NPB Tracker

The Chiba Lotte Marines are bringing in four foreign players for tryouts from November 16:

• Bryan Corey (Boston)
  
• Bill Murphy (Toronto)
  
• Chris Richard (Tampa Bay)
• Julio Zuleta (Mexican League Reynosa)

Richard is an interesting option, Corey somewhat less so, and I don’t quite see where Richard or Zuleta fit with the recent addition of Kim Tae-gyun. Zuleta also stunk up the Mexican League last season.

• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-08:
  Shinjo returns from the 70's: http://bit.ly/7Xbkf #
  Twitter Weekly .. http://bit.ly/2efnCv #
• Shimizu Trade Finalized: The previously reported Naoyuki Shimizu deal to Yokohama is now complete. In an obviou.. http://bit.ly/1IBADP #
• Darvish pitched in Japan Series with a broken middle finger on his throwing hand! http://bit.ly/1TtwLZ #
• What’s Next for Matsui?: Hideki Matsui saw the ball well in this year’s World Series. I don’t.. http://bit.ly/P1qOn #
• Hanshin in Pursuit of Morillo: We’ve posted extensively on Hanshin’s offseason pitching shopping li.. http://bit.ly/4cxzez #
• Hisanori Takahashi to MLB? Gossip rag Gendai says he's signed with an agent: http://gendai.net/?m=view&c=010&no=22930 #
• 2009 Foreign Player Rundown: By my count, there were 78 foreign players (including ikusei players) under contra.. http://bit.ly/2NLmmi #
• Matsui Interest From Angels, Red Sox: The Hideki Matsui hot stove is warming up. Let’s see what the Japan.. http://bit.ly/1hIa3b #
• Sanspo: Boston looking to bring back Saito: http://bit.ly/2v9cjZ #
• this is true @keithlaw I believe they're also repping Igarashi. RT @mlbtraderumors Wasserman Media Group Clients http://bit.ly/332G11 #
• Interest for Igarashi: The market for Ryota Igarashi is showing it’s first signs of life. Sanspo has quot.. http://bit.ly/1eiMF5 #
• More on Matsui: It looks like the reports of Boston’s interest in Hideki Matsui drew quite a bit of atten.. http://bit.ly/2iyb3Q #
• 2010 Foreign Player Candidates: There’s always a high turnover among foreign players in Japan. This year .. http://bit.ly/30ubv0 #
• Rasner Re-signs with Rakuten: According to a baseball source, Darrell Rasner has agreed to a deal to return to .. http://bit.ly/2BcUTc #
• ラズナー楽天と再契約: 関係者によると、ダレル・ラズナーが楽天に復帰する契約に合意したというのが明らかになりました。楽天側は2010年のチームオプションを破棄したものの、新たな一 #
• Golden Glove Winners: The 2009 Golden Glove Winners have been announced, and Nippon Ham dominated the Pacific L.. http://bit.ly/ARs2b #
• ね。　@daigofujiwara 僕ももちろん文句無いですが、2004年最多安打新記録を樹立した262安打で取れなかったのはどんな基準？と突っ込みたくなります。 #
• Lotte Signs Kim: Lotte has made the first significant signing of this offseason, picking up 1st baseman Kim Tae.. http://bit.ly/W4Fej #
• Braves Interested in Kawagoe: Daily Sports has a report saying that the Braves have some interest in signing Hi.. http://bit.ly/zWIQ1 #
• The NPB-KBO Club Championship is on live now: http://www.justin.tv/athletics_ch #
• Kudoh returning to the Seibu Lions for the first time since 1994: http://bit.ly/2WmttN #
• Japan-Korea Club Championship: Here it is, live on justin.tv.

  Watch live video from baseball?야구?野球?Béisb.. http://bit.ly/2aCNlp #

• Disastrous 7th inning for Kia #
• And the Giants scored again while I was typing that. #
• Abe flies out to finally end it. Seven run 7th. #
• Yes @Jbroks86 they playing the NPB-KBO game? #
• Hiroshima After Huber: The Chugoku Shimbun is reporting that the Hiroshima Carp are close to a deal to acquire .. http://bit.ly/2wdTIi #
• NPB-KBO Club Championship Notes: If you missed the NPB-KBO Club Championship, you can watched a Korean broadcas.. http://bit.ly/2BrPx6 #
• hearing that Juan Morillo has signed with a team in Japan. Don't touch that dial… #

If you missed the NPB-KBO Club Championship, you can watched a Korean broadcast archived on justin.tv here: http://www.justin.tv/wkwlxjf#from-21.00,November-13-2009.

