Baseball in Japan & Around the World
This post comes at the request of Matt, but I’ve been a fan of Hayato Terahara since he represented Japan as a high schooler and Tommy Lasorda tried to recruit him to the Dodgers before the old Fukuoka Daiei Hawks drafted him. Note that Terahara has been on my to-do list since I started the site.
I’ve chosen Terahara’s recent complete game victory over Hiroshima to chart out.
Read on to check it out…
Right after I started doing the velocity charts, I asked who readers wanted to see. It’s taken me a while but I’m finally getting back around to this, so let’s take a look at Tetsuya Utsumi.
Utsumi has been one of the most consistent inning eaters for Yomiuri over the last few years, but got off to kind of a rocky start this season. He has pulled things together of late, though, and now has a respectable 3.23 era to go with his 4-6 record.
Read on to check out some velocity charts…
Last Friday, Yu Darvish took a no-hitter into the 8th inning against the Chiba Lotte Marines. The Marines broke up the no-no with two singles in the eight, but Darvish still left the game without allowing a run as he picked up his Japan-leading 10th win.
Here’s how he did it:
Yu Darvish threw another shutout today, devouring the Yakult Swallows 3-0, striking out nine, but also allowing eight hits.
I’ve put together a velocity chart for this game, but if you’re on the homepage you’ll have to click the “continue reading” link to check it out.
Yoshihisa Naruse struck out 13 SoftBank Hawks in seven innings of work on May 12. He did it without dominant velocity or a wide variety of pitches.
Roll over each element on the chart to see more data on each pitch.
On Sunday I posted pitching data for Tsuyoshi Wada. Today let’s take a look at SoftBank’s other diminutive lefty ace, Toshiya Sugiuchi. This data is taken from his most recent start, a loss to Rakuten.
Here’s the chart:
And the breakdown:
| result/pitch | Changeup | Curveball | Fastball | Sinker | Slider | Grand Total |
| Ball | 9 | 4 | 17 | Â | 13 | 43 |
| Ball (stolen base) | Â | Â | Â | 1 | Â | 1 |
| Double | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 | 1 |
| Flyball Single | Â | Â | 1 | Â | Â | 1 |
| Flyout | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 | 1 |
| Foul | 9 | 2 | 9 | Â | 3 | 23 |
| Groundball Hit | Â | Â | 2 | Â | 1 | 3 |
| Groundout | 2 | 1 | 2 | Â | 2 | 7 |
| Groundout (double play) | 1 | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 |
| Home Run | 1 | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 |
| Line Drive Single | Â | Â | 1 | Â | 1 | 2 |
| Lineout | Â | 1 | Â | Â | Â | 1 |
| Strike Looking | 2 | 8 | 11 | Â | 6 | 27 |
| Strike Swinging | 6 | Â | 6 | Â | 4 | 16 |
| Walk | Â | Â | 2 | Â | 1 | 3 |
| Grand Total | 30 | 16 | 51 | 1 | 33 | 131 |
Compared to Wada, Sugiuchi doesn’t rely on his fastball quite as much, and in general mixes it up more. He also has two softer breaking pitches, and based on this data, commands his curveball well.
Last week, I asked readers for suggestions on which pitchers to look at in my velocity charts series. Based the responses I got, here’s the order I’m going in:
You can see all the velocity charts I’ve done so far here.
So let’s take a look at Wada’s most recent outing, a loss to the Rakuten Eagles in which he was outdueled by Satoshi Nagai. Here’s Wada’s velocity chart:
And a break down of his pitches:
| result/pitch | Changeup | Curveball | Fastball | Forkball | Slider | Grand Total |
| Ball | Â | 1 | 20 | 11 | 10 | 42 |
| Double | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 | 1 |
| Flyball Hit | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 | 1 |
| Flyout | Â | Â | 4 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Foul | 1 | Â | 23 | 7 | 4 | 35 |
| Foul Bunt | Â | Â | 1 | Â | Â | 1 |
| Groundout | Â | Â | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Home Run | Â | Â | 1 | Â | Â | 1 |
| Line Drive Hit | Â | Â | 1 | 1 | Â | 2 |
| Lineout | Â | Â | Â | Â | 1 | 1 |
| Sacrifice | Â | Â | 1 | Â | Â | 1 |
| Strike Looking | Â | 1 | 14 | 2 | 4 | 21 |
| Swinging Strike | Â | Â | 10 | 3 | 1 | 14 |
| Walk | Â | Â | 1 | Â | Â | 1 |
| Grand Total | 1 | 2 | 77 | 28 | 25 | 133 |
I was surprised to see how much Wada relies on his fastball, and how many strikes he gets with it. I didn’t see this game, but I’m inferring that he uses his slider and fork to set up his fastball. He also only threw three off-speed breaking pitches.
Here is the velocity chart from Yu Darvish’s win last night over Seibu. More info coming later. More info is here.
Click the chart to view full size.
There are more velocity charts here and here. You can get all the velocity charts here. Is this data compelling? npbtracker@gmail.com
Young fireballer Masahiro Tanaka and submariner Shunsuke Watanabe faced off on April 14 in a great pitcher’s duel. Tanaka got the best of Watanabe, but Shunsuke held Rakuten at bay despite allowing 12 baserunners in seven innings of work. And they couldn’t have been more different in their approaches. Tanaka was routinely in the mid-90’s with his fastball, and only threw three pitches below 80mph, while the submarining Watanabe didn’t touch 80 the whole game. Have a look at the velocity charts to see the difference between the two.
click images to view full size
Here’s a clip of Tanaka striking out Shoitsu Ohmatsu to end the game.
I’m working on a way to gather pitching information for NPB games. It’s not quite Pitch F/X but it should yield some interesting information. I’m not done yet, but the early results are good. I was able to chart the velocity on each pitch thrown by Hisashi Iwakuma and Hideaki Wakui in their April 10 matchup, which Wakui won 6-0.
(Click to enlarge the charts)
Iwakuma was lifted after six innings and 92 pitches, allowing three runs.Â
Wakui used seven different pitches, though he only threw his changeup a couple of times. He threw 138 pitches, and note that his fastball’s velocity drops toward the end.
