Free Agency Costs Kudoh, Not Giants
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Re: Free Agency Costs Kudoh, Not Giants
[ Author: Jbroks86 | Posted: Jan 11, 2007 11:45 AM
| SFT Fan
]
Overall, I have to find myself in complete agreement with Allen. The system overall has benefited them a ton.
It's very unlikely in this part of Kudoh's career he will outpitch Kadokura, so overall it's a great signing by Yomiuri. Not to mention they're getting rid of Kudoh's salary, too, and as pointed out, is less likely than Kadokura of having a big year at his age.
As for Noguchi, who knows? He's been so injury-prone these last three years that one has to wonder what Yomiuri was thinking when they signed him (in which he played in just one game). And at the loss of Oda, once again no biggie. It's not like Abe is taking a lot of days off these days. The only worry is Yomiuri has no depth at catcher shall the Giants have to move Abe to another position, but nearly no NPB team seems to have reasonable depth at catcher.
As for Toyoda, like Allen pointed out, he addressed a big weakness for Yomiuri, the lack of a closer. Takahashi pitched very poorly in relief of Toyoda. When healthy, I'd rather take my chances on Toyoda, based on the past of both players.
And as for Etoh, yes he's useful off the bench, but I have the feeling his days of being useful ended years ago.
So, closing out, yes, I most definitely agree the system does has its flaws, but it seems Yomiuri is finding a way once again to make the system work for them as always. Now only if they could make that farm system work for them as well as they've done with free agency.
It's very unlikely in this part of Kudoh's career he will outpitch Kadokura, so overall it's a great signing by Yomiuri. Not to mention they're getting rid of Kudoh's salary, too, and as pointed out, is less likely than Kadokura of having a big year at his age.
As for Noguchi, who knows? He's been so injury-prone these last three years that one has to wonder what Yomiuri was thinking when they signed him (in which he played in just one game). And at the loss of Oda, once again no biggie. It's not like Abe is taking a lot of days off these days. The only worry is Yomiuri has no depth at catcher shall the Giants have to move Abe to another position, but nearly no NPB team seems to have reasonable depth at catcher.
As for Toyoda, like Allen pointed out, he addressed a big weakness for Yomiuri, the lack of a closer. Takahashi pitched very poorly in relief of Toyoda. When healthy, I'd rather take my chances on Toyoda, based on the past of both players.
And as for Etoh, yes he's useful off the bench, but I have the feeling his days of being useful ended years ago.
So, closing out, yes, I most definitely agree the system does has its flaws, but it seems Yomiuri is finding a way once again to make the system work for them as always. Now only if they could make that farm system work for them as well as they've done with free agency.
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Balancing the Ken Kadokura and Kimiyasu Kudoh exchange, the Giants get a starter who's 22 and 17 over the past two years for a starter who's 14 and 11 over that time period (and probably at the end of his career). 2006 exchanges such as Chunichi free agent pitcher Shigeki Noguchi for catcher Kohei Oda or Seibu free agent closer Kiyoshi Toyoda for ailing third baseman Akira Etoh have been mostly zero-sum exchanges, or even benefited the Giants.
Allen-san sums it up: