NPB Tracker

FanHouse.comのべースボールライターであるエド・プライス記者のツイッターによると、 城島健司選手はマリナーズとの契約解除に至ったという発表がありました。マリナーズとの契約残り二年を破棄して、日本帰国という選択に踏み切りました。シアトル・マリナーズの公式ホームページでもこの契約解除はすでに伝えられています。

Now, it’s getting interesting. Yusei Kikuchi has completed his first round of meetings with MLB clubs. The media reports lack the level of detail that the reports on the NPB meetings had. I think this is reflective of the Japanese teams wanting to use the media to lure, Kikuchi, while MLB teams are being tighter-lipped. Here’s a rundown.

Rangers:  sent Jim Colborn and lefty Derek Holland; espoused the team’s development system and let Kikuchi ask questions.

Dodgers:  sent Logan White, who was quoted in Nikkan Sports: “we didn’t tell him not to go to Japanese team” and the Yomiuri: “he’s among the top class of amateurs from any country. He certainly has the ability to play in the majors.”

SF Giants: pointed out that the Giants have a Japanese trainer for their 3A team; explained the team’s methods of practicing and training.

Red Sox: did not to the the media; it’s unknown what was discussed.

So if any financial details have been discussed so far, no one’s saying. Meetings conclude tomorrow with the Mariners, Mets, Yankees and Indians.

For more on Kikuchi, check out the posts on day one and day two of his meetings with NPB clubs, and our profile of the young lefty.

On Day Two, Yusei Kikuchi met with the eight remaining NPB teams, thus concluding the NPB portion of his schedule. Word is that he’s still 50-50 on which league he chooses, and that should he choose NPB, he doesn’t have a preference on which team he plays for.

Here’s what Kikuchi had to say about the meetings: “I like baseball talk, so it was easy to have the talks. There are a lot of fans in Japan, and solid player development systems. In the case I play in Japan and am drafted, I would give my best effort to any of the 12 teams.”

And his manage, the omnipresent Hiroshi Sasaki: “Each team has it’s own system for maturing individuals. To wait until the last moment before the draft to answer would be an annoyance to the teams, so we should give a decision as quickly as possible after the MLB meetings end.”

Here’s what each of the teams had to say about the situation, again summarized and paraphrased by me:

Chunichi: “Even if there’s only a 1% chance, we’re still going to take the plunge on that arm. We’ll go every day (to see him) until the end of March (when the signing period ends).” Chunichi Chief Scout Hayakawa quoted in Sponichi.

Nippon Ham: “He had extreme interest in things like ‘would Darvish coach me technically?” GM Yamada quoted in Sponichi. Nippon Ham also told Kikuchi “they will select him with their first pick” to which Kikuchi replied “thank you very much”.

Rakuten: “He’s a franchise player. By all means, we want him to play in Tohoku. We’re still a young team, so let’s make team history.” Rakuten team representive Yoneda quoted in Daily Sports.

Yokohama: Yokohama’s first pick was thought to be slugger Yoshitomo Tsutusgo, but chief scout Horii has revealed that Kikuchi is still in the picture. Quoted in Nikkan Sports, Horii told Kikuchi “we haven’t decided on Tsutsugo as our first pick.”

Yakult: “By all means we want this treasure of the baseball world to perform in Japan.” Unattributed quote from the Daily Yomiuri.

Chiba Lotte: “He’s better than our own Yuuki Karakawa.” Senior Scout Matsumoto, quoted in Sponichi.

Hiroshima: The Carp are reportedly out on Kikuchi and will take Seiho HS righty Takeru Imamura, the pitcher who beat Kikuchi’s Hanamaki Higashi at Koshien, with their first pick.

SoftBank: Like the Carp, the Hawks are looking at Imamura as an option for their first pick, and have mostly been quiet on Kikuchi. SoftBank has plenty of pitching, so Tsutsugo probably makes the most sense for them.

Conventional American logic would dictate that Yokohama BayStars, who finished last yet again this year, should have the first overall pick in the draft. That’s not how it works in NPB. For an explanation, please see Ryo’s draft primer.

It’s being reported that as many as ten teams could choose Kikuchi in the first round, which break the previous record of eight set in 1989 by Hideo Nomo. I’d be little surprised if that happens, but if he stays in Japan he’ll have plenty of suitors. There’s really no downside to selecting Kikuchi in the first round (unless you really want Hisayoshi Chono); even if a majority of teams choose him, only one will get to his rights, and most of the other good players will still be on the table.

After a one-day breather, Kikuchi will begin meeting with MLB teams on the 20th. It’ll be interesting to see if the teams come armed with financial offers in hand. We already know what the NPB teams are restricted to a max bonus of about $1m, incentives of about $500k, and first year salary about $150k. We can reasonably expect MLB clubs to outbid NPB here, but by how much and under what terms remains to be seen. This is where the saga really starts, and we’ll learn more over the next few days.

edit – corrected number of teams that drafted Nomo.

