Gaijin Players for 2007

I heard yesterday from a friend that Lotte let Franco go.

Really. He did not have that great of year and was demoted late in the season though. Lotte should have all new gaijin next year then with the exception of Benny.

The Dragons just signed Byung Kyu Lee from KBO's LG Twins. He hit .297 with 7 homers this past season. I really don't see him replacing Ochoa well with those numbers.

Yeah, I don't understand. I tried to rationalize their decision to let Alex go by thinking it would open up more OF slots for players they already had, but this signing goes against that thinking. Unless they found Lee too good to pass up or they have some other angle in mind.

Hiroshima: Jared Fernandez, Sean Douglass
Yokohama: Mark Kroon
Yomiuri: Jeremy Powell, Seung-Yeop Lee
Chunichi: Byung-Kyu Lee
Yakult: Alex Ramirez
Hanshin: Ryan Vogelsong, Andy Sheets, Darwin Cubillan, Jeff Williams

Seibu: Jeff Liefer, Chris Gissel, Alex Graman
Softbank: Adam Hyzdu, CJ Nitkowski
Orix: Tom Davey,
Rakuten: Rick Short, Jose Fernandez, Kevin Witt
Lotte: Benny Agbayani
Nippon Ham: Andy Green, Brian Sweeny

As far as I know, these players are already signed for 2007 or are highly likely to return to their 2006 teams.

What about Dan Serifini, Alex Ochoa, Matt Watson, Tyrone Woods, Ryan Glynn, Rick Guttormson, etc.? Were they all released? Some of those guys had good seasons and I was wondering if they were returning to their respective clubs.

Serafini and Watson didn't do much this year, and when they did do something, it wasn't very good. I'd be shocked and appalled to see them back on the mound.

If Tyrone Woods isn't back I'd be pretty surprised unless his contract was up and he got a bigger offer back home.

I thought Ochoa had a pretty good year too, but I could be horrendously wrong and, yet again, can't be bothered to look it up. God bless indifference.

Matt Watson is an outfielder. You're probably thinking of Justin Miller, who went 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA in 12 appearances.

CJ Nitkowski has placed a thoughtful commentary up on his web site concerning his decision to pitch in Japan.

Good luck CJ! I wish you and your family success and happiness in Japan.

Ah! You're absolutely right. My mistake.

I read from some random blog source that Woods was in negotiations with Chunichi on the team trip to Vegas this week. If I ran a U.S. team that needed offense at 1B/DH (the A's?) I think I would offer the guy a 1 year deal for the 5-6 million or so that it would take. The dude can mash, he had what, 1100 OPS in that league? Gotta be good for 950-1000 or so here.

You will see great things from Brian Sweeney in 2007. Not only is he a good pitcher, but a fine gentleman with ethics that all players should have.

Guttormson signed with Softbank.

Also, Yokohama brought in a pair of foreign relievers whose names I can't recall (brain cramp). I have no idea if they will bring Shawn Sonnier back.

Adam Riggs will be back with Yakult while Greg LaRocca looks like he will retire if he can't find a job in NPB.

Ryan Glynn is definitely out at Rakuten now because he and the Eagles couldn't come to terms on a contract.

Woods will almost certainly be back with Chunichi. AFAIK, there is zero MLB interest in him.

Lotte's Saburo Ohmura more or less demanded that Lotte bring in a big name player from MLB. Fat chance that will happen. Lotte released all of its foreign players except for Agbayani.

The BayStars brought in Scott Chiasson and Jose Diaz to help their bullpen. I don't think Sonnier will be back since Marc Kroon will fill out the other foreign spot.

I heard LaRocca's going to sign with the Orix Buffaloes.

Am I getting the feeling that Ohmura's blaming his poor season on the lack of protection from the foreign hitters? Matt Watson looks like he will be back in Chiba. Projected over a full season his stats don't look that bad. To me the biggest bust was Val Pascucci.

You are right. LaRocca is going to sign with the Buffaloes.

Yokohoma brought in Joselo Diaz and Scott Chiasson.

Chiba Lotte brought in a pitcher from Taiwan, Wu Si-Yo.

Also, Rakuten brought in another pitcher from Taiwan, En-Yu Lin.

It is either Szu-Yo Wu, En-Yu Lin. Or Lin En-Yu, Wu Szu-Yo. Anyways, Wu and Lin are the surname of the two Taiwanese pitchers.

A Japanese paper reported that Orix is interested in signing John Rodriguez, who played for the Cards this year.

On another front, Orix has signed Chad Allen for the 2007 season and is reportedly pursuing Greg LaRocca.

I'd say Lotte should go after LaRocca, since an injured LaRocca with 18 homers is better than what we had in 2006. However, with Nemoto batting .343 on the farm, I think it's obvious that he is the heir to that second base spot. I haven't seen a farm player put up an average like that since Aoki, and we know how he turned out.

Rumor mill says Willie Eyre might be coming to play. Just became available from what I have heard.

Where did you hear the rumor about Willie Eyre?

LaRocca will not retire. He is set to sign with the Lions.

Not the Lions, the Buffaloes.

Anything brewing as far as where Alex Ochoa may end up?

I know the NPB teams do not look for foreign players to be good role/bench players, so he'd have to look toward MLB, where he has a great track record as a fourth outfielder who can play right, center, left, give you good late inning defense, and give you a very productive and clutch 200-300 at bats. He must be in negotiations somewhere because I'm seeing a lot of outfielders with much less to offer than Ochoa signing minor league contracts and getting invites to Spring training. I can't believe the MLB honchos are unaware of who Ochoa is and what he can do. I also can't believe Ochoa could be "black-balled" for any reason, because he's never been a trouble-maker anywhere. I'd think that four years of being an everyday player in pennant races with the Dragons has made him a better player, and he was a pretty good one before he left for Japan. Also, he provided a solution to that touchy Kevin Millar situation in '03 by going to Japan, so you'd think he's entitled to one more opportunity to at least get a shot at returning to MLB, no guarantees, just a shot. That's all an athlete asks for.

According to a report in SpoNichi, outfielder Aaron Guiel is headed to the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. His salary has yet been determined, but if he does sign he would get around $1 million.

Guiel would be a great pick-up for the Swallows. I always liked him when he was with the Royals. He can play all 3 outfield positions and he can play 1st base also. He's not a big guy - 5'10" - but he has a big heart.

He languished in the minors for a long time before going to Mexico and putting up big numbers there which led to him being picked up by KC. He finally made his MLB debut at age 29.

He's Canadian and has played in foreign countries before, so he shouldn't have any problems adjusting to Japan and Japanese baseball.

I see where Nippon Ham took Ryan Glynn from Rakuten. The Fighters seem to be serious about winning again. The loss of Ogasawara hurts, but the rotation should be very good. Darvish, Yagi, Glynn, Kanemura, and Sweeney. That is not a bad starting five, and with Micheal closing they look good on the pitching front.