NPB Tracker

Well, not really, but a number of foreign player signings were announced today.

The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles have announced two signings: former Nippon Ham slugger Fernando Seguignol and 3A pitcher Marcus Gwyn.

Seguinol joins his third team in Japan. He stunk in 2002 with Orix; spent 2003 in 3A, then joined Nippon Ham and proceeded to have a dynamite season in ’04. He regressed a little bit each until Nippon Ham finally cut him loose after last season. Marcus Gwyn appeared in three games last year for the Angels, but hasn’t had much success above 2A ball.

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows picked up former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Sean Douglass. Douglass spent 2006 with Hiroshima, and 2007 on the shelf with an injury. Yakult tried him out last fall, but decided to pass. “I have confidence,” Douglass commented, “I want to give the team a chance to win when I pitch.”

And finally, Hiroshima pulled Jim Brower out of the Astros’ system. Brower has spent parts of nine seasons with MLB teams. He was actually pretty good with the Giants in ’04.

Japan’s trading deadline & foreign player acquisition deadline is the 31st, so we’ll find out in the next day or two if any more transactions are coming up.

Mixing up the English and Japanese again. Most of these links are English though.

• Wayne Graczyk reminisces about 1995 and Hideo Nomo’s rookie season. This is a good read.
• Japan national team manager Senichi Hoshino complains about ridiculous extra-innings format that will be used in the Olympics. Aaron at East Windup Chronicle dissects the format a bit.
• Orix has surprisingly moved into 4th place in the Pacific League. They’re 2.5 games behind Softbank for the 3rd and final playoff position.
• Deanna from Marinerds, etc took a trip to Hiroshima to take in a Carp home game. I’ve always wanted to see Hiroshima Civic Stadium, but the one time I was in town the Carp were on the road. I’m hoping to check out the new stadium someday though.
• Softbank demoted Michael Restovich.
• Former Fukuoka Daiei Hawk Rich “Goose” Gossage is going into the Hall of Fame. Rich spent part of the 1990 season with Daiei, going 2-3 with 8 saves and a 4.40 ERA while striking out 40 in 47 innings (wikipedia has more, in Japanese). After leaving Japan, Gossage spent four more years in the Majors. He becomes the second NPB veteran to get elected into the MLB Hall of Fame, following Larry Doby.