Free agent first baseman Justin Bour has reached an agreement with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, Tigers GM Osamu Tanimoto tells the Japan Times. Bour had been outrighted by the Angels at season’s end and elected free agency.
The 31-year-old Bour signed a one-year, $2.5MM deal with the Halos last winter but turned in a career-worst .172/.259/.364 batting line in his short time with the organization. He continued to display above-average walk tendencies (10 percent in 2019; 11.2 percent career) and also showed above-average power (.192 ISO), but Bour’s 30.6 percent strikeout rate this past season was far and away the highest of his career. Ultimately, he played in just 52 games as an Angel and tallied 170 plate appearances.
Bour will head to Japan as a career .253/.337/.457 hitter with 92 home runs, 71 doubles and a pair of triples in 1950 Major League plate appearance — most of which came with the Marlins. He’s never handled left-handed pitching particularly well (.215/.302/.324), but he owns a stout .262/.345/.490 career batting line against right-handed pitching.
That news came Justin time.
So funny
don’t.
Bouring.
Badda Bing!
How em-Bour-rassing
Ba-dum crash!
Best wishes to a player that I really enjoyed watching in South Florida.
Yes! There is now documented evidence of people attending MLB games in South Florida!
Aww good luck to him over there! I was a fan since he ate a donut during the Home Run Derby lol
Scott Boras offering any Black Friday deals?
Ellsbury. Free to a good home.
he needs a loving home and to be taken care of
Also needs the freedom and independence of being allowed to take walks on his own. Don’t take it personally if on those walks he goes to see random doctors that perform operations on him for the sole purose of making previous injuries worse. It’s kind of his thing. He’s somewhat similar to those people with afflictions making them want to amputate healthy limbs. He doesn’t take it that far because he doesn’t want to look like a freak. He does however seem to be obsessed with staying injured. If you have Münchhausen syndrome, Jacoby is the perfect pet for you!
Are you Ellsbury’s doctor? Just curious how you have so much inside information.
That was a mixture of a joke and the information claimed by his previous employer. He was previously employed by an organization named the New York Yankees. According to them he frequently went to non-approved doctors as apposed to team doctors in direct violation of his employment contract. Violating his contract certainly didn’t help either as he has been doing it frequently yet his health problems have still prevented him from even taking a baseball field for 3 straight years. The rest of the comment was merely a joke. Except for the Münchhausen syndrome part. He would be perfect for somebody that has Münchhausen syndrome because he is always injured in some way and people with Münchhausen love that kind of thing.
How about a nice farm team upstate?
Good analysis
StandUpGuy!
That wasn’t a joke. Jokes are funny.
The name has been changed to Factious Disorder.
Whatever he has or did, he’s gonna get every penny owed.
Pretty sure if he violated his contract they Yankees wouldn’t be paying him to go away. They would void his contract and pay him nothing.
I wonder if Lonnie Chisenhall has the same syndrome.
Have you not heard the news Laser show? That’s exactly what’s happening. The Yankees have voided his contract and are refusing to pay him the remaining $26 million based exactly on what I said.
Sounds like you are a true company man. I’m sure the Yankees appreciate you supporting them welshing on paying their workers. It’s like the insurance companies that deny life insurance claims because the deceased didn’t wear a seat belt.
For the Yankees to avoid paying the remaining $26 million on Jacoby Ellsbury’s contract, they will need to demonstrate the outfielder not only visited an outside specialist without their permission but also received treatment for a work-related injury.
Viktor Bouquette, the doctor at the center of the dispute between the team and player, says he never treated Ellsbury for a work-related injury – a statement that, if proven true, likely would mean Ellsbury did not violate his contract and baseball’s collective-bargaining agreement.
The Yankees say otherwise. They informed the players’ union on Friday they will not pay Ellsbury the rest of his seven-year, $153 million contract – $21 million in salary plus a $5 million buyout on a $21 million club option in 2021.
Some on the players’ side believe the Yankees’ motivation in seeking to recoup Ellsbury’s guaranteed money stems from their failure to insure his contract in 2020; the team had insurance…
You are correct about a lot of things you stated. Melchez. The Yankees do have to prove it wasn’t a non-work related injury. That part of the contract is voided if his non work related injury is actually just an exacerbation of a work related injury. That would mean that he further injured himself from a work related injury. With the number of players getting outside medical help now and the sheer number of work related injuries Ellsbury has already had, it is somewhat hard to believe that he did this in a way that had nothing to do with any number of the massive quantity of work related injuries he has sustained. I don’t know anything about the doctor you are referring to but I do know doctors very well. Ellsbury paid that man a ton of money and every doctor would say the same thing he said in this situation. If Ellsbury can prove that whatever injuries this doctor treated were in absolutely zero ways related to the massive number of injuries that he acquired on field then they are golden. That is hard though. Once the human body breaks down in so many ways it is pretty easy to prove that it makes it break down in other ways.
