There are various categories of baseball pitchers. You've got your starters, closers, middle relievers, "one-point" relievers, set-up men and mop-up and "reverse mop-up" guys. For the Yomiuri Giants this season, Americans Rodney Pedraza and Cory Bailey may be creating a new classification. Call them the "relay boys."
Pedraza was the relief ace of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks and two-time Pacific League Fireman of the Year who was let go by that club in mid-September of 2002, despite having been an all-star during all four of his years with FDH.
The Giants wisely picked him off Japan's "scrap heap" of discarded foreign players but, because the Kyojin have a solid closer in Junichi Kawahara, Pedraza is expected to appear in the seventh and eighth inning set-up role for manager Tatsunori Hara.