Pro Yakyu This Week – October 21, 2008

» 22 October 2008 » In npb »

Michael Westbay of JapaneseBaseball.com has published this week’s podcast. This week’s edition covers Hanshin’s epic collapse and Marty Brown’s contract negotiations with Hiroshima. Download the audio here.

Trackback URL

  1. Patrick
    EJH
    22/10/2008 at 4:38 pm Permalink

    Patrick: I enjoy your blog. I don’t have the time or motivation to struggle through Japanese sports papers, so discovering your website has given me a view of Japanese baseball beyond the games and box scores. Thank you.

    Despite my best efforts to fight it, I have gradually become a Nippon Ham fan and I must tell you there are a lot of angry fans here in Hokkaido. Mr. Nashida had best avoid showing his face in these parts for a while. I wonder if you would be willing to run a post directing people to some criticism of this awful man. He has taken a team that could have won it all and just thrown it in the garbage. His decision to start Glynn in game six (or five, depending on how you look at it) last night is inexcusable. It seems that everyone other than Nashida himself knew as soon as they heard Glynn would start that the season was over. Based on how the offense played last night, it seems the players were demoralized as well. Why didn’t Darvish start? Ham fans demand answers and we want Nashida’s head!

  2. Patrick
    simon
    22/10/2008 at 7:17 pm Permalink

    I don’t think starting Darvish in game 5 on 3 days rest was a realistic option as Japanese pitchers normally pitch on 6 days rest. He was scheduled to start game 6 though, on 4 days rest, had the series gone the distance. So, the question is, why didn’t Darvish start in game 1? The thinking here is that Darvish pitches better under a roof and game 1 was held in the Omiya Stadium, outdoors. Who knows what would’ve happened had Darvish started game 1 instead of game 2.

  3. Patrick
    EJH
    22/10/2008 at 10:28 pm Permalink

    Simon:

    Darvish not starting the first game was another of Nashida’s boneheaded decisions. Although I would have liked to have seen Darvish pitch last night even on 3 days rest, I can see the argument for saving him for Game 7 (or 6, depending on how you look at it). The thing that has Ham fans angry is that it was obvious that Glynn was a horrible mistake long before he threw his first pitch. If not Darvish, Nashida should have started Fujii. Choosing Glynn was inexcusable.