NPB Tracker

Michael Westbay has given JapaneseBaseball.com a thorough makeover. If you haven’t been to his site before, now is a great time to check it out.

Kevin Mench’s physical returned “no irregularities” and the outfielder is on his way home to rest for a few days before joining Hanshin’s minor league team. 

In a vote of confidence for Mench, Hanshin owner Shinya Sakai said, “we’re not at all thinking of adding reinforcemts (signing another foreign player)”, before adding “I want Mench to get a good rest and then do his best”.

Patience with foreign players is notoriously short in Japan, but in this case Hanshin’s management appears to be saying the right things. The Tigers brass notably stood behind Jeff Williams when he was named in the Mitchell Report a few years ago as well.

Some of you may have noticed the NPB Live link that appeared in the navigation bar a couple days ago. I’ve embedded a couple of justin.tv channels that show NPB games. Hanshin vs Hiroshima is on now.

Hanshin has deactivated Kevin Mench and replaced him on the roster with utility infielder Aarom Baldiris. Mench’s struggles have been well-publicized, and now the team is looking for a physiological explanation for his performance. Hanshin’s trainer commented that Mench is “horribly fatigued”.

Baldiris is a useful utility guy who made a good impression last year with his hustle and positive attitude, but he’s kind of a fringey NPB’er and certainly not the mid-lineup Hanshin thought they were getting in Mench. To that end, the Tigers have deployed US-based scouts Tom O’Malley and Andy Sheets in case they need to make a mid-season acquisition.

The Hiroshima Carp are looking to import some righthanded power in veteran slugger Scott McClain. Negotiations are reportedly going well and McClain is expected to head across the Pacific in May.

McClain is kind of a story of perseverance; he hit his first MLB home runs last year with the Giants at age 36. He has some NPB experience, having spent parts of four seasons with the Seibu Lions in the early 00’s. The Carp had pretty good results with their last veteran suketto acquisition (Alex Ochoa) and McClain figures to be a solid addition to their lineup.

Here’s some delayed fallout from last year’s Junichi Tazawa signing. Per a request from NPB, the organizing bodies of Japanese amateur baseball are going to conduct a review of MLB amateur scouting activity in Japan. The crux of the issue is that there are specific limitations on when NPB scouts can contact players, but none on MLB scouts. I suppose the idea is to level the playing field a bit.

In unrelated news, NPB is going to take another look at the Asia Series, which lost about 200 million yen ($2m) last year.

Hat tip to the unintentionally prophetic EWC: Nikkan Sports is reporting noted fat toad Hideki Irabu is working out in LA and aiming to resume his career in the US independent leagues some time this season. The article says that he’s played in amateur games and is hitting 90 mph on the gun in his workouts. There’s also a lengthy quote from someone associated with Irabu:

That he’s aiming for a comeback is true. Because he’s gotten back into shape*, he came to want play again. He’s playing with a cheerful demeanor. He wants to get tryouts and find a club he can play for. He’s looking to make a comeback in the independent leagues during the season. Looking to the future, the thinking is that if possible he wants to return to a high level, like MLB or NPB. 

*the original Japanese translates more directly as “his condition has returned”, which I think is really more of an assertion that Irabu has recovered from the injuries that forced him to retire. Keep in mind that this is a guy who was known as “jellyfish” in Japan before he was ever called a toad. The jellyfish moniker was an affectionate one though.

I wonder if that’s Don Nomura talking. 

Nikkan Sports provides us with a picture of him throwing, but I think that it was taken before the WBC, when Kyuji Fujikawa was working out in LA and happened to bump into Irabu in Compton. That sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it’s what was reported. Irabu is a US green card holder and returned to the US earlier in the year. Putting two and two together, I’d say he’s looking for a spot in the Golden League.

The pitching data I’ve presented over the last week or so has proven to be a hit. Readers — who do you want to see me take a look at next? Please put your answers in the comments.

It’s not Dallas McPherson, but SoftBank has acquired a bat. The Hawks have signed former Chiba Lotte Marine and Orix Blue Wave Jose Ortiz to a one year, $500k deal. Ortiz had been tearing up the Mexican League (.412, 7 hr in 68 ab), and has a track record of solid play in NPB, so this looks like a good move by the Hawks.

Ortiz will be available for game duty from the 28th.

The 2009 NPB season is underway, and I’m happy to say that there are more places to catch up on Japanese & Asian baseball in English than there were last year.

We already had these fine websites:

• Deanna’s Marinerds, etc
• Simon’s jhockey, which covers baseball in hockey’s offseason
• EastWindupChronicle
• Tsubamegun: The Tokyo Yakult Swallows
• True Stories of Korean Baseball
• The venerable JapaneseBaseball.com

Over the last couple months, I’ve discovered a few new ones:

• Yakyu All-Stars, a blog started by a member of the JapaneseBaseball.com community
• Japan Baseball News, a sister site of JapanBall.com
• Baseball81.com, a repository of English-language Japanese scouting information
• Steve Says Kanpai, a blog kind of in the vein of EWC
• A Noboru Aota Fan’s Notes, a blog that looks to mostly be about Japanese baseball history
• Gen’s NPB reports at Sim Central
• welovemarines, a new blog for Chiba Lotte Marines fans

I’m sure there are a few more out there — what else should be on this list?