Why Kevin Beirne?

Yeah, not a good day for him, Softbank is off to an amazing start with that sweep.

Yeah. Zuleta and others are really picking up the slack for the bottom of the order. I like Julio. I think he's the heir apparent to Tuffy Rhodes' title of the gaijin player who everybody loves (until he went to Tokyo). It seems he makes the effort to understand Japanese culture, and he plays to the fans well. He seems like he genuinely loves baseball and the fact that he gets paid well to play it. I'm sure he won over a lot more fans when he gave words of encouragement to a very nervous rookie, Fujioka.

Jolbert Cabrera is really off to a great start. I wouldn't be surprised to see him hit 20 homers this year. He's been given the responsibility to hit in the #3 spot, and it seems like he's taken to it.

The team I'm really excited and scared about is Seibu. That batting order looks amazing with G.G. Satoh hitting like a monster. Now, if Sumitani can live up to what the staff wants him to be, they could be in the Series this year. The bullpen also needs to be solid after losing Mori and Toyoda.

Zam, I'm wondering the same thing. I wasn't able to catch the game, but reading the play-by-play after the game was just depressing. Of course, it's not like still having Serafini would help - he also got hammered in the game against Seibu. Go figure.

I guess the thing is, with the WBC, they didn't have Watanabe or Shimizu to start the first two games, so they had the lower end of the rotation to face the Hawks, and the upper end to face the Fighters, which is the reverse of what you'd want, I think.

My thought on why they picked up Beirne was for some bizarre sense of compensation for losing Serafini to the Buffs.

- My thought on why they picked up Beirne was for some bizarre sense of compensation for losing Serafini to the Buffs.

I would have to wholeheartedly agree with that. Signing Beirne seemed to be some attempt by the Chiba front office to replace Serafini, though it doesn't look like a very good move by the Marines.

The whole WBC thing didn't really work out for Lotte to open the season, not having their 3 best starters available against a good Hawks team (so much for that power shortage without Batista and Johjima). They should be able to get back on track at home against the Fighters though.

Wasn't Serafini like a top high school pitching prospect at one point, though? It's more probable for him to have a decent season in Japan like he did last year than a guy who's had plenty of chances there already. Beirne just doesn't have the stuff to fool Japanese batters. His curve ball was everywhere. He got behind in the count on so many batters.

I read on JapanBaseballDaily that Pedro Feliciano wants to play for Chiba if he doesn't start the season on the Mets' top team. That's an upgrade from Beirne, but not much of one.

I get this sinking feeling in my stomach from watching the Softbank games that Chiba Lotte have come back down to reality. It seems like the "wa" was disturbed greatly with the departures of Kosaka, Lee, and Serafini. I hope I'm wrong, though.

- I read on JapanBaseballDaily that Pedro Feliciano wants to play for Chiba if he doesn't start the season on the Mets' top team. That's an upgrade from Beirne, but not much of one.

Feliciano isn't better as a starter, that's for sure. They're about even, neither can do anything as a starter. Feliciano hasn't even started a game in his professional career, so I don't see how he's that much better. Though, if you're talking about Feliciano as a reliever, then yes, Feliciano is way better than Beirne.