I loved the movie, “Mr. Baseball,” it starred Tom Selleck as a Major League baseball player who was sold to a team in Japan. It kind of seems like it is happening more often. Over the past few weeks, some Major League Baseball teams have been exporters of talent to Japan. These players are the washed-up type that finish their careers, but younger talent. I guess it’s only fair that we send some players, mediocre at best, to Japan since we’ve been stealing their superstars. Over the past few weeks the Yankees sent Darrell Rasner to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, the Rangers sent Kameron Loe to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, and Justin Germano, formerly of the San Diego Padres, also went to Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.

It’s not completely out of the norm for an American baseball player to play in Japan, but the way it is happening is a little odd. Rasner, Loe, and Germano are all young and able pitchers that seem to have a decent future playing baseball. Most of the talent Japan gets from the U.S. are the likes of Terrmel Sledge or Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes, guys who were past their prime. I’m not saying that Rasner, Loe, or Germano are future superstars, but with the constant need for pitching in Major League Baseball, you would think that the teams would have traded them to another Major League to get more in return. Either this is a way of MLB saying they’re sorry for stealing their talent, or a future sorry to stealing Yu Darvish in the future.