Whitesell was unfortunately the odd-man-out in 2011.

Bio

Josh was born in Durham, North Carolina on April 14, 1982, and played high school baseball in Rialto, California.

He later played college ball for Loyola Marymount University and was a top level student-athlete throughout his time as an amateur baseball player.

His freshman year, 2001, ended on a sour and painful note when he tore the labrum in his left shoulder while diving back into first base on a pick-off attempt by the pitcher. That was effectively the end of his days as a pitcher, but fortunately Josh was a very successful hitter as well.

Indeed, his power at the plate would carry him into the pros.

After hitting .340/.471/.736 during his junior year of university, he was drafted by the Montreal Expos in the sixth round of the 2003 draft.

Professional Baseball

Whitesell made steady progress during his time in the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals minor league system, and he was claimed off waivers by the Arizona Diamondbacks before the beginning of the 2008 season. He would go on to be voted the Diamondbacks most valuable minor league player that year. He had a brief stint with the top club that season as well.

Whitesell played first base for the Arizona Diamondbacks for portions of the 2008 and 2009 seasons. His MLB slash-line over 115 at-bats was .200/.352/.313. Unfortunately, Whitesell was never given a consistent look at first base in the majors and largely ended up yoyoing back and forth between MLB and AAA. Many observers believe that he could easily have nailed down the everyday job at first base, especially against right hand pitching, if he had been given more than a couple of weeks at a time to settle in and get used to playing baseball at the top level.

Welcome to Japan!

Josh Whitesell was signed by the Tokyo Swallows just after the end of the miserable Takada era to compete with Jamie D’Antona for the starting job at first base. Despite Takada’s unceremonious resignation at the end of May, 2010, Whitesell was still signed away from the Washington Nationals’ AAA affiliate, Syracuse, to help provide some pop from the left side of the plate.

Whitesell hit the ground running and had an immediate impact despite having missed more than two full months of the season. He ended up playing in 68 games that year and batted .309 and had a .991 OPS with 15 home runs and 136 total bases. Interestingly, he hit better against lefties (.371) than righties (.286) in 2010 which was not entirely in line with his scouting report. In 2011, however, he hit just .205 against southpaws and .264 against righties.

Even though the surgery he had back in 2001 to repair his labrum was successful, it has left him favoring a sidearm throwing motion that is more comfortable for him and effectively prevents him from making a transition to the outfield. While quite unorthodox for a first baseman, his sidearm technique is highly accurate and he has shown good glove work in Japan.

Whitesell re-signed with the Swallows for the 2011 season but saw limited action at first thanks to a breakout year from Hatakeyama. He logged only 299 at-bats and hit .247/.345/.428 in 2011.

Josh was released by the Tokyo Swallows following the 2011 season, and he signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines of the Pacific League before the end of the year.

Stats

MLB Stats

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	Avg.	OBP	Slg.
2008	ARI	7	7	1	2	0	0	1	1	1	2	.286	.444	.714
2009	ARI	46	108	7	21	7	0	1	14	24	29	.194	.346	.287
MLB Total		53	115	8	23	7	0	2	15	25	31	.200	.352	.313

NPB Stats

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	K	Avg.	OBP	Slg.
2010	TOK	68	230	44	71	16	2	15	53	32	71	.309	.399	.591
2011	TOK	112	299	29	74	18	0	12	33	40	108	.247	.345	.428
NPB Total		180	529	73	145	34	2	27	86	72	179	.274	.369	.499

Tony was born in Anchorage, Alaska on November 9th, 1983. He played high school baseball at Thomas Jefferson High School under coach Chad Fahnlander before heading to Central Arizona College for two years of Junior College baseball.

He then moved on to the Pacific 10 Conference where he played two more years of college ball for Reggie Jackson’s alma mater, Arizona State University.  He was 10-5 during his time with the Sun Devils, and the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted him in the 10th round of the 2006 Amateur Draft.

Professional Baseball

Tony played rookie ball for the Missoula Osprey (Missoula, Montana) and was 6-4 in 15 starts during the 2006 season. He was promoted to single A in 2007 and started 25 of his 26 appearances for the South Bend Silver Hawks (South Bend, Indiana).

