NPB Bullet Points: Posting System, Ikusei Promotions, Darvish’s Scouts
With NPB off until Friday, it’s a good time to refresh the Bullet Points series.
- NPB has decided not to pursue changes to the Posting System, according to a June 13 Sanspo report. Difficulty in changing the system on the MLB side and the possibility of collecting large posting fees were cited as the reasons behind the support for the current system.
- Yakult has added Brazilian Rafael Fernandez to its 70-man shihaikai roster, an upgrade from the ikusei roster. Fernandez was selected in the ikusei draft back in 2008, and has a 1.97 ERA in eight games at ni-gun this season.
- Hanshin did the same with Venezuelan lefty Robert Zarate. Zarate was signed out of the independent Baseball Challenge League last offseason.
- Norihiro Nakamura is back, this time with the Yokohama BayStars. Nori hit the first home run of his return on the 18th against Softbank.
- The Chiba Lotte Marines have come to an agreement to acquire infielder Jose Castillo, who was with Yokohama last year. Castillo had been tearing up the Mexican League, and I figure he’ll play LF or DH in Chiba.
- The Braves and Twins had scouts at Yu Darvish’s June 15 start, where he was shockingly defeated by Hanshin. Atlanta’s always chatty Hiroyuki Ohya had this to say: “It felt like he was pressing with this fastball. He has less break on his slider than he did two years ago. He can do better than this.”
- Yakult is set to sell a cocktail “produced” by slugger Wladimir Balentien. The drink will be based on Curacao, a liqueur from Coco’s homeland in the Netherlands Antilles.
- Agent Don Nomura has a new client, pitcher Keisuke Imamura, currently of the Kobe 9 Cruise of the Kansai Independent League. According to the Kobe News, Imamura stands at 190 cm (6’3), reaches 148 kmph (92mph) with his fastball, and has a 14.54 K/9IP ratio this season. The Astros, Giants, and Yankees are said to have shown interest.
21/06/2011 at 10:13 am Permalink
So, no possibility of Iguchi and Castillo in the middle? The heaviest combo in the NPB, I believe.
21/06/2011 at 5:49 pm Permalink
Yoshinori Yamarin and Shohei Sekiguchi were just released having never made it out of the Gulf Coast League and Kawakami is buried in AA, so it will be interesting to see if Oya’s job is in jeopardy.
22/06/2011 at 7:10 am Permalink
No chance Castillo plays in the OF for Lotte unless it’s a temporqry fill in. The Ohmatsu-Okada-Ishimine outfield isn’t going anywhere until Saburo and/or Kiyota come back, and maybe not then.
The only reason Lotte would sign a power bat who can play middle infield is to play him at middle infield. I would be shocked if he doesn’t start at SS really soon. God knows with Ogino out indefinitely there isn’t another bat who can play short (Watanabe, Heiuchi, Hosoya, Takaguchi, and Takahama have all played there since Ogino went out).
22/06/2011 at 7:52 am Permalink
SS has obviously been a huge hole for Lotte this season, but I really have doubts about Castillo there defensively. Lotte’s lineup has been weak enough that you could put him at 1B or DH as well and have a shot at an upgrade.
22/06/2011 at 7:56 am Permalink
Dave — Atlanta didn’t exactly bet the farm on Sekiguchi and Yamarin so I doubt it would affect Ohya. They almost got some value out of Chris Resop post-Hanshin as well, but I don’t know if I would credit that to Ohya.
Kawakami’s apparently not even starting at 2A. Some say they’re bullying him into taking a deal to go back to Japan, and I think there’s something to that.
22/06/2011 at 6:40 pm Permalink
I agree on Kawakami, but his ERA in AA is over 5. That could be as a result of his being thoroughly disgruntled though. Any thoughts on where he could potentially land in the NPB, or what timeframe it may happen in?
22/06/2011 at 8:59 pm Permalink
Take minor league stats with a grain of salt, especially below 3A. He could have a bad defense behind him, playing on a rough field. He could be refining a secondary pitch (though at age 35 it seems a little unlikely). Also he’s only gotten 19 innings of work.
I think he would take a minor league deal before going back to Japan, but if he did I would bet on Hanshin.
22/06/2011 at 10:25 pm Permalink
Good points. If I was Kawakami I would be pretty upset.
23/06/2011 at 1:52 am Permalink
Kawakami’s FIP was essentially the same for both 2009 and 2010 in the low 4s, he should still be a useful major leaguer, if only as a workman.
http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=9225&position=P
23/06/2011 at 3:01 am Permalink
Vogelsong and Meulens
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=caple_jim&id=6674444