The country's most famous knuckleballer will be playing in Japan in 2012.

Chunichi Dragons

• Signed reliever Jorge Sosa to a one year deal. Sosa has a 4.72 ERA through 294 big league appearances.

Yomiuri Giants

• NPB Tracker thinks the Giants should be legitimate contenders this year.

Hanshin Tigers

• Kubo and Hirano finally re-signed. The team shaved 40 million yen off of Kubo’s salary and tacked 30 of it onto Hirano’s.
• According to NPB Tracker, Hanshin are a lot like Tokyo before the 2011 season–on the outside looking in.

Hiroshima Carp

• This write-up over at NPB Tracker says that the Carp will be fielding another strong starting rotation even though Kuroda opted to spend another season in MLB.

Yokohama Baystars

• Alex Ramirez came down with the flu last weekend despite the fact that he allegedly got a flu shot before leaving the US. Funny things, those flu shots.
• First year manager, Kiyoshi Nakahata, who has been out of action with the flu, returned to spring camp on Tuesday donning the requisite facial mask. He hammed it up pretty big-time for the reporters on hand, so he seems to be feeling pretty well now.
• Patrick Newman says that the team should be a lot more fun to watch this year even though they look destined for a bottom-half finish once again.
• The team reported that it planned to kick the tires on three prospective imports at some point during spring camp. Wes Bankston, Chris Nowak, and Oscar Salazar are the players hoping to be offered a contract.

Pacific League News

• Fukuoka (Softbank) may have found a way to ensure a few more wins by signing Brad Penny from MLB. Penny notched double-digit wins for the Detroit Tigers last season but was released at the end of the season after playing out a one year contract.

Elsewhere in Japanese Baseball

• Gen has a handy post detailing the various suspensions handed out by Japan’s student baseball administrative body. The infractions range from smoking to beating the piss out of younger players. One suspension was meted for purchasing a train ticket in an illegal manner. Huh?
• Female knuckleball phenom, Eri Yoshida (20), will be pitching in the Kansai Independent Baseball League once again as she signed a deal with the 2011 champion Hyogo Blue Sandars. You may remember that Yoshida started her pro career in the KIBL back in 2009 with the now inactive Kobe 9 Cruise. She then signed with the Chico Outlaws early in 2010. Here’s an article with a little more information on what Yoshida experienced during her two seasons of minor league baseball in the US.

Kawakami back with the Dragons this year

Chunichi Dragons

• Sold backup catcher, Keiji Oyama (31) to Tohoku. 2011 was Oyama’s best season so far, offensively-speaking. He hit .280/.394/.390 in 102 plate appearances.
• It sounds like Araki and Ibata could be reverting to their old positions, second and short, respectively.
• Victor Diaz is all but certain to be wearing a Chunichi uniform this season. He has experience playing all over the field, so he should give the Dragons several options in terms of where they can put him.
• The team lured the team’s former starter, Kenshin Kawakami, back from MLB. The last time he played in a Dragons uniform was the 2008 season when he recorded a 9-5 record and a 2.30 ERA. He moved to the Atlanta Braves as a free agent after that. Kawakami pitched well in 2009, but is now regarded as a bust in MLB. He spent most of last season at AA and ended the season with an ERA well above eight. Six million dollars for a crappy year at double A? Yikes.

Yomiuri Giants

• First year players Scott Mathieson (P) and John Bowker (OF) were unveiled to the media on Friday.

Hanshin Tigers

• Much like Tokyo, Hanshin has yet to figure out who will be manning center field this season. A number of names have been floated, including Ryo Asai, Shunsuke, Wei-Chu Lin and rookie Hayata Ito.
• Matt Murton’s wife has still not given birth to the couple’s third child, so there’s a very good chance that he will miss the beginning of spring camp.
• It looks like pitcher Yasutomo Kubo will re-sign with the team some time this week, but infielder Keiichi Hirano is still holding out.

Hiroshima Carp

• Brand new Carp pitcher, Cam Mickolio, and right-handed bat, Nick Stavinoha, were formally introduced to the media on Friday.

Yokohama Baystars

• The new Baystar uniforms are apparently due to be unveiled this weekend. Alex Ramirez may be one of the guys modeling the new kit.

