NPB Tracker

Yu Darvish has signed his 2010 contract. In 2009, the heralded righty went 15-5 with a 1.73 era over 182 innings, taking home the MVP award at the end of the season. In return, the Nippon Ham corporation is bumping his salary up 60m yen ($678k in the currently weak US currency) to 330m yen ($3.729m).

Darvish bumps Hisashi Iwakuma from the top spot as the highest paid pitcher in the Pacific League, though he’ll still trail Central Leaguers Kyuji Fujikawa and Hitoki Iwase for the overall lead. Darvish also crosses the 300m yen mark at a younger age (age 24 season) than any other player in NPB history, though Ichiro took home over 400m yen at age 25.

Boston’s signing of Scott Atchison was already all over the baseball blogosphere today, and I don’t really have anything to add to discussion but it does give me an excuse to post this. Enjoy!

I haven’t covered in-NPB transactions much since the Shimizu trade, so let’s catch up. Here’s a summary:

• Yokohama signed catcher Tasuku Hashimoto away from Lotte
• Yakult signed infielder Atsushi Fujimoto away from Hanshin
• Lotte brought pitcher Yasuhiko Yabuta back from the Royals organization
• Nippon Ham signed pitcher Masao Kida away from Yakult
• Lotte signed pitcher Hidetaka Kawagoe, released by Orix
• Lotte signed pitcher Akichika Yamada and catcher Noaki Matoba, both released by SoftBank
• Lotte extended a spring training invite to infielder Makoto Imaoka
• Nippon Ham traded pitchers Yataro Sakamoto,  Suguru Matsuyama and infielder Naoto Inada to Yokohama for pitchers Takeharu Katoh, Takahiro Matsuka and outfielder Yuta Sekiguchi
• Yomiuri signed Masahide Kobayashi, formerly of the Indians
• Yomiuri traded pitcher Hiroshi Kisanuki to Orix for pitcher Yasunari Takagi
• Yomiuri is about to sign no longer shaggy pitcher Shugo Fujii

I think that brings us up to date… did I miss anyone?

Clearly Lotte, Yokohama and Yomiuri have been the most active in the last few weeks. Yokohama is clearly retooling, and I think they’re heading in the right direction. Signing Hashimoto is a solid move.

The deal with the most upside is Orix fleecing Yomiuri for Kisanuki. The Buffaloes basically got a guy who’s proven he can start effectively when healthy for a lefty reliever who has two good seasons to his name, most recently 2007. Yomiuri certainly knows more about Kisanuki’s health than I do, but it looks like a great deal for Orix to me.

Hanshin appears to be making progress in their search for pitching.

Daily Sports is reporting that the Hanshin is  sending a representative to the States next week to finalize a deal with big righty Randy Messenger. He will, of course, be billed in the Japanese media as a former teammate of Kenji Johjima’s. But given that Messenger nearly joined the Carp in mid-2009, Joh’s influence in this signing may wind up getting just a tiny bit overstated.

Daily also mentions that the Tigers are still looking at Jason Bulger as well, and if he comes off the Angels’ 40-man roster they could make a play for him.

“I won’t go back to Japan.”

That’s the quote Nikkan Sports lead with in their story on Nelson Payano’s contract situation with Chunichi.

The article suggests that the two sides have been negotiating, but are still a few dollars apart. Chunichi has reportedly offered $200k, a $50k raise from 2009, while Payano is looking for $250k. It doesn’t seem like an insurmountable gap, but Payano seems like he’s already made up his mind to go back to MLB affiliated ball. “I haven’t signed yet, but I feel that I want to play in America next year,” said Payano, later adding “I appreciate being able to play for a year with the Dragons, and the championship battle with the Giants is a good memory.”

According to the article, Payano already has interest from Korea and multiple MLB teams, including the Rockies.

I didn’t see Payano pitch this season, but my data indicates that he’s a primarily a fastball/slider pitcher.

Losing Payano would put Chunichi down a lefty reliever, a situation compounded by the Dragons’ failure to sign sixth-round draft pick Takahiro Suwabe. Look for Chunichi to rely on Domingo Martinez’s ability to locate Dominican talent once again to fill this role.

The MLB offseason is heating up, and figures to kick into full gear when the Winter Meetings open on Monday. As usual, there will be a number of story lines involving Japanese teams and players this year.

