Irabu to Hanshin

The question is will he get to be the kurage again, or will he forever be the "fat toad"?

> The question is will he get to be the kurage again,
> or will he forever be the "fat toad"?


Kurage means Jellyfish in Japanese right??? Was that his nickname? Why?

It probably was 1993. After Irabu defeated the Nippon Ham Fighters in the summer of '93. Mr. Keiji Ohsawa, the manager of the Fighters at that time refered Irabu as "Makuhari no kurage" which literally means the jellyfish of Makuhari. Makuhari is the city located near the Marines' home stadium. Since jellyfish bite (or sting) swimmers in the sea, Mr. Ohsawa meant to say that his team was bitten by the jellyfish. Or Irabu was called kurage (the jellyfish) because of his pitching form.

- If any player who had gone to the Majors would have been blackballed by Japanese teams, I was sure it would have been Irabu. He was a major reason that the current posting system was put into place.

We don't have the luxury of discarding/discounting quality players because of stuff like that unfortunately. Although I s'pose it answers this question.

Personally I welcome Irabu to Hanshin.

I think Irabu deserves another chance, in Japan, United States, or Afganistan. No problem.

The Daily Yomiuri reported today that Hanshin was on the verge of signing Irabu. Strangely, however, it's not on their website, so sorry, I can't give a link. SanSpo also reports that the negotiations between Hanshin & Irabu are in the "final stages."

Incidentally, now that the Petagine campaign has died, the Tigers can finally get down to negotiating with George Arias, who it appears now has a good chance of staying. Good news, I reckon.

It's official. Irabu signs with Hanshin for $2 million.

Will they start him or use him as a closer?

I read in SanSpo a few days back that they're thinking of using him and Ishige as starters. I wonder if this might not be wishful thinking. Going by this year's rotation of Igawa, Yabu, Moore, Kawajiri, Fujikawa, and Fujita, you could say that Fujikawa and Fujita didn't perform well enough to be there. But since Hoshino-kantoku likes to use his younger players, I suspect he'd be loathe to replace them with a "fat toad."

$2 million for one year seems a lot for an closer in NPB, especially for one who is not exactly a John Smoltz, Mariano Rivera, or Rod Pedreza.

Well, this is Hanshin we're talking about after all. Their management has never been known for its intelligence (in the last 15 years anyway...). I will say that if they intent to use him as an old school closer who comes on whenever there's trouble after the 7th, then he'd be worth closer to the price tag.

On a side note, why don't managers start making their best reliever work either the 7th or 8th inning instead of the 9th if the situation presents itself? It never made sense to me to have your best reliever pitch to the bottom of the order in the ninth when the middle of the order comes up in the 8th. Even if you only want him to work one inning, just use someone else against the weaker part of the order!

Irabu will be a benefit to the Tigers. He still has good stuff and will benefit from being in the starting rotation. He will still make mistakes up in the zone, however it will not hurt him as much in Japan as it did in the US. He will win a lot of games back in his homeland.

I had the pleasure of watching him throw bullpens last off season at the high school where I coach, and I can tell you that he still has pleanty of arm strength and the good splitter. He was also easy to ask questions to and a nice guy. I wish him the best of luck.

- He will win a lot of games back in his homeland.

Now that's what I like to hear. Any winning addition to the Tigers' rotation is welcome; God knows we need it.

In fact, one of the Tigers-related programs on Sun TV (an Osaka/Kobe regional channel) featured former Tiger Koji Nakada saying essentially the same thing. I.e., while Hanshin has a decent rotation based around Igawa, Yabu, and Moore, an in-form Irabu would be a strong addition, and would bring stability, not only increasing our winning chances, but also making life a tad easier for younger pitchers like Kyuji Fujikawa and Taiyo Fujita.

Footnote: Two pieces of trivia about Kyuji Fujikawa:

1. The kanji for his name translate into English as "Baseball Child."
2. His squad number is 92. This might seem incongruous at first, but there is a reason for it: the numbers 9 and 2 can be read "Kyu-ji."

Sankei Sports today reports that Hanshin's Hoshino-kantoku has announced Igawa will be the starting pitcher in the Tigers' first game of 2003, and Irabu will start the second.

Hmmmm, interesting. So Irabu will begin the season as a starter, eh? I wonder if he'll finish it in the starting rotation.