Tsuyoshi Shinjo stood up for radical change, and got some support from former Japan international footballer Keisuke Honda, while the Fighters are prepared for people to get into hot water at their new ballpark.
Change or die
Japan’s managers met online Wednesday, and Tsuyoshi Shinjo made headlines for saying it was essential for Japanese baseball to change things. One of his ideas was to shuffle the 12 teams into two different leagues at the end of each season.
Shintaro Fujinami has left the building, and has signed with the Athletics, which makes sense because he has potential to have some value but his he’s a high risk — and therefore low-cost option.
I typically write profiles of pitchers’ stuff when they’re headed to the States, but didn’t in his case, so a blog post will have to do.
Fujinami was a marquee amateur who was swarmed by the media as a rookie, and the one or two times I spoke with him came after his career took a sharp downturn. By that time, I found him to be humble and friendly.
I don’t know a lot about him and can’t say anything about his character or makeup as a player, although the following notes might be of interest.
