Show me the Money!! – 2010 Edition (Part 3)
After looking at the big earners in part one, and the upwardly mobile in part two, in this final part of our annual monetary review, we'll be looking at those whose salary will be a little more petite this coming season. The Losers Ryo Kawashima - The first of quite a number of pitchers who will see their salary fall this year. Ryo had a pretty poor 2009 (5-6/4.81 in 14 appearances), yet again failing to show any consistency as he continues to be one of the most infuriating starters on the Tokyo books. He will see his salary fall by 5M to 43M yen for the year. People ...
Wishful Thinking (2010 Version)
It's the first day of spring camp, and the birds have flown south to Okinawa to open a couple weeks of "no pain, no gain" training sessions. After last year's very lucky appearance in the postseason, the first ever for the Swallows I might add, all of the usual suspects are back for another go at it. Yup, D'Antona, Lim, and Guiel re-signed, and Aoki hasn't been posted yet, so another half-decent season could be in the making if everyone can stay healthy. Wait. Scratch that. We did lose Igarashi to the New York Mets, so not everyone will be back. Anyway, I ...
D’Antona signs two-year deal!
Things finally got worked out behind the scenes, and thankfully D'Antona will be swinging the bat for the birds again in 2010. He reportedly signed a two-year deal that will see him taking home 73 million yen this year (plus incentives). The deal includes a club option for the second year. Phew! Glad that's settled. Welcome back, Jamie! Tsubamegun wishes you all the best in 2010!
Winter News Roundup
Well, the festive season is over and the 2010 baseball season can be spotted lurking on the horizon, just waiting to take over our lives again. Here's a round up of what's been going on in SwallowsLand so far this offseason that hasn't been covered elsewhere on the site: The Swallows made only their second ever free agency signing (the first being catcher Aikawa), bringing over Atsushi Fujimoto over from Hanshin. Seriously underwhelming news there then. Another light-hitting infielder to go with the collection we already have, but hey, an extra body is welcome I guess. Welcome to Tokyo Atsushi. He will, perhaps fittingly, wear now-retired ...
Swallows sign RHP Tony Barnette
The Tokyo Swallows reported that they have signed 26-year-old Tony Barnette, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, to a one year deal worth four hundred thousand dollars plus incentives (just shy of forty million yen). Barnette, a right-handed pitcher who will be wearing number 64, spent all of 2009 with Arizona's triple-A outfit, the Reno Aces. He went 14-8 as a starter in 29 appearances and pitched 164 and two-thirds innings. While he ended the season with a 5.79 ERA (sound familiar?), it can be argued that he must have been doing a lot of things right to get 164-plus innings ...
The Team
Spring Training News: battery injuries galore
Semi-official injury count for the month of February at the Tokyo Swallows spring camp: 11 players missed all or part of at least one day of practice. In detail, that works out to six pitchers, four catchers, and one infielder. Go, go Swallows! While the six injured pitchers may set off the loudest alarm for some readers, our visibly diminishing corps of backstops is probably a bigger concern at this... [Read more]
Spring Training News: Ishii Out, Nakazawa Impresses
Our beloved Hirotoshi Ishii, who many hope will experience a resurgence this season, hit a major stumbling block when he cut the hell out of the big toe on his right foot while working out in the pool. As Dave recently noted, Ishii has been out of action for several years and will hopefully be enacting a comeback in the not-too-distant future. But the four new stitches in his toe are going to put a... [Read more]
Show me the Money!! – 2010 Edition (Part 3)
After looking at the big earners in part one, and the upwardly mobile in part two, in this final part of our annual monetary review, we’ll be looking at those whose salary will be a little more petite this coming season. The Losers Ryo Kawashima - The first of quite a number of pitchers who will see their salary fall this year. Ryo had a pretty poor 2009 (5-6/4.81 in 14 appearances),... [Read more]
Show me the Money!! – 2010 Edition (Part 2)
In the second part of our annual look inside the wallets of the Tokyo players, we have a look at those who will be better off in 2010. Part 1 can be found here. Other winners Aaron Guiel - After an injury blighted sub-par 2008 season, many fans thought they’d seen the last of our blonde Canadian in a Tokyo uniform. But they (fortunately) hadn’t as he was re-signed with a mammoth 76M paycut... [Read more]
Show me the Money!! – 2010 Edition (Part 1)
It’s that time of year again. Spring camp has begun, and the players are all gearing up for another season of sweeping all before them (well, the Giants players are anyway.) The salary negotiations are done and our heroes in the Tokyo uniforms now know how much they will be earning to follow the instructions of a numbnut for another season. And so do we, so let’s take a look at who’s... [Read more]
