WORLD BASEBALL TODAY



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Sunday, February 22, 2009

GRIFFEY RETURNS TO MARINERS WITH ONE-YEAR DEAL

Future Hall of Fame outfielder Ken Griffey, Junior has agreed to return to the team he began his major league career with by signing a one-year contract with the Seattle Mariners for a reported $2 million plus incentives. Griffey is fifth on the all-time list with 611 homers, including 14 last year.

Griffey broke into the majors with Seattle as a 19-year-old in 1989. However, after eleven seasons with the Mariners, Griffey forced his way out of Seattle by demanding a trade to his hometown Cincinnati Reds after the 1999 season. He has since spent nine injury-plagued years with the Reds. Griffey’s contract includes attendance incentives.

KAWAKAMI IMPRESSES IN FIRST WORKOUT FOR BRAVES

When Japanese import pitcher Kenshin Kawakami worked out for the first time with the Atlanta Braves last weekend in Florida, he received a lot of attention from onlookers, and at least one important observer was reasonably impressed. Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said Kawakami “has outstanding control. He doesn’t walk anybody.” The 33-year-old right-hander did uncork a wild pitch that sailed out of the bullpen in front of about 20 members of the Japanese media, but Cox didn’t seem concerned. “If he’s as good as the videotape,” he said, “we’ve got a real pitcher.”

Kawakami was the Central League Rookie of the Year in 1998 pitching for Chunichi. He went 17-7 in 2004 for the pennant-winning Dragons, earning the Central League’s MVP honors and the Sawamura Award as Japan’s best pitcher. He was 9-5 with a 2.30 ERA for Chunichi last year before signing a three-year deal for the Braves in January as a free agent.

NATS FARMHAND ALLEGED TO BE USING FALSE I.D.

Austin Powers has been supplanted as the “international man of mystery” by Washington Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez…or is that Carlos Alvarado Daniel Lugo? An article on Sports Illustrated’s website claims four sources say the 19-year-old Gonzalez is really the 23-year-old Lugo.

Gonzalez signed with the Nationals in 2006 for a $1.4 million bonus, the largest the team has ever paid for an international player. However, it appears that Gonzalez’ records were falsified to make him appear younger, not uncommon among players older than a typical prospect. Negotiations for Gonzalez were handled by Dominican Basilio Vizcaino, who grooms young players in hopes of collecting a percentage of signing bonuses as an “agent.” Gonzalez hit .342 in Rookie ball last year.

SEVEN AUSTRALIAN PROSPECTS IN TWINS CAMP

The Minnesota Twins have spent a lot of time and effort scouting Australian baseball prospects, and that is evident in the Twins’ spring training facility in Fort Myers, Florida. Seven Australians on their home country’s 45-man provisional World Baseball Classic roster are in the Twins camp.

Most prominent among them is power-hitting infield prospect Luke Hughes, who hit .319 with 15 homers and 45 RBI in 70 games with New Britain of the Class AA Eastern League last season. Hughes played in both the Eastern League All-Star Game and the All-Star Futures Game in 2008, putting on a tremendous display in the Home Run Derby at the latter.

Joining Hughes from Australia in the Twins’ camp are infielders James Beresford and Daniel Berg, catcher Allan de San Miguel and pitchers Liam Hendriks, Bradley Tippett and Matthew Williams.

MEXICAN LEAGUE TRAINING CAMPS OPEN

Seven Mexican League teams opened training camp last Monday in preparation for the Liga’s 85th season. The other members of the 16-team league will begin spring training over the next several days. The last club to open camp will be the Yucatan Leones, who will begin preseason workouts February 26 in Merida.

The Mexican League’s regular season will open March 24 when the Mexico City Diablos Rojos host Monterrey at Foro Sol in a rematch of last season’s LMB championship series. The Diablos beat the Sultanes, 4 games to 1, to cop their 15th Mexican League pennant. Saltillo’s Kit Pellow won the Triple Crown in 2008 by batting .385 with 34 homers and 107 RBIs, easily winning MVP honors for the season.

FORMER BIG LEAGUERS NUNEZ, CARRARA TO PLAY IN ITALY

Danesi Nettuno of the Italian League has signed a pair of former major leaguers to play for them in 2009.

Outfielder Abraham Nunez, who just turned 32, broke into the majors with the Florida Marlins in 2002, and went on to play 136 big league games with the Marlins and Kansas City, batting .209 with six homers and 42 runs scored. His last MLB season was in 2004, when he played 117 times for the Royals. After batting .268 with 134 homers over 12 minor league seasons, Nunez spent last year with the Chinatrust Whales in Taiwan.

Pitcher Giovanni Carrara will be spending his third season with Nettuno in 2009. The 40-year-old veteran spent parts of ten seasons in the majors with five teams, going 29-18 with a 4.69 ERA. His best year was in 2004 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, for whom he was 5-2 with two saves and a 2.18 ERA. Carrara was 8-2 in 14 games for Nettuno last year before posting a 3-3 mark for Lara of the Venezuelan League over the winter.

