NPB Tracker

The Yokohama BayStars have routinely had the worst pitching staff in Japan the last few years, and word from Sponichi has it that they’ll be looking to re-import some help from the States this off-season. Said an unnamed member of the ‘Hama front office: “we’re two or three starters short, and getting a pitcher who can close is a point to improve on. We’re seeing if we can use any of the Japanese pitchers who are playing in America.” Ironically, this is the team that wouldn’t take Satoru Komiyama back after he returned from the Mets.

Sponichi mentions Tomo Ohka, Yasuhiko Yabuta, and Masahide Kobayashi as guys the BayStars could look at. Ohka spent time with Yokohama early in his career, but requested and was granted his release to pursue a shot at the Majors. Two other names I’ll throw out are Kei Igawa, who would have to take a pay cut to return to Japan (among other things, see comments), and Takashi Saito, who is much more of a wildcard — he’d need to be non-tendered, and he’s also performed much better in the States than he did in Japan.

Over the last several months, we’ve posted several introductory pieces to Japanese baseball. I’ve aggregated them under one tag, Japanese Baseball Primer.

Here’s what we have so far:

• Inside the Industrial Leagues
• Ni-gun baseball
• The Meikyukai
• The Hall of Fame and Museum
• Inside the NPB Draft
• Agents in Japanese Baseball
• Independent Leagues in Japan
• The Ikusei System

These posts cover topics beyond the professional league and beyond the game on the field and are great for anyone who wants to learn more about the culture of baseball in Japan.

With current Boston Red Sox prospect Junichi Tazawa making the jump from the Japanese Industrial Leagues to the Major Leagues, the attention toward Industrial Leagues is increasing as we speak. Also the 2009 Baseball World Cup is set to begin from September 9th and you may have noticed the Japan national team roster is composed of only Industrial League players.

The Industrial League, operated by the JABA (Japanese Amatuer Baseball Association), is explained as a minor league unaffiliated with the Nippon Professional Baseball in the NY Times article, Japanese Are Irked by U.S. Interest in Pitcher. Teams are fielded by company’s operating in Japan, and the Industrial Leagues are treated as amateur baseball with players not receiving salary as a baseball player, but as an employee with the company.

There are two types of team registered for the Industrial League: Corporate teams and Club teams. Every teams registered is listed on Wikipedia. Teams across the nation participate in tournaments and leagues year around. The one currently in the final stage is the 80th annual Intercity Baseball Tournament (Toshi Taikou Yakyu Taikai) and the finals will be played September 1st from 6pm at the Tokyo Dome (Japan time) between Toyota and Honda. Also the first round of the 36th Industrial League National Tournament  (Shakai-jin Yakyu Nihon Senshuken) has started its regionals. Other notable tournaments include the 34th All-Japan Club Tournament (Zen-nihon Club Yakyu Senshuken). The history among these tournaments are established and there are plenty of games for teams and players to participate in.

Many current stars in the NPB and some MLB players have taken the Industrial League route to professional baseball. Current Chicago Cub Kosuke Fukudome played as a member of the Nihon Semei (Osaka) and won the Rookie of the year title in the 67th Toshi Taikou Yakyuu Taikai tournament. Japanese MLB pioneer, Hideo Nomo, is a former industrial leagues player as well. NPB stars such as Michihiro Ogasawara (Yomiuri Giants), Yasuyuki Kataoka (Seibu Lions), and Hitoki Iwase (Chunichi Dragons) are couple other players with Industrial League experience.

Even though the Industrial Leagues play a role in developing future NPB and possible MLB players, the existence of many teams have become an issue due to current business environment in Japan. If the parent company is struggling to make a profit, the existence of a baseball team for the company would always be a candidate for a budget cut. Industrial League powerhouse teams like Nissan had no choice, but to fold due after this season due to the parent company having financial problems.

In order for Industrial Leagues to survive and to reduce the financial responsibilities for some companies, talks are on-going to merge some of the tournaments and to reform the structure of the league. Sanspo recently published a lengthy article on the topic in Japanese. The recent change in Japanese political leadership could have an effect on the Industrial Leagues and its participating companies and this will be an issue we should all keep an eye on.

In Japanese:

• Amid rumors of his retirement, Hanshin has released infielder Makoto Imaoka. Reportedly no other teams are interested in picking him up. Imaoka was a big time contributor to Hanshin’s Central League championships in 2003 and 2005, so if this is really the end of the road for him it’s a shame for him to go out this way.
• Jeff Williams has headed back to the States for arm surgery, but wants to return to Hanshin for next season: “the decision was made about a week ago. Of course I want to avoid surgery and it’s not something I want to do, but I think surgery is the direction we’re going in. My goal is take the mound in a Tigers uniform again next season.” Despite Williams’ productive seven-season run with the Tigers, rumors persist that the team will not exercise their option on his services for next season.
• Sho Nakata set a ni-gun record by hitting his 28th homer of the year for Nippon Ham’s farm team.
• Bobby Valentine’s replacement in Chiba: Marines head coach Norifumi Nishimura.
• Honda won this year’s Industrial League Intercity Championship. Hisayoshi Chono was the top batter.

