Irabu Officially Joins Island League
Hideki Irabu has taken another step on his comeback trail — the stocky righthander has officially joined the Kochi Fighting Dogs of Japan’s independent Island League (IBL). He’s set to debut on the 23rd and his salary is being reported at between $1500-$1800 a month. Irabu’s goal appears to be to play in NPB again, and joining the IBL should help — he’ll get more direct exposure to NPB scouts and possibly play against NPB minor league ni-gun teams in interleague games.
Hanshin team president Numasawa commented on Irabu’s return to Japan to Sanspo: “We want to see how much he can throw. It’s not that we desperately want him, but he quit because of knee problems, so how far is he coming back and how much can he move? To say we definitely don’t want see him would be a lie.”
My guess is that Irabu winds up in camp with an NPB team next spring.
11/08/2009 at 6:05 am Permalink
Don’t mean to be an a**, but his name is Numasawa and he says, “It’s not that we desperately want him.”
11/08/2009 at 7:50 am Permalink
Heh. No worries, I guess I miss read that statement as a double negative. You can always email me at npbtracker@gmail.com when you see errors, which will happen from time to time.
11/08/2009 at 7:52 am Permalink
Interesting, I heard about this yesterday. Good luck to Irabu, it be a nice success story if he were able to make it back to MLB. It’s kind of like a Jim Morris “The Rookie” story but instead Irabu is the old veteran who pitched back through the GBL(Golden Baseball League) and got a chance with a indy team in Japan, I’ll be rooting for him to catch on with a NPB team. Also, is there anywhere we can keep track of how Irabu does with Kochi? Does the team or league website give stats? I’m not sure, since its been so long since I visited the IBL website.
12/08/2009 at 10:19 am Permalink
Yup,
http://www.iblj.co.jp/rank_p01/?data_type=dp01
12/08/2009 at 5:28 pm Permalink
Thanks, for the link. It’s much appreciated, I like to track Irabu.
18/08/2009 at 9:59 am Permalink
Not sure if you heard of this yet, but the BayStars said they had interest in Irabu. They say if they like what they see, they could bring him in for a tryout.