Kazuhiro Sasaki
In April , he recorded his 100th save in only his 148th appearance, the fastest in the history of Japanese baseball. However, the Dragons began to use Akinori Otsuka as their closer, and he was put on waivers after complaining to the team about his lack of appearances. He was picked up by the Yokohama BayStars, but was demoted to relief duty after Kazuhiro Sasaki returned as the team's closer in . He also sustained an injury to his pitching arm, and returned to the U.S. in June, 2004 for surgery. He signed a minor league contract with the Colorado Rockies in , and with the Florida Marlins in , but did not play in the majors.