Hanshin Acquires Sheets

A correction - it is a $4 million two year deal. Sorry for the mistake.

I have been away for a couple of weeks. Any word on where Arias is going?

No information yet, but I have been looking at Sheet's career in MLB and NPB. Hardly stellar in either league.

Well as far as batting is concerned, his .298 average, 160 RBIs and 48 home runs in two seasons at Hiroshima doesn't make Sheets a washout either. Let's compare this to George Arias' first two seasons in Japan: .256 - 158 - 64.

His numbers were inflated by playing in the confines of the small stadium in Hiroshima. Yes, he did more than his part in helping the Carp, but 48 HRs in two seasons with Hiroshima hardly compares to hitting in a stadium like Koshien.

Arias' first two seasons in Japan were with the BlueWave, and he played in the Green Stadium which has dimensions above the NPB average. He never hit for average, he was only on Hanshin for his ability to hit the ball a long way. I'll be surprised if Sheets manages to cross 20 HRs next year.

My prediction: .280, 15-18 HRs, 70 RBIs.

Somehow I get the feeling Sheets wasn't acquired for his power hitting. Remember, the Tigers won the pennant in 2003 with some of the lowest home run numbers in Japan, but with excellent round-the-bases hussle.

This is just speculation, but maybe Okada-kantoku et al have decided that it's time to drop their neither-here-nor-there experiment with aiming for the fences, and that they already have some potential big hitters in Kanemoto, Hamanaka (assuming his arm heals), Sekimoto, and even Wei-Tzu Lin.

If that was their philosophy, surely Sheets would fit right in with Akahoshi, Fujimoto, Hiyama, and Yano: a good average, base running, a few HRs now and again, and decent defence to boot.

Sekimoto hasn't given any indication that he's a power hitter yet (if ever) and Hamanaka is too injury prone. Kanemoto had a fantastic year last season, but as the results showed - one power hitter is not enough. This does not at present look like a match winning side.

There is no doubt Hiroshima is small, but Koshien in not all that spacious either. It is incredibly shallow down the lines and just average to center. The only CL stadium which is substantially larger all around is Nagoya Dome. Kanemoto was able to put up stats comparable to his career averages over the 2 years at Koshein when he made the same move.

Basically, Andy Sheets is an extremely solid, consistant, and steady ballplayer on and off the field. He is a team guy who knows what it takes and who is very durable. I think Hanshin decided to bring in a proven guy rather than take a chance on a player who is completely new to Japanese Baseball. Will he hit .350 with 45 HR? I doubt it. But I think your prediction of his stats could be a bit low. But even so, .280, 18 HR, and 70 RBI from a guy who never misses a game is pretty solid. I guess we'll see.

Putting Sheets at cleanup and at first base is a mistake to me. Sheets only played three major league games at first base, and has never played first base in Japan.

Who knows about where he should hit in the lineup, but playing first base should be quite an easy transition for someone moving from the most difficult defensive position to the easiest position. I think it's safe to say that before he plays one game for the Tigers, he is already the best defensive first baseman in Japan.

Maybe it is an easy transition, but it is certainly premature to say that he is the best first baseman in Japan. Whilst I am sceptical, I am hoping that Sheets does well with the Tigers. But I am still wondering where they are going to find their power hitters.

According to reports, Hanshin plans on batting Sheets cleanup. I'm sorry, but I can't see Sheets as a good signing in compensation for Arias. Also I can't see Sheets being the best defensive shortstop in the NPB. What's more, with the fact Tyrone Woods was on the market before being signed by Chunichi, this makes the Sheets signing even worse to me.

Nobody ever said Sheets was the best defensive shortstop in Japan. What does Woods signing with Chunichi have to do with anything?

- What does Woods signing with Chunichi have to do with anything?

It makes signing Sheets look worse, in my opinion, when they could of signed Tyrone Woods instead.

Yes, they could have signed Woods but didn't. Woods will be paid nearly $11 million over 2 years compared to Sheets' $4 million. Let's see who will look like the better sign in 2 years.

One, Tyrone Woods is getting paid about 9.7 million over two years. Second, there is no way Sheets is better offensively than Woods. Maybe Sheets is even with Arias, but not Tyrone Woods. Even in the two years, in my opinion, Woods will still be better than Sheets. Woods had a OPS of .963 in Japan while Sheets had a OPS of .857, that's a difference of .106, hit with way more power, and is already proven as a first baseman.

