NPB Roundup: Open letters

Dear Ichiro,

First, I was really happy to see you on the news the other night, back here in Japan, doing personal training. You have a lot of knowledge to share with other players here. Also, about your upcoming milestone of 3000 hits in both the MLB and NPB, I think that's really amazing, I hadn't even realized you were up to 2870 hits now. Given that we all know you are incapable of getting less than 200 hits per year, you are likely to beat Isao Harimoto's all-time record career 3085 hits either at the end of the 2008 season or early in 2009. I have no doubt that you could have surpassed his number had you stayed in Japan, of course. At first I thought that it was a little unfair that you get 30-40 games per year more, but I guess that means that you're really only getting maybe 2-3 "seasons" worth more of games, so that's not that big a deal.

Second, I went to the post office today and I saw you on the front of the "Entertain-post" magazine. The Ichiro ASG MVP postage stamps are REALLY sweet. I totally should buy some and send postcards to people in Seattle. That'd be awesome.

Sincerely,
Deanna the Marinerd


Dear Kazuhito Tadano,

You should know by now that I really don't judge you for things you did while you were in college. I was really happy when the Fighters drafted you, and I was really looking forward to seeing you in our rotation this year.

However, a month ago I noted that you were probably going to get struck by some sort of curse when they assigned you Kanemura's old uniform number #16. So it completely shouldn't surprise me that you had to go and break your wrist while going for a run the other day. Now, at least you broke your LEFT wrist instead of your RIGHT wrist, but still.

I'll come see you pitch in Kamagaya in a few months!

xoxoxo,
Deanna the Hokkaidork


Dear Keizo Kawashima,

I will miss you. A LOT. I was really expecting to see you in a platoon with Kudoh this year in left field, and then this trade came out of nowhere. I'll totally come see you play at Jingu sometime this year (maybe I'll get to see a Kawashima-Aoki-Miyade outfield someday! That'd be all cute and happy).

Love,
Deanna (and the rest of the female Fighters fans)


(The Fighters and Swallows just did a 6-man trade: Fighters gave up 24-year-old outfielder Keizo Kawashima, 25-year-old RHP Takehiko Oshimoto, and 28-year-old RHP Yoshitaka Hashimoto, for Yakult's 30-year-old LHP Shuugo Fujii, 30-year-old switch-hitting utility guy Hajime Miki, and 25-year-old RHP Yataro Sakamoto. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the deal here is, but offhand it seems like this deal favors Yakult a LOT more than it favors the Fighters. Maybe it's just that I like Kawashima. Feels like Yakult may have filled in the Ramirez hole in their outfield and the Fighters got another left-handed starter, but I kind of feel like Fujii's really not that good.)