For the first time in Arizona Fall League’s 17-year history, players from teams outside of Major League Baseball have been invited to take part in the league. NPB has agreed to send five pitchers to participate in the league.

LHP Hiroshi Katayama (Golden Eagles) and RHP Toshiyuki Yanuki (Fighters) is on the Phoenix Sea Dogs roster. RHP Tooru Murata (Giants), RHP Ken Nishimura (Tigers) and LHP Takanobu Tsujiuchi (Giants) will be on the pitching staff of the Scottsdale Scorpions. RHP Kenta Abe (Tigers) will be joining the Scorpions mid-season and switching spots with teammate Nishimura.

This is a great opportunity for Japanese pitching prospects with limited big league experience to mingle with players in the States and face big time prospects like Dustin Ackley and Jason Heyward. It should be a valuable learning experience for the young pitchers and a good relationship builder for NPB and MLB. The ability to bring in players from around the globe to participate in the Arizona Fall League can be a huge opportunity for the MLB to develop Arizona as an Autumn mecca for young prospects.

The news about Hanshin’s list of offseason acquisition targets is flying fast and furious. It kind of reminds me of this old Onion article. Here’s what I’ve seen so far.

Via NPB Free Agency…

• Shugo Fujii (Nippon Ham) — this probably makes the most sense of any of these acquisitions. Fujii wouldn’t make the Tigers a championship club on his own though
• Hiroyuki Kobayashi (Lotte) — another rather low risk, medium reward type

Via Trade…

• GG Sato (Seibu) — coming off a career year
• Shunsuke Watanabe (Lotte) — can’t see Lotte moving him, but would be interesting to see how he adjusts to the Central League
• Nagisa Arakaki (SoftBank) — one of my favorite pitchers, but has been hurt for the last two years

From Korea…

• Brad Thomas (Korea, Hanwha Eagles) — former Nippon Ham Fighter
• Rick Guttoromson (Korea, Kia Tigers) — Sports Hochi reported on him and Thomas
• Kim Tae-Gyun (Korea, Hanwha Eagles) — Matt tipped me off to this info on Kim
• Lee Bum-Ho (Korea, Hanwha Eagles) — Matt also pointed out that if the already last-place Hanwha loses all these guys, they might as well field a him of himself, me and Shinsano

Possible MLB Returnees…

• Hideki Matsui (NY Yankees) — has been speculated over since the summer, seems like Matsui will get chances to stay in MLB
• Masahide Kobayashi (ex Cleveland Indians) — makes sense, I wonder if they went after him during the season
• Kenji Johjima (Seattle Mariners) — reports in the Japanese media say that he has an escape clause in his contract allowing him to return to Japan. Cot’s knows nothing about this. Hanshin is said to be prepared to offer 500m yen annually (about $5m), so for this to work Joh would have to take a pay cut, and the Mariners would have to not convince him to stay
• Akinori Iwamura (Tampa Bay Rays) — saw some speculation about this a week or two ago, Iwamura didn’t say much other than that he would go where he was evaluated the most highly

There are also reports that Hanshin is going to be looking to the US market as usual, but I haven’t seen any legitimate names published yet. Hanshin sent team president Nobuo Minami to the States this season in an effort to learn how to evaluate US-based players. In the process, he had his picture taken with Bobby Cox, and met with the GMs of the Braves, Yankees, Mets, as well as front office personnel from the Red Sox.

What do NPB fans think? Would any of these moves make Hanshin the team to beat next year?

Update: Added some details from Nikkan Sports.

Sanspo has gotten a hold of Yusei Kikuchi’s meeting schedule over the rest of the month, leading up to the draft. Here’s the breakdown:

Oct 16: meetings with Hanshin, Seibu, and Orix
Oct 17: Chunichi, Yakult, Nippon Ham, Chiba Lotte, Hiroshima, Rakuten and others
Oct 19: begin meeting with MLB clubs
Oct 20: Cleveland Indians, others
Oct 22: conclude meetings

Nikkan Sports lists the MLB clubs stopping by as the Giants, Mets, Dodgers, Yankees, Rangers, Mariners and Indians. With the 12 NPB clubs, that gives us a total of 19 teams that will meet with the young lefty. The Kikuchi camp appears to have accommodated NPB requests in some regards; the NPB teams are getting a chance to talk with him first, and Kikuchi himself will take part in the meetings rather than relying solely on Sasaki-kantoku. Kikuchi did not pander to the request of holding off meeting with MLB clubs until after the draft.

This is a pretty unusual situation in NPB, I can’t think of another draft prospect who’s been handled quite this way since the current draft rules were installed (maybe someone will remind me). It kind of makes me wonder if the NPB teams will collude to allow Kikuchi be drafted by the team that he wants to play for, just to keep him in the league.

