Ogaswara for Kiyohara?

What date was that? I just reviewed yesterday's (Feb. 9) and today's, but didn't notice such a headline. A great deal was made about how only half of the pre-game tickets for the first open-sen (pre-season) game on Feb. 23 were sold. Usually they're sold out in minutes. Furthermore, Petagine has declared that he's going for right field only - not after the first base job. Hara's comment on Kiyohara's unstable legs was that he's sure Kiyo will be ready for opening day.

Today's (Feb. 10) Nikkan Sports has Kiyohara on the front page, hitting 18 out of 63 pitches out with just "60 to 70 percent power." Fighters' information of the day states that Hillman-kantoku will be going with a "Major League style" 9 man relay for pre-season games. Ogasawara was mentioned, saying that coaching [a section of] the 200 kids from 10 Little League teams that showed up for the Fighters' mini-baseball camp was fun.

So, is it possible that the Fighters would trade Ogasawara for Kiyohara? I think they'd be out of their minds to do so. But as with the purchase of Ochiai when Kiyo joined the Giants, they do seem to value the "Giants' brand" pretty high (despite the Giants' support of Itoh Ham).

I can see why the Giants want a replacement for Kiyohara. Look at the fielding for that position last season:

+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+
| Name      | Games | PutOuts | Assists | Errors | DoublePlays | Field% | Rank |
+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+
| Etoh      |    79 |     502 |      31 |      3 |          37 |  0.994 |      |
| T. Saitoh |    43 |     261 |      20 |      4 |          21 |  0.986 |      |
| Kiyohara  |    42 |     299 |      21 |      1 |          18 |  0.997 |      |
| Gotoh     |    32 |      87 |       3 |      1 |           3 |  0.989 |      |
| Motoki    |    19 |      93 |       3 |      0 |           3 |  1.000 |      |
| Fukui     |    12 |      22 |       2 |      0 |           1 |  1.000 |      |
| Crespo    |     2 |       4 |       1 |      0 |           0 |  1.000 |      |
| T. Sogawa |     2 |       3 |       0 |      0 |           0 |  1.000 |      |
| Yoshinaga |     1 |       6 |       0 |      0 |           0 |  1.000 |      |
| Kawanaka  |     1 |       0 |       0 |      0 |           0 |  ----- |      |
+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+

But the thing I want to know is, why not give the position to Saitoh? He's been rotting away at 2-gun forever, no matter how good he's looked during Spring - always because the Giants have a tendency to get someone to fill the hole that Saitoh should be given a chance to fill. Batting .310 in 109 games while playing a number of positions last season, Saitoh deserves a spot somewhere! (I've thought he deserved a spot somewhere since 1997.)

Anyway, compare that to Ogawarara's Fighters:

+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+
| Name      | Games | PutOuts | Assists | Errors | DoublePlays | Field% | Rank |
+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+
| Ogasawara |   135 |    1192 |      76 |      6 |          92 |  0.995 |    3 |
| Hayashi   |    17 |      66 |       9 |      0 |           9 |  1.000 |      |
| Y. Tanaka |     1 |       1 |       0 |      0 |           0 |  1.000 |      |
+-----------+-------+---------+---------+--------+-------------+--------+------+

There's no doubt who the more durable first baseman is. And I don't care how popular Kiyohara is. His popularity isn't what the Fighters need. A winning team is. And Ogasawara would be much more valuable to that end than Kiyohara.

If there is any thought in doing this in the Fighters' front office, I sincerely hope they rationally think about it some more. It would not be a good trade on their part.

I hope it happens or we can trade some young talent for Ogaswara and move Kyohara to DH. That would be sweet.

If that trade were made and I was Trey Hillman, I would resign. That would hurt Nippon Han three ways: defensively, offensively (since Ogasawara isn't as one dimensional an offensive player as Kiyohara), and in terms of the team's future. I look at all the major sports dailies every day and I haven't seen anything like that rumor.

Kiyohara is kind of a down market Edgar Martinez right now. He's aging after a successful career, he's useless defensively, and a bad hamstring could apply the kiss of death to his career. Don't be surprised if Kiyohara ends up in the broadcast booth next season since his hammy, no matter what the doctor said Tuesday, is going to hobble him for weeks or maybe even months, to come.