Update on North American Players in Japan, Part II: “C” & “D”

Alex Cabrera, Orix Buffaloes.  For those of you who don’t already know, Alex Cabrera is one of the greatest foreign players ever to play in Japan.  He’s from Venezuala originally and has been an international player his whole career, in the sense that he has played in North America, South America, Taiwan and Japan.

From 1992 through 1996, presumably after starting his professional career in Latin America, he played in the Rockies and Cubs organizations.  Despite some strong years at the A+ level, he apparently went to Latin America or the Far East for ‘97 and ‘98 before surfacing in Taiwan in 1999.

Although Cabrera was now 28 years old, the Diamond-Backs organization signed him for 2000.  Playing at four different levels, including the majors at the end of the season, he hit a combined 44 HRs in fewer than 400 AB’s, including the final five HR’s for the D-Backs in 80 AB’s.

Given his age, the D-Backs didn’t see him as having much of a future, so Cabrera went to Japan to play for the Seibu Lions in 2001.  In his first three seasons in Japan, he hit 49, 55 and 50 HRs.  The 55 dingers in 2002 tied the all-time Japanese single season record held by Sadaharu Oh and Tuffy Rhodes.  Like with Rhodes in 2001 (and Randy Bass when he reached 54 HR’s in 1985), Japanese pitchers stopped pitching to Cabrera when he reached 55 HR’s, walking him the half-dozen or so times he came to bat at the end of that season; a fact that does not reflect positively on the Japanese game.

As Alex has gotten older, his production has cooled, but he’s still been remarkably consistent, hitting between 25 and 36 HR’s each of the last five seasons.  He has hit 313 HR’s and has a career .306 batting average in Japan.  For the sake of full disclosure, he’s also been linked to steroid use by the Mitchell Report.

Alex left the Seibu Lions and went to play for the Buffaloes last year.  This year the Buffaloes have assembled a tremendous collection of great foreign power hitters in Tuffy Rhodes, Alex, Greg LaRocca and Jose Fernandez.  Fernandez is the youngster of the bunch: he’s only 34.  As you might have guessed, Tuffy (40) and Alex (37) are both currently injured and have not played for a couple of weeks.

Alex is hitting only .250 in 64 ABs this season.  He’s never hit below .280 in a season in Japan, so you know something’s wrong.  Given the salary he commands, if his health doesn’t improve soon, this could be his last season in Japan.

Matt Childers, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles. Childers is a 30 year old right-handed pitcher, who pitched mainly in the Brewers’ organization in the States.  He had brief cups of coffee for the Brewers in 2002 and the Braves in 2005.

Childers had a solid year as the closer for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Phillies’ AAA team, last year, notching 20 saves with a 3.78 ERA in 66.2 IP with 18 BB’s and 68 K’s.  The Golden Eagles obviously like his ratios, because they signed him to a contract.

Childers is currently on the Golden Eagles’ roster, but has pitched only one inning for them so far this year.  He’s mostly been the closer for the Golden Eagles’ minor league team, picking up six saves in 22 appearances.  His 3.86 ERA there  is reminiscent of his season last year in the Lehigh Valley.

Jamie D’Antona, Tokyo Yakult Swallows.  D’Antona is a player I’ve written about a lot ever since the Swallows signed him last off-season.  I thought he was a great player for a Japanese team to take a chance on because he’s only 27 this year and he had an outstanding season at AAA Tucson last year, finishing second in the Pacific Coast League in both batting average (.365) and OPS (1.009, behind only now major league star Nelson Cruz).

Both D’Antona and Dan Johnson, the other Japanese signing I was really excited about this off-season, are struggling right now.  D’Antona hit his 9th HR of the season on Wednesday, but his average has fallen to .237, and he’s struck out 48 times in only 173 AB’s.  His OPS is currently only .728, and he’s been riding the pine a lot for the last  week or ten days.

Because he’s at least hitting for power, the Swallows won’t give up on him just yet.  I still expect things to turn around for both D’Antona and Johnson in the second half.  Playing in six team leagues, the hitters get to know the pitchers in Japan much faster than they do here.

Also, the Japanese players tend to wear themselves out by the second half with their insane, daily “fighting spirit” workouts.  One of the things you often hear here in the States is that veteran players are much better than younger, newer players at conserving their strength and energy for the stretch run in late August and September.  In Japan, they simply don’t believe in the concept.

Japanese players are expected to practice, practice, practice throughout the season, and if they get worn out, it’s because they don’t have the proper fighting spirit.  In his book, “Slugging It Out in Japan”, long-time major league and Japanese league star Warren Cromartie (or Robert Whiting) writes that foreign players in Japan earn their money in the second half.

Tomas De La Rosa, Chunichi Dragons.  San Francisco Giants fans may remember him: De La Rosa had 16 AB’s for the Gints in 2006.  He’s a 31 year old shortstop now.  He also had cups of coffee for the Expos in 2000 and 2001.

After two strong, but not outstanding years for the AAA Fresno Grizzlies in 2006 and 2007, the Dragons signed him for ‘08.  He hit .243 with a little bit of power (12 doubles and 7 HR’s in 214 AB’s), so the Dragons brought him back for another season.

De La Rosa has split time between the Dragons’ minor league team and the major league team this year and hasn’t done much with the bat either place.  He’s hitting .267 with no power but does have a .346 OBP for the Dragons in 22 games.  He needs to step it up in the second half if he wants to return for a third season.

Scott Dohmann, Hiroshima Toyo Carp. He’s 31 this year and has substantial major league experience, pitching in 164 games for the Rockies, Royals and Rays.  He has good stuff (166 K’s in 172.2 major league IP), but his U.S. career was short-circuited by poor control (96 BB’s) and too many gopher balls (28 HR’s allowed).

He’s off to a very slow start with the Carp.  His ERA is currently 17.28 over 8.1 IP in 9 appearances.  He was sent down to the Carps’ minor league team, but pitched well enough there in 10 appearances to get called back up the major league team.  However, on June 11, he faced six batters and failed to retire any of them.  He hasn’t pitched since, so his Japanese career appears to be in grave trouble.