While I Was Away

Okay, time to come out of hiatus with my first NPB Tracker post of the year.

Player Personnel

• Nippon Ham signed Bob Keppel and Brian Wolfe
• Yomiuri picked up Edgar Gonzalez, the former Padres infielder (Adrian's brother)
• Rakuten signed Andy Phillips, whose option was not excercised by the Carp
• Yakult signed Diamondbacks AAA arm Tony Barnette
• Seibu signed NPB veteran reliever Brian Sikorski and AAA veteran Dee Brown
• Oakland signed NPB Tracker favorite Lenny DiNardo. I'm glad he's back in the Bay Area and hope to see him with the A's this year
• Another personal favorite, Shingo Takatsu, signed with the Sinon Bulls in Taiwan. Takatsu wants to be the first pitcher to record a save in NPB, MLB, KBO, and Taiwan's CBL
• Colby Lewis signed with the Rangers
• Dan Johnson returned to the Rays
• SoftBank and Hiroshima will continue to look for pitching through spring training

Did I miss anyone?

Other News

• MLB and NPB are discussing holding a global world series between the champions from the two leagues. It doesn't seem as close as initially reported, but I would love to see this happen. More later...
• Having failed to get any NPB offers, former Orix Buffaloe Katsuaki Furuki is moving into the ring and becoming a figher
• Yusei Kikuchi has begun working out for his first pro spring training. And believer or not, he's walking on air
• More jibba-jabba about Yu Darvish going to MLB
• Matt Murton will play center field for Hanshin

Any other big stories over the last few weeks that I didn't include?