Ramirez to Giants

Unbelievable. I didn't expect that. Things seemed pretty quiet with him.

So I'm guessing Ramirez in left, Tani in center, and Yoshinobu in right. Add the MVP third baseman, Asian single season home run king, best batting catcher, and possibly one of the best batting shortstops in NPB history.

That is definitely a big offensive team, but their pitching will need to show up. They didn't win it all with that 259 homer club back in 2004. If money doesn't matter to them, they should outbid Hanshin for Seth Greisinger.

BigManZam: You're right about the 2008 Giants looking like a team with a ton of offensive potential. But I sure don't care for the outfield defense. We all know about Rami's limitations in left, and I don't like Tani as the everyday center fielder. A few years ago, yes, in 2008, no.

And now Y. Takahashi has gotten a long-term contract, but let's see how long he can stay healthy. Every time he has to go all out for a ball, all concerned with the Giants will be holding their breath.

I see one particularly bright spot in all of this - namely, that there's just no excuse for Shimizu to get much playing time next year, and thus I won't leave a Giants game with "Go West" running through my head for the next week.

Okay, it's not much, but it's all I've got.

What number will Ramirez play in Giants' batting order?

Sad. Just very sad. First Petagine, now Ramirez.

Yakult's front office never ceases to amaze me in it's stupidity and cheapness.

We're talking about the team who's owner was a member of the Nagashima Fan Club - while Nagashima-kantoku was the opposing manager - aren't we? How can anything they do amaze you any further?

This is true.

However, they continue to find new ways. Letting go of both your best bat and starting pitcher for example.

Yakult really needs to sell the team to someone who gives a d@mn.

Wow! Now the Midgets will have five of the top ten HR hitters in the NPB in their line up. If they lose again next year they can buy the other five and bring over Bonds.

Is that why they drafted Kazushige? The guy thought he'd miraculously turn into his father?

I remember that they tried to get Nagashima to manage the Swallows at one point, but I don't remember if that was when they drafted Jr. or not. It was right about that time, as Fujita was still managing the Giants.

What I've heard of the deal was that everything was set, but the Swallows announced it too soon and Mister backed out of the deal. The general consensus is that Nagashima-kantoku didn't want to manage any team other than the Giants, and he used the pre-mature announcement as an excuse to get out of the deal.

When Nagashima-kantoku was reinstated as the Giants' manager a couple years later, the Swallows gladly handed Jr. over to the Giants. (Much to the joy of Swallows' fans, as I recall.)

Interestingly, instead of hiring his hero, the Swallows' owner hired some cranky old guy who constantly belittled the Giants and Nagashima-kantoku. Oh, and he made the Swallows a contender as well.

Gee, that's two good things that came out of the attempted hiring of Nagashima-kantoku, making the Swallows a very strong team in the 1990s.

Jingu will have a deeper outfield next season, 328 feet. However, the ball also tends to die in center field on rainy nights, a factor that Ramirez won't have now in Tokyo Dome. He is going to rake if he stays healthy. He also balances out their lineup, providing them with a proven right handed run producing bat.

Deanna mentioned Shimizu getting squeezed out and I have expected that he would be moved for a couple of seasons now. This might be the thing that sees him pushed over to another team. Either that or he will be the primary left handed bat off the bench. Tani is going to be an adventure in center. It could be that Suzuki will replace him in the late innings a lot.

And I would take Akinobu Mayumi over Nioka in the all time shortstop sweepstakes. How about Kenjiro Nomura? Kazuo Matsui when he was with Seibu, where NPB fans named him the best all time at the position? I like Nioka, who I don't think has gotten the respect from his team that he deserves, but there may have been better.

I think Shimizu is going to get traded. It would be in the Giants' best interest to get a young pitcher or infielder for him.

Mayumi definitely had a ton of power for a guy who played a lot of shortstop and second. I was thinking of Nioka being in the same group as Masaru Uno and Yukio Tanaka. Just a guy who has been consistently more powerful than the other shortstops in his generation.

Why is it that I have seen no mention of this signing in either JapanBall.com or Yomiuri Daily? Has the signing not gone through yet? Is this information that is not news worthy? I just found it very interesting.

I looked through all of the Japanese sports sites, and I couldn't find one single article about this either. It's quite possible that this wasn't actually news, but rather a rumor made up by some sports paper just to sell more copies.

I was thinking the same thing. I've seen nothing about this. Did the initial poster misinterpret a rumor for fact?

It was mentioned that the Giants are now in pursuit of Ramirez in this Sponichi article from December 7. They're willing to spend 12-oku yen total (including incentives?) for two years.

It's not until the third paragraph that it becomes clear that this is still speculation. The headline says that the Giants are obtaining Ramirez on the heals of getting Kroon. Yes, it's a very misleading headline.

Well, almost two weeks later, it seems Yomiuri and Ramirez are close on a two year deal worth 1.1 billion (11-oku) yen. The article said that Yomiuri is expected to announce the new deal sometime next week.

Source: Japan Ball

Why did Ramirez leave the Swallows?

- Why did Ramirez leave the Swallows?

It's simple, Yakult's front office is cheap. They lose their #1 pitcher (Greisinger) and #1 hitter (Ramirez) all in the same off-season to the Giants. Not to mention Brian Sikorski jumped leagues to return to Chiba Lotte and Kazuhisa Ishii jumped leagues to join Seibu.

What number will Ramirez play in the Giants' batting order, and what is the final salary for the Giants now?

He couldn't negotiate a salary raise. The Swallows were not prepared to pay what he was asking.

D@mn. I know Aaron (Guiel) was looking forward to learning more from Ramirez in order to improve his game. Still, 12-oku yen isn't anything to sneeze at, so a good deal for Ramirez.

Kinda worrying that the Giants can afford to pay their top 2 players 6-oku a season. As someone mentioned about the Giants trying to buy the league - haven't they been trying to do that for the last 5 years or so? But if they did win it - then Lee could go nonetheless?

- As someone mentioned about the Giants trying to buy the league - haven't they been trying to do that for the last 5 years or so? But if they did win it - then Lee could go nonetheless?

Yeah, that would be zman, talking about the Giants. Though we've seen how well buying a pennant has worked for them.

As for Lee, yes he can opt out only if the Giants win it all. Though without a strong year in 2008, I can't see how Lee will have any value whatsoever. If there really wasn't any serious interest after his strong 2006 season, what interest is there after his numbers fell in 2007?