• Have the Yokohama BayStars done enough to contend for a playoff spot this year? — Yokohama added 12 new players this offseason, most of whom are veterans intended to help the 2010 club. Will it be enough to compete for a third place finish? My gut feeling is that Yokohama’s pitching is still a little lacking, but if they get a bunch of career years… you never know.
• Shane Spencer… Lew Ford… Kevin Mench… Matt Murton? Have the Hanshin Tigers gotten it right this year?
• Are the Rakuten Golden Eagles Pacific League title contenders this year? The Eagles finished second last year despite predictable regression from Hisashi Iwakuma, a mediocre bullpen and some major lineup gaps. Have they plugged enough holes to win the Pacific this year?
• Can either Hanshin or Chunichi unseat Yomiuri as the Central League champion? The Kyojin-gun has a three-year stranglehold on the Se-League. Is this a new dynasty or do the Tigers or Dragons have enough to knock ‘em back? Or even Yakult?
• What will Yu Darvish do this year? Will he mundanely post a fourth straight sub-2.00 era, sub-1.00 whip season? Will he throw a no-hitter?
• How much of Yusei Kikuchi will we see at the top level this year? He’s already been penciled in to the ni-gun rotation to start the season.

The Pacific League opens on March 20. I’ll try to do some kind of live chat, so stay tuned for details.

The Buffaloes’ parent company, Orix, has announced that this will be the last season for the Buffaloes name. No word yet on what the new team name will be, but Orix wants to keep the unfortunate “B’s” abbreviation that has become part of the team’s logo. According to Nikkan Sports there is a low chance of Orix restoring team’s previous name, the Blue Wave.

The Orix Buffaloes name originated with the 2004 merger of the Orix Blue Wave, and the Kintetsu Buffaloes. Orix originally bought into the baseball business in 1989, when the company took over the Hankyu Braves. The Orix team was briefly known as the Orix Braves before adopting the Blue Wave name. The old Kintetsu franchise was known as the Pearls back in the 50’s, and then switched to the Buffalo for a few seasons before correcting their English in 1962, adopting the still-active Buffaloes name. Gary Garland has the full histories of all the NPB team names on his site.

I always liked the Blue Wave name, and was sorry to see it go. Any suggestions on what the new name should be?

• Dionys Cesar (IF, Chunichi Dragons): Cesar tore up the Mexican League last year, and the Dragons seem to know what they are doing when it comes to Dominican players (nod to Domingo Martinez). So will lightning strike again? Cesar has put in 16 minor league seasons and spent some time in Taiwan, so it’s nice to see a guy like this get a chance to earn a solid paycheck in Japan.
• Giancarlo Alvarado (P, Hiroshima Carp): The Carp also have a solid track record with foreign players (props for Erik Schullstrom), and like Cesar, Alvarado is a veteran who has bounced around the minors and independent leagues.
• Matt Murton (OF, Hanshin Tigers): Murton was on my list, so that makes him an easy pick. He also has the unenviable task of taking over center field from retired star Norihiro Akahoshi, as well as following in failed American Tigers outfielders Shane Spencer, Lew Ford and Kevin Mench.
• Lee Beom-Ho (IF, SoftBank Hawks) and Kim Tae-Gyun (IF, Chiba Lotte Marines): Honestly I’m not sure what to expect from these guys, as I haven’t seen much Korean baseball aside from the WBC and Asia Series, so that’s a reason look forward to seeing Lee and Kim this season. Kim is certain to get at-bats with the Marines, while Lee will have take turns in SoftBank’s 1B/3B/DH rotation with Jose Ortiz, Hiroki Kokubo and Nobuhiko Matsunaka. Lee had been adamant about wanting to stick at 3rd though. It’s too bad that Kim Dong-Ju didn’t make it to NPB for this season, as he had been trying for years.
• Chris Bootcheck (P, Yokohama BayStars), Eugolio de la Cruz (P, Yakult Swallows), Juan Morillo (P, Rakuten Golden Eagles): All of these guys have the same profile: good velocity, bad control. But who will be this year’s Marc Kroon, and who will be this year’s Chris Resop?

And with that I’ll turn the floor over to the readers. Who are you looking forward to seeing?

General Japanese Baseball

• JapaneseBaseball.com, the first there ever was, hosts blogs as well as discussion boards.
• By know we know what to expect from Deanna’s Marinerds: baseball otaku-ism, lots of detail, and great photos.
• Similarly, if you’re reading this you’ve probably seen Yakyu Baka, Gwynar’s insanely thorough news site.
• Gary Garland no longer posts news to Japan Baseball Daily, but stats and archived content are still available.
• Simon appears to be on a little bit of a hiatus, but he occasionally covers baseball at jhockey. His hockey content gets a thumbs up from me too.
• Japan Baseball News is a new site that got going last season.
• Japanese Baseball Cards makes me miss Calbee Potato Chips.
• Kokoyakyu is an invaluable resource during the Koshien tournaments. I haven’t found it’s equal in Japanese (not that I’m looking).
• Janblurr’s blog includes the occasional post on Japanese baseball. Jan also contributed this post about German baseball to NPB Tracker last year.
• Yakyu All-Stars is a site written by NPB Tracker reader Matt, and knowing his team allegiance I almost put him in this next category…

Team Specific Blogs

• Tsubamegun, a site dedicated to the Yakult Swallows is the veteran of this bunch.
• We Love Marines appeared on the scene last season. I bet you can guess which team that one is about.
• Where Eagles Dare is another relative newcomer with an similarly eponymous name.
• Steve Says Kampai! and follows the Hanshin Tigers.
• Christopher’s Tiger Tails, hosted by JapaneseBaseball.com does as well.
• Michael Westbay’s Bayside West covers the Yokohama BayStars.

