The Yokohama BayStars and Hiroshima Carp, realizing they need to do something in order to compete with the powerhouse Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons, are bringing in a slew of foreign players to fill in the body spaces and — hopefully — the talent void left by the loss of star American and Japanese players.
In what I believe is a clever strategy, the two Central League second-division teams appear to be taking the money they are saving by not having to pay the departing players, and using it to gamble on a host of "4-A" players.
I mentioned in the Nov. 25 column that the Carp should be saving about $4.5 million because they won't have to pay free agent stars Hiroki Kuroda (a new Los Angeles Dodger) and Takahiro Arai (now a Hanshin Tiger), and they'll get compensation money for Arai from the Tigers.