NPB Bullet Points (2008/07/30)
NPB’s All-Star break has finally arrived, but there’s still plenty to read about. Here are today’s selections.
English links:
- Simon at jhockey looks at NPB team defensive stats.
- Random discovery on Google News: an article about Rakuten’s team translator.
- The New York Times reports on Ichiro’s 3000th hit, with a little inaccuracy.
- The Daily Yomiuri has a piece on the All-Star Game. American Colby Lewis as well as two others have drawn mandatory 10-day stints on the DL for withdrawing from the game.
Japanese Links:
- Softbank is aggressively trying to add a power-hitting import before the July 31 deadline. They’re said to be targetting a 3A player. We’ll know who they get soon. Probably won’t be Barry Bonds.
- Chunichi extended manager Ochiai for two more seasons. Seems like a no-brainer given the success he’s had.
- Koji Uehara picked up his first save of the year for the Giants.
- Chris Resop has made a good impression so far for Hanshin: shutting down the Dragons with only fastballs in his debut, and following that performance by showing good breaking stuff.
- Yahoo! Japan is reporting that Hanshin is interested in acquiring Lotte free agent-to-be Naoyuki Shimizu this off-season.　Shimizu is from Hanshin’s home territory, Hyogo Prefecture. Hanshin’s interest in impending Yokohama free agent, and Nara native Daisuke Miura was reported earlier this year.