Baseball in Japan & Around the World
Summary: These notes are about a game that took place on Tuesday, June 7. Nippon Ham edged Chunichi 1-0 in a great pitcher’s duel. What a pitching matchup. Yu Darvish was his usual self, striking out 10 with no walks and three hits in another shutout, running his personal scoreless streak to 44 innings. But […]
Two notes concerning the Chunichi Dragons to pass along this morning: Lefty ace Wei Yin Chen has finally signed for 2011, agreeing to a one-year deal that will pay JPY 170m (a little over $2m). Chen’s desire to play in MLB had been a focal point this offseason, and he’ll get his wish after another […]
Alright, let me start with a admission: I stole that headline almost directly from the Sports Hochi article that I’m getting the content from. Anyway, Chunichi has found another Chen to go after: 20 year-old Kuan-Yu Chen. Like current Chunichi star Wei-Yin Chen, Kuan-Yu is lefthanded and a product of Taiwan’s National College of Physical […]
On Christmas Eve (in my time zone, anyway), Chunichi Sports published the latest on pitcher Wei-Yin Chen, who has been vocal about his desire to move to MLB. Since the report is brief, I’ve translated it in its entirety: Chen to the Majors Next Offseason Regarding pitcher Wei-Yin Chen (age 25), who is looking to […]
Sports Hochi is reporting that a number of MLB scouts were on hand to take in Chunichi Dragons ace Wei-Yin Chen’s latest win, a two-hit shutout over Hanshin at Koshien. Among them was Steve Wilson, the Cubs’ Director of Asia Pacific scouting, who commented “of course we know Chen, but I can’t talk about specific […]
This post originally ran in 2009, when it appeared that Chang Yong Lim might move to MLB as a free agent. At the time this post was published, Lim was under contract with the Yakult Swallows until the end of 2010. After 2010, he re-signed with Yakult for two years covering 2011 and 2012, and […]
So unsurprisingly, I’m getting questions this offseason about how guys like Tsuyoshi Wada, Hiroyuki Nakajima and Wei Yin Chen project as MLB prospects. Truth be told, trying project established guys from NPB to MLB always makes me a little nervous. I don’t feel like I’m that great at it, so I decided to go back […]
So the day job kept me busy this week and I didn’t completely dissect these games or even take great notes, but I do have a few observations to share on the Nagoya leg of this year’s Nippon Series journey. Game 3 – Softbank wins, 4-2: Moving Tadashi Settsu into the rotation was probably the […]
Lots of text today, so no intro here, just a few observations I’ve made about the Nippon Series so far. The ordering might be a little out of whack but so be it. Game 1 — Chunichi wins 2-1 in ten innings: Tsuyoshi Wada took a no-hitter into 7th, when he surrendered a home run […]
A pair of Asian-born NPB pitchers are getting some attention from MLB teams. Today I’ll take a look at South Korean relief ace Chang Yong Lim. Lim is best known among international fans for giving up the eventual game-winning hit to Ichiro in this year’s WBC Final. By day, however, Lim is the closer for […]