The Ghost Whisperer brings you the latest inside poop on our favorite last-place team, the Niihama-shi Ghosts
By Michishige Kuniumi, Executive Editor of NiiGhostsSuck.com

11/11/2012: We’ve got a shocker: this correspondent is hearing distinct rumors around the LRS that Ghosts management is actively shopping the team’s stud third baseman, Nobuhito Hasegawa.  That’s right.  Nobu-san could be moving on!

Wait – Hasegawa was previously consider untouchable, as in, “Don’t waste your time asking.”   So what led to this surprising turnaround?  How could GM Mike Dunn even consider moving the best of the Ghosts exceedingly thin talent pool?

It’s all about money, dear friends.  The team is bleeding cash.  Attendance this past season was down by one-third.  They’re saddled with a bunch of overpaid, whining crybabies who are in their decline.  Our sources indicate that the team believes the only way to unload these salaries is to dangle Nobu.

But would another team take on a major league salary dump to obtain the services of Hasegawa?  Apparently, yes.  Your faithful correspondent has learned that two teams have already tendered unsolicited offers for Hasegawa, prompting Dunn to get off his butt and start actively shopping the stud third baseman.

Hasegawa is only 28 and already among the LRS elite.  In five seasons with the Ghosts, he has a .326 batting average and is a perennial leader in most offensive categories.  Even more enticing for other GMs, he is signed through 2014 for a paltry $6 million per year.

Ah, the off-season should prove interesting indeed for the Ghosts.  Analysts indicate that if they don’t shed salary soon, they will begin a downward spiral.  “One year of financial losses, as long as they’re not too bad, can be absorbed,” says one veteran observer.  “Two years and you’re starting to get in deep trouble.”

Meanwhile, our online poll of what readers want done with Dunn brought these results:
Whisperings: Great news came at the start of the off-season as sad sack OF Sadakuno Ishikawa abruptly retired, saving the cash-strapped team his final contract year at $2 million.  Good riddance, lazy bones.