Jorge Sosa has been offered a contract after an extended tryout with the Dragons. According to a report from Nikkan Sports; the Dragons' pitching coaches were pleased with what they saw from him.
Sosa has experience as both a starter and a reliever and pitched most recently as a starter for the Leones de Yucatan of the Mexican League. He also pitched nine seasons in the major leagues with Tampa Bay, Atlanta, St. Louis, NY Mets, Washington and Florida. By far his best year was 2005 when he went 13-3 with an ERA of 2.55 over 134 innings. His overall MLB numbers are not nearly as impressive as he bounced around from team to team.
Sosa began his professional career as an outfielder, but switched to pitching because of his throwing velocity. Early in his career he could throw in the upper 90's; his other pitches include a curveball, slider and changeup. He also has some pop at the plate with five extra-base hits and three home runs in 102 plate appearances in the Majors. Jorge gave up only one run over six innings as a member of the Dominican team at the 2006 World Baseball Classic.
Sosa joins Tony Blanco, Maximo Nelson and Enyelbert Soto as the foreign players on the Dragons roster. Victor Diaz has also been practicing with the team, but has yet to be signed. Blanco, Nelson and Soto appear to be locks for the ichi-gun squad, so if Diaz is signed they will have to choose between Sosa and Diaz for the last foreign-player spot. Either way, this looks like it was a good opportunity to add depth to the starting rotation. That is definitely never a bad thing, as injuries always take their toll on starting pitchers over the course of the season.
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