Is Mizuta Retiring?

They were saying goodbye to him because he just got traded to Hanshin for Taiyo Fujita, I think.

Mizuta's been with Seibu for a long time but as a farm player, but I think he "grew up" with a lot of the current team members, so it's probably a little sad for them.

(Which reminds me, speaking of long-time Seibu farm guys, I thought the Lions traded Shogo Akada, but that doesn't actually seem to be the case.)

SimCentral is the first place that I saw the news: "Tigers trade Taiyo Fujita to Lions for Keisuke Mizuta."

It's Matsuri Weekend on Nojima (where I live), so it'll probably be Monday before I get the Player Meikan updated.

Oh man. So the Akada/Fujita trade didn't happen after all. I see that the Japanese press jumped the gun once again. That's probably why Mizuta was playing 3rd base on Friday night with "Okawari" Nakamura switching over to 1st for the evening.

Well Keisuke, it was a pleasure watching you at 2-gun this year and on Friday night. I wish you the best of luck with Hanshin and thank you for the memories.

There seems to be a particular procedure that must be followed in order to make a trade happen. The first step would be to have all players involved taken off the active (ichi-gun) roster. The Lions didn't do that until Sunday with Mizuta. The reason for the "demotion" to ni-gun given in today's (July 13, 200) Nikkan Sports (paper edition) was "trade" - so it looks like the trade is still on.

The next step is for the trade to clear the Commissioner's Office, which I expect to happen today. That'll be published in tomorrow's sports dailies.

What I don't understand is why the Lions waited until Sunday to move Mizuta down and complete the trade. Was it because the trade wouldn't go through until Monday anyway, so they allowed him one more sayonara game? Considering Friday's "send off" scene, I don't necessarily think that it was the press jumping the gun on reporting the trade. There is something else going on here, but I can't put my finger on it.

I think I may have the answer to that question. On the Lions webpage, you can see that on Sunday pitcher Kazuyuki Hoashi was promoted to the top team when Keisuke Mizuta was taken off the roster or sent down. Here's a link to that information.

Hoashi did start on Sunday so maybe that's why the trade was halted until that time. But again, this could have nothing to do with the trade at all. I'm just pointing out something I observed.

Also too, I guess I was mistaken about the press jumping the gun on the original Akada/Fujita trade as I went back and read the original article [Sponichi] again and it turns out that the trade was a "mutual agreement." Guess I've gotta pay more attention to the Kanji.

Why that trade was botched though is still something I'd like to know.

No, no, no. The trade was not botched. The Lions just seem to be dragging their feet in transferring Mizuta.

The Lions de-registered Mizuta on Sunday. I don't know why they kept him at ichi-gun an extra day, but the reason for demoting him was for a "trade." So they do intend on trading Mizuta.

Furthermore, today's (July 13) Nikkan Sports (paper edition) has a photo of Fujita in a Lions uniform having been given the #45. So the trade is a done deal. It's real.

It just hasn't cleared the Commissioner's Office yet.