Comments on: The Quirks of NPB Pitching

By: Bumped in St. Louis « Not Safe For Work Sports!!!

Bumped in St. Louis « Not Safe For Work Sports!!! — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 04:12:48 +0000

[...] a Japanese Baseball site called NFB Tracker. You might remember a post I did last year that had a link to Ichiro pitching in the 1996 NPB All-Star Game. Ichiro came out and immediately [...]

By: Ichiro Working Out as a Pitcher » NPB Tracker

Ichiro Working Out as a Pitcher » NPB Tracker — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:06:56 +0000

[...] might remember a post I did last year that had a link to Ichiro pitching in the 1996 NPB All-Star Game. Ichiro came out and immediately [...]

By: The Story of the Shake » NPB Tracker

The Story of the Shake » NPB Tracker — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 06:22:07 +0000

[...] my great surprise, the post I did on pitching the other day has made its way around the internet and become my most popular post of all time. [...]

By: myworldofbaseball » Blog Archive » Ichiro Suzuki As a Pitcher

myworldofbaseball » Blog Archive » Ichiro Suzuki As a Pitcher — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:34:44 +0000

[...] this on http://www.npbtracker.com/2008/08/the-quirks-of-npb-pitching/#content that was linked by [...]

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 14:36:57 +0000

Yeah, I think you’re right on that. The thing is, I think Ichiro was just trying to put on a good show. He was throwing a lot harder in his warm-up tosses than he did to the batter. Maybe he didn’t want to embarrass Shingo. Maybe he would have picked it up a notch if it had been Matsui hitting.

By: simon

simon — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:00:48 +0000

Well, I think it was partially that, but also Nomura probably wanted to save Matsui’s face because he was placed in a no-win situation batting against a position player on a big stage. Ichiro was a pitcher (like many NPB players) in high school.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Hey Aaron – I didn’t see that game when it was originally broadcast, but Matsui was ready to hit, and since there were two outs in the ninth and the Central League was way behind, I doubt that Shingo was the only guy available. That is indeed former White Sox pitcher (and current Woori Hero) Shingo Takatsu. I think Nomura pitch hit for Matsui because he thought the Pacific League manager was trying to show them up.

By: The Art of Japanese Pitching. « Everything Baseball

The Art of Japanese Pitching. « Everything Baseball — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 18:08:24 +0000

[...] NPB has a nice post up that starts to analyze the intrincities of pitching in the Japanese game. In short, they rely less on the power pitchers and more on deception and pinpoint control. Think [...]

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:57:48 +0000

That video of Ichiro pitching is fantastic. I had no idea that a) his mechanics for pitching seemed so sound, b) he had even been placed in such a situation where he’d be pitching against Matsui (especially in an AS Game), or c) that he could throw the ball so hard.

Did the opposing manager use Takatsu (a reliever if I’m not mistaken – unless this is a different Shingo Takatsu than the one that pitched for the White Sox) to pinch hit purposely since Ichiro normally was an OFer? Or was it one of those situations where a pitcher was the only option left on the bench?

Thanks. Keep up the nice work on the site.

By: simon

simon — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 17:38:11 +0000

Thanks for the interesting collection of pitchers and their pitches, youtube is a treasure chest for NPB stuff eh. Hayashi’s slider’s just sick, and Kawajiri’s threw a true gyro. And I knew a pitcher was sent up against pitcher Ichiro at the all star game, but I didn’t know he was Shingo Takatsu. Neat.