Archived Weblog Entry - 11/08/2002: "Japanese Baseball News"

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11/08/2002 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News"

Hot Shots....

Former Hiroshima reliever Rigo Beltran has been invited to the Baltimore Orioles spring training camp....Will Kimmey at Baseball America predicts that Hideki Matsui will hit .280 with 20 homers and 75 RBIs in his debut MLB season....The Yankees said to be interested in Kintetsu closer Akinori Otsuka, who will be posted later this month. Also said to be looking at the righty are the Mariners, Cubs, Dodgers, Mets, Rangers, SF Giants and Red Sox. Otsuka is represented by IMG, which also fronts for Tsuyoshi Shinjo....The Chunichi Dragons lost the second game of its Cuba trip 4-3. They will be back in Japan on the 11th....The Dragons would like to retain infielder Omar Linares for at least one more season, but no word from either the Cuban government or Linares himself as to what he will do....Hardthrowing Yakult Swallows southpaw Hirotoshi Ishii says he wants to go to MLB in three years, preferably to the Dodgers. He has been clocked at a lifetime high of 97mph, the fastets of any Japanese lefty ever since the radar gun was introduced....The Daiei Hawks are interested in further bolstering their pitching staff by drafting talented Nihon University righthander Takeshi Tsutsumiuchi. The Hawks, though, after conlcuding deals with Nagisa Arakaki and Tsuyoshi Wada, should start looking for position players, as they are likely to lose slugging third baseman Hiroki Kokubo to MLB after this season via free agency....However, the Fukuoka nine has pulled off a trade with Hanshin, sending 28 year old lefthander Masahiro Sakumoto to the Tigers in exchange for outfielder Masashi Matsuda....To add to the leg and elbow injuries he's had this season, Seibu Lions ace Daisuke Matsuzaka has now hurt his right heel and may not start the East- West all star game in Shizuoka on the 10th....At a meeting in Nagoya, Japanese owners decided that up to two players from each team could play in the 2004 Athens Olympics. There will be no interruption of the season, unlike the KBO....Seibu Lions manager Haruki Ihara used the word "suketto" (helper), a term usually applied to foreign players who come to Japanese teams, to describe Hideki Matsui's role in MLB. "I want him to show the big leaguers, THIS is Japanese baseball," Ihara elaborated.... An unnamed woman's gossip magazine is saying that Matsui may soon get married to a Fukuoka woman seven years his junior. But Matsui himself curtly denied the report, according to Chunichi Sports....Alex Cabrera called receiving the Pacific League MVP "the greatest day of my life"....Yomiuri Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe, after hearing of Norihiro Nakamura's new hair style, said he found it distasteful, but that he is thinking more of winning, basically implying that he would put up with it....Nakamura, though, is favoring Hanshin, according to Sankei Sports, who say he may be willing to compromise on his salary and settle for a three year deal at $12 million....Hanshin has come to agreement with free agent rightfielder Shinjiro Hiyama on a three year contract worth $1.3 million a season....The Tigers front office is also saying that if Nakamura signs with them, they are going to forego a run at Roberto Petagine....One of the things that Ichiro reportedly impressed on Watanabe was about the way artificial turf shortens a player's career....Barry Bonds wowed the Japanese press earlier today with a 530 foot blast off of a light standard well above the back of the rightfield seats at Tokyo Dome....Torii Hunter says that if Matsui hits anything around the fence he will catch it. He says he doesn't want Godzilla to go way downtown ala Bonds....Eric Gagne has ditched his trademark filthy cap for a brand new model for this series....Derrick Lee, whose father Leon played with Lotte, says he wants to play in Japan at some point....A.J. Peircynski (sp?) and Yomiuri closer Junichi Kawahara played together as teammates in a Hawaii winter league five years ago....After their workout, the MLB team took a trip to the Sensoji temple in Tokyo's Asakusa district, where they spent a little less than an hour checking out the facilities and snacking on senbei, a kind of salty cracker....Chunichi Sports is saying that if Yomiuri is successful in luring Nakamura to Tokyo, they will unload Akira Etoh in a trade....

Structure of Matsui Deal Revealed

See story at: Sports Network Article

Matsui Topic of Conversation at GM Meetings

See story at: NY Post Article

Japan's Home Run King is Leaving

There are a couple of factual errors in this piece, but it is, for the most part, pretty well done. See story at: NY Times Article

Big Leaguers Prepare to Face Yomiuri

See story at:Japan Times Article

Gagne Looking Forward to Facing Japanese Squad

See story at: Japan Times Article

Ichiro Can Do No Wrong in Japan

This is a little on the inane side, but here it is: NY Daily News Article