This whole thing is unheard of. I have to believe that the Yankees looked into it for a long time before doing this. After all… I am sure Hal Steinbrenner employs better lawyers and doctors than Ellsbury does. From a legal perspective, my guess is that they will just come together and make a settlement. If they don’t, then MLB will have to open books in court by law specifically referring to the Yankees. Professional leagues hate to do that. They don’t want anyone to see the specifics of the way they run their business. I promise you that the Yanks would rather pay Ellsbury all of his owed money before letting that happen. I think they know more than we do and they are trying to get Ellsbury to settle.
I am not a “company man.” I hope the Yankees have to pay Ellsbury his entire contract and lawyer fees and then some. I’m just an attorney that has a hard time believing the Yankees would be so stupid to do something like this without clear valid reason. If they are making this up just to come up with a nonsense reason to back out of the contract it isn’t going to work at all AND it will make the Yanks look terrible. I have to believe the New York Yankees have a smarter legal team than that. My guess is that it gets settled out of court. The only question is: what will the settlement be? And do we get to find out since it aleffects the salary cap? Or… Will MLB pull some bs and not release settlement info and side with the Yanks and say none of it applies to the cap? I’m very curious. I am hardcore rooting for Ellsbury but I am very sceptical that this whole thing just came out of nowhere. If the Yankees pay him in full then it will be because the other 29 teams are pressuring them so they don’t have to open the books.
Yes! His demands are only 5% less outrageous today!
Marlins weren’t interested in a reunion?
Justin Bohr should thrive in the NPB.
Shuuto
which is hardly anything once you learn to hit it. though many foreign hitters were ruined in japan by that pitch.
He’s going to be a Bour over there as well
Tee hee hee
As a nationals fan, I remember when he came up. He looked good and showed flashes of great when he was on. I thought he was going to be a huge name one day.
He still could be. He’s going to NPB, not retiring or dying. Geez.
How many people suspect he’s going over there for the women? Or video games? Or perverted TV shows?
Asking for AJ Preller.
:D
Right cause the USA surely has a limited supply of those things.
Almost zero decent women in the USA for sure.
Dude is going to have a blast over there! Always liked him, I wish him well!!!!
Might be the culture of respect for others and property.. low crime.. Several areas of respect which am positive Japanese have towards others that same here now many do NOT share.
Honor is still big in Japan and treatment of women is 100% better in japan. Ask anyone who has been there. Japan is not a 3rd world country, but in many ways is more civilized than the US is, especially the last few decades.
Let’s not compare the two countries in a serious manner John.
What you say may be true but expansionism was rampant there in the last century while USA’s was in the century before.
I will still take the good old USA over anywhere else.
Thanks for the 3 run shot against the Dodgers and good luck in Japan.
Must be great to experience another culture for a year or two, especially that one.
He seems like the exact type of player that could absolutely thrive in Japan
I agree. And hes a huge lumberjack type of guy, so if he produces, he’ll certainly have a following. Hes only 31, so hopefully he can extend his career playing the game he loves.
Who knows? Maybe he got Boured of disappointing production after putting up good numbers in 3 of his first four seasons, which included an injury plagued 2016 season.
For some Angel fans, The most revered playerr since Vernon Wells.
he will be a LEGEND there! The highlight videos alone at the end of the year will make this well worth it.. .305, 50HR prediction
Hitting the sauce this Holiday season ??
I don’t see why he couldn’t. Kind of reminds me of a younger, more accomplished Darin Ruf, and look how he’s done across seas.
Wow. Really like this guy. I saw him at a Chuck E. Cheese’s last year and struck up a conversation with him as he was by himself. Seemed like a great guy and really likes their pizza (maybe a possible sponsor?) wish him the best!
Chuck E. Cheese!!?? He has access to the food at the 5 star hotels they stay in and he eats there? I bet he goes for the puppet show and the boardwalk games…..
Nah, he seems like the type to go into the ticket blaster with a bunch of kids and just elbow all the kids out of the way
This should be interesting… he definitely has the profile of a guy who could become a “star” in Japan. Huge power bat and if he makes more contact there than he did in the Majors he could really thrive! Wish him the best!
Brian Daubach version 2.0. A few good years and a tailspin. Hope he gets back on track.
absolutely horrendous base-running skills and a strong tendency to give-up running the bases, hence his propensity to go for long ball or bust, just so he can take his time around the bases or strolling back to the dugout.