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New Foreign Players — Which Ones Did I Get Right?

NPB Tracker Archives

New Foreign Players — Which Ones Did I Get Right?

by Patrick Newman (Feb 28, 2010)

Last November, I made a few predictions about guys we might see move to NPB for 2010. I actually got a couple right:

  • Buddy Carlyle (Nippon Ham)
  • Lee Beom-Ho (SoftBank)
  • Kim Tae-Gyun (Lotte)
  • Matt Murton (Hanshin)
  • Chris Bootcheck (Yokohama)
*excluding the players on my list that were already in Japan in 2009

So that’s 5/28 (without the 2009 NPB guys), and the two Koreans were pretty easy predictions. I thought I got Bobby Keppel right too, but when I looked back at my list it was Bobby Korecky that I had guessed.

There were other guys that I took long looks at, but decided to leave out for various reasons. These were the last three in my notes:

  • Andy Marte thought he would get an MLB shot with the rebuilding Indians
  • Carlo Alvarado – the number of 3A innings he threw over the last two years caught my eye; in retrospect I didn’t have enough starters on my list
  • Jeff Fiorentino – call this one gut feel. I favored slugging left fielder-types in my list, and thought Murton’s MLB experience distinguished him from Fio

Alvarado and Fiorentino signed with the Carp over the winter, while I assume Marte will get another look with Cleveland. Ironically, I would have loved to see the Carp get Marte instead of Justin Huber, but I don’t know if he was ever available.

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