Answering Google’s Questions
Some of the search engine queries that wind up on this site are phrased as questions. Not all of the questions are answered directly by the content on the site, so I thought I’d answer a few of the more interesting ones here.
– Who is the shortest person in the npb?
This one has shown up multiple times. My best guess is Rakuten infielder Kensuke Uchimura, who is 163 cm or 5’4.
– Where does Hayato Doue play?
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
– Who is the best hitter in Japan today?
Today, I would say it’s Kazuhiro Wada, who is tearing up the Central League to the tune of .356/.454/.662 with 17 hr and 44 rbi.
– What pitches does Ryota Igarashi throw?
Mostly a fastball and a splitter. I wrote a profile of him last year, haven’t seen enough of him with the Mets to know if it’s still accurate.
– What is a 4 shake ball?
A knuckleball thrown with a forkball grip. See here for more.
Who does Tadahito Iguchi play baseball for in 2010?
Chiba Lotte Marines.
Who did the SoftBank Hawks trade for Roberto Petagine?
No one, Petagine was signed as a free agent.
Who is Dioni Soriano?
The latest graduate of the Hiroshima Carp’s Dominican Academy to reach NPB. I wrote a little bit about him over at FanGraphs.
20/06/2010 at 7:48 am Permalink
I have Rakuten’s Uchimura as the shortest current player at 163 cm. But between 2005 to 2007, Chunichi’s Keiji Kamata was registered at 162 cm. I’m pretty sure that that’s the shortest dating back to around 1995. There were most likely shorter players before then.
20/06/2010 at 7:54 am Permalink
Was Petagine really a free agent? Wasn’t he under contract in Korea (KBO)? I know they didn’t “trade” anyone for him, but I think they may have had to purchase his rights. Let me see….
Korean Wikipedia says that he was with LG until 2009, so perhaps he was a free agent. I thought I’d seen somewhere that he started the season in Korea, though. But I can’t find the source.
20/06/2010 at 8:11 am Permalink
Japanese Wikipedia has numbers for Peta in 2008 and 2009: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%99%E3%83%AB%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9A%E3%82%BF%E3%82%B8%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8B. I don’t remember reading anything about him for 2010.
Matt at True Stories of Korean Baseball would know, but I don’t see anything about Petagine on his site since this post: http://koreabaseball.blogspot.com/2009/10/return-for-lee-byung-gyu.html
20/06/2010 at 9:27 pm Permalink
I guess another way to look at it would be that since the Hawks essentially swapped Peta in for Lee Beom-Ho, the two were essentially traded. Lee is still under contract of course, but I doubt we’ll see them on the Hawks’ ichi-gun roster at the same time.