1) Please read the messages, nobody said Sheets was better offensively than Woods?

2) Woods not signing with Hanshin is irrelavant. They tried to sign him and failed. They would have loved to sign him, and if they had, they would have been in better position than they are now. No one disputes it.

3) Sheets is and will be a better defensive first baseman than Woods. There is no real adjustment for a shortstop to move to first base. He has better hands, better speed, and a better arm - although defense is not really that important.

4) Woods will be playing in Nagoya Dome, which seems much bigger than the other parks. His numbers will slip more than Sheets.

5) Don't be so negative.

Sounds like a good deal for the Tigers. I think Sheets will do a nice job for them. He might not hit 30 home runs, but should hit over .300 and drive in a lot of runs with that lineup.

I don't know if you guys noticed, but the Tigers have a better lineup surrounding Sheets than did the Carp.

Westbay-san this is not me replying to these forums.

I have to agree with Mr. Schullstrom - making the transition from shortstop to first base should be a breeze for Sheets. Sheets should put up offensive numbers comparable to, or even better than, the numbers Arias put up.

I have a question. Is the poster going by the name Erik Schullstrom the Erik Schullstrom who pitched for the Fighters and Carp? And if so, I have another question. I enjoyed watching you pitch for the Fighters, especially since you came into the game with "Crazy Train" (one of my all-time favorite tunes) blaring from the speakers. Was that your idea? Or did the Fighters come up with that?

Possibly, but nothing in his career indicates an ability to put that kind of offensive improvement so far. His figures for 2004 were comparable to those of Arias until you realise that Arias was injured for a significant period and Sheets played the whole season.

- [...] making the transition from shortstop to first base should be a breeze for Sheets. Sheets should put up offensive numbers comparable to, or even better than, the numbers Arias put up.

Right now it's still premature for you to say if Sheets can make the transistion to first base, and if he put numbers comparable even to Arias.

Yes, that is me. Yes, we chose our own music to come into the game. I probably should have chose something a bit more soothing though, the last thing I needed was an extra boost of adrenaline.

Thanks for replying to my questions. I thought that your choice of "Crazy Train" was pretty tight, although I don't think normal Japanese fans knew what the song was.

I love seeing relief pitchers coming into a ballgame with an awesome hard rock song blaring from the speakers. One of my favorites is seeing Eric Gagne coming into a game with "Game Over" flashing on the scoreboard and "Welcome to the Jungle" blasting from the speakers, working the usually passive LA crowd into a frenzy. And I'm not even a Dodgers fan. Trevor Hoffman's "Hell's Bells" routine is nice too.

Getting back to Sheets, someone posted a reply to my statement saying that he was skeptical of putting up Arias-type numbers. Arias put up decent numbers, but he wasn't exactly Woods or Cabrera. I'm pretty sure Sheets can match or better Arias' numbers.

Getting back to Sheets, he has a proven track record in Japan, has been largely injury free, and he can be plugged in at short if Toritani gets injured (I think that Okada doesn't trust Fujimoto there and would like to keep him as a backup for Imaoka).

George wasn't bad defensively, but Andy is still somewhat of an upgrade in that phase of the game. Hanshin's defense last season was very disappointing to team management. So that, no doubt, played a role in deciding to go after Sheets.

But one thing to think about is that Andy's RISP last season was .317 while Arias' was around .260. In 2003, Sheets hit .296 with RISP. So with Hanshin leaving loads of runners on last season (in fact, leading the CL in being shutout), Sheets lends that aspect of the game more consistency with a bit of a higher OBP than Arias. But Sheets should hit fifth or sixth, not fourth.

My proposed lineup:

Akahoshi
Sekimoto
Imaoka
Kanemoto
Sheets
Hiyama
Yano
Toritani
Pitcher

They need one more true power bat, though. Hamanaka won't be it this season after two shoulder surgeries. Hiyama was terrible with RISP most of last season before finishing strongly. For Hanshin to contend, he has to be more consistent in 2005.

The problem with using Sheets as a replacement for Toritani would be: who would go to first base? I think that Fujimoto will retain that role as he is a superior shortstop to Sheets. It strikes me that he was signed because he was OK and reliable, but not spectacular.

Arias blotted his copybook by talking to the press about Okada's managment style and this is a more likely explanation as to why he was let go.

I am hoping that Sheets proves me wrong, but I have no confidence that he will.