Blockbuster Trades

It really lends itself to the dull conservative nature of Japanese baseball management doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, I love NPB, but I wish we could muster the excitement here that is generated back in the States with trade deadlines approaching and so forth.

Hmmm, interesting. Try it this way: why are there blockbuster trades in MLB?

The lack of blockbuster trades could be attributed to a number of reasons.

One is that free agency takes 9 years to achieve, assuming one is on the active roster from the time one signs. Furthermore, ball clubs losing free agents get reimbursed 1.5 times the player's salary if another Japanese team takes him, so there's incentive to hold on to free agents in their final year.

Another reason is the cultural one-company employee. While society is changing, staying with a single company one's entire career is still considered the norm, in business and baseball. (I was shocked when Kanemoto signed with Hanshin. Hanshin fans, I thought it took a while for Kanemoto to really be accepted. Was that the case?)

Usually a trade to another team is done as punishment (Iriki being traded from the Giants to Nippon Ham comes to mind), not to strengthen the team or to give a career ni-gun player a shot elsewhere.

The biggest reason, though, is to prevent making the mistake of making a competitor stronger. No one wants to be responsible for trading that player they thought would never amount to anything but turns a competitor around. This idea is so ingrained, that many managers automatically pencil in players they don't usually use just because they're playing their former team mates.

By the time the trading deadline comes around, most teams have a status quo fixed. Teams may seek out suketto ("helpers") from the North American minors at the last minute to fill a void (to replace suketto who didn't work out, or such as Kokubo's injury and lack of a competent third baseman prompting Arias' signing), but last minute trades within Japan are rare.

Any way you look at it, the trading/signing deadline tends to pass every year without much fanfare.

Hanshin fans, I thought it took a while for Kanemoto to really be accepted. Was that the case?

I didn't detect any misgivings. Hanshin were desperate to break the pennant drought, and I think the fans were grateful that the club had signed a player of such a high caliber. Kanemoto's personality (not to mention his on-field performances) quickly endeared him to the fans.

- ... why are there blockbuster trades in MLB?

Ahhh, I might be missing something, but to make a run at the pennant, improve your team, that kind of thing.

In the first year there was a bit of distance. Whilst he was welcome no one was quite sure about him. However, his performance and commitment rapidly won fans over.

- Whilst he was welcome no one was quite sure about him ...

Huh? What do you base that on? I remember it well - his signing was extremely well received by the overwhelming majority of Hanshin fans down here. But obviously the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so perhaps you may be thinking about those who were waiting for results before making up their mind about him. If so, it wouldn't have been because he was an outsider - it would've been because he was new. But I'd say everybody would have been won over by the end of April.

April was perhaps a bit too soon. To be honest Tigers fans seemed to treat him as a gaijin for at least half the season. My impression is that full acceptance only really came in the Japan Series matches at Koshien.

- To be honest Tigers fans seemed to treat him as a gaijin for at least half the season.

That wasn't my impression. Obviously we travel in different circles.

- To be honest Tigers fans seemed to treat him as a gaijin for at least half the season ...

An interesting statement considering the way Tigers fans have embraced many foreign players over the years! What made you make such a statement?

Having lived in Kansai for years, and going to many Tigers games, I can assure you Kanemoto quickly became a fan favorite.

In your defense, living in the Kanto region may give you a distorted view.

Tigers fans are very welcoming to gaijin players, it is true. However, they are also thought of as outsiders who may not be around for a long time. Thus they do not attract as much affection as Hiyama say. Initially I had the impression of this kind of attitude and distance between Kanemoto and the fans.

This was actually my impression as well, that he was treated like a gaijin for a good part of the season. Granted, my perspective was from the Kanto area newspapers (Nikkan Sports) and the dugout shots of the few Tigers games I saw. But it struck me that Kanemoto didn't interact with the team much for a good portion of that first year (other than the ritual home run greeting on returning to the dugout).

- Granted, my perspective was from the Kanto area newspapers (Nikkan Sports) and the dugout shots of the few Tigers games I saw.

That must explain the difference of opinion then. I have no idea what the Kanto press reported because I don't live up there - but I do remember what I heard and saw down here. In fact I remember that year vividly because I was in the thick of things - and not just as a fan either - I was heavily involved in selling Hanshin merchandise, and as a result I came into contact with many ordinary fans as well as a couple of the Hanshin luminaries. I can tell you that just about everybody here in Kansai was extremely happy when Kanemoto joined the team - it was regarded as one of the best acquisitions the club had made in years.

And as far as the team itself is concerned, well, Hoshino, being new himself, wouldn't have permitted any disunity. In fact, that was one of the Tigers' strengths that year - the teamwork.

So I don't know where this impression - Kanemoto being treated as a gaijin - originated. But it certainly wasn't the general feeling here in Kansai.

I can only speak for my circle of friends, but we:

1. were surprised that Kanemoto would want to leave "home"; and
2. couldn't believe Hiroshima would let him go so easily! I mean, what luck! We welcomed him unconditionally.

Still, even if there was a Kansai-Kanto difference in how fans warmed to ol' Iron Man, I'd wager there's no such gap now.

I did a bit of checking with a couple of other die hard Hanshin fans today, and it does appear that Kanemoto was well and truly welcomed from the beginning. Even as early as the open sen, according to one. Everybody I spoke to seemed to be of the same opinion as torakichi, in that the fans welcomed him unconditionally.

And as far as his teammates were concerned, I find it very hard to believe there would have been any problems. As I discovered today, Kanemoto and Yano knew each other at college (Tohoku Fukushi Daigaku), while Kanemoto and Hiyama were roommates when they both played on the Japan national college team. So it wasn't as if he came in completely cold.

When exactly is the trade deadline for NPB, anyway?

MLB trade deadline was July 31 at 4pm Eastern.

One reason for blockbuster trades in MLB - real blockbusters, as opposed to late-season "rentals" of guys who'll be free agents at the end of the year - would be a deeper pool of talent, no?

If I've got a great shortstop at the major league team and a promising shortstop in AAA, if the price is right I can trade one and lose nothing. Japan has no "hot prospects" in the minors. They're either at the ichi-gun level, or they're not.

The only real, major trade in Japan I can think of (and this is off the top of my head) would be Seibu-Daiei deal that saw Akiyama and (not Hisanobu but the other) Watanabe and someone else from Seibu for outfielder Sasaki, one of the Muratas, and another pitcher from Daiei. That was big in that it was a trade of starters and rotation pitchers. But there was a subtext in that the guy behind the deal, Nemoto, had just left the monster he had created at Seibu for Daiei. It wasn't like two teams coming up with this trade on their own probably as much as it was driven by Nemoto.

Kanemoto was a free agent, right? Not a trade? Not like the Carp would outbid anyone for anything. (So who'll get Kuroda?)

Ochiai was traded to your Dragons, though I don't know who for, in the 1980s, and there was the Koyama/Yamauchi trade in the '60s. Trades of that sort have been rare in Japan.

Jim Albright

Oh, that's right, thanks! That was Ushijima - still rivals after all these years!

It was the last day of June. It came and went without much fanfare.

I have a complete list of this year's trades listed here. I should probably update that thread with the trade cutoff, and add late foreign signings. I've got the full list in a ShuBe (Shukan Baseball) around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it right now.