recall, was posted in December but failed to attract any bids from MLB teams. Said Mitsui: “I was heartbroken (not to get any bids), but I again felt like I want to play in America, so I made the request”. Team president Shinji Kobayashi added “we want to do something to help him fulfill his hope.”

I don’t think anything has changed since Mitsui’s first posting period ended less than two weeks ago. He’d probably generate more interest if he went out to Arizona for a throwing session, and then started the bidding. This second posting seems rushed to me.

The posting term for Koji Mitsui has come and gone without a single bidder for his services. I’m not too surprised by this; Mitsui is 35, coming off a bad year, and wanted a major league contract. Might as well sign Mark Hendrickson, who wouldn’t cost a posting fee. 

If Seibu wants to accomodate Mitsui at this point, they might choose to release Mitsui to allow him to pursue and MLB deal. He might have a better shot after some of the more proven guys sign. Nippon Ham was in a similiar situation with Yusaku Iriki a few years ago. The Fighters released Iriki after he failed to draw any bids during the posting process. Iriki went on to sign with the Mets, get busted for PED usage in the minor leagues, and eventually make his way back to Japan for one season before retiring.

Something for teams interested Koji Mitsui to keep in mind — the lefty is saying that he’s willing to skip his foray to America if all he gets is a minor league deal.  Said Mitsui: “There’s some question as whether it’ll be a major league contract or not. Will I not sign (if it’s a minor league contract)? That is a possibility.”

The same article says that Mitsui dropped 7kg (15 lbs.) by fasting and going on a “banana diet”. Hmm…

Time to revive this series… Japanese articles only today

• Waseda University pitcher Yuki Saito,  thought be the first top Japanese amateur player to jump straight to MLB before Junichi Tazawa beat him to the punch, says that he wants to go to the majors by age 30. 
• Bidding has opened on Koji Mitsui, and wraps up on December 23rd. Mitsui’s agent says there are multiple teams interested, but there’s no indication of who that might be. 
• Ken Kadokura, released by Yomiuri early in the month, is drawing interest from teams in Japan, Korea and America. Kadokura already has an offer to join the SK Wyverns in Korea.
• Greg LaRocca has agreed to return to Orix for another year, at a discounted price.
• Hayato Terahara is working on an original breaking pitch to aid his return to the rotation next year. It should break somewhat like a forkball and he’s about 40% ready with it.
• Kyuji Fujikawa got himself a 120m yen ($1.2m) raise. He’ll make 400m yen ($4m) in 2009.
• Alex Graman signed a 2-year, 300m yen ($3m) deal to stay with Seibu.

Here’s some unexpected news out of Saitama: Seibu is going to post relief pitcher Koji Mitsui. The article isn’t specific about when they’re going to do it, but I’m assuming it will be during this offseason. There will be a press conference at the team’s HQ in Tokorozawa tomorrow. This comes as a surprise to me as I didn’t expect to see any one posted this year.

Mitsui is a 35 year-old lefty and coming off a bad year, though he put up solid numbers in ’06 and ’07. I don’t really know much about him but he certainly seems more likely to be a bullpen depth guy than a core guy. Still, he’d be a low-risk acquisition for an MLB team as he’ll probably only command a very small posting fee.