Wladimir Balentien

[Band of Brothers]

I got this from Henry Schulman in the SF Chronicle .

Balentien just broke Sadaharu Oh's HR record in Japan hitting his 56th. He played with Seattle before going over there but had trouble hitting off speed stuff. In Japan he has learned to hit the off speed stuff and has thrived .

He has just signed a 3 year contract over there but he knows Bam Bam Muelens and maybe he can get out of it and come back to the states. This guy was touted as the next Andrew Jones and if there is a way to get him over here I hope Sabean looks into it. He is 29 yrs old.

The whole story is in today's SF Chronicle under Giants Beat on B5.

 

[moxie]

He played for the Netherlands in the WBC & got hurt, right? Any word on the type of injury? Also, what's up with the stuff about the Japanese league doctoring balls? Was this ever discussed here? The story was out in June and I got here after that, so sorry if I'm beating a dead horse

 

[Band of Brothers]

I heard Japan has made the ball juiced some. Don't know anything else you asked.

 

[SFGRTB]

There was something about the league bring juiced this year, I don't really know what but I do know that Balentine could hit a fastball and struggled with changeups and curveballs. In the Japanese league, they throw way more off-speed pitches than fastballs and Balentine adjusted.

He could be very intriguing if the Giants find a way around his Japanese contract, but it seems like a long shot. Maybe we can trade them Volgy....