In English:

• Gen has set up a new blog at yakyubaka.com.
• Yesterday on my morning commute, I happened to tune to NPR, where Michael Krasny was discussing Japan’s recent elections with a panel of experts. My commute is 30 minutes so I only caught half of the program, but it can be listened to online.

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Central and Pacific Leagues, the NPB young stars will take the field against a university all-star team on November 22nd at the Tokyo Dome. The NPB team will mainly consist players under the age of 26 and the candidates for the team include Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten Golden Eagles) and Hayato Sakamoto (Yomiuri Tokyo Giants). The university team should include Yuuki Saito and players (Junior or below) who will be eligible for the World University Championship taking place in Japan next year.

Each team will select 24 players and current Tokyo Yakult Swallows manager Shigeru Takada will manage the pros and current Kinki University manager Tamotsu Enomoto will lead the university team.

On August 30th, Japan Student Baseball Association approved a revision the Japan Student Baseball Charter and the change will allow the professionals to build relationship with a student-athletes with practices and games. There have been numerous revisions to the charter, but not in an extreme way which allowed the pros to exchange time together on the field with high school and college amateur players. However with the recent movements of amateur players opting to go straight to the United States, the last thing NPB wants to see are college prospects leaving the country without playing in the NPB. In order to avoid that, building a stronger relationship with the Japan Student Baseball Association was a must.

This will be an interesting attempt for both sides and a big crowd is expected as a possible Masahiro Tanaka vs. Yuuki Saito showdown might be seen again, bringing back memories for the fans of the memorable 2006 summer Koshien Tournament. The same generation choosing different paths after graduating from high school taking to the same field should bring numerous stories to the Tokyo Dome on November 22nd.

Some of you might be following the NPB Tracker Twitter feed. I hope you’re enjoying it. What we’re doing with the Twitter feed is posting quick updates on specific players, mostly players of note to MLB fans. We’re posting a lot of quick updates to Twitter that won’t necessarily make it here.

For those of you that don’t have Twitter accounts, you can still get the updates via this rss feed.

The Japanese roster for the 38th IBAF World Cup has been announced. The schedule overlaps with the college baseball fall league, so the 24 players on the roster are all from the industrial leagues.

Pitchers

• RHP Hirofumi Yamanaka (Honda Kumamoto) Video Clip
• LHP Atsushi Tanaka (Panasonic)
• LHP Takashi Saitoh (JR East)
• LHP Tetsu Anan (Nippon Tsuun) Video Clip
• RHP Rikiya Chikugawa (Honda)
• RHP  Hirotoshi Masui (Toshiba)
• RHP Tomohisa Ohtani (Toyota) Video Clip
• LHP  Hiroyuki Kamekawa (Mitsubushi Jyukou-Yokohama)
• RHP Eiichi Hirai (Fuji Jyukou)
• RHP Motoki Higa (Hitachi Seisakusho) Video Clip

Catchers

• Ryo Saeki (Honda)
• Kenji Suzuki (Nihon Tsuun)
• Go Yamaoka (Shinnihon Sekiyu ENEOS)

Infielders

• Ken Kume (Mitsubishi Jyukou-Nagasaki)
• Yoshiaki Sawamura (Nihon Tsuun)
• Shiro Mori (Panasonic) Video Clip
• Kentaro Miyazawa (Shinnihon Sekiyu ENEOS)
• Tsutomu Sasaki (Mitsubushi Jyukou- Yokohama)
• Kenichi Yokoyama (Mitsubushi Jyukou- Kobe)

Outfielders

• Hisayoshi Chono (Honda) Video Clip
• Yoshinobu Kotegawa (Honda)
• Keiji Ikebe (Shinnihon Sekiyu ENEOS)
• Ikuhiro Kiyota (NTT East Nippon)
• Sho Aranami (Toyota) Video Clip

