Swallows To Acquire D'Antona

I really like each of the D'Antona, Loe, and Rasner signings. These are exactly the kind of American players that Japanese teams should sign, and each should get at least a year and a half from his new respective team to learn how to play Japanese baseball.

D'Antona and Loe will be 27 in 2009, and Rasner will be 28. Loe and Rasner each has a significant amount of major league experience and have pitched fairly well at the highest level. D'Antona hit .365 and had a 1009 OPS in AAA in 2008. None of these guys is young enough or talented enough to be big stars in the U.S. (D'Antona, for example, does not have enough power to be a major league first baseman), but they are young enough and talented enough to become big stars in Japan and have long, successful careers there, if they can adapt to the Japanese game.

Two years ago, I posted a comment on this site in which I made what I thought was a pretty obvious claim, namely that Damon Hollins, who would have his first year in Japan at age 33 (2007), had no chance to be the next Tuffy Rhodes, who had his first year in Japan at age 27 (1996). Instead, I received some pretty strident responses about how Hollins had had a better major league career than Rhodes, which necessarily made him as good or better a player. Never mind that Rhodes actually had better minor league numbers through the same age as Hollins. Two years later, Hollins is long gone from Japan, and Tuffy is back as one of the best hitters in Japan.

The point is, these three players are all young enough to have their peak seasons (age 27-31) in Japan, and they appear to have the talent to do it.