NPB Tracker

In a blog post, Bobby Valentine has officially put the last nail in the coffin of any hopes that he’d return next year:

And most importantly, I came to feel that for me to leave the team at the end of the 2009 season is best for the Shigemitsu family and for the Chiba Lotte Marines, and so I wanted to make this announcement about the decision as soon as possible.

[...]

Please view this announcement as my determination to make Chiba Lotte Marines baseball fun once again, for our fans and for each member of the team. I have always felt victory was shallow-and true victory was impossible-if the attempt to gain it was not fun. This year has not been fun for anyone who truly loves the Chiba Lotte Marines, so I will make a renewed effort to make this 2009 season the most fun that it can possibly be, and one that we will all remember and cherish for our lifetimes.

(read the whole post here)

Why make this announcement now, given that the team has already announced that they aren’t bringing him back? I suppose this is a way for Bobby to make a statement on his own terms. It’s also a message that the fan-lead, grassroots efforts to convince Lotte management to bring him back probably aren’t going to work, and that he just wants to focus on baseball for the rest of the year.

Looks like Hideki Irabu is planning on hanging around beyond this season. According to Sponichi, the big righty is looking to continue his comeback in Japan and could join an independent league team as soon as September, after his Golden League season is over.

Irabu has put up a seemingly respectable 3.87 era in eight Golden League starts, and shown a fastball that has reportedly reached about 93mph with a hard forkball. Word is that his right knee, which caused him to retire in the first place, also isn’t bothering him.

Irabu’s agent, Don Nomura, has reached out to NPB teams including Irabu’s former teams Lotte and Hanshin, and Nomura’s stepfather’s Rakuten. An anonymous representive from an un-named team was quoted as saying “he wasn’t a match for the points we need to improve, but I felt his drive”. NPB has a player acquisition deadline of July 31, which essentially closes the door on him playing with an NPB club this season.

It’s interesting to see Nomura in the news again. Nomura has faded out of the spotlight in recent years, but he was once a Scott Boras-like figure who played a central role in bringing Irabu, Hideo Nomo, and Alfonso Soriano to MLB.

As Ryo mentioned in his report on Game 1 of the All Star series, Yu Darvish took a line drive off the bat of Alex Ramirez to the shoulder, and left the game after one inning of work. Sanspo has 1 2 3 pics of the aftermath.

While the rest of the All Stars headed down to Hiroshima for game 2, Darvish stayed in Sapporo to have his arm x-rayed and mri’ed, and was diagnosed with a bruised right (throwing) deltoid. According to Nippon Ham’s team trainer, there isn’t any internal bleeding and aren’t any broken bones, and he’ll resume playing catch as the pain subsides.

Yu Darvish’s Pitching Bible has been on sale in Japan since last week.

The 84-paged full-color book features a special interview, demonstration of his breaking ball and off-speed pitches, and interviews by his former pitching coach, trainer, and catchers. His history will be revealed in depth and the results of the survey conducted to 50 current NPB players regarding his number one pitch will be presented.

The content of the book can be seen here. As mentioned before Yu Darvish will appear on CNN and he is taking the next step in marketing himself; having become one of the best pitchers in recent years. I am not sure how many of his “secrets” will be revelead in this book, but this shows some confidience in letting the nation know that he is not scared to present what he is made of to the whole country or maybe in his case, to the world.

I was able to catch the last couple innings of Game 1 on justin.tv and the slugfest resulted with the Central League defeating the Pacific League, 10-8. The MVP was Norichika Aoki (Tokyo Yakult Swallows) blasting a go-ahead 2-run HR in the 9th inning. Aoki went 2-4 with a 2B, HR, 2RBI, 3RS and a BB.

Aoki has had some struggles in the first half of the season for the Swallows hitting .249 with 7HR and this performance at the break might be a postive for him heading into the second half of the season, with the Swallows hunting for a playoff spot.

Yu Darvish (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) went one inning and allowed two hits on 14 pitches. He did not throw the scheduled two innings as he left the game after taking a liner to the right shoulder. According to a statement issued by his team, it did not seem serious. Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten Golden Eagles) picked up the extra work, going three innings and allowing 2H, ER with 2K facing 11 batters. Daisuke Miiura (Yokohama Baystars) earned the win throwing the last two innings without allowing a hit.

