NPB Bullet Points (2008/07/17)
Today’s news & links:
- Yu Darvish dominated Rakuten for his 11th win of the season: 9 IP, 10 K, 0 BB, 4 H, 1 ER on 89 pitches. Darvish’s league-leading ERA is now 1.88.
- Hanshin lost yesterday, cutting their lead to 11.5 in the Central League.
- Kazumi Saito has been rehabbing in Arizona, but he’s found time to attend a WNBA game and hang out with Jeremy Giambi.
- Victor Starfin’s daughter did indeed throw out the first pitch at the Giants’ July 15 game.
- NPB teams sending three or more players to the Olympics will be allowed to carry an additional foreign player while they’re Olympians are away. This means some teams will have up to five foreign players on their active rosters.
17/07/2008 at 10:11 pm Permalink
The NPB decision to allow an additional import player for those teams sending 3 or more players to the Olympics is very last minute. This is the type of thing that should be decided well in advance of the season instead of implementing a midseason rule change which should never happen in well run professional leagues, except under exceptional circumstances (and I don’t think this counts as one.)
18/07/2008 at 8:20 pm Permalink
Come to think of it, teams knew that this extra import thing was going to be implemented for the Olympics, it was just a matter of hammering out the details (lose more the 3 players, etc.) so that’s why teams have been chasing extra imports with zeal in the past few weeks, I guess.
18/07/2008 at 10:23 pm Permalink
I think there’s a little truth in both of your comments. I’m glad they’re trying new approaches though.
Hanshin explicitly signed Chris Resop to bolster their bullpen while Kyuji and Williams are away for the Olympics.
This is also the first year that teams have been allowed to acquire import players this late in the season, so that changes things as well.