Hawks Name Coaches for 2010; Eight Reach Free Agency
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At ni-gun, former Hawks utilityman Yusuke Torigoe enters his second year as manager of the Hawks.
As teams continue to sign their players, just as many have reached free agency. Eight players have served their required time with the Hawks, three of them foreign signings. Pitching-wise, sinkerballer Kameron Loe (0-4, 6.33) and Justin Germano (5-4, 4.38) reached free agency. Loe will likely not be back, while Germano has his gaze set to Major League Baseball again. Good luck to the one-time San Diego Padre.
The other foreigner to reach free agency was former Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Aguila (.095), who did not live up to expectations, and he will not be back with the logjam in the outfield, even though he batted .294 with 11HR and 36RBI at ni-gun.
The rest of the free agents have either served their required time or got pink-slipped. Longtime but oft-injured reliever Takayuki Shinohara was released after another injury-riddled season and only two appearances at ni-gun this season (2 runs in 2 innings, 9.00ERA). As of November 27th, he has signed with the Yokohama BayStars.
The last pitcher who was released was Michitaka Nishiyama, who has never really developed. He has a career ERA of 7.59 over 7 career appearances at ichi-gun.
Three more position players were released in longtime backup catcher Naoki Matoba (signed by Lotte, career .156 average), Tsubasa Fujii, and Mitsuru Honma, who had been with the team since 1996.