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11/12/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Matsui Will Play Other Positions; Padres Meet with Takatsu Rep"
Giants Horiuchi Indicates No Interest in Matsui
According to Sankei Sports, Yomiuri Giants manager Tsuneo Horiuchi says that "if [Kazuo Matsui] stays in Japan, it's better he does it with Seibu." The former pitching great indicated that he just doesn't want to get involved in the whole Matsui free agent circus.
However, a team spokesman still left open the possibility of acquiring the PL Gakuen High grad, though with their recent body snatching of Daiei Hawks slugger Hiroki Kokubo, the presence of Tomohiro Nioka, the best Central League shortstop, and their intent to attempt to revive second baseman Toshihisa Nishi's career, they don't really need Matsui.
Even with Matsui's statement Wednesday that, for now, he is no longer obsessed with playing only shortstop with whoever he goes to, he also emphasized changing positions would have to be under agreeable conditions. Thus, thoughts about Matsui playing centerfield for Yomiuri are pretty much a no go at this point and with no infield openings, they appear to be willing to forsake him entirely. They also have the promising second year 19 year old Masahiro Nagata waiting in the wings, and will need a spot for him in the next couple of years.
All of this is good news to the Yankees and Boston, who wish to put Matsui at second, and will no doubt intensify the bidding for his services.
Team Reports
Hanshin Coaches liked what they saw Wednesday from Atsushi Fujimoto at second base, as he prepares to lose his job with the addition of first round draft choice Takashi Toritani soon to come. If Toritani can prove himself, incumbent second sacker Makoto Imaoka would go to third. The downside to this, though, is that Fujimoto had a subpar OBP despite hitting .300 and he was horrific with runners in scoring position. Third baseman Atsushi Kataoka would be relegated to the bench or being first baseman George Arias' caddy, taking some pop out of the lineup in favor of a higher batting average and more speed. However, Imaoka should, theoretically, be a big improvement defensively at the hot corner, though Fujimoto would be a comparative minus with the glove at second compared to Imaoka....Leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto is going to skip his squad's vacation to Australia's Gold Coast due to it interfering with his training regimen. He needs to play every inning of every contest in 89 more straight games to eclipse Hideji Miyake's Japanese pro record of 700....Centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi won't use an agent during his upcoming salary negotiations with team management, but he hopes that he can nonetheless talk them into giving him 100 million yen (about $900,000). The speedster upped his batting average considerably and set a new personal best in stolen bases for his third straight thefts title, so we'll have to see what the front office decides to reward him with. Meanwhile, 20 game winning ace and CL MVP Kei Igawa is seeking 200 million yen (about $1.8 million). If management is smart, they will salute and say, "you got it."
Yomiuri New addition Hiroki Kokubo issued an apology for the hubbub arising out of his being moved from Daiei to the Giants Wednesday. In addition, recently, the 32 year old slugger has stated that he will end his career in Tokyo and not take a shot at MLB, as he had contemplated as recently as last year before a knee injury put him on the shelf for the season....The team is looking at bringing reliever Koichi Misawa back into the fold after he had spent the last few campaigns at Kintetsu to bolster their bullpen. Misawa was orginally a number three choice in 1996, but was traded to the Buffaloes following some injuries in 2001. Such a deal might also include third year backup catcher Masashi Chikazawa, who has spent the entirety of his career in the minors, coming east, too.
Yakult The Swallows say that they aren't giving up on trying to sign Koryo High School righthander Kentaro Nishimura or Urawa Gakuin High lefty Hideki Sunaga even though both youngsters have said that they would play in the industrial leagues if they were selected by anyone other than Yomiuri. Team officials point out that Yuhei Takai had made the same statement and then signed with Yakult anyway. Sunaga has already been promised a spot with Tokyo Gas' industrial league outfit if he decides to take that route while Nishimura will gravitate to Hitachi Seisakusho....Despite indications that they were going to go in another direction concerning Shingo Takatsu, the San Diego Padres met with Takatsu's agent, according to Sports Nippon, who spoke with GM Kevin Towers.
Chunichi The Japanese commissioner's office has sent the medical records as well as other necessary documents for posting closer Akinori Otsuka to Bud Selig's office and it is expected that he will formally go up for auction in about a week....Manager Hiromitsu Ochiai continues to insist that he will not bring in any new foreign players, instead putting the squeeze on for everyone else to step up their game. He especially hopes to develop his backup catching staff in case starter Motonobu Tanishige goes down....With Eddie Gaillard being dispatched to Yokohama and Akinori Otsuka going to MLB, Ochiai si going to toy with putting Hitoki Iwase into the closer's role and uber mediocre reliever Shigetoshi Yamakita will tentatively be inserted into a setup role. Hisamoto will be a swingman, making spot starts and doing middle relief duty that could also see him getting some setup opportunities....Six players, including 2002 top draft choices Ryosuke Morioka and Yoshimi Sakurai, all signed new contracts. Morioka absorbed a $4500 decrease to around $85,000. Sakurai will make the same $65,000 next year that he made this past season....Ochai told Chunichi Sports that he isn't all that concerned that Yomiuri has brought in Hiroki Kokubo and is reportedly on the verge of snatching Tuffy Rhodes, too: "if you were asking to shutdown Ichiro, that would be a problem," he opened. "But I think we can do something with Kokubo and Rhodes....They each have holes we can exploit"....Kenta Asakura tossed some batting practice the other day while also receiving instruction in how to throw a Taigen Kaku-like slider. Asakura, who is recovering from a stress fracture of his elbow, was clocked at 88mph and his control was off. Good thing that the regular season doesn't commence until April so he can work the kinks out.
