NPB Tracker

Sponichi is reporting that Texas is getting into the mix on Junichi Tazawa. The Rangers are rushing Pacific scouting director Jim Colborn over to Japan to visit the highly touted pitcher. Colborn was quoted as saying he hadn’t gotten to see any Japanese players this year due to taking over the Rangers’ bullpen coach job mid-season. Meanwhile, Nikkan Sports is reporting that Colborn will also looking at acquiring Kenshin Kawakami and Koji Uehara.

Texas had Japanese relievers Kazuo Fukumori and Yuginaga Maeda at thier AAA affiliate this year, but neither made an impact at the MLB level.

Update: Sanspo is reporting that Hanshin also has Rays OF/DH Jonny Gomes on their list, as well Nippon Ham starter Ryan Glynn.

Daily Sports reports the Hanshin Tigers have added a few more names to their offseason shopping list. We already knew about Nelson Cruz, and now the Tigers are looking at Kevin Mench and Jose Bautista, both of whom finished last year with Toronto.

Hanshin is also looking at a couple of foreign players who are already in Japan: Rakuten’s Jose Fernandez, Seibu’s Hiram Bocachica, and Michael Restovich, who was just released by Softbank. Fernandez is the most accomplished hitter of the three, smacking 159 HR with a .293 avg over his six years in Japan, though he is suspect with the glove. Bocachica hit well when he was in the lineup, with 20 HR in 78 games, and he’s always been sound with the glove. Restovich… he’s coming off a bad year and would be a reclaimation project at this point.

Update: I got to watch a little bit of the game last night, and was pretty impressed by justin.tv. I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re up. The Giants won the game, 6-4, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Giants starter Tetsuya Utsumi looked pretty good when I was watching, he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes.

You can check out Game 4, same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Game 3 of the Japan Series is today starting at 6:15pm JST. If you’re a night owl like me you can perhaps check out this channel on justin.tv to watch it on and chat with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com.

If you miss it, Baseball Reference has a wiki page devoted to this year’s Series.

• Orix will work out former Phillies farmhand Mark Kelly. Kelly, an Australian, spent last year with Kochi of the independent Shikoku Island League, going 8-7 with a 3.31 era.
• Former Yomiuri closer Junichi Kawahara passed a try out with Chunichi and will join the Dragons. Kawahara was once an effective pitcher, but has been injured for the last three years.
• Nippon Ham has put Hanshin infielder Makoto Imaoka on it’s list of acquisition targets. Imaoka was one of my favorite Hanshin players from when I lived in the Kansai area from 2000-2003, but has been hampered by injuries the last few years.
• Rakuten will send manager Katsuya Nomura to the MLB Winter Meetings in search of import players to add to the team’s 2009 roster. Nomura is reportedly interested in Padres reliever Brian Falkenborg.

English Articles:

• NPB Tracker made it on to WashingtonPost.com.
• Tyrone Woods is leaving the Dragons, who are no longer interested in paying his salary despite another good season.
• Fangraphs considers some of the Japanese position players that have come to MLB in recent years to be bargains.
• Tsubamegun has a better write-up on Game 3 of the Japan Series than I will have time for.