NPB Tracker

Sports Hochi ran a piece the other day saying that the Yankees had three scouts watching Yu Darvish make his shortest start of the season, a seven-inning performance in Nippon Ham’s 10-1 win over Orix. Darvish didn’t have his best stuff, topping out at about 91mph, but still held the Buffaloes to one run on four hits.

Obligatory repeating of myself: Darvish is five years away from free agency and has repeatedly denied any interest in moving to MLB. I find it interesting that that doesn’t stop the scouts from watching him though. The Yankees sent Gene Michael to Japan last year to check him out, so they’re obviously interested in acquiring him down the road. Maybe this persistance will pay off.

I’ve come across several news sources saying that former Chiba Lotte Marine Ryohei Tanaka has signed a minor league deal with the Orioles. I find this strange as the news was widely reported during the offseason. I guess it’s official now.

The only one that offers any new information is this Mainichi report that says that Tanaka will spend May at the Orioles’ extended spring training facility in Sarasota, and then join 1A Aberdeen in June.

Ken Takahashi put up a good line in his MLB debut:

Mets fans — how’d he look?

My profile on Takahashi can be found here.

This is pretty good — Tom Hanks is going to throw the first pitch at Yomiuri-Chunichi game on May 8th at the Tokyo Dome. Hanks commented, “I’ve loved baseball since I was a kid. I’m really looking forward to meeting the WBC winning manager, Tatsunori Hara. I’m going to try to throw a strike right down the middle” (translation of a translation). Hanks will be in town to promote the Japan release of Angels and Demons.

If the stars align you’ll be able to check out the game right here on NPB Tracker.

I’ll be appearing Fantasy Focus Baseball with Jeff Erickson tomorrow, April 29 at 9:30 am pdt. You can listen to the show here.

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:

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.

• Scott McClain has agreed to terms with the Carp. He gets a one-year contract that will pay him about $200k plus performance bonuses. He’ll wear number 90 for the Carp.
• Kevin Mench is ready to begin his “rehab assignment” with the Tigers’ farm team. Sanspo quotes him as saying, “it was good to get a rest for three days. I was able to clear my head and relax my body”. Mench will get together with Hanshin farm team manager Katsuo Hirata on the 27th to get together on a plan.

Sanspo and others have the scoop — Hideki Irabu has signed a deal with the Long Beach Armada of the independant Golden League. There’s an official announcement reportedly coming on the 27th.

Irabu is still a name, particularly on this side of the Pacific, and I think he’ll sell a few tickets for the Armada. We’ll see if he has enough left in his right arm to help them on the field.

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:

1. Tsuyoshi Wada
2. Toshiya Sugiuchi
3. Top closers: Kyuji Fujikawa, Takahiko Mahara, Hitoki Iwase
4. Tetsuya Utsumi
5. A look at Nippon Ham’s secondary pitchers: Sakamoto, Tadano, and Sweeney

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:

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.

Yesterday, Tuffy Rhodes went deep three times, hitting home runs numbers 450, 451, and 452 of his distinguished NPB career. I didn’t think Tuffy had 100 home runs left in him when he signed with Orix during spring training in 2007, but he’s hit 92 since then and shows no signs of slowing down.

Congratulations Tuffy! We’ll see you at 500!