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12/11/2002 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Cubs Echevarria Headed to Nippon Ham?"
Nippon Ham Negotiating With Cubs Over Echevarria
he Nippon Ham Fighters are negotiating for Chicago Cubs first baseman-outfielder Angel Echevarria, 31, according to Sports Nippon. Echevarria, a 6'3" 225 pound righthanded hitter, has done pretty solidly for himself in MLB, batting .280 with 21 homers and 90 RBIs in 328 lifetime games. This past season, he posted a .306 mark in 50 games. The Bridgeport, CT native also slugged 13 homers in the minors through June 21st, when he was called up to the big club.
When Echevarria was with Colorado in 1996, he popped 11 dingers and drove in 35 runs in 191 at bats and cracked basehits at a .293 clip with an OBP of .360 in the only season in which he was given much playing time. This will be a nice replacement for Sherman Obando, who was released at the end of the schedule. Too bad the Cubbies either didn't have a place for him or didn't want to offer him arbitration.
The team also announced that it had locked up Yankees minor league righthander Brandon Knight, who had gotten hammered in his 11 big league games (seven homers in 19.1 lifetime innings. Yikes!). So let's see how he now does in Japan.
Yakult Rookie Takai Thinking of Vietnam
Newly minted Yakult Swallows rookie pitcher Yuhei Takai says that he would like to build a hospital in Vietnam, according to a story in Sports Nippon. Having seen the plight of the average Vietnamese on television and read about it in books, he was so moved that he has made that his goal. Toward that end, he will be journeying to Vietnam next year.
"There's a big difference between the facilities in tourist areas and places that aren't geared to visitors," he noted. Sports Nippon checked into what it would cost to attain his goal. For a three floor, eight bed, two ward hospital, it would cost only about $100,000. But a bigger plan would run into the millions. Takai's teammates, Akinori Iwamura and Tetsuya Iida, are famous for their charitable activities, but they are concentrated on Japan. So this would be a formidable undertaking for a Japanese ballplayer, though Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki has been involved in some international charitable work for many years.
Hot Shots....
Congratulations to Lotte catcher Toshiya Tsuji, 23, who is getting married this coming January to his girlfriend of four years, Yuko Matsumoto, a 22 year old company worker. Matsumoto was a champion gymnast in junior high school and was also on the cheerleading squad of her company's industrial league team, so she should be able to relate well to what her athlete husband does....Over 300 attended the funeral for former Yomiuri Giants second baseman and Kintetsu Buffaloes manager Shigeru Chiba, who passed away earlier this week of cardiac arrest, at Tokyo's Bishamonten temple today ....Norihiro Nakamura called Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino to apologize for causing him trouble during the ongoing negotiations between him and the Tigers, letting Hoshino know that he was still thinking of going to his club, according to Sankei Sports. Meanwhile, it is still whispered that the Mets are only going to offer him a one year deal for $2 million.... Hanshin's conditioning coach says that Hideki Irabu won't be getting any special consideration just because of his MLB experience. He also said that they expect Irabu to come in at 220 pounds when he reports for spring training, but they aren't going to obsess about how heavy he is as long as he is able to get it done on the mound....Hanshin is going to hire former Yomiuri scouting head Kikuo Itoh. Itoh was known to be so far into his job that he even scouted junior high players....According to Hochi Sports, Ichiro Suzuki's agent, Tony Attanacio, says that he won't ask to begin negotiations for an extension during this offseason, but instead will wait until the end of the 2003 schedule. Ichiro is also going to forego arbitration even though his contract says he has the right to ask for it....With the deep pockets of the Orioles jumping into the Hideki Matsui bidding, the Yankees are considering putting off trading either Raul Mondesi or Rondell White until spring training in case Matsui goes elsewhere, claims Sankei Sports....Seibu Lions manager Haruki Ihara pleaded with his players through the press to put a lid on the demands for big salary increases since the Japanese economy is in the tank and the average salaryman is up against it. I wonder if Seibu executives have endured any pay cuts recently. Don't bet on it....Yokohama pitcher Yu Sugimoto was perturbed at the Stars front office being willing to pay him only what he made last season (about $120,000) and refusing to bestow a raise. He hinted that he may draw the negotiations out. If he actually did something last season, he might have a fair complaint, but he went 1-3 in 20 games with a 4.53 ERA in 53.2 innings. Coming into 2002, he had a career ERA of 4.86. Not exactly points of strength to negotiate from.