Historical Sites

• Rob Fitts chronicled the famed 1934 MLB All-Star tour of Japan, which is really what gave professional baseball its start in the country. Rob isn’t maintaining that particular story line any more, but its still a great read.
• A Noboru Aota Fan’s Notes is only an occasional read for me, but it’s really a remarkable site. The very anonymous author goes into a tremendous amount of detail on each topic he covers, and includes scans of old photos and painted baseball cards. Really enjoying this site requires a decent investment of time, though which runs counter to the Internet culture. Still, this is a hidden gem.

Around Asia

• East Windup Chronicle has made a triumphant return.
• True Stories of Korean Baseball is my go-to source for KBO news, and written by a fellow expat Chicagoan.
• Taiwan Baseball always has the latest on MLB prospects from Taiwan.
• In the words of Westbaystars: “Pro Baseball Taiwan has just started up this past month and looks to be a great source for CPBL happenings both on and off the field.”
• Reader Dan has alerted me to the presence of his English-language KBO forums.

And Finally…

I don’t link to writers in Japan’s mainstream English press very often, but there are some who do excellent work. Three that I think deserve special attention are Jim Allen, Jason Coskrey, and Wayne Graczyk.

If there any sites that are missing from this list that should be included, please leave a comment.

Toshihisa Nishi has been hoping to play with an MLB organization this year, and may finally be getting somewhere. Sanspo is reporting that the veteran infielder worked out for a Dodgers scout, and was supposed to get the results back on the 4th.

Nishi isn’t exactly a prospect given that he’s 38 and posted a horrific .159 batting average last year. He’s obviously an extreme long shot to spend any time at the MLB level this year, but he could possibly benefit a team needing infield depth at 3A. Part of me doesn’t want to see him taking at-bats away from a younger player that still has a shot, though.

• Hiroki Kuroda: changeup
• Toshi Yamaguchi: curve
• Yuki Saito: cut fastball
• Ryota Igarashi: slider
• Hideki Okajima: “split-change”
• Shunsuke Watanabe: “trade secret pitches” in his own words: “I tried three and two worked well. I’m going to keep trying them out without worrying about the results.”
• Hitoki Iwase: sinker
• Yuya Ando: changeup
• Tetsuya Utsumi: cut fastball
• Kazuhito Futagami: forkball
• Norihito Kaneto: knuckleball
• Casey Fossum: forkball
• Takumi Akiyama: forkball
• Yusei Kikuchi: had been working on a forkball, but now putting it aside

We’ll have to wait and see what from this list survives to see game action.

Nelson was arrested for violating Japan’s weapons control law a couple of days ago when passing through security for a domestic flight. It turns out that he had a single bullet in his carry-on luggage. Nelson explained what happened at his apology press conference: “In the Dominican, I had put away about 50 bullets in that bag. When I was coming to Japan, I had planned on clearing out all the bullets and bringing that bag, but there was one left. I didn’t notice it.” I was wondering why that wouldn’t have triggered security already, but Nelson had an explanation for that: “at the time I came to Japan, I had that bag inside a suitcase I checked with the airline. Also when I traveled to Okinawa, it was with the luggage the team collected and delivered. So it didn’t get caught in the inspections.”

Nelson bowed deeply and seems to be apologetic. It seems like the team is conducting its own investigation, but it doesn’t look like this will cost Nelson his spot with the Dragons. In Sports Hochi article, manager Hiromitsu Ochiai was quoted as saying “this experience was awful, but from this point on do your best.”

On with the rest of the bullet points…

• Yusei Kikuchi, now known simply as Yusei, has been sent to Seibu’s ni-gun (farm team) camp.
• Yu Darvish’s wife, entertainer Saeko, gave birth to the couple’s second child, a boy weighing in at about 3400 grams. Darvish wasn’t present for the delivery, as he was tied up showing Buddy Carlyle how he grips his slider…
• According to the Yuma Sun by way of Nikkan Sports, Eri Yoshida was drafted out of the Arizona Winter League by the Golden League’s Chico Outlaws. Yoshida has a deal to play this season with Mie of the Japan Future Baseball League, and is going to talk her options over with her parents.
• A great nugget from the previously referenced Yoshida article is that Ila Borders, who played Indy ball in the late 90’s had and failed a tryout with the Kintetsu Buffaloes in 2000. I had never heard that before.
• College pitcher Yuki Saito, in the States training with his Waseda University team, was given the opportunity to throw off the mound at Dodgers Stadium. Nikkan Sports also picked up on the attention Saito is getting from SF Giants scouts John Cox and Shun Kakazu. That is the same Shun Kakazu that worked with Bobby Valentine’s Chiba Lotte Marines.
• Giants rookie Hisayoshi Chono, who I’m skeptical of, is off to a great start this spring, going 14/32 over his first eight games.
• This isn’t normal NPB Tracker news, but a couple weeks ago Taiwan’s Brother Elephants signed Canadian Ryan Murphy. To me, this is notable because Murphy spent the last two years in Holland’s Honkbal Hoofdklasse, and has experience in Australia as well.