WBC stars Darvish, Iwakuma to start 2009 season

2009-04-02 11:43:02 -

TOKYO (AP) - Yu Darvish and Hisashi Iwakuma last month combined to help Japan win the World Baseball Classic. On Friday they'll be competing against each other as Japan opens its 2009 regular season.
Darvish and Iwakuma are scheduled to be the starting pitchers for their respective teams in the Pacific League opener at Sapporo Dome.
Darvish was the winning pitcher when Japan beat South Korea 5-3 in the final of the WBC after coming on in relief of Iwakuma, who gave up just two runs on four hits over 7-2/3 innings in the final at Dodger Stadium.
Iwakuma, 27, who won 21 games last season for the Rakuten Eagles, attracted the interest of major league scouts at the WBC and will be looking to help the Eagles improve on their fifth-place finish last season.
Darvish, 22, entering his fifth season as a member of the Nippon Ham Fighters, also made a name for his himself at the WBC and will be on the radar of major league teams for years to come. Widely regarded as the best pitcher in Japan, Darvish had 16 wins last season for the Fighters.
Former New York Yankees pitcher Darrell Rasner will join Iwakuma in the starting rotation for the Eagles. Rasner signed a one-year contract with the Eagles after being released by the Yankees after the 2008 season.
Elsewhere in the Pacific League, former major league manager Bobby Valentine enters his last season with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
The Marines decided not to offer Valentine a contract extension after his current four-year deal expires at the end of 2009 season.
Valentine, who has 1,117 wins in the major leagues with the Texas Rangers and New York Mets, is going into his seventh year managing in Japan. His Marines finished fourth in the six-team league last season.
Infielder Tadahito Iguchi, who spent four seasons in the major leagues with the Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres, returns to Japan with the Marines.
With a lineup featuring Tuffy Rhodes, Alex Cabrera, Greg LaRocca and Jose Fernandez, the Orix Buffaloes will be one of the most feared batting orders in Japan, provided the aging sluggers stay uninjured. The four have combined for a total of 1,014 home runs over their careers in Japan.
Rhodes has been in Japan so long _ 12 seasons _ he's no longer considered a foreign player.
The Seibu Lions will be looking to defend their Japan Series championship with a squad that includes former major leaguers Alex Graman and Hiram Bocachica as well WBC standout Hiroyuki Nakajima.
The big story in Fukuoka will be the absence of Japanese home run king Sadaharu Oh, who stepped down as manager of the Softbank Hawks for health reasons after the end of the 2008 season. Oh will be replaced by former Hawks and Lions player Koji Akiyama.
In the Central League, former New York Mets infielder Edgardo Alfonzo joins a Yomiuri Giants team many expect to win it all.
The 35-year-old Alfonzo will team up with 2008 league Most Valuable Player Alex Ramirez, who hit 45 homers last season along with a 125 RBIs and a .319 batting average.
The Hanshin Tigers are hoping the recovery of a Colonel Sanders statue from a river in downtown Osaka will lift a 24-year curse on the team, which hasn't won the Japan Series since 1985 when overzealous fans tossed a statue of the Colonel into the Dotonbori River.
Workers pulled the statue from the river during construction work in March, just in time for the start of a new season.
If the Colonel can't lift Hanshin's long championship drought, Tigers fans hope that former major leaguer Kevin Mench can. Mench joined the Tigers in the offseason after seven seasons with the Texas Rangers, Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays.
The Chunichi Dragons lost star pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, who is now playing for the Atlanta Braves, and slugger Tyrone Woods, but nobody is counting out Hiromitsu Ochiai's team.
American Marty Brown returns for his fourth season managing the Hiroshima Carp, who move into a new 30,000-seat stadium in downtown Hiroshima.