The Orix Buffaloes announced today that they signed former Chunichi Dragons LHP Shoji Nagamine (27) and OF Issei Nakamura (29).  Nagamine will be paid 7M yen and was assigned the number 69; Nakamura 6.5M yen and the number 63.  Neither player recorded any playing time at Ichi-gun this past season.

The Buffaloes also announced that Alfredo Figaro (27), Evan MacLane (29), Freddy Ballestas (25), Aarom Baldiris (28), and Ikusei Gregory Veloz (23) will all be returning next season.

The Buffaloes announced on Sunday that Freddy Ballestas was returning to Venezuela on the Monday and Gregory Veloz was returning to the Dominican Republic on the Tuesday.  Both players will likely return to the Buffaloes next year.

This post will be updated throughout the day.

===== 2/8 @ 10:23pm

Kazuki Kondo made an appearance as a BP pitcher today and threw 49 pitches.

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Freddy Ballestas faced Tomotaka Sakaguchi and Aarom Baldiris during BP today and threw 28 pitches.  Okada appeared satisifed with Ballestas' outing and said, "He looks a lot better than last year.  He throws pitches that batters struggle with.  They move just enough."

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The Buffaloes will be demoting Makoto Moriyama and Shogo Akada before the start of the third block (the team doesn't want to rush the two players) and will be calling up two other players -- Tomochika Tsuboi appears to be one of them.

===== 2/8 @ 3:59pm

Akinobu Okada is trying to see the Chihiro Kaneko injury in a positive light.

Said Okada, "Instead of going down in the middle of the season, he went down now.  He didn't do very well during the early part of the season last year and went 4-7.  If that's the case, then we can't do any worse with other pitchers.  We have a lot of pitchers this year, so we can give everyone a chance."

Okada continued, "Like I said from the beginning, it wouldn't be possible to go the entire season with the same 6 pitchers."

He also told reporters that he had selected Kaneko to be his opening day starter this year.

As of now, Kaneko probably won't be able to return until sometime in May.

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With Kaneko hurt, Chan Ho Park may get the opening day start.

Okada apparently told the Korean press yesterday that Park may have a shot at the opening day start and that Park was also scheduled to pitch in an intra-squad game on the 25th and in an exhibition game on either 3/5 or 3/6.

Park spent some time teaching Hiroshi Kisanuki the two-seamer from yesterday (this on the heals of learning the fork from Kisanuki on Sunday).

The Orix Buffaloes announced today that Aarom Baldiris, Francisco Caraballo, and Freddy Ballestas will all be returning to the team in 2011.  Contract details are not yet known.

The Buffaloes announced on Wednesday that they signed 23-year-old Freddy Ballestas to an Ikusei contract worth 2.4M yen.  They also assigned him the number 117.

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See also:

Orix Buffaloes liking what they see in Freddy Ballestas?

Orix Buffaloes to give Freddy Ballestas a tryout

Freddy Ballestas tossed a simulated game during Ni-gun practice yesterday.  A number of the higher-ups (including coaches) watched him pitch and apparently liked what they saw.  Ballestas is now expected to join the Ichi-gun roster for practice during the All-Star break.

Said club general manager Yoshio Murayama, "He's young and he has potential.  I'd like at least one more look at him."

At this point, the team appears to be leaning towards offering Ballestas a contract.

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See also:

Orix Buffaloes to give Freddy Ballestas a tryout

The Buffaloes announced today that they will be giving 23-year-old right-hander Freddy Ballestas a tryout.  Ballestas spent 5 years in the Phillies organization between 2005 and 2009.  He then moved on to play for the Rio Grande Valley White Wings of the United Baseball League.

The Buffaloes already have 7 foreign players on the roster right now.

Incidentally, it seems Hyang-Nam Choi failed his tryout.

Career Minor League Stats

2010 Stats from UBL