Why is a 30-year-old former major leaguer going to an independent league? How did the GM of Ibaraki Astro Planets persuade players and agents | Professional baseball | Shueisha’s general sports magazine Sportiva official website web Sportiva

Thirteen games have passed since the opening of professional baseball, and new foreign players are struggling in each team.

If there are hitters like Matt Davidson of Hiroshima and Marwin Gonzalez of Orix who start off well, there are batters who suffer from differences in strike zones and unfamiliar pitchers. Considering that there are many Japanese former major leaguers who say that baseball and baseball are different sports, it will take a certain amount of adaptation time for new foreign players to be able to fully demonstrate their abilities.

Allen Hanson is a switch hitter from the Dominican Republic.
See photos related to this article
If the number of games is digested to some extent and still does not leave results, each team will be forced to make a decision. It is whether or not to give up on the existing “helpers” and move to reinforce new foreign players by the deadline in the middle of the season.

There is an independent league team looking for a business opportunity in a phase that almost always comes to all NPB teams. Ibaraki Astro Planets of the BC League.

In 2021, he transferred Cesar Vargas to Orix and Dariel Alvarez to Softbank. The transfer fee is several million yen. That’s a lot of money for an independent league club with a limited budget. On the other hand, NPB teams have the advantage of being able to observe directly.

“The story has continued since my first year as GM.

That’s what GM Touma Irokawa, who will be in charge of organizing Astro Planets from the 2020 off.

During his active career, he played in independent leagues in North America, led the Iran national team and the Hong Kong national team as a manager, and also managed the Asian Breeze, which aims to sign a contract with a local team while fighting in the United States, building a network of contacts. Taking advantage of that connection, he is clearly carrying out a unique reinforcement in the Japanese independent league.

“I learned that there is a high demand for power pitchers and power hitters in Japan. This time, we are trying to see if there is demand for utility players with a large scale in NPB, instead of those types.”