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 in.

Takada is hoping that he’ll be able to claim one of the rotation spots behind Ishikawa and Tateyama as many of the young arms waiting in the wings are maturing more slowly than originally hoped.