NPB Tracker

Hope springs eternal at the start of every season. Here are some spring training notes, mostly on guys who are trying to make their teams.

(All of the below items point to Japanese-language articles)

• Ken Kadokura is testing a two-seam fastball and a sinker, neither of which he threw in Japan. “The movement on my breaking pitches is bigger than it was in Japan,” said Kadokura, “I think I can use these”.
• Junichi Tazawa threw 51 pitches to Jason Varitek. “I was nervous the whole time,” Tazawa said with a smile. “I was concerned that I was stretching my arm more than usual,”
• Kei Igawa threw 15 pitches to Hideki Matsui. Matsui hit eight, and took seven. “I’m glad I didn’t hit him,” Igawa said with big laughter. Last year, Igawa plunked a minor leaguer in batting practices.
• Ken Takahashi got a decent review from Blue Jays pitching coach Brad Arnsberg: “My first look at him was good. We have two open rotation spots. He has enough of a chance to get one. I hope he makes the team.”
• Marc Kroon threw 70 pitches in a bullpen session on the 19th and will appear in an inner-squad game on the 23rd. He’s working on a two-seamer and a shuuto. “first I’m getting back into game shape. I want to get a feel for all my pitches,” he said.
• On his WBC off day, Ichiro travelled 1200km back to Kobe to take batting practice at Skymark Stadium.
• Rakuten manager Katsuya Nomura has come up with an innovative approach to batting practice: tape a picture of Yu Darvish to the pitching machine. Did it work? Nomura looks happy with the results.

If the Rakuten Golden Eagles are the new blood of Japanese Professional Baseball, the most historic franchise is the Yomiuri Giants. They were and may still be the most popular franchise in Japan with a strong influence from a comic starting at 1966, “Kyojin no Hoshi” which means the Star of the Giants. In the late 1960’s, a famous saying was born. “The three things kids loved most were the Giants, Taihou (Sumo Wrestler), and tamago-yaki (baked egg).

Expanding into Asia has been the new motto for the Giants. With the acquisition of a star Korean player in Seung-Youp Lee before the 2006 season, their popularity in South Korea has exploded. Making most of the opportunity, the Giants established a Korean-language website looking to reach out more to the Korean fans. Another development is leadership in China, where they agreed to a partnership with a professional Chinese team, the Beijing Tigers.

Increasing popularity in other Asian countries is not leading to stability in their own country. The demand for tickets and television coverage has seen a drop and therefore their focus toward sport business is coming around. The Giants announced last July they will add new employees with the possibility hiring of new college graduates, which is still uncommon for Japanese sports teams. Adding quality young blood into the organization might be the step they are looking to take, which can be said on the field as well.

Focus of the Giants is directed toward ticket sales as they are implementing new strategies. They partnered with travel agency JTB and fans will be able to buy Giants home game tickets at any of their 2500 stores around the nation. Another new way for fans to obtain tickets are by their cell phones. People will be able to choose their seats and purchase their tickets 24 hours by phone. New opportunities will be available for fans this upcoming season as the Tokyo Dome will expand their Excite Seat (Field-Level Seating) to 420 from the previous 228.

Popularity may not be a given for the Yomiuri Giants any more. To remain the best off the field, they will need to compete with new strategies in order to remain the leaders of Japanese professional Baseball.

Lots of Koji Uehara on this site recently, not much Kenshin Kawakami. Let’s do something about that.

Kawakami is in camp with the Braves and has been working on adapting to the MLB ball. According to Sponichi, he threw 37 pitches in his most recent bullpen season, working in his cutter and curveball. This is a contrast to his approach in Japan, where he would only throw curves and fastballs until just before opening day.

Kawakami seems like he has a little work ahead of him in getting used to the MLB ball. The righty was quoted as saying  “suddenly throwing all these breaking pitches, well, there was some unease…” before adding, “I didn’t get comfortable with my breaking pitches. I want to talk to the pitching coach and come up with a solution that works for me”.

David Ross, who caught Kawakami’s bullpen session, said that Kawakami’s curveball reminded him of his former Dodgers teammate, Kazuhisa Ishii.

Add Yuji Yoshioka to the list of former NPB’ers aiming to catch on in the US. Sanspo is reporting that Yoshioka has hired Ray Pointevint as his agent and departed for LA to work out. Yoshioka, 37, was released by Rakuten after last season, and was passed over by all the NPB teams after his November tryout. He was a key guy in Kintetsu’s fun 2001 team, but hasn’t done much since the early part of the decade.

Yoshioka is also open to a move to Korea or Taiwan.

Former Seibu Lion, Yokohama BayStar, and Yomiuri Giant Tatsuya Ozeki has gotten himself an audition with the Colorado Rockies. The tryout will take place in the beginning of March, which leads me to believe it will be held in the Rocks’ minor league camp.

This is Ozeki’s second attempt to land with an MLB organization. He had a minor league deal with Milwaukee in 2006, but it was voided over visa allotment issues. Ozeki is 32 year-old lefty outfielder coming off a .215 BA season for Yokohama. If he does get a contract he’s likely to be an organizational player.

This offseason, we’ve seen a large number of released NPB players announce an intent to pursue contracts with MLB organizations. I’m not sure if this is a record, but it’s the most I can recall. I’m not including Junichi Tazawa and Ken Takahashi in this list, because Takahashi turned down NPB offers, and Tazawa would have been drafted. All of these guys were either released by their NPB teams, or in the case of Yamarin, not drafted.

• Shigeki Noguchi -> agreed with Blue Jays, failed physical
• Ken Kadokura -> Cubs
• Kazuhiro Takeoka -> Unsigned (Braves?)
• Katsuhiko Maekawa -> