Like his predecessor, though, Kikuchi is worried about the restrictive transfer agreement between NPB and Major League Baseball hindering his ability to have a full career in America.
In Japan, players are drafted right into NPB after high school, where they remain property of their teams for nine years before declaring free agency. The only way to move to an American team before that deadline is for the player's team to "post" them, allowing American clubs to bid on the rights to negotiate with them.
Every year, the relationship between American baseball and Japanese baseball gets a little more complicated. Reports Tuesday indicate that Yusei Kikuchi, a high school pitcher expected to be the first player picked in Nippon Professional Baseball's amateur draft late next month, is contemplating skipping the draft in favor of coming to America.
There aren't any Japanese players heading to the U.S. via the posting system this offseason. Kosuke Fukudome joined the Cubs as a conventional free agent and Hiroki Kuroda joined the Dodgers in the same fashion, but what about next year? There could be a frenzied bidding war for 20-year old phenom Yu Darvish brewing. Via East Windup Chronicle:
The Yu Darvish to MLB rumors may have just officially kicked off right along with the new year. A Sports Hankook (Korea) report, relying on a Japanese source (Sports Nikkan), says that the Yankees plan to nab Darvish following the 2008 season.
The report goes on to say that the Dodgers, Mets and Cubs have also made "love calls" to Darvish and that the floor of negotiations is something along the lines of what Daisuke Matsuzaka was able to command during his posting extravaganza in 2006.
If Darvish was already in the U.S. his hype would be on the same level of Phil Hughes and Clay Buchholz. He posted a 1.82 ERA with 210 strikeouts in 207 2/3 innings last season for the Nippon Ham Fighters and won the Pacific League MVP. That's more than Matsuzaka was doing at that age and Darvish just became the youngest player to sign a 200 million yen contract (about $2 million) in Japanese history.
After weeks of rumors, the Royals finally made it official and signed reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta away from the Chibe Lotte Marines.
"Yasuhiko has been one of the best relievers in Japan the last several years," general manager Dayton Moore said. "He will be an important veteran arm that will help add stability to the back end of our bullpen."
Yabuta, 34, is a 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander who spent the last 12 seasons pitching for the Chibe Lotte Marines in Japan's Pacific League. He was 4-6 last season with a 2.73 ERA and a career-high 38 holds in 58 appearances.
It doesn't hurt the Royals that Yabuta's new manager, Trey Hillman, has an understanding of the Japanese game and Japanese league players. Yabuta should not only fit right in, but thrive under Hillman. And now that the deal is finally done, the Royals hope to bring another pitcher from the far east to the land of good barbecue.
The wild card in the 2008 Free Agent Market has now officially joined the free agent market. Kosuke Fukudome, the right fielder from the Chunichi Dragons who's been compared to Ichiro Suzuki, has declared his intentions to come to the Western Hemisphere and play some ball, declaring himself a free agent.
"I'd like to see what kind of interest I get," Fukudome said at a news conference. "We'll see where this goes."
Fukudome, 30, is regarded as one of the best outfielders in Japanese professional baseball. He was a key member of the Japan team that won the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March 2006.
He had surgery on his right elbow in August and sat out the Japan Series, but has 192 homers and a .305 batting average over nine seasons with the Dragons, who won their first title in 53 years on Nov. 2.
There's no way to tell how his game is going to translate from the Chunichi Dragons to the Major Leagues. For every Ichiro or Hideki Matsui, there's a Norihiro Nakamura or a Saturo Komiyama. Don't know who they are? That's the point. Choice of team is also important ... look how much better Kaz Matsui's career became after leaving New York. Then there's that little problem of that right elbow injury. That plus the fact that he will be on the other side of 30 could trump any question about his ability to step up to the majors from Japan. If they're comparing him to Ichiro, (and you might too after watching Fukudome's skills) that shouldn't be a question anyway.
So Roger Clemens has "retired" yet again, but that doesn't mean that he's done playing baseball. No, I'm not talking about yet another comeback with the Yankees or Astros, but rather Team USA in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. From MLB.com (via Fark):
Clemens, if healthy, would consider pitching for Team USA in the baseball tournament during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, one of his agents told MLB.com on Thursday night in response to an e-mail question.
"I think, if things fell into place and he felt good, he would be interested," said agent Randy Hendricks about the 45-year-old Clemens, who has won 354 Major League games and pitched part of the 2007 season for the Yankees. "He loves the idea of representing his country."
Of course, he also loves the idea of making millions of dollars each time he starts a game, so he might be turned off once he realizes there's no compensation. (What, me, cynical?) If he actually goes through with it, though, it'd be a nice way to cap off his career. But if the World Baseball Championship a couple of years ago proved anything it's that winning a gold medal would hardly be a cakewalk -- and it'll be even tougher in the Olympics where players on an MLB 25-man roster aren't eligible to participate. Team USA won Olympic gold in 2000 in Sydney but failed to even make the 2004 games in Athens when they lost to Mexico in a qualifying round.
You may have forgotten that Felix Jose existed. I sure as heck did. But the Korean Baseball Blog points us to a 1999 playoff series between the Lotte Giants (Jose's team) and the Samsung Lions. The above video, from Game 7 of their series, featured Jose, a former Athletic, Cardinal, and Royal, hitting a home run and being pelted with various objects while trotting around the bases. Jose, in a completely calm, cool, and mature manner, proceeded to hurl his bat into the stands. Then, he used another bat to try to bust through a protective fence and knock a fan into next week.
Jose almost won the triple crown that year in the KBO and that earned him another shot at the majors. He played a bit for the Yankees in 2000, and also had cups of coffee with Arizona in '02 and '03 on the strength of his 1999 season. Jose, believe it or not, was still playing baseball in July of 2007 in the Atlantic League ... after being suspended 50 games from the Mexican league for steroid use, of course.
There aren't any Japanese players heading to the U.S. via the posting system this offseason. 
After weeks of rumors, the Royals finally 
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