• Hanamaki tearfully exits Koshien; Kikuchi surrenders big hit in relief.
  http://bit.ly/1Whctf #
• Hideki Irabu makes his first start for Kouchi… Threw 117 pitches going 7.0 innings allowing seven hits on three earned runs. #
• Hideki Irabu makes his first start for Kouchi… Threw 117 pitches going 7.0 innings allowing three earned runs on seven hits. #
• Koshien final live on Justin.tv: http://www.justin.tv/eiping #
• Wild end to Koshien final. If you missed it, check the game out here: http://www.justin.tv/eiping#from-21.00,August-23-2009 #
• Wild end to Koshien final. If you missed it, check the game out here: http://bit.ly/19MIxq (fixed link) #
• NPB Bullet Points: Koshien Wraps Up, Dragons Get Sick Too: Koshien wrapped up yesterday with a wild finale. If y.. http://bit.ly/10kmzN #
• Lim showing recent struggles… Walks two with bases loaded to suffer second loss and that is his second straight outing with 2ER. #
• Kikuchi’s Future: Koshien is over, and inevitably the media has turned the spotlight back to the injured Y.. http://bit.ly/Bc7ar #
• No support for Iwakuma as he throws 10 innings allowing 9H, 2ER (HR), 2BB with 10K for 149 pitches and receives a no-decision. #
• Ni-Gun Baseball: We mentioned on twitter that Yu Darvish will have his turn in the rotation skipped to work on h.. http://bit.ly/1rKRIJ #
• Kikuchi Decides on Japan?: Daily Sports has comments from Yusei Kikuchi suggesting that he’s decided on be.. http://bit.ly/2RcMx #
• Homerun leader Nakamura (Seibu) taken off the roster due to soreness in left thigh. #
• NPB Bullet Points: Brazell Becomes a Dad, KBO Offers for Bobby: Japanese Stories:

  Craig Brazell commemorated th.. http://bit.ly/XRcER #

• Masahiro Tanaka threw eight shutout innings with 12K to earn his career-high 12th win of the season. #
• Tsuyoshi Wada throws in a ni-gun game at Naruohama for the first time in a month and a half… (5.0IP, 3H, 2ER) #
• 10 Foreign Player Stories: There are a couple of editions of Shukan Baseball that I look forward to each year: t.. http://bit.ly/3mfJ0U #
• Pitch Counts at Koshien: The response we received to my recent article about pitch counts reaffirmed to me that .. http://bit.ly/1IgBvs #
• Yoshinobu Takahashi will have hip surgery as soon as early September and will hope to return fully by the 2010 season. #
• Yu Darvish now heading to Kamagaya… http://bit.ly/3LeWzY #
• Tazawa demoted; should be back when rosters expand. http://bit.ly/1wcGn2
  (Japanese) #
• Attendance Rising: Although attendance is taking a hit in the States due to the economy, attendance is actually .. http://bit.ly/KUVXS #
• Ryota Igarashi taken off the roster due to injuring his hip while pitching in his 500th relief appearance. #

Although attendance is taking a hit in the States due to the economy, attendance is actually going up in NPB, with both the Central and Pacific Leagues announcing numbers for the season so far. The Central League increased its overall attendance by 6.2% and the Pacific League increased its numbers by 1.7% to date, comparing year-over-year.

The biggest factor for the increase in the Central League comes from the Hiroshima Toyo Carp opening its new Mazda Zoom-Zoom Stadium this season, which resulted in a 48% increase in tickets purchased. On the other hand, problems on the field do not seem to be affecting fan interest in the Yokohama BayStars, with attendance up by 9.4%. For the Pacific League, the Orix Buffaloes are contributing the most to the increase, with a 7.1% rise from last year. The Seibu Lions haven’t been too shabby either, increasing their attendance by 7%. The biggest drop comes from the Chunichi Dragons in the Central League at -5.7% and Chiba Lotte Marines for the Pacific League with -5.5%.

The response we received to my recent article about pitch counts reaffirmed to me that the subject is of interest to baseball fans. To continue on the topic, I will take a look at the Koshien High School Tournament, which is known to be grueling for pitchers.

49 teams representing each prefecture (Tokyo and Hokkaido with two each) qualify for the single-elimination tournament. There was a total of 48 games in the tournament. In those 48 games, 48 complete games were thrown. Naoki Itoh from runner-up Nippon Bunri was the hardest-working pitcher this year, throwing five total complete games including the final and averaged for 131 pitches per game. In the 48 complete games thrown, pitchers averaged a total of 127.88 pitches per game.

The most grueling game of the tournament was thrown by Hayato Shoji (Tokoha Gakuen Tachibana), who already had two complete games in the books when he threw 211 pitches in a twelve inning game. Ironically, Shoji had the most efficient complete game as well, with a 98-pitch effort. The face of this year’s tournament, Yusei Kikuchi of Hanamaki Higashi, threw three complete games (124, 118, 125 pitches) and was looking for more until he started suffering from back pain.

The Koshien Tournament is always an emotional dramatic event, but is it safe for pitchers such as Shoji to be throwing that much? There are handful of promising pitchers in the Koshien Tournament who will make it to the professional stage and may develop into key players in NPB or even the majors. Even though the injury suffered by Kikuchi does not look serious, evaluating a limit on  pitch counts at a high school tournament where the top teams will play up to six games in the fifteen days should be something we should consider about thinking about the future that lies for the face of Japanese baseball.