Pacific League Notes

• Kiko Arai, daughter of Orix Buffaloes farm team manager, Hiromasa Arai, is highly attractive. Exhibit A, she was recently crowned Miss Japan.
• Hokkaido received the posting bid money (more than US$50 million for Yu Darvish) from the Rangers. Unfortunately for Hokkaido, however, investors are still guaranteeing the relative strength of the yen over the dollar and euro, so the amount received was basically the equivalent of a couple thousand dollars at today’s exchange rate.

Jones is responsible for an unlikely trend.

The trivia question that popped up the other day got a decent response and was an enjoyable brain-teaser, so I thought I’d construct one that I actually know all of the answers to.

Did you know that Ruppert Jones was the first player in NPB history to don the ’00′ uniform back in 1988? Playing for the Hanshin Tigers, the two-time MLB All-Star had previously won a World Series in 1984 with the Detroit Tigers as an outfielder and DH.

He joined the last-place Hanshin Tigers in the summer of 1988 after playing in 50 games for the Texas Rangers’ Triple A affiliate. He returned to the Rangers in 1989, but he never made it past Triple A after that.

The number of players wearing ’00′ has grown over the years in NPB, and this season there are no less than ten players with the number.

Can you name the NPB players wearing uniform number ’00′ in 2012?. (←Click the link to go try the trivia quiz!)

The rules here are simple: follow the above link and try to name as many players as possible in five minutes. When you’re finished, post your score in the comments below, but DON’T comment on any specific answer until after 2PM January 23rd (Tokyo Time) so that everyone has a chance to try.

This quiz is pretty difficult, so I’m guessing that the average score will be around five or so. However, there may be a couple of you who can guess all ten. If that’s the case, then post both your score and time in the comments section below.

There are no prizes involved, so keep it clean by not doing any ‘research’.

Enjoy!

Let's get this deal done already.

• The talk of Araki and Ibata switching back to their original positions, 2nd and short, respectively, continues. Not that anyone cares.
• Victor Diaz might be on the team’s radar. Diaz played in Korea in 2009.

Yomiuri Giants

• Hayato Sakamoto, Yomiuri’s prized homegrown shortstop, has been reaping the benefits of Shinya Miyamoto’s guidance this month. Hey, aren’t those trade secrets? You little git, give us those notes!

Hanshin Tigers

• New Hanshin manager, Yutaka Wada, has given in to Takuya Asao lust and is now babbling about having Fujikawa pitch the 7th inning. If…IF!… he has another top notch closer on hand. Which he doesn’t. And by the way, Mr. Wada, Fujikawa will continue to blow it in the playoffs no matter when you plug him into the game. Sorry.

Hiroshima Carp

• Hiroki Kuroda signed with the Yankees (one-year US$11 million deal). No word yet on whether or not Hiroshima plans to keep waiting.

Yokohama Baystars

• GM Shigeru Takada has injected some young blood into his wing of the building by hiring former Bobby Valentine (Chiba era) front office brain, Shun Kakazu. The 30-year-old has some MLB experience under his belt in the form of serving as San Francisco’s point man on talent in Japan. He has no pro playing experience, however, which makes him rare in front office operations as Patrick Newman pointed out.

Around the Pacific League

• The big news on Yu Darvish will be arriving with in the next few days. The deadline for an agreement is 5PM EST on the 18th (7AM Japan Standard Time on Thursday the 19th). That’s precisely 24 hours after the deadline for a decision on the Norichika Aoki situation.

Yokohama marks his third team in the Kanto region.

• Free agent LHP Wei-ying Chen signed with Baltimore. It’s a three-year deal that consequently puts a serious dent in Chunichi’s ability to keep opposing teams off the board. Cheers to that!

Yomiuri Giants

• Sounds like the Giants may be about to sign utility INF/OF John Bowker who was recently released by the Phillies.

Hanshin Tigers

• Closer Fujikawa got pretty riled up about the absolutely appalling state of uncleanliness that some of the new recruits left the Naruohama pitching area in.

Hiroshima Carp

• The Carp were hopeful about a Hiroki Kuroda return, but he said no. But they’re still planning to keep waiting. Little bit of Hachiko action going on there if I’m not mistaken.

