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Friday, 2nd December 2011
In Sports, Japan Sports News,
Japanese Giants sign Phillies pitcher
A leading Japanese baseball team has nabbed a star pitcher after sealing a deal with the Philadelphia Phillies for an undisclosed amount.
Scott Mathieson is on course to begin with the Yomiuri Giants from January, bringing with him an extensive talent that showed he didn’t allow one run in four relief outings this year, the Associated Press reported.
As such, the right-handed star was 1-4 with a 6.75 ERA in eight starts and seven relief appearances with the Philadelphia team in 2006, 2010 and 2011.
The 27-year-old was released by the Phillies on Tuesday (November 29th) but the details of his contract have not been made known by the Giants yet.
Among his other achievements is a record 32-27 with 3.75 ERA, 34 saves in 94 starts and 104 relief appearances in the minor league.
Meanwhile, former Yomiuri Giants reliever Hiroki Sanada is up for grabs as he was posted to the 30 Major League Baseball (MLB) teams for bidding, due to close at 5pm on Wednesday (December 7th).
This marks his departure from current team, the Yokohama BayStars, who will set a price for the right-handed player if another team shows interest in the 28-year-old.
His career record is a 24-27 with three saves and 4.23 ERA in 299 games, while in the past season he won just two games in 53 relief appearances and a 4.22 ERA.
However, the likelihood of Sanada generating huge interest is questionable as NBSC Sports reporter Aaron Gleeman believes he has not had enough recent success to make him a desirable player.
Mr Gleeman wrote for the news provider: “Based on Sanada’s mediocre numbers and (Patrick) Newman’s underwhelming scouting report, it doesn’t sound as those he’s likely to draw a ton of interest from MLB teams.”
The expert highlighted Sanada’s limited achievement of just 18 strikeouts in 49 innings this season as one reason why he may not be favourable and questioned whether he would gain any bids at all.
Posted by Susan Ballion