2008 saw Tony pitching for the double A Mobile Bay Bears (Mobile, Alabama) where he pitched more than 150 innings for the second year in a row and compiled a 11-7 record with a 3.87 ERA in 27 starts. Hank Aaron Stadium in Mobile is known for being a hitter’s park (13 of the 17 homers Tony surrendered were at Hank Aaron), so his ERA is that much more impressive.

His work that year, which featured 7.79 strikeouts per nine innings and a K:BB ratio of 3.17, earned him a non-roster invite to the Arizona Diamondbacks spring camp in early 2009.

Barnette played the 2009 season for the AAA Reno Aces (Reno, Nevada) where he started 29 games and threw 164.2 innings. He finished the year with a 14-8 record and ranked sixth for pitchers in the Pacific Coast League.

Following the 2009 season, Tokyo bought Barnette’s contract from Arizona as a possible number three or four starter behind Tateyama and Ishikawa.

Welcome to Tokyo!

Barnette signed a one-year deal with the Swallows on January 7th, 2010.

Barnette was released after the 2010 season and everyone, Tony included, thought that the chances of him pitching in Japan in 2011 were slim to none.

But due to a variety of reasons, Tony was re-signed by the Swallows on January 12th, 2011 for a second shot at getting the whole Japan thing sorted out. The contract included a club option for 2012.

Stats (NPB)

	G	W	L	Sv	BF	IP	H	HR	BB	HBP	K	WP	Bk	R	ER	ERA	RIP
NPB Totals	64	5	6	2	575	126.2	142	11	54	8	124	2	0	69	67	4.76	1.61
2010	16	4	5	0	376	79.2	99	9	41	4	70	2	0	55	53	5.99	1.81
2011	48	1	1	2	199	47	43	2	13	4	54	0	0	14	14	2.68	1.28

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.

D'Antona in his Minor League Days

Since the Tsubamegun announced the pursuit and signing of infielder Jamie D’Antona almost three weeks ago, interest in the 26-year-old slugger has apparently helped to keep people in the US interested in the Swallows and brought a fair number of new folks by.   (If you’re one of them, stick with us to follow D’Antona’s progress in Tokyo.)

While we’re well-equipped to let people following the new guy know about the club, we’re joining the rest of the fans on this side of the Pacific in getting to know him.  To that end, here’s a bit of background on Jamie D’Antona.

Born: May 12, 1982; Trumbull, CT
Ht.: 6’2″ (188 cm)  Wt.: 215 lbs. (97.7 kg)
Bats/Throws: Right/ Right
Pos.: IF (Mostly 3B in minors, 1B for D-backs)
College: Wake Forest (3 seasons)
Minors: 6 seasons  MLB: 18 games in 2008
Strengths: His bat and his arm  Weaknesses: His glove & and apparent free-swinging approach at the plate

Stats

Why the Diamondbacks Released him: Apparently, they have enough utility infielders who can put up numbers equal to or better than what could be reasonably expected of him based on his minor league stats.  Despite being lauded for his arm in college, his glove has been a concern in scouting reports and precludes his playing 3B in the Majors.  He also draws surprisingly few walks.

What he could do for Tokyo: First and foremost, the Swallows need power.  Like many suketto before him, that’s presumably the main reason he was signed.   While starting at 1B would be the likely option, don’t put it past Takada to try him at 3B given his minor league time at the position and Takada’s inability to settle on a regular there.  Keizo Kawashima fields well and is fleet of foot, which fits in with the small ball approach favored by Takada and means D’Antona might be competing more directly with Hatakeyama for 1B.  Assuming that Hatake is in no hurry to return to the farm now that he’s finally gotten a taste of the big leagues and has been working on developing some power in the off-season, such a competition could be very good for the team even if it leaves Hatake, who has certainly earned a shot, worried.  Furthermore, if D’Antona hits often and hard, he could be a powerful protector for Aoki by following him in the batting order (or vice versa.)  It all comes down to how quickly D’Antona can adjust to NPB.  Demeanor will be a big issue.  If he’s easy-going enough to go with the flow and accept Takada’s frequent imbecilic decisions without butting heads, he’s halfway there.

Here’s what was said about in him in Arizona before he was called up.