Yokohama Baystars

• It seems like new Yokohama manager, Nakahata, is training as hard as anyone on the team.
• The team selected journeyman and former Tokyo Swallows pitcher, Shugo Fujii, as part of the compensation deal for losing INF Shuichi Murata through free agency to Yomiuri.

Around NPB

• Former Yomiuri starting pitcher (who played for the Swallows before that), Seth Greisinger, signed a one-year deal with the Chiba Marines.
• After a swing and miss with the Yankees, Nakajima re-signed with his old club, the Saitama (Seibu) Lions. It’s a one-year deal reportedly worth 280 million yen (US$3.6 million by today’s exchange rate).

Nakajima will be playing baseball in Saitama again this season.

Chunichi Dragons

• Mr. Takagi, the Dragons’ energetic and cuddly new manager, wants fans to touch his butt if they win the Central League Pennant in 2012.

Yomiuri Giants

• In preparation for the upcoming season, Utsumi and several of his teammates went shopping in Guam.
• According to this report compiled by Yakyu Baka, Yomiuri will likely lose a player to Yokohama as compensation for picking up free agent third baseman Murata.
• And Yomiuri will likely have to pay 80% of Sugiuchi’s salary to Fukuoka since the 2011 Japan Series Champion isn’t interested in any of the players on Yomiuri’s unprotected list. Why all this compensation idiocy is a part of free agent signings is beyond me.

Hanshin Tigers

• As always, there is tons of news coming out of Osaka about every inane aspect of every inane player’s inane daily routines. Nothing worth relaying to you though.

Hiroshima Carp

• Reporter Saho Naruhashi (26) made ace pitcher Kenta Maeda (23) an honest man. Their ‘paper marriage’ apparently took place on New Year’s Day. Rumors of the impending marriage surfaced in October last year.

Yokohama Baystars

• The ‘Stars signed 33-year-old RHP Giancarlo Alvarado.  Often referred to by his nickname, Gio, he had a 3.46 ERA and 11-15 record over two seasons with Hiroshima.

Around NPB

• Free agent Munenori Kawasaki (30), formerly Fukuoka’s shortstop, has reportedly signed a minor league deal with the Seattle Mariners.
• Free agent RHP Hisashi Iwakuma (30), formerly of the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, signed a one-year deal with the Mariners as well. Suck on that, Oakland.
• Hiroyuki Nakajima wasn’t so lucky though. The New York Yankees won negotiating rights with Saitama’s prized shortstop through the posting system, but this one was doomed from the start. And it also sounds like the Yankees might have been trying to lock him in long-term for cheap. Will Aoki’s quest to play in MLB follow a similar path and see him back in Tokyo for another year?

Think Hanshin would give us a half-decent pitcher for Iihara?

Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s another stab at a news roundup for our beloved Central League.

Chunichi Dragons

• Under new management, the Dragons seem to be taking the whole ‘fan experience’ thing very seriously. Both the manager and the head of the team’s player group, starter Kazuki Yoshimi, have a bunch of ideas that range from more face time between the players and fans to cheaper tickets at Nagoya Dome. I would suggest making draft beer cheaper and playing a style of baseball that doesn’t put people to sleep, but hey.
• Despite making it all the way to the Japan Series yet again, the Dragons lost money on the year. Second season in a row, apparently. Not that it’s that big of a deal though. The parent company, Chunichi, can just write it off as an advertising expense.

Yomiuri Giants

• There will not be a special veterans group at spring training this year, according to the team’s manager, Tatsunori Hara. Players such as Abe, Takahashi, Ramirez and Tani were granted special privileges during spring training last year and everyone except for Tani missed time with an injury in 2011.

Hanshin Tigers

• Sounds like the Tigers are on the prowl for a right-handed bat. Any chance we can offload Yasushi Iihara for a number four or five starting pitcher?
• Left out of Hanshin’s plans for 2012, former ikusei infielder, Marco Vechionacci wouldn’t mind another shot at playing in Japan.

Hiroshima Carp

• There’s a new cafe or something going in at the stadium, but other than that not a whole lot is going on down there.

