Buffaloes Acquires Vogelsong

Kind of wish the Tigers had given him one more chance. He suffered from a major lack of run support last year and probably lost a lot of confidence behind being shuffled back and forth between the first team and ni-gun.

Good signing by the Buffaloes. Vogelsong and Leicester should shore up long relief. Buffaloes already have a good young starting rotation, setup men, and closer. Throw in Fernandez, LaRocca (back from injury), Omura, maybe Hidalgo and Orix looks set for a good season.

He had plenty of chances but couldn't make it. It wasn't run support but his inability to go deep which really killed his chances.

I heard some comments from Okada last year when he was furious over Vogelsong's inability to pitch well. Okada was usually quite low keyed and would not lose his temper that often.

Orix is not stupid, though. They pick up the left overs from others and have been quite successful.

Vogelsong has had good strikeout-to-walks and strikeout-to-innings-pitched ratios in his time in NPB. He gave up a lot of home runs in 2007, but his home runs to innings pitched ratio was better last season. In short, I would expect him to be useful to Orix at the right price and in the right role.

Looks to be a good signing for the Buffs in Vogelsong. As long as he can stay healthy he should provide some strong pitching for the team. I'm sure they will appriciate him with all the young, inexperienced pitchers from last year that threw well, but logged a lot of innings. It's not always easy to duplicate that.

I'm not so sure about the other pitcher they got, Leicester. Looked like his numbers in AAA were really bad last year, but the Buffs usually don't have too good of luck bringing in players from the US. They seem to do better with getting recycled guys from Japan such as Rhodes, LaRocca, Davey, and Cabrera.

Any word on any of the former Buffs from last year such as Ortiz, Junge, Koronka, or Davey? Will any of these guys make their way back to Japan?

It should be interesting if the Buffs can line up Larocca, Rhodes, Cabrerra, and Fernandez in the lineup at the same time, but it will weaken their defense with 3 of 4 in the field.