Western Influence Starting To Show?

Are there more details to this trade?

Nippon Ham sent relievers Oshimoto(25), Hashimoto(28), and outfielder/second baseman Kawashima(24) to Yakult for starters Fujii(31), Sakamoto(25), and infielder Miki(30). People who don't know much about baseball say that Yakult made a stupid trade, but I think they came out on top here.

Oshimoto and Hashimoto are young and very usable in both the bullpen and as starters. Kawashima has speed and a bit of pop in his bat. He's a pretty good prospect. Whereas Nippon Ham are taking a huge gamble with Fujii, who may be well known, but is past his prime and has always been injury prone. Miki has been nothing but a pinch runner his entire career. Sakamoto is the one bright side here, as he's still only 25 and could still turn into a decent pitcher.

Thanks, for the information. I agree with you that Yakult got the better of this trade. Nippon Ham better hope Fujii can stay injury free and revert back to earlier form.

Yeah.

Fighters gave up 24-year-old right-hitting outfielder Keizo Kawashima, 25-year-old RHP Takehiko Oshimoto, and 28-year-old RHP Yoshitaka Hashimoto.

Yakult's half was 30-year-old LHP Shuugo Fujii, 30-year-old switch-hitting utility guy Hajime Miki, and 25-year-old RHP Yataro Sakamoto.

As far as I can tell, this deal ridiculously favors the Swallows. I love Keizo Kawashima, so I'm really sad to see him go, but still, the Swallows are going to need a bunch of outfield options with Ramirez gone. Kawashima was vaguely blocked in the Fighters' outfield, but I almost expected to see him platoon with Kudoh someday if nothing else. Oshimoto is a great pitcher. Hashimoto came out of the industrial leagues a few years ago, but he's not bad.

And yeah, what did the Fighters really get here? A declining left-handed starter (and do we really need that what with Masaru Takeda and Tomoya Yagi in the mix?), another bench guy, and, yeah, Sakamoto looks like a decent prospect. I don't know much about him, but I really like his numbers.

I just really, really, really liked Kawashima. Bleh.

This could be a good deal for Nippon Ham, but that rides on Fujii, and you just never know what you will get out of him. Sakamoto and Miki are both junk. It is also true that Yakult was fed up with Fujii's inconsistency and his veteran starter's paycheck. The change in leagues could help Fujii in his first year in Sapporo if he stays healthy because Pacific League clubs aren't used to him, plus they are a power-short circuit (and what power there is tends to be old age-wise) with bigger parks than the Central League.

Yakult could potentially have shored up its bullpen - or maybe not. The fact of the matter is that if Fighters' management believed that Oshimoto, Hashimoto, and Kawashima were as good as you guys seem to think then they would have kept them. Oshimoto, I think, will prove to be rather indifferent while Hashimoto is the one who could be the find.

If Kawashima held such offensive promise, Nippon Ham would have found a way to hold on to him because let's face it, they don't really have much other than Inaba and Morimoto in terms of run scoring potential unless Sho Nakata explodes out of the box ala Kiyohara when the latter was a rookie with Seibu.

Don't you think calling players "junk" is a little harsh? Also, your reasoning that ball clubs know exactly how players are going to turn out is proved false with all the terrible trades Hanshin made in recent years.

Maybe that characterization of Sakamoto and Miki could be seen as harsh, but just what has Sakamoto done other than get his clock cleaned during his career? Miki has just been a spare part. Really, they're just taking up space on the Fighters roster with little likely on field return. That makes them junk.

As for the three players that Yakult acquired in the deal, it is true that sometimes a change of scenery and coaching can do some players a bit of good, but that is so speculative at this point that one can only conclude that since trades are so seldom in NPB (and referencing Tsuyoshi Shinjo's comment a few years ago about trades being for players that are no longer needed), the confidence in Hashimoto, Kawashima, and Oshimoto by Nippon Ham's management could be construed as not entirely high.

I will give you that Hanshin's front office at one time was a joke (the Kitagawa trade with Kintetsu, now in retrospect, which at the time just seemed to be two teams moving deck chairs on their respective floundering ships, being particularly glaring), but it was also the same club that stole Akinobu Mayumi from Seibu in exchange for a deteriorating Koichi Tabuchi. Mayumi is probably on the way to the Hall of Fame now while Tabuchi did little for the Lions during his tenure there.