Yokohama Baystars

• The closer’s role has yet to be decided according to Nakahata. Shun Yamaguchi has been getting better and better over the past three years, but in announcing that the ninth inning is still up for grabs it seems like Nakahata doesn’t want him to relax too much.
• The team has been salivating over the sliver-thin possibility that Hideki Matsui could return to Japan. This is, of course, despite the fact that Matsui himself has stated publicly that he has no desire to play in Japan at this time. However, if he does play in Japan again one day, it would be absolutely hilarious if he decided against playing for the Giants.

A lot has happened since the end of the season a little over a month ago.

Happy holidays everyone! Hope that everyone out there has had a chance to spend some time with loved ones.

This is the first of what will likely be an on-again, off-again column detailing what’s going on with Tokyo’s competition in the Central League.

Chunichi Dragons

• Morimichi Takagi took over as Chunichi’s new coach following the team’s defeat in the Japan Series last month. Apparently he wants everyone to refer to him by his first name as part of his kinder, gentler, more lovable Dragons approach to running the team.
• RHP Maximo Nelson re-signed with the club for one year (roughly 80 million yen).
• After four seasons of mostly second string service, Masaaki Koike (31) declared free agency and rejoined his former team, Yokohama.
• Signed free agent Takeshi Yamasaki (43) to a one year deal reportedly worth 30 million yen. 2012 will be Yamasaki’s 26th season of professional baseball in Japan.
• Reliever Takuya Asao re-signed with the team for 260 million yen. He was the first ever league MVP who hadn’t started a single game.
• RHP Wei-Ying Chen is now a free agent and is looking for an opportunity to play in the majors.
• First baseman re-signed for 130 million yen.
• Starting pitcher Enyelbert Soto re-signed for approximately 39 million yen.

Yomiuri Giants

• The team saw it’s season ended by crosstown rival, Tokyo!
• Former Yomiuri General Manager, Hidetoshi Kiyotake, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the Yomiuri Giants, Yomiuri Newpaper Holdings, and Yomiuri’s chairman and chief asshole, Tsuneo Watanabe. This came after Kiyotake was sued by the team and the newspaper about 10 days earlier.
• Free agent Alex Ramirez decided to leave the team in search of a better long-term playing time situation. He eventually signed with Yokohama.
• Tatsunori Hara re-signed as the team’s manager. It was a two-year deal.
• Backup catcher, Kazunari Tsuruoka, declared free agency.
• Saburo Omura also declared free agency and returned to his former team, Chiba. Only two players before him left the Giants after only one year.
• Signed RHP Scott Mathieson to a one-year deal worth a reported one million dollars.
• Signed free agent infielder Shuichi Murata from Yokohama. The two-year deal was worth around 500 million yen.
• Lured starting pitcher D.J. Houlton away from Fukuoka Softbank with a two-year 375 million yen deal.
• Re-signed pitchers Romero and Gonzalez.
• Hired former NPB player, Fernando Seguignol, as the team’s scout in North America.
• Signed free agent starter Toshiya Sugiuchi away from Fukuoka Softbank.

Hanshin Tigers

• Akinobu Mayumi stepped aside as manager of the club.
• Yutaka Wada signed a contract at the beginning of December to manage the Tigers for the next three seasons.
• Decided to keep Robert Zarate on an ikusei contract for next season.
• Re-signed overpriced infielder Takahiro Arai for three years at around 250 million yen per year.
• Closer Fujikawa decided not to exercise his right to domestic free agency and opted for a one-year deal. He apparently wants to play in the majors after next season.
• Shortstop Toritani also decided to stay with the team and is looking forward to earning his international free agency next season. He has not ruled out a move to the majors in 2013.
• Starter Randy Messenger re-signed with the team. It was a one-year deal worth roughly 1.5 million dollars. The team apparently has a club option for 2013.
• Re-signed Matt Murton to a one-year deal worth around three million dollars. It was reported that the contract includes a club option for a second year.
• Brazell is owed two million dollars for next season, the last year of his two-year contract.
• Secured Jason Standridge’s services for another year and it will cost the team 1.5 million dollars.
• Traded 27 year-old pitcher Keiji Uezono to Tohoku for 28 year-old pitcher Shingo Matsuzaki.
• The team is requiring Brazell to check in with regular training updates. He showed up at spring training this year nearly 30 pounds overweight, so they decided to tighten the screws on him during the off-season this time around.
• Mizuno will be designing Hanshin’s new uniforms, and it was reported that they will be shown to the public in late January.