STAR SHORTSTOP BECK RE-SIGNS WITH GERMAN TEAM

Although it was assumed throughout the offseason that star shortstop Chris Beck would not be back with the German League’s Solingen Alligators in 2009, Beck has agreed to return to the Northern Division team this year.

The 23-year-old Beck led the German League in nine offensive categories in 2008, batting .531 with 45 runs scored, 31 RBIs and 18 stolen bases as the Alligators’ leadoff hitter in 23 games. He also struck out just three times in 96 at-bats. Beck may move down in the order to accommodate newcomer David Hissey, who hit .365 with 136 runs and 76 stolen bases in 130 games playing collegiately at Atlanta’s Emory University. Beck is a product of the University of North Carolina-Pembroke, where he batted .326 as a senior in 2007.

Solingen had a league-best record of 27-1 last season, but fell to eventual German champion Regensburg, 3 games to 1, in the Northern Division finals.

SWEDISH NATIONAL TEAM TO PLAY THREE GAMES IN USA

The Swedish National Team will be coming to America in May for three exhibition games against Northwoods League summer college baseball teams. The Swedes will play clubs in LaCrosse and Madison, Wisconsin as well as Brainerd, Minnesota as tuneups for the Baseball World Cup in September.

Mariners pitching prospect Christian Staehely and Phillies farmhand Adam Sorgi, a second baseman, are on the Swedish roster. The Swedes, who will host World Cup first round games in a new ballpark, are hoping to advance to the second round of the tourney.

JAPANESE WBC TEAM STARTS PRACTICE IN MIYAZAKI

Japan officially began their quest for a second consecutive World Baseball Classic title last Monday when they opened training sessions in front of 37,000 fans at Sun Marine Stadium in the city of Miyazaki. The camp was scheduled to last one week, leading to Japan’s first WBC game on March 5 at the Tokyo Dome when they face China in the tournament’s first contest.

Japan’s WBC roster presently has 33 players listed, including Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and Boston Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka. Suzuki said he’d love to try pitching in the WBC, but the response from the Mariners to Suzuki’s desire to pitch can be summed up in two words: Forget it.

KIM LOSES PASSPORT, KOREAN WBC TEAM LOSES KIM

The mercurial career of pitcher Kim Byung-hyun took another strange twist recently when the sidearming reliever claimed to have lost his passport that would have allowed him to travel outside South Korea for the upcoming World Baseball Classic. In turn, the Koreans have dropped the 30-year-old Kim from their WBC roster.

After a stellar amateur career in Korea, Kim broke into the major leagues with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 1999, and went on to spend seven seasons in the bigs. Although he pitched for two World Series champions and in one All-Star Game, Kim has been controversial, allowing two game-tying homers in the 2001 World Series, giving Boston fans the finger, and demanding to be traded after the Colorado Rockies relegated him to the bullpen. Kim didn’t play last year after the Pittsburgh Pirates cut him in spring training.

AUSTRALIANS TOP TAIWAN NATIONALS IN PRE-WBC SERIES

The Australian National Team won three of four games against their counterparts from Taiwan last week in a pre-World Baseball Classic series Down Under. While both teams are still far from set for the WBC, the Aussies indicated they shouldn’t be lightly regarded when they begin Pool B play next month in Mexico City (along with Cuba, Mexico and South Africa).

Australia won the first game Monday, 9-3, thanks to homers by Brett Roneberg, Daniel Berg and Justin Huber. Taiwan evened the series Tuesday with a 5-4 win despite Chris Snelling’s two-run shot for the home side, but Australia came back to win the last two games by scores of 9-3 and 7-6. Taiwan will play in WBC Pool A with Japan, South Korea and China.

CAMBODIAN NATIONAL TEAM TO MEET VIETNAMESE SQUAD

In a truly remarkable story, Cambodia’s National Baseball Team will host a squad from neighboring Vietnam in a series March 10-14 in the Kompong Chhnang province town of Baribor. Cambodia’s first baseball field was carved from a rice paddy in this remote village in 2005, with dignitaries from Major League Baseball, Cambodia’s National Olympic Committee and the country’s U.S. Embassy were on hand, but the star of the show was Joe Cook.

Cook escaped Cambodia at age 12 in 1978 during the bloody reign of Pol Pot and landed in Tennessee, where he discovered baseball. He reunited with his sister in 2002 on a visit to Cambodia, and began collecting equipment to teach baseball to kids there. Cook has since become a central figure in Cambodian baseball despite residing in Alabama, and coached the National Team to an 0-5 record at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand.

Cook says “Cambodia’s Cooperstown is Baribor,” but it’s unlikely a game at Doubleday Field has ever been interrupted by roaming water buffalo.

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