Eagles Sign Fernandez

I'm not sure why Seibu didn't re-sign him, but this is good for Rakuten to have a proven NPB player.

Nakamura is a better choice to get better attendance. As decent as Fernandez batted, Japanese fans just don't pay to watch foreigners. Seibu really needs something to help the poor attendance, and Nakamura could help turn that around.

Seibu wanted Okawari Nakamura to play full time at third base, so they dropped Hernandez.

Does this mean Seibu are in the market for another foreign player?

Maybe, but not at third base, as Nakamura had a good year. They just posted Mori to Tampa Bay so they might go after a pitcher.

I am sad, Jose was my neighbor and a great neighbor at that. Very sociable guy and always had a smile on his face. Given that he is back in the States for the off-season, this is the first time I am hearing about the move. I will definitely miss him as a neighbor.

As per his baseball skills, he had a better season than Caberra. In fact, given Caberra's last two sub-par seasons, I was quite surprised at the amount of money the Lions gave Caberra. Personally, they should have moved Fernandez over to first (he could learn the position quite quickly) and let Caberra go or force him to sign for less. That would have saved a lot of payroll money and, in my opinion, the Lions would have probably gotten better all-around batting production out of Fernandez than they will out of Caberra. Unfortunately though, like the previous post mentioned, it comes down to filling the stadium seats, and given Alex's home run chase in 2002, he is a much larger draw than Fernandez.

Go Rakuten!

- In fact, given Caberra's last two sub-par seasons

How was this year a sub-par season for Cabrera? He had a .300 average, 36 HR, 92 RBI, a .613 slugging percentage, a .407 on-base percentage, and a 1.013 OPS. [Player Page]