Hiroshima Carp

• Back in November, both Kenta Kurihara and Jun Hirose decided not to declare free agency.
• Kurihara signed a one-year deal for 160 million yen that is ass-heavy with production-related incentives. He can reportedly earn a 400 million yen bonus if he drives in at least 110 runs. He signed a one-year deal because he’s interested in earning his international free agency option. There is a chance that he’ll test the MLB waters after the 2012 season.
• Hirose signed a three-year deal worth 60 million yen a year.
• The Carp signed OF Nick Stavinoha (29 years old) to a one-year deal. He has spent his entire pro career in the St. Louis Cardinals organization.
• They also signed RHP Kam Mickolio who had been released by the Diamondbacks following the 2011 season. He signed a one-year deal.
• Ikusei pitcher, Wilfreiser Guerrero, was released.
• Pitchers Giancarlo Alvarada and Mike Schultz were released.
• Announced that veteran Takuro Ishii will be a player/coach next season.
• Starting pitcher Bryan Bullington re-signed with the team for 133.75 million yen. It’s a one-year deal.
• Closer Dennis Sarfate also signed a one-year contract worth 90 million yen.
• Infielder Brian Barden re-signed for 65 million yen.
• The Carp are REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hoping that Hiroki Kuroda will come back from MLB and pitch for them next season.

Yokohama BayStars

• The Yokohama Bay Stars were purchased by DeNA and named former Tokyo manager, Takada, as their GM.
• Manager Takao Obana was sent packing.
• The team flirted with 500 year-old pitcher, Kimiyasu Kudo, for a while and actually offered him a job as a player-manager. But then Takada was given the GM job and put the kibosh on the whole thing.
• Kiyoshi Nakahata was announced as the club’s first manager under the DeNA banner. He signed a two-year deal.
• Signed outfielder, and former Tokyo Swallow, Alex Ramirez who just finished up his fourth year as a Yomiuri Giant. It’s a two-year deal worth at least 350 million yen per year.
• Lost third baseman, Shuichi Murata, to the Yomiuri Giants.
• Brent Leach was released.
• Pitcher Clayton Hamilton was retained despite his 7.18 ERA over 36.1 innings for the top team.
• Pitcher Brandon Mann also had his contract renewed.
• Yokohama shipped 27 year-old catcher, Shingo Takeyama, to Saitama in exchange for infielder Taketoshi Goto (31).
• Yokohama posted workhorse reliever Hiroki Sanada, but he wasn’t bid on by anyone in MLB (because he isn’t really that good).
• Brett Harper was also let go despite putting up OK numbers in 2011.
• Big-hitting Termel Sledge was released.
• The new Baystars logo looks horrible. The worst part is that ‘DeNA’ is written in a bigger font than ‘Yokohama’. UPDATE: These newer ones are a little better.
• Yomiuri free agent, Kazunari Tsuruoka, re-signed with his former team, the Yokohama BayStars. He signed a two-year deal worth a total of 90 million yen.
• Signed Chunichi free agent and former BayStar, Masaaki Koike, to a two-year contract worth 40 million yen per year.
• The team is planning on debuting new uniforms next season.

Tazawa, Shoda, Matsuzaka and Okajima take donations shortly after March 11th.

Yakyu Baka reported back at the beginning of October, and Kozo Ota relayed the same information here, that eight players are not having their contracts extended for the 2012 season.

Well, the Swallows reported on Thursday that they’ve basically filled three of those slots with a pair of out-of-contract players and another from the independent ‘Baseball Challenge League’.

Kenta Abe (RHP) played for Osaka Kintetsu/Orix before moving to the Tigers for the 2008 season. He had his best year in 2008 when he pitched 51.2 innings over 32 appearances and ended the season with a 2.96 ERA.

However, he hasn’t made a single top top appearance for Hanshin over the past two seasons.

