Have you found the protected player list yet?

The Orix Buffaloes announced their first round picks of protected players yesterday (November 4), showing up in today's Nikkan Sports for me to pass on to you. Sorry for the wait, but I prefer to wait for the official announcement rather than repeat the same old speculation for weeks (like Isobe was on and off this list several times over the past several weeks).

Pitcher
OBW Ohkubo Masanobu (0 W - 0 L, 0.00 ERA)
OBW Kawagoe Hidetaka (7-9, 4.17)
OBW Yamaguchi Kazuo (3-3, 3.80)
OBW Motoyanagi Kazuya (6-11, 5.61)
OBW Aiki Takashi (3-5, 5.36)
OKB Iwakuma Hisashi (15-2, 3.01)
OKB Yamamoto Shogo (3-1, 2.78)
OKB Takagi Yasunari (2-7, 4.87)
OKB Yoshikawa Katsunari (4-4, 2.82)
OKB Fukumori Kazuo (2-5, 5.18)

Catcher
OBW Hidaka Takeshi (.275 BA, 5 HR, 38 RBI)
OKB Fujii Akihito (.241, 1, 20)

Infield
OBW Gotoh Mitsutaka (.259, 1, 18)
OBW Shiozaki Makoto (.341, 8, 39)
OBW Hirano Keiichi (.279, 6, 39)
OBW Ohshima Koichi (.263, 0, 10)
OKB Kitagawa Hirotoshi (.303, 20, 88)
OKB Mizuguchi Eiji (.293, 6, 40)
OKB Abe Masahiro (.247, 7, 50)
OKB Nakamura Norihiro (.274, 19, 66)
OKB Yoshioka Yuji (.000, 0, 0)

Outfield
OBW Tani Yoshitomo (.317, 15, 63)
OBW Muramatsu Arihito (.320, 6, 51)
OBW Aikawa Ryota (.273, 3, 15)
OBW Mukae Yuichiro (.267, 5, 14)

Numbers following the players' names are for the 2004 season at ichi-gun.

Expect Orix to trade Iwakuma soon (he's been highly critical of the merger) and an income from Nakamura's posting.

The next phase of dividing up players will be on November 8 when Rakuen selects 20 players who were not protected, then alternating to Orix, Rakuten, ... selecting 20 players each until the remaining players have been divided up. That's this year's version of an "expansion draft."

Thank you!

So do you think Isobe will be picked up by Rakuten or is free to go do what he has to do? Also, did Ohshima and Mizuguchi file for free agency or did they turn it down to stay with the merged group? Did I read the free agent list wrong?

Do you have any opinions on who will be part of the Rakuten 20?

Did you see the whole list yet? Orix went heavy on Blue Wave players. Do you think there is any reason for that (i.e. easier to sign, more familiar with the prospects, etc.)? According to the records, Kintetsu has the better talent.

Please explain if you can!

The division of the Orix BlueWave and Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes has been completed. The above 25 protected players included, what follows is the new Orix Buffaloes (67 players) and Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (40 players).

Orix Buffaloes

Pitchers
Katoh         Okamoto
Shibata       Katsuki
Katoh         Yamamoto
Yamaguchi     Iwakuma
Ogawa         Takagi
Kawagoe       Taniguchi
Yuki          K. Abe
Iwashita      Uto
Mac Suzuki    Miyamoto
Motoyanagi    Kondoh
Ohkubo        Kurita
Aiki          Yoshikawa
Nomura
Matsumura
Hagiwara
Yamamoto
Shiyoya

Catchers
Hidaka      Matoyama
Yoshihara   F. Suzuki
Maeda       Yokoyama
Uemura
Nagata

Infielders
Gotoh        Nakamura
Fukutome     Mizuguchi
Shiotani     Miki
Hirano       Abe
Shiozaki     Yamasaki
Goshima      Kitagawa
Makita       Saka
Shimamura    Nakamoto
Kikuchi
T. Tamaki

Outfielders
Muramatsu      Yamashita
Tani           Sakaguchi
Hida           Kira
Aikawa         Ohnishi
Hayakawa       Ido
Mukae
Yoshida


Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

Pitchers
Kawajiri      Kaneda
Yamamura      Taninaka
Arime         Tokano
Fukumori      Kobayashi
Aikyoh        Ogura
Takamura      Tokumoto
Yano
Koike
Asai
Yoshida
Satoh

Catchers
Fujii          Koh. Takahashi
Shinzato
Chikazawa
Nagasaka

Infielders
Yoshioka       Saitoh
Takasu         Ohshima
Maeda
Yamashita
Saka
Hoshino

Outfielders
Moritani        Satake
Masuda          Ryutaro
Isobe           Kojima
Takano          Nakashima
Kawaguchi
Makida