THE NEXT WAVE

March 10, 2014: Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture – OF Jun Saikawa signs his 1-season deal, as does SP Kosaku Sakamoto.  Saikawa’s commitment means the Transmitters will enter 2014 with a completely retooled outfield that will consist of the 33-year-old vet in center flanked by youngsters Raúl Gómez in left and Roberto Cuevas in right.  All three should be at least adequate in the field and turn in OBPs north of .350.  This pleases members of the management team to no end.

Sakamoto’s signature comes after a round of agent tag that raises his price to $6.6M over two seasons, which is pricey for a bullpen guy, but pitching coach Mitsuoki Ueda notes that Sakamoto can be successful with as many as six pitches and has started 60 games in his LRS career.  The team immediately pencils him into the rotation.

All this makes the aura around Transmitter Central much brighter.  Otherwise, things continue to get intrigue-inger and intrigue-inger.

Shortstop: Rikiya Taketo’s agent tells GM Ron Collins that the Transmitters have competition in the form of Niihama-shi.  They need to make that second year guaranteed rather than the mutual option originally proposed and add a bit more money.  “Damned Ghosts,” Collins says.  Niihama-shi is also a growing team with cash to burn, and they seem to be a consistent competitor for players Kawaguchi has targeted.  The team goes all in, offering $25.8M over two seasons, with a small plate appearance bonus.  This is probably the outer edge of their bargaining ability, but the Collins submits the offer with some optimism – realizing fully that optimism is not always a positive emotion when it comes to dealing with the vagaries of the free agent market.

Then the team waits.  And waits.  Collins contacts Taketo but doesn’t hear anything.  That’s odd.  No notice that the Transmitters have been beaten; no notice that the Transmitters have their man.  It’s just silent.

It turns out that Taketo had gone on a five-day deep sea fishing trip without informing anyone.  All this really means is that the waiting can start again, as Taketo and his agent are due to discuss the situation the following Monday.

“Dealing with free agency sucks,” said Harishi Rin, a member of the AAA Taito stat crew.

Starting Pitcher: On the even darker side, Yasukazu Takahashi has once again cranked the asking price up to $7.7M a year, which is $2M more per season than the team has offered or can afford.  It’s clear that the Transmitters are going to need to fold here, but the silver lining is that this frees considerable cash to spend on other options.  Specifically, Collins adjusts his approach with Mitsuharu Takano, suggesting a 1-year deal worth $2M (the original approach was $3M over three seasons).  This is closer to Takano’s annual asking price of $3.2M/year.  Collins thinks the swingman might bite.  “It’s a low-risk deal, too,” he explains.  “His K rate isn’t much to write home about, so having one only year invested in him makes it easier to adjust later if we need to.”  He also opens conversation with left-handed pitcher Trugumichi Uemura with a min-sal offer that is intended merely to get his attention, and he dispatches a courier to right-handed pitcher Sotatsu Sai’s agent that includes a solid $400K, 1-year deal.  Sai is only asking for $500K, so the team thinks this offer might do the deal.  Neither Uemura nor Sai would be expected to do much of anything but fill a slot at AAA, acting as injury insurance.

Relief Pitcher: In addition to this uncertainty, the Ghosts are playing coy with the offer to acquire Yataro Kawaguchi, so Collins begins to operate as if the deal won’t happen.  He has two small offers out for fillers, but asks the AAA management team to begin to propose options from within.  In addition, the scouting staff makes a list of ten possible pitchers in LRS minor league systems that could possibly be had on the cheap that would be at least adequate filler.  “We’re probably not going to go from 42 wins to 90 wins in one year,” Collins says.  “Let’s just find someone decent who won’t choke on a big league job.  If everything we’re working on falls through, we’ll make a dream come true.”

SUMMARY OF STATUS @ END OF JANUARY

“It’s hard not to be a little bit happy right now,” Collins says at lunchtime.  “We’ve got problems in the rotation, but that’s nothing new and the truth is Valadez, Sakei, Ishikawa, and Sakamoto aren’t chopped meat.  If Hisamitsu Osawa happens to be ready by springtime, we might surprise a few folks.  And even if we don’t get any more bullpen help, the core of (Shunsen) Ueda, (Takanori) Takano,  (Kazuhiko) Sasaki, and Yasuhiko Baba are a reasonable group even if they aren’t overly sexy.  If Shinji Watanabe learns how to put that ball over the plate anytime this year, we won’t really need too much help.”  Collins grins.  “Offensively, things are looking seriously good.  We have major league hitters at every slot except shortstop and a respectable shot at filling that hole with Taketo.  If something falls through, we’ve got a Gurabukin candidate waiting behind him who can step in for a year.”

Still, he concedes, there’s a lot of value at the free agent plate that is keeping him up late at night.  In particular, the fact that he’s in constant touch with Rikiya Taketo’s people lets me know exactly how much he sees is riding on that one acquisition.