• Hideki Matsui is the top Japanese name this offseason. His situation will evolve as talks with the Yankees occur and other key veteran sluggers find 2010 employers. Reports last week stated that agent Arn Tellem could call Matsui in anytime during the week, and Matsui has delayed his return to Japan to accommodate. Expect a full contingent of Japanese media keep the rumor mill jam-packed until this guy signs.
• We could wind up with a better sense on the market for Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi. The market will be stronger for Igarashi, and the righty is already training in Arizona.
• NPB foreign player rosters are filling up, but we frequently hear about a guy or two moving from MLB or affiliated ball over to Japan during the Winter Meetings.

Our own Ryo Shinkawa will be on the ground at this year’s Winter Meetings.

The Chiba Lotte Marines like what they see in Eric Stults. A source with the team quoted in Sponichi said, “he’s got good breaking pitches and can be a shutdown pitcher in Japan. By all means we want him.” Stults is currently on the Dodgers; 40-man roster, so Sponichi speculations that acquiring could take $900k-$1m, but that should be affordable with Bobby Valentine, Naoyuki Shimizu and Tasuku Hashimoto coming off the books.

Meanwhile, the additions of Bryan Corey and Bill Murphy are reportedly looking done deal-ish. The Marines are also looking at Yankees fireballer Romulo Sanchez, though the are prioritizing Stults.

No update on the old story about Lotte bringing in Greg Maddux as a spring training instructor next season.

Update: It’s now official that Germano won’t return to SoftBank in 2010. A team official said he wants to play in America next season.

The last thing we heard about Jose Contreras was that the SoftBank Hawks had decided to prioritize keeping their own free agents, but could turn to the veteran Cuban if negotiations stalled or (later on) an injury occured.

It looks like it didn’t take long for the former shoe to drop, at least part of the way.

SoftBank’s negotiations with Justin Germano have indeed stalled, and it now appears that he won’t be back in Fukuoka for 2010. This, of course, fuels speculation that SoftBank could immediately turn to Contreras to back fill for him. In any event, the presence of Contreras certainly gives SoftBank some additional leverage.

Contreras’s son Kevin, who is hoping to take part in an exchange program and play baseball at Fukuoka’s Yanagawa high school,  is behind the prospective move to Japan. The Hawks, who play their home games in Fukuoka, would certainly be the most convenient destination for Jose if exchange program works out.

Contreras has been in Japan with his family since November 25th, and has so far taken his son to visit his prospective high school, met sumo wrestler Kotoshogiku, and thrown for a SoftBank scout. The family plans to take in a few sites before returning home on December 7th.

A couple of player personnel notes to pass along…

• Sanspo via Yahoo! Japan is saying that the Chiba Lotte Marines have added Dodgers lefty Eric Stults to their shopping list. Based on the one game I saw Stults pitch, a dominant performance against the Giants, I thought he was a pretty good prospect. I didn’t realize he was 29.
• According the same article, the Marines are nearly done with a deal for Blue Jays lefty Bill Murphy, who tried out for the team along with Bryan Corey and a couple others last month. Lotte sees Murphy as a middle reliever.
• Keiichi Yabu wants to make a comeback. This makes me wonder what Akinori Otsuka is up to.
• Masahide Kobayashi’s deal with Yomiuri is for one year at 50m yen ($500k) with 100m yen ($1m) in performance bonuses. Here’s a pic of him high above the Big Egg.
• Termel Sledge could get an official offer from Yokohama as soon as December 2. Word has it that the offer could exceed 400m yen ($4m) over two years.
• The Yomiuri Giants aren’t denying interest in Nippon Ham free agent Shugo Fujii.
• Orix is negiotating with former Blue Wave outfielder So Taguchi. Taguchi doesn’t have a preference between Japan and the US for 2010.

Consider the following:

• Nov 27 (JST): Sponichi publishes a blurb with information from Takashi Saito’s agent, saying that about eight teams are in on Saito. Four teams are named as suitors, all of which seem plausbile.
• Nov 29 (PST): I make note of the interest in Saito in a set of bullet points about him and a couple other free agents.
• Nov 29 (CST): MLB Trade Rumors picks up my post.
• Nov 29: The story makes its way into the US media, including Phil Rogers’ Chicago Tribune mention of the Cubs and White Sox interest in Saito.
• Dec 1 (JST): Sanspo publishes a story, citing the Chicago Tribune, saying that the Chicago teams are interested in Saito.

So this rumor, which is entirely reasonable, has come full circle: it originated in Japan, made its way via the blogosphere into the US media, and wound up getting repeated in a different Japanese publication. This isn’t meant to be self-congratulatory, but I think it demonstrates the position of social media.