Keisuke Mizuta (INF) played with Abe on the Hanshin Tigers before he got released at the end of last season. He was picked up by the Dragons and appeared in 14 games this season for the top team. In his 19 at-bats, Mizuta hit .133/.235/.133.

Mizuta has been traded around quite a bit recently. He was with Saitama until July 11, 2009 when he was traded to Hanshin for pitcher Taiyo Fujita.

After the 2010 season he was traded to the Chunichi Dragons for Ryota Arai. And he was released on Nov. 11th by the Dragons.

He has a little bit of pace and a decent arm and range. From what I’ve gathered he can play both the infield and outfield, so it looks like we’ve picked up an experienced utility player who is unproven at the plate.

Itsuki Shoda (LHP) is an interesting find. He was Pacific League Rookie of the Year back in 2002 (Nippon Ham). He was later traded to Hanshin (wow, all three of these guys played for Hanshin) but spent most of his time on the farm team. He hasn’t played very well since then though save for 2009-10 when he played for Taiwan’s Sinon Bulls.

At the beginning of 2011 he was at the Boston Red Sox spring camp, but was told to go home by the end of it. He has since been keeping busy with the Niigata Albirex Baseball Club. It will be interesting to see how the southpaw curveball-thrower fares under Araki’s care.

Tokyo Swallows 4

Hanshin Tigers 0

Streak: Won 2   Last 5: LLLWW

(Koshien)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	4	12	1
Hanshin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
W: Tateyama (11-5/2.05) L: Messenger (12-7/2.88)

After huffing and puffing for a while, the CL’s most boring team finally clinched their second straight pennant in Yokohama with…..a 3-3 tie. How apt. For a while Tokyo’s championship hopes looked like they may live to see another day as the Baystars were leading against the Dragons while the Swallows were always in total control of their game, but a Blanco three run game-tying homer, and some comedy play from Yokohama allowed the team from Nagoya to eek out a draw that was good enough for the title.

But the Swallows win wasn’t in vain, as it secured second place in the CL, and thus a home playoff series against the Giants awaits. But after leading the CL for so long this year, it all feels a little underwhelming.

	Us		Them
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Hirano
2	LF Ueda	2	CF Shibata
3	2B Tanaka	3	SS Toritani
4	3B Hatakeyama	4	3B Arai
5	3B Miyamoto	5	1B Brazell
6	RF Balentien	6	RF Murton
7	SS Morioka	7	LF Shunsuke
8	C Aikawa	8	C Fujii
9	P Tateyama	9	P Messenger

Aikawa does the initial damage

Despite the Swallows recent terrible form against the Tigers, this was a game that in all truth they were expected to win, what with Hanshin now out of the playoff reckoning along with the fact that their current manager is entering his last few games in employment. Nevertheless, a lights-out complete game performance from starter Tateyama and some lively batting meant that Tokyo wrapped up their season series (10W-14L) with the B-class Tigers with aplomb .

Tokyo’s runs all came off Hanshin starter Messenger. In the 2nd, singles from Miyamoto and Balentien, a Morioka sacbunt and a sacfly to centre from Aikawa made it 1-0 Tokyo.

And Aikawa brought home the bacon again in the 4th, bringing home Balentien after Coco had reached second with a two-out double, 2-0 Tokyo.

The Swallows final runs came in the 5th. Two two-out singles for Hatake and Miyamoto put men on the corners for Balentien, and the big man hit his second double (and third hit) of the evening along the leftfield foul line to bring in a run for 3-0. Morioka then smacked one over the infield to right and the evening’s run scoring was complete, 4-0 Tokyo Final.

Tateyama won his first game in a month for his superb 9IP/105P/4H/4K0BB/0ER performance. It was his 7th complete game (3rd without a run, 4th without issuing a walk) of the season, and who knows how much better his 11-5 record would be if he’d received better run support/bullpen support throughout the year.

And Shohei’s performance combined with the 12 hit evening for the offence (Miyamoto and Balentien with 3 hits evenings, with Aoki the only starter apart from Tateyama to not register a hit) bodes well for the impending playoffs.

But before we get to those, two more games to go, against the Dragons away tomorrow, and then Hiroshima at home next Tuesday.