While I Was Away
Okay, time to come out of hiatus with my first NPB Tracker post of the year.
Player Personnel
- Nippon Ham signed Bob Keppel and Brian Wolfe
- Yomiuri picked up Edgar Gonzalez, the former Padres infielder (Adrian’s brother)
- Rakuten signed Andy Phillips, whose option was not excercised by the Carp
- Yakult signed Diamondbacks AAA arm Tony Barnette
- Seibu signed NPB veteran reliever Brian Sikorski and AAA veteran Dee Brown
- Oakland signed NPB Tracker favorite Lenny DiNardo. I’m glad he’s back in the Bay Area and hope to see him with the A’s this year
- Another personal favorite, Shingo Takatsu, signed with the Sinon Bulls in Taiwan. Takatsu wants to be the first pitcher to record a save in NPB, MLB, KBO, and Taiwan’s CBL
- Colby Lewis signed with the Rangers
- Dan Johnson returned to the Rays
- SoftBank and Hiroshima will continue to look for pitching through spring training
Did I miss anyone?
Other News
- MLB and NPB are discussing holding a global world series between the champions from the two leagues. It doesn’t seem as close as initially reported, but I would love to see this happen. More later…
- Having failed to get any NPB offers, former Orix Buffaloe Katsuaki Furuki is moving into the ring and becoming a figher
- Yusei Kikuchi has begun working out for his first pro spring training. And believer or not, he’s walking on air
- More jibba-jabba about Yu Darvish going to MLB
- Matt Murton will play center field for Hanshin
Any other big stories over the last few weeks that I didn’t include?