The Newest Nat: George Arias

I was intrigued that we signed a guy from the Japanese league, George Arias. Here are some stats from his stint there I found on the Web -- no idea if these are reliable. The Post story says the Hanshin Tigers let him go in October because his numbers had declined, but it looks to me that he had a decent year in 2004 (.272/.326/.522, better slugging than PECOTA projects for us this year) which is essentially his average from his several years in Japan. While I'm not expecting Cecil Fielder here (who also played for the Hanshin Tigers), this might turn out to be a decent pickup.

(Speaking of Fielder, I had totally missed this sad story of him screwing up his life after baseball).