Batista to Become an FG with Softbank

[Captain Japan]

Batista set for Hawks
Japan Times

The Fukuoka Softbank Hawks have reached an agreement to sign veteran slugger Tony Batista, baseball sources said on Thursday.
"We've come to terms on the basic framework and we'll make a more formal announcement at the end of the week," said club representative Masashi Tsunoda.

According to an Associated Press report, Batista will get $15 million (1.58 billion yen) over two years, including a $5 million signing bonus. He met with club officials in Miami on Tuesday to finalize the deal.

Batista, 31, hit 32 homers and had 110 RBIs for the Montreal Expos last season. He has a career .251 average with 214 major league home runs.

Batista has the ugliest swing in baseball. Check out his stance as the pitch is being delivered:

Then he rotates toward the plate and swings away.

[Captain Japan]

Maybe Batista's approach is traditional?

[AssKissinger]

Batista will get $15 million (1.58 billion yen) over two years,

That's some good cake. CJ, do you know what the salaries of the Hawk players are. Now, I got it in my head somehow that both Ichiro and Matsui tripled their salaries when they entered the Major Leagues. Is that really true? Do foreign players still make way more than comparable JPN players?

[Captain Japan]

Batista will get $15 million (1.58 billion yen) over two years,

That's some good cake. CJ, do you know what the salaries of the Hawk players are. Now, I got it in my head somehow that both Ichiro and Matsui tripled their salaries when they entered the Major Leagues. Is that really true? Do foreign players still make way more than comparable JPN players?

Given that Batista would have gotten at most 6 mill over 2 years in the bigs, this is indeed some serious scratch.

Ak, check this page:
Japanese Baseball.com Hawks
Then click on each player's name. In the upper right hand corner is their salary history. From the looks of it Batista will be kicking everyone's ass as far as money.

[Captain Japan]

[AssKissinger]

1996: 8000-man
* 1997: 16000-man
* 1998: 22000-man
* 1999: 28000-man
* 2000: 35000-man
* 2001: 50000-man
* 2002: 61000-man

Matsui's pay in Japan for reference. He picked up an extra million usd (or so) when he entered the majors but still 6 man man, that's some good bread, man.

[AssKissinger]

I didn't see your post before I posted that on Matsui but I was rounding up on the exchange figuring he went from about 6 to 7 mil. But if Batista put up these figures last year

Batista, 31, hit 32 homers and had 110 RBIs for the Montreal Expos last season

he should be good for 40+ homers in Japan, shouldn't he?

[Captain Japan]

I didn't see your post before I posted that on Matsui but I was rounding up on the exchange figuring he went from about 6 to 7 mil. But if Batista put up these figures last year

Batista, 31, hit 32 homers and had 110 RBIs for the Montreal Expos last season

he should be good for 40+ homers in Japan, shouldn't he?

Yes, those are pretty good numbers. But he's a free-swinger. Those types of guys don't do well in Japan. Ask Pete Incaviglia about that. Like I said, I don't see Batista hitting over .240. It should be interesting to see how much patience Oh shows with him if he starts sucking early.

[AssKissinger]

We'll see how much patience Oh has if Batista starts to challenge his single season homerun record.

[AssKissinger]

Batista just smacked a homer. Unfortunately, it wasn't shown live because being the retarded morons they are they were interrupting the game right then for a news report. Fuck I hate that!