Following news that the Yankees placed the winning bid for exclusive negotiating rights to Japanese shortstop Hiroyuki Nakajima, MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch passed along this scouting report:
Heard Nakajima’s bat could be better than Twins’ Nishioka, but not as good a fielder.
“Nishioka” would be Tsuyoshi Nishioka.
So that opinion suggests Nakajima’s bat “could be better than” a guy who hit .226 with zero homers and a .527 OPS. And he’s “not as good a fielder” as a guy who broke his leg playing second base largely because he didn’t know how to properly turn a double play and was completely overmatched when switched to shortstop.
The good news is that the Yankees reportedly bid only $2 million for Nakajima, whereas the Twins bid $9 million for Nishioka as part of a $15 million total commitment.
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- bozosforall - Dec 7, 2011 at 2:19 PM
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$2 million is chicken feed to the Yankees.
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- Francisco (FC) - Dec 7, 2011 at 2:29 PM
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That’s a LOT of Chicken Feed! The Yankees must have a lot of chickens!
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- skane2005 - Dec 7, 2011 at 2:28 PM
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Hilarious picture. Mad TV
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- wegohardinthepaint - Dec 7, 2011 at 2:48 PM
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Just plain confusing
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- jwbiii - Dec 7, 2011 at 4:43 PM
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Japanese infielders have not fared well in MLB. The list (numbers in parentheses are fWAR/150 G): Tadahito Iguchi (2.2), Akinori Iwamura (1.8), Kazuo Matsui (1.4), Norihiro Nakamura (-2.1), and Tsuyoshi Nishioka (-5.2).
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- damnyankee13 - Dec 7, 2011 at 6:44 PM
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maybe we signed him as sort of a chip for Darvish, to make it easier for him
