Get ready, fans, for what promises to be a whirlwind, action-packed offseason with an extra-hot hot stove league or, as they say here in Japan, the "hot hibachi" league. Going to be a heckuva offseason.
Now that the expansion franchise has been awarded for a new Pacific League team in Sendai, the merged Orix Buffaloes team will on Nov. 4 release its protected list of 25 players, and procedures will begin to stock the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles expansion team with leftover players from the former Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave rosters.
The Orix Buffaloes (saying that name will take some getting used-to) will be protecting their ace pitcher, righty Hisashi Iwakuma (15-2 with a 3.01 ERA this season) and outfielder Koichi Isobe, the team's player representative who batted .309 with 26 homers and 75 RBIs and fought so hard with Japan Pro Baseball Players Union chief Atsuya Furuta in trying to derail the Orix-Kintetsu merger.