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The story
On November 1, the Nippon-Ham Fighters announced that pitcher Ito Hiromu (29) has been given the club’s blessing to pursue a move to Major League Baseball via the posting system, and that proceedings have begun. He becomes the seventh Fighters player to use the system, following Uwasawa Naoyuki in 2023. On 5ch, threads buzzed with comparisons between Ito and Seibu’s Taira Kaima, who is expected to hit the market around the same time, alongside worries about the Fighters’ thinning starting rotation next season and debate over just how well Ito will actually perform in MLB.
[Nippon-Ham] Ito Hiromu to File Posting Application — Club Approves MLB Bid (Nikkan Sports)
On the 1st, the Nippon-Ham Fighters announced they have approved pitcher Ito Hiromu’s (29) bid to move to Major League Baseball through the posting system, and that the process has begun.
He becomes the seventh Fighters player to use the system, following Uwasawa in 2023. Ito had weighed his options carefully, including staying with the team, but reached his decision by this day — setting out to chase a long-held dream.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Nippon-Ham: Ito — out
The Pacific League is cooked.
Why are you so jealous of Shinjo? Because he's popular?
One thing's for sure: he's never coming back to the Fighters.
His surname means he could never rise too high there anyway —
because if Ito ever became the Fighters' manager, the team would basically end up called 'Itoham' (a real Japanese ham brand: Ito + Ham).
Probably a 20-game lead.
100 wins isn't out of the question.
He'd probably do better signing with SoftBank or a Central League team.
Wouldn't be shocked if he goes to the majors and immediately needs surgery.
Surely that'd show up in the medical check, though.
Might've been smarter to load up on ready-made relievers in the draft instead…
That team just shifts starters into the bullpen whenever push comes to shove.
No wonder they're stacked.
Doesn't seem like the type to talk about loyalty to his old team.
That's basically what happened this year.
Their biggest strength was rotation depth, and they went and gutted it themselves.
The player gets to chase his MLB dream and comes back to a big multi-year deal — happy. The original team gets to cheer the dream on and pockets the posting fee — happy. The Hawks get a reinforcement — happy.
Everyone wins. What a gentle world.
Wouldn't it be more efficient if the Hawks just bid directly in the posting system themselves?
Classic case of everyone getting the wrong idea from 2023.
Taira, obviously.
That guy's a monster, he's just on a different level.
It's not even close — in ability and youth, Taira's the only real choice.
That joke really bombed.
Come on, it didn't bomb that hard.
Eating innings over there [in MLB] is genuinely hard.
Even Sugano, who the Japanese media glorifies as a finesse pitch-to-contact guy, hasn't been able to pull it off at all in terms of results.
Taira himself wants to start, but the scouting evaluation over there has him as a reliever or closer.
Seibu's losing two starting pillars, and there's a chance one of them even ends up at SoftBank — makes you wonder what's going to happen to the Pacific League next year.
There's nothing to wonder about — there's no one out there who doesn't already know who's winning the pennant.
Maybe the whole 'qualifying innings' benchmark is just an outdated way of thinking at this point.
Still, a pitcher who stays healthy and keeps taking the ball is valuable.
No doubt that's valuable, but I kind of feel like it'd be better to expand pitcher roster spots, have starters go shorter outings like 5 innings, and just get more total appearances out of them.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The posting system lets a player who has his club’s consent negotiate with MLB teams in exchange for a transfer fee; the Fighters previously used it for Uwasawa Naoyuki in 2023, making Ito the seventh Fighters player to go through the process. Filing doesn’t guarantee a move abroad — if no team’s bid is accepted, he could end up staying in Japan — though the thread didn’t dwell on that possibility. Debate in the thread mainly split two ways: one centered on comparing Ito to Seibu’s Taira Kaima, who is expected to enter the market around the same time, with many rating Taira higher for ability and youth while others praised Ito’s reliability as an innings-eater; the other centered on how well Ito will actually translate to MLB, with some doubting his fastball has enough velocity and others citing his WBC performance as grounds for optimism. Worries about the Fighters’ rotation depth next season after losing a key starter also came up repeatedly.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Ham’s Ito Hiromu Files for Posting lolll..l.llll.”
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