Gaijin 21st Century Sluggers for Hanshin...

2000: Tony Tarasco hit 19 homers but only slugged .429 due to a low average. Jason Hardtke, the other gaijin player, was no slugger, with 4 home runs. Tsuyoshi Shinjo (28 HR in his big year) and Yasuaki Taiho (23 at the end of the line) were the club's real threats. Don't know if you want to count Taiho as a gaijin.

2001: Ivan Cruz, Eduardo Perez and Tom Evans *combined* for 19 homers. Cruz slugged .431 as the best power source of the group. He led a weak Hanshin club with 14 HR.

2002: Not much from Derrick White (7 HR), but we finally have a gaijin slugger here with George Arias (32 HR, .526 SLG, 82 RBI). Arias was easily the club's big gun.

2003: Arias once more - 38 HR, .565 SLG, 107 RBI. No other gaijin of note.

2004: Arias is still productive (25 HR, .522 SLG, 84 RBI), though he's only third on a power-happy club in homers, trailing Tomoaki Kanemoto (34) and Makoto Imaoka (28). Mike Kinkade gives us, uh, 3.

2005: Arias is gone. Andy Sheets (19 HR, 38 2B, .463 SLG, 85 RBI) his productive, if no Kanemoto (40) or Imaoka (29). The infamous Shane Spencer hits 9 and slugs .406.

2006: Sheets is the main man again (19 HR, 31 2B, 75 RBI, .466 SLG), 3rd on homers behind Kanemoto (26) and Osamu Hamanaka (20 in his big year). Spencer gives us 6 more and Wei-Chu Lin pops 5 in only 76 AB (shades of Taiho).

2007: Wei-Chu Lin is about it (15 HR, .455 SLG) among gaijin. Sheets slumps (9 HR, .337 SLG, 54 RBI from the heart of the order). Kanemoto (31) is the only player other than Lin with more than 10 as we're in another power vacuum.

2008: Worse than 2001. Lew Ford, Aaron Baldiris and Lin combine for 8 home runs. Lin has the best slugging percentage of a gaijin player at .339 - eek. Only Kanemoto and Takashi Toritani reach double digits.

That's a walk down memory lane. Thanks for posting Mischa.

I thought Lin doesn't count as a gaijin because he went to high school and college in Japan. He's probably my favorite Hanshin player, but I never really think of him as being a foreign slugger per se.

The Tigers should do Lin a favor and trade him because he gets no respect from them. When he got the chance to play for almost a full year, he showed what he could do. I don't know why he is riding the bench as Katsuragi gets one more chance to prove his mediocrity. Even during the inter-league games Hiyama has gotten some starts at DH. Lin's also one of my favorites and a fan favorite at Koshien, so I would hate to see him go. My point is just that he deserves to be given the chance to be an everyday player.

Fully agree. But is Lin still battling injury issues?

- But is Lin still battling injury issues?

This I would need confirmation on. He did have a very serious injury, so maybe they are treating him carefully. However, if they've given him a place on the top team, I imagine he is fine. Can't say for sure though.

To clarify, Lin needed elbow surgery. This took a significant time to recover from and he is only now recovering his bat speed.

Updating Mischa's list we need to add Kevin Mench (the less said the better) and Craig Brazell who has started very nicely.

No need to add Mench. The original question was about "sluggers." Mench and "slugger" should never be used in the same sentence.