If you don’t see any video, try tweaking the time and date at the end of the url.

In a nutshell, Yomiuri beat Kia 9-4. It was a decent game until the 7th, when Yomiuri put seven runs on the board. Yakyu Baka has a write-up of the game, so I’ll limit my comments to a few observations. And here they are

• This game failed to sell out Nagasaki’s rather small stadium. I wonder why they played in Nagasaki rather than the beautiful new stadium in Hiroshima?
• The game felt like a spring training game spiked with a competitiveness, but the Giants did play all their starters. Last year, Seibu gave their foreign players the series off and let a number of their ni-gun kids play.
• Kia’s starter, Yang Hyeon-Jong, was pretty good. He seemed to work mostly off of his breaking pitches, but seemed to have a respectable fastball, which I think he could have used more. In any event, I hope to see more.
• Taishi Ohta pinch-hit at the end of the game, but looked completely fooled by You Dong-Hoon, who was otherwise hittable.
• Wirfin Obispo is more of a “thrower” than a “pitcher”.
• Tatsunori Hara took receipt of a huge trophy for his team’s victory.
• Next year, the organizers are looking at bringing back the four-team format, and hosting the series in Taiwan. Good idea, in my opinion. I don’t think continuing to centralize this on Japan is in the best interest of Asian baseball.

The Chugoku Shimbun is reporting that the Hiroshima Carp are close to a deal to acquire Justin Huber from the Twins. According to the report, the Carp put in a request to acquire Huber, and it was accepted the same day. The two sides will begin negotiating a transfer a the start of next week. The Twins’ removal of Huber from their 40-man roster coincides with this development.

I almost included Huber in my list of 2010 NPB acquisition targets, but left him out because I thought he might get another MLB look somewhere. He’s a pretty typical 4A guy at this point: successful in 3A, frequently on 40-man rosters and occasionally on 25-man rosters. But the Twins already have a pretty good first baseman named Justin, so playing at the next level was going to take an injury or a move to another organization.

Here it is, live on justin.tv.

Watch live video from baseball?야구?野球?Béisbol?棒球? on Justin.tv

Daily Sports has a report saying that the Braves have some interest in signing Hidetaka Kawagoe, who was release by the Orix Buffaloes at the end of the season. Kawagoe, 36, moved from the rotation to the bullpen during the 2009 season, and profiles better as a reliever regardless of which league he next plays in. The Chiba Lotte Marines have also been kicking the tires on Kawagoe, and appear to be his most likely destination if he stays in Japan.

JapaneseBaseball.com has his career numbers through 2008, and you can get a sense of what he throws on NPB Tracker Data.

Lotte has made the first significant signing of this offseason, picking up 1st baseman Kim Tae-gyun from Hanwha of the KBO. I’ll post more details at a later time; for now Matt and Gwynar have this story covered.

The 2009 Golden Glove Winners have been announced, and Nippon Ham dominated the Pacific League with seven players receiving the award. Tetsuya Matsumoto of the Giants became the first former ikusei player to win a Golden Glove.

関係者によると、ダレル・ラズナーが楽天に復帰する契約に合意したというのが明らかになりました。楽天側は2010年のチームオプションを破棄したものの、新たな一年契約(2011年オプション付き）で合意に至ったようです。契約の詳細はまだ明らかになっていません。

日本での一年目に苦労したラズナーでしたが、シーズンが進みに連れて本来の投球を見せ始めました。来季は新監督のマーティー・ブラウンの元どういった成績を残せるのかに注目が集まります。

According to a baseball source, Darrell Rasner has agreed to a deal to return to the Rakuten Golden Eagles. Rakuten declined their team option for 2010, but the two sides came to terms on a new one-year contract with an option for 2011. The deal’s financial terms are unknown.

Rasner struggled in his first year in Japan, but showed some signs of coming around late in the season. We’ll see how he does under new manager Marty Brown.