NPB Tracker

米べスボール・アメリカによると、前巨人の門倉健はカブスとマイナー契約結んだ。詳しいこと出ていないが、招待選手として春季キャンプに参加すると思います。

According to the venerable Baseball America, the Cubs have signed former Yomiuri Giant Ken Kadokura to a minor league contract. I’m sure Kadokura will get a spring training invite and chance to compete for a bullpen spot.

Update, Jan 19 8:11 am: According to 47news, Iguchi to Lotte is a done deal, and will be announced on the 20th. Other sources say the deal is close but not done.

I didn’t post this when it was new, but it’s been widely reported that Tadahito Iguchi will decide his destination on the 20th, which is either tomorrow or later today depending on which timezone you happen to be in.

Bobby Valentine’s Chiba Lotte Marines very publicly made Iguchi a three-year offer, and cleared out second base for him by releasing the incumbent Jose Ortiz. Despite this, Iguchi hasn’t given up on an MLB contract, but given that the market for 2nd basemen (Orlando Hudson) has been so weak, his best financial offer is likely to be in Japan.

With much of the NPB player movement done and spring training yet to start, news has been a little slow lately, which means we’ll see more stories like these for a few weeks.

It’s not often you see a switch-pitcher come along, but we have two such ambidextrous prospects to watch in NPB. Both pitchers were  selected in the 2008 draft and will make their debuts this season. Natural lefty Kazuki Miyata was selected in the 4th round by the Seibu Lions. Miyata started throwing right handed in high school as an exercise in balance, and kept it up in junior college as it helped him alleviate back pain. He hasn’t thrown right handed in an official game, but is still working on his right handed pitching and has learned to throw a curve.

Yakult instructional draftee Rafael Fernandez is also a natural lefty, but throws right handed all the time. Sponichi explains that when Fernandez started playing baseball in Brazil when he was 10, he thought that the ball must be thrown with the right hand. Fernandez threw lefty in Yakult’s autumn camp when he was having some arm pain, and hit about 75 mph on the gun. 

There’s been one switch-pitcher in recent NPB memory, Toyotoshi Chikada, who made one appearance as a lefty for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks back in 1988. He retired in 1991, but in 2001 he threw both righty and lefty to a couple of Hawks farm players in an exhibition game.

And no post of this nature would be complete without a mention of Yankee’s switch-pitching minor leaguer Pat Venditte.

Last Tuesday, I discussed Kenshin Kawamakami’s move to the Braves on The Bill Shanks Show on WIFN SportsRadio 105.5 the Fan in Macon, Georgia. Bill was kind enough to send me the audio of the interview, and I’m happy to present it here: Part 1 Part 2

Subscribers to scout.com can also check out the interview here.

Lotte has announced the acquisition of infielders Gary Burnham and Chase Lambin. We’ve know Burnham was Lotte-bound for a while, but this is the first official note I’ve seen on former Marlins AAA’er Lambin. These are budget signings for Lotte — Burnham will make 13m yen and Lambin will earn 20m yen. I’ll let you do the dollar conversion yourself, but the strong yen favors these guys. Good luck Chase & Gary in ’09!

I found out via Baseball America that NPB veteran Jeremy Powell has signed a minor-league deal with the Pirates. Here’s what BA had to say about Powell:

You might remember Powell as a nondescript righthander with the late-90s Expos. But given that he played his last game in this country in June 2001, you’d be forgiven if he had been expunged from memory. Montreal’s fourth-round pick in 1994, Powell peaked with the ‘99 Expos, compiling the sixth-most innings on the squad (behind Dustin Hermanson, Mike Thurman, Javier Vazquez, Miguel Batista and Carl Pavano and finishing just ahead of Anthony Telford) and going 4-8, 4.73 in 17 starts. He joined the Padres organization as a free agent in 2001, a decision that proved to be career altering. The then-25 Powell pitched well for Triple-A Portland (63-14 K-BB and 1.58 ERA in 74 innings as a starter), sure, but that success was nothing compared with the eight-year run in Japan that he embarked upon that summer. Unlike many players, who struggle to adjust to both Japanese baseball and culture, Powell was a success almost from the get-go. His first season with Kinetsu was shaky, but from 2002 through 2006, he went 63-52, 3.73 while averaging 150 strikeouts, 49 walks and 194 innings per season. His ‘07 and ‘08 campaigns featured ERAs of 5.80 and 5.29, however, so the 32-year-old Powell now will try to latch on with the Pirates.

JP’s last two seasons in Japan were marred by injuries and a contract controversy with Orix and SoftBank. Best of luck to Jeremy in catching on in Pittsburgh.

• That didn’t take long. FA catcher Ryoji Aikawa agreed to a 3-year, 450m yen deal with the Yakult Swallows. The agreement came just a day or two after negotiations officially began. This should give the Swallows a little stability at catcher, which they’ved lacked since the retirement of the great Atsuya Furuta. Aikawa’s previous team, Yokohama, is looking to be compensated for his loss with a player.
• The Chiba Lotte Marines announced that they won’t be bringing back foreign players Jose Ortiz, Winston Abreu, or Szu-Yu Wu. 

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.

• Orix signed Jose Fernandez to a one-year, 100m yen ($1.1m) deal with performance bonuses. This gives the Buffaloes four import batters — Fernandez, LaRocca, Alex Cabrera and Tuffy Rhodes — and since Rhodes no longer counts against the foreign player limit they can use them all in the lineup at the same time. Assuming, of course, they’re all healthy and three of them can play in the field. Fernandez is joining his fourth NPB team, which may be a record for foreign playeres. I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head that’s been with more than three.
• Catcher Ryoji Aikawa has given up on getting an MLB contract and will begin negotiating with Yakult. Yakult looks like Aikawa’s only option at this point, which is good as they’ve wanted him all along.