Yokohama The Stars have made a two year offer for free agent Hanshin lefty Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi worth an average of about $1.2 million per, inclusive of incentives. But it should be noted that Shimoyanagi had a solid, if unspectacular year with a club that has the biggest ballpark in the Central League while, if he goes with Yokohama, he would be moving to one much smaller and the lanky veteran had been largely ineffective the last few years before coming to Osaka. So, much like the disappointing performance of last year's FA acqusition, Kenichi Wakatabe, this could blow up in Yokohama's face. Sankei Sports claims that four MLB nines, including San Diego, are interested in Shimoyanagi, too, but Shimoyanagi himself isn't entertaining any thought of going overseas right now. The only benefit to an MLB team is that Shimoyanagi is a southpaw. Otherwise, they would be better off looking at a Terry Mulholland, since they would both be about as equally effective (in other words, not very).
Daiei A team spokesman will fly to Taiwan to meet with the Hawks players, who will also be there for a friendship exhibition game, in order to try to headoff a face losing boycott of the club's championship celebration trip to Hawaii. The players are still displaying a skeptical attitude toward management's intentions, so this controversyis far from over.
Seibu Ace Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will make his fifth Opening Day start next season, is looking to double his salary to $2 million or more. The Lions should be able to afford it, since Kazuo Matsui's $3.2 million salary is likely headed elsewhere and number two starter Fumiya Nishiguchi is going to be given a big pay cut. Matsuzaka will meet with team officials in December.
Kintetsu The likelihood of Tuffy Rhodes being employed elsewhere next season is going to have an effect not only on the team's offense, but also on its pitching. To compensate for Rhodes departure, they will seek two foreign position players instead of going after a non-Japanese closer to shore up the club's most glaring weakness....To perhaps shore up their mound staff, they have locked up 21 year old Toshiba righthander Ryota Katsuki, who has a slider and a curve to accompany a 91mph fastball. He pocketed a $900,000 signing bonus and will make about $135,000 in salary in 2004 with another $45,000 in incentives.
Lotte Otfielder Benny Agbayani had his first batting practice session since arriving in Japan to tryout for a roster spot and slammed nine over the fences in 36 swings Wednesday. Three off those went more than 490 feet. Manager Bobby Valentine declared that he saw exactly what he expected from the husky Hawaiian.
Nippon Ham Team officials met with Daiei free agent centerfielder Arihito Muramatsu Wednesday, proferring a four year deal worth an average of about $1.2 million a season, inclusive of incentives. They also sgggested that they may renovate the old style astroturf of Sapporo Dome, their home starting in 2004, and install Field Turf in its place to save wear and tear on Murmatsu's body. There may be other ulterior motives in doing so, though: with a dubious pitching staff, putting in a slower artificial surface would help the club's hurlers.
Little Matsui a Perfect Fit for A's
See story at: San Jose Mercury News Article
Yankees May Open in Japan Instead of M's
See story at: NY Daily News Article
Valentine Soaks Up the Love
See story at: Newark Star-Ledger Article
See related story at: NY Daily News Article
Without U.S., Olympic Baseball is in Trouble
See story at: ESPN Article
Olympic Baseball and the MLB Monopoly
Jim Allen takes another walk to the Hot Corner and expounds on the dim future of baseball in the olympics at:
Yomiuri Shimbun Article
Steinbrenner Rips Writers Over Matsui Losing Award to Berroa
For the record, I've read some of Ballou's stuff over the last couple of years and I haven't seen anything that would indicate that he has some kind of anti-Japanese bias. This guy is no Bill Plaschke, who wrote three different articles lighting into Hideo Nomo for not learning english. Souhan I have no handle on at all. And while I believe that those who seem to imply that Japanese pro baseball is somehow equivalent qualitatively to MLB are exhibiting signs of political correctness run amuck, their view that Matsui and his ilk are too experienced to rightfully be eligible for Rookie of the Year is hardly rare among baseball writers. I would have voted for Baldelli myself, with Matsui second. Anyway, here is what Steinbrenner had to say: Stamford Advocate Article
See a pretty good take on this at: NY Daily News Article
Joe Posnanski says that Matsui was more hype than star. See story at: Kansas City Star Article
Kazuo Matsui on Everybody's Minds at GM Meetings
See story at: Tacoma Tribune Article
Cuba Advances to Olympics
Baseball America has done an outstanding job covering the various regional qualifiers. See story at: Baseball America Article
Rhodes Torn Over Leaving Osaka
See story at: Japan Times Article
Canadians Go to Olympics With Some Trepidation
See story at: Fort Frances Times Article
Today's Pictures
Benny Agbayani Auditions for a Spot With Lotte Wednesday