ボビー・バレンタインを来季監督として考えているのはメジャー球団だけには限らないようだ。

あるメジャーリーグのソースによると、横浜ベイスターズがバレンタインを来季の監督として招聘しようと考えているようです。バレンタインは新たな監督を探すクリーブランド・インディアンズを始めとするメジャー球団からも興味を得ています。

ESPNの報道にもあったヨーロッパで話合いをしたフロリダ・マーリンズとは合意に至らず、マーリンズはすでに現在の指揮官フレディー・ゴンザレスとの契約延長に至っています。すでにESPNで働いているバレンタインはワシントン・ナショナルズの空きには積極的な姿勢を見せておらず、ヒューストン・アストロスの監督候補には挙がっていないようです。

過去に指揮していたニューヨーク・メッツという可能性も無視できないが、メッツは現監督のジェリー・マニュエルで来季開幕を迎えることをすでに名言しています。

千葉ロッテに戻ることのなくなったボビー・バレンタインは日米両方から人気のようで、すでにESPNと契約は終えているものの来季監督してフィールドに立つ彼の姿を見れる可能性はまだまだ高そうです。

If 46-year old lefthander Kimiyasu Kudoh looks to MLB, will there be any takers?

In recent years we have seen veteran pitchers from Japan sign minor league deals and then contribute to the big league team. 39 year-old Masumi Kuwata made his major league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2007, and 40 year-old Ken Takahashi enjoyed his first season in the majors with the New York Mets this year.

Although neither pitcher left eye-popping numbers with their teams, they both brought intangibles to the table with experience and character. Needless to say, the Japanese media were all over stories, which in turn fueled stories in the US media (see Kuwata attracts crowd and The Mets’ 40-Year-Old Rookie).

Kudoh was released from the Yokohama Baystars and will be looking for a suitor this off-season. He stated his desire to continue playing and in a recent interview mentioned that NPB is his first option. However if negotiations stall and an offer from overseas arrives would he decline? It will be interesting how the situation plays out and if any MLB teams will look to follow the trend of signing Japanese veterans as roster depth.

To give you a sense of what Kudoh brings, check out pitching clip from September 16 versus Yakult, and this velocity chart from the same game..

One of the few free agents in the NPB this off-season, Yakult fireballer Ryota Igarashi is reportedly eyeing a move to the MLB. According to sources he has already been listing notable agents to help his transition and negotiation process. In the previous off-season he trained at one of the Athlete’s Performance training facilities, which increased his desire to play overseas.

Igarashi has made an impressive comeback from his elbow surgery in 2006 as he carries a 3.31ERA yielding 51.2 innings allowing 42H, 19ER, 20BB with 43K this season. Concerns for his elbow has diminished as specialist Dr. Lewis Yocum has gave him a clean bill of health during the previous off-season. Igarashi went on the injured list on August 30th with a hip injury, but he is currently back with the team and it did not seem serious (Bullpen Session Clip).

Igarashi has been one of the few NPB players who have been hinting a desire to play in the MLB this season. His pitching style has matured in recent years and he’s mixed in some occasional breaking pitches to compliment his power fastball. The real test for him will be how his fastball plays in a league with more power bats. The Tokyo Yakult Swallows are currently fighting for the last playoff spot and Igarashi has not commented on the report, but we should know more once the Swallows’ season concludes.

Yusei Kikuchi completed his high school career and decision time is drawing near. He declared for pro turning in his draft application on October 5th, which he may start talking with teams from the following day. It was first believed he will only talk to couple MLB teams, but he changed his mind and has decided to talk with all teams that shows interest. Sponichi states Kikuchi’s side is planning to start talk with teams from the 13th Japan time. Manager Hiroshi Sasaki will be in charge of all talks as Kikuchi’s class schedule will not be able to create equal time availability for all teams. (for more, please see Yakyu Baka’s full article on Kikuchi’s press conference)

As more than 20 teams from NPB and MLB combined are thought to be interested, it is stated that he will start talking with one team at a time beginning with NPB teams. A Nikkan Sports article lists that NPB teams other than the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants (who have decided to go with Hisayoshi Chono) and Baystars, Carp, and Hawks are thought to be using their first-round pick for Yusei Kikuchi.

MLB teams listed in the same article that are believed to be interested are the Dodgers, Yankees, Giants, Cubs, Braves, Twins, Mets, Mariners, Rangers, Indians, Tigers, and the Phillies. The list seems to be growing every minute.

A big decision which could change the structure of amateur baseball in Japan is in Kikuchi’s hands. This is just the first stage of his decision… NPB or the MLB. After following this story for until now, my big decision at the same age to come to the United States for undergraduate studies seems just a little bit lame.