Ryan Vogelsong Resurfaces With Phillies

I remember Cecil Fielder splitting time with Fred McGriff before heading to Japan.

He got a huge raise to go over, which is not surprising considering Japan was at the peak of its “economic bubble.”

Hanshin Tigers’ fans desperately wanted a slugger to replace the departed Randy Bass who was extremely popular during his several years with the team, tying Sadaharu Oh’s season HR record and leading the team to a Japan Series win.

Fielder hit 38 HRs in something like 90 games before breaking a finger, IIRC. The Hanshin Tigers wanted him back, but I think the sticking point was Fielder wanted a guaranteed two-year deal, which was something generally unheard of in Japan at the time, to my knowledge.

I was in Japan in ’90 in the Navy when Fielder returned for the then biannual MLB/NPB All-Star Series games. (A skinny Barry Bonds was there, too.) The MLB team lost the series 4 games to 3 with a tie. I remember Fielder saying afterwards that he had told his teammates to show up in good shape and ready to play, or there was a chance they could lose. (Hideo Nomo won a couple of starts for NPB, I think, and really caught the eye of the MLB people.)

I don’t think there’s any doubt that Tuffy Rhodes became a much better player in Japan. How good he would have been if he’d returned to MLB after 2-3 years in Japan is a question that can’t be answered.

I’m skeptical of how good Alex Cabrera would have been in Japan without PEDs. (He went through his best years there without any worries about drug testing, which NPB only truly put into place a couple of seasons ago.)

Matt Stairs obviously made a productive career for himself in the majors after playing half of the ’93 season in Japan with the Chunichi Dragons. He had 6 HRs and 22 RBIs in 58 games.

Alfonso Soriano’s story with the Hiroshima Carp as a teenager before “escaping” to MLB is an interesting one.

Starting around 10-15 years ago, Japanese teams started keeping successful foreign players around longer, and there has been more movement of foreign players between Japanese teams. Foreigner players who work hard and perform well are gradually being accepted more as equal team members, instead of as disposable “helpers”.

Accordingly, most of the successful ones who go over there at a young enough age to improve often stay there through their peak years now, so it’s hard to say how many really would do better in MLB upon a hypothetical return.