NPB Tracker

As mentioned a couple months ago, Yu Darvish has made his appearance on CNN and fans are able to watch and read his feature online.  There are three segments to the clip touching on his on-field presence and off-the-field personality. He also answers the question that everybody in the baseball world wants to know, will he come to the Major Leagues?

Japanese players in the States tend to get caught in the midst of cultural and language differences, and their personalities frequently get overlooked. It’s great to see a player of Darvish’s caliber getting exposure outside of his on-the-field performance and fans getting a chance to know his personality. Within the last couple days, there were articles published on the personalities of Japanese players in the American media and it’s nice to see different sides of the players getting exposure in the American media. On that note,  I recommend checking out these articles from the Boston Red Sox website: Sox set standard for Japanese players and from USA Today: Opposites Griffey, Suzuki click, bring glow to ’09 Mariners.

Japan ended its run in the 2009 Baseball World Cup finishing 2-5 in the second round. The United States remained the only undefeated team in the second round.

1. vs. Mexico: 9-2, Win
2. vs. USA: 4-2, Loss
3. vs. Chinese Taipei: 3-1, Loss
4. vs. Canada: 3-2, Loss
5. vs. Italy: 6-4, Loss
6. vs. Australia, 5-0, Loss
7. vs. Netherlands Antilles: 10-1, Win

The offensive leader of the second round  was OF Sho Aranami (Toyota) hitting .429 (6-14) with two doubles, five walks, and four runs scored playing in six games with four starts. He ranked 2nd in the second round with a .579 on-base-percentage. OF Ikuhiro Kiyota started in all seven games averaging .414 (12-29) with two doubles, HR, 5RBI, 3BB and 5R. He finished with the second most hits in the entire round.

The pitching remained consistent for Japan in the second round posting a 2.98ERA in seven games. The pitching staff of Japan struck out the most in the second round with 80. They held the opponents to .191 batting average. The defense showed their discipline with only three errors, the least in the round in seven games. RHP Tomohisa Ohtani (Toyota) was impressive with a 0.71ERA throwing 12.2 innings and allowing eight hits, a run and a walk with 12 strikeouts. LHP Atsushi Tanaka (Panasonic) ranked 2nd with 16 strikeouts posting a 2.38ERA in 11.1 innings pitched.

The tournament will continue with eight teams remaining and the schedule can be seen here.