Our good friend Greg, who runs Japan Baseball Daily, emailed the following report on our boy Joe:
As for Dillon, he is competing with Korean-born slugger Seung-yeop Lee for the Yomiuri Giants first base job. Dillon has also offered to play some third and even second if needed. The Giants are looking at Dillon as the better situational hitter of the two, But Lee has definitely demonstrated more power, so it will devove down to who hits better during the exhibition schedule. Lee had a lot of trouble against lefthanders last season and it will be interesting to see how he does against them this year. However, the parks in the Central League are also smaller than those in the Pacific League (where Lee played with Lotte the last two seasons), so
that may compensate for the problem he has with southpaws.
that may compensate for the problem he has with southpaws.
Dillon has shown a lot of hustle and he got a lot of points in the press for bringing a couple of cowboy hats for manager Tatsunori Hara. It looks as if Dillon had read up a little on Japan and found out about the tradition of giving presents to those you are attempting to curry favor with.
Sounds like Joe is off to a promising start in Japan. Hopefully I can get (read beg) Greg to keep us informed on Joe's progress throughout the season.