Marinerds, etc.

On January 11, articles happily reported that Jeremy Powell was going back to Orix. It was even on the Buffaloes' site. They said he would wear #50 and made him a player page accordingly.

However, uh, today, supposedly the Softbank Hawks signed Powell? Huh? They seem to be claiming either that the Powell signing by Orix was announced but not finalized, or finalized but not announced properly, or something like that.

I see nothing of it mentioned on the Hawks' site yet, though there's a bunch of articles categorized as "パウエル獲得" on Yahoo and other sports article sites. And sadly, this is all the variety of stuff that I have trouble reading, but I'm sure that whenever people figure out what the hell is going on, it'll get posted to the thread on japanesebaseball.com accordingly.

(There is another article in the Daily Yomiuri which has some more details, but is almost as "WTF?" as everything else, I think.)

Spring training starts in only a few days, so I hope they get this mess straightened out soon. (And in all honesty, I hope he ends up with Orix, because Softbank already has a pretty loaded rotation.)

Anyway, on another note, the Fighters apparently invited Jermaine Van Buren to spring training to try out for the team. Yes, this guy. They're very kind to him, saying that he's 1-2 in 16 games in the majors, rather than mentioning his career 9.00 ERA and that he's walked 24 guys and struck out 11. But to be fair, his AAA numbers are actually really good and the kind of stuff that can sometimes transition really nicely to Japan. So, who knows.

I was showing a friend of mine the Yellow Submarine shop in Shinjuku today, and uh... I saw these crazy dice, I at first couldn't figure out "Why on earth does it have a K and an 18?"

Then I saw the sign. Daisuke Dice "K". Yes, that stupid nickname has even spread to Japan, to the point that game shops have Dice-K dice.



Something about this really bothers me, but I can't exactly explain what. I did buy one, but it was mostly for the WTF factor.

(Scroll down for my Fighters game report! It's worth it, I promise!)

I'm sure that in some alternate universe, the Mariners trading Chris Snelling and Emiliano Fruto for Jose Vidro makes sense.

But not this one.

I'm usually the one around here going, "Hey, guys, it's okay, this isn't that bad, it's just a stupid trade, just a stupid roster move, there's no reason to start raising the pitchforks and punching your walls," etc -- but even I'm completely puzzled by this and a little bit saddened by the idea of not getting to see our favorite adorable Australian anymore. Looking back to May, when I had the realization that I simply didn't love the Mariners anymore, I said the only player on the 40-man roster that I really adored was Chris Snelling. I'd like to hope this trade doesn't go through. Even though Snelling might not have seemed like a huge contributor to the team on the surface, the emotional attachment one gets to certain players can be pretty strong. I mean, it's been fifteen years and I'm still residually pissed at the Phillies for trading away Von Hayes.

It's sort of like the helpless feeling like being a kid and having your best friend’s parents move across the country and take your best friend with them. You know you might keep in touch, but it’s just not going to be the same.

Man, the offseason sucks. And I'm really debating whether I need a more general baseball name for this blog, being as I really don't feel like writing about the Mariners very much lately. I could just change it to "Chiba Lotte Marinerds" and only write about the NPB from now on, maybe...

You know how people compare the Yomiuri Giants to being like the New York Yankees? Well, that comparison just went one step further today.


(from here)


(from here)

Who the hell is that guy, and what has he done with the Guts we all know and love?

Whoever he is, he sure doesn't LOOK like Michihiro Ogasawara to me. Ogasawara's supposed to have facial hair and wear a Fighters hat. This guy's just some weird clean-shaven doppleganger who's playing for the Giants.

I bet this is what Red Sox fans felt like seeing Johnny Damon in clean-cut Yankee-mode for the first time...