For game two, Hideaki Wakui (Saitama Seibu Lions) will start for the Pacific League and Kan Ohtake (Hiroshima Toyo Carp) will make the start at his home stadium for the Central League in Hiroshima.

Induction Weekend for the Hall of Fame is coming up at Cooperstown to honor the newest members. Associating the Hall of Fame with Cooperstown comes natural for baseball fans here in the States, but do people in Japan know where the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is in their country? I had the opportunity to visit Cooperstown sometime ago, but never had the chance to visit the Hall in Japan. If some of our readers had the opportunity feel free to chime in.

The Baseball Hall of Fame and Musuem exists inside the Tokyo Dome where the Yomiuri Giants play. The Hall of Fame opened in June of 1959 and was moved to the current location inside the Tokyo Dome in 1988. We will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum this season. Within the 50 year history, 168 baseball personnel have been inducted into the Hall of Fame, including the four new members elected this year.

The election process to the Baseball Hall of Fame is similar from the one at Cooperstown. I will go into details regarding the election regulation for the players (For others click here).

• Players will be eligible five years after retirement and will be on the ballot for the following 15 years
• About 300 writers with 15 or more years of experience will be eligible to vote
• Players receiving 75 percent or more votes will be inducted into the Hall of Fame

In a recent news, the members of the American Collegiate National Team took their time to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum while participating in the USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series. The award ceremony for the inductees of the 2009 season will take place at Game One of the All-Star Game in Sapporo Dome.

I’m participating in a fantasy baseball league this year, at the invitation of Tim Dierkes. It’s the first time I’ve tried fantasy baseball, and while the time I have for it kind of waxes and wanes, I try to look at it every day or two.

One of the guys I’ve had on my roster all year is Mark Buehrle. Today I logged into the fantasy site a bit later than usual, and noticed that Buehrle had a start today, but was on my bench. I quickly moved him into a starting position, and was rewarded with a perfect game. My only regret is that I didn’t see the game. I was off by a couple of time zones.

I’ve never gotten to see a no-hitter all the way through, even on TV. I came close when Jonathan Sanchez threw one a couple of weeks ago for the Giants, but was stuck at work. And those of you who joined me last weekend saw Hanshin’s Atsushi Nohmi take a no-no into the 7th, only to give up a single to Alex Ramirez. Maybe someday.

Yu Darvish (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) and Dicky Gonzalez (Yomiuri Giants) will get the starts for the Game 1 of the All-Star game hosted at the Sapporo Dome. Darvish will have only one day of rest in between from his outing against the Chiba Lotte Marines throwing a complete game for the league leading 12th win. He is still scheduled to throw two innings at the All-Star game hosted in his home stadium.

Tetsuya Yamaguchi (Tokyo Yomiuri Giants) will be the first player to participate in the All-Star game starting his career from the Ikusei Player System. Tadashi Settsu, a reliever for the Softbank Hawks will be the only rookie in participating in the All-Star game.

The Fresh All-Star game, which is the All-Star game for the Ni-gun was held at the Sapporo Dome. The starters for this game was Kenji Tsuchiya (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters), a 4th-round draft pick from 2008, and Taiwan-born Sho Iketsu (Xiao Yijie), a 1st round draft pick from the Hanshin Tigers in the 2008 draft.

The game resulted one-sided with the Eastern League defeating the Western League, 7-0. The MVP of the game was another player hoping to call Sapporo Dome his home in the near future, Sho Nakata. The 1st rounder from the 2007 draft went 2-4 with two doubles, 2RBI, RS, BB and a SB. Taishi Ota, first rounder from the Yomiuri Giants in the 2008 draft went 1-5 with a double.

実際に起こった時に載せることはしなかったのですが、広島がアンディ・フィリップスを加えてスコット・ドーマンと縁を切ったときにもう一人ピッチャーを獲得するために動くのではという噂がありました。

関係者によると、カープはマリナーズAAAに所属するランディー・メッセンジャーと契約合意に至ったのだが、マリナーズと金銭的合意に至ることが出来ず実現には至らなかった事が明らかにされました。

カープはプレイオフ進出を目指す戦いが続いているので、今後とも動きに注目です。

Seibu has officially announced the acquisition of Jonah Bayliss from the Blue Jays. He’ll wear number 42 in Saitama, and no financials were announced.