wow. Good luck to him. I really liked our trade at the time. Just didn’t realize it was because of Hanrahan haha.

determine success or failure in baseball.

is going to a team in Japan-the Tokyo Yakult Swallows-that should provide him with a good opportunity to be successful in NPB. They’ve had a lot of success in improving players like Roberto Petagine, Alex Ramirez and Seth Greisinger over the past decade or so, and my impression is that they’ve shown quite a bit of patience with their foreign players and allowing them time to adjust to life and baseball in Japan, if the gaijin are willing to work hard and listen.

I can see some similarities between a young Ramirez and a mid-20s Milledge: the compact swing that might translate to a good average and some power in Japan, the chance to play in a home park with small OF dimensions that will help him do well enough in the field, among other things.

I said a number of times that Milledge would end up in Japan. I’m surprised Pearce didn’t end up there too, although there’s always next year.

Good luck to Lastings Milledge. It will give some here like me another reason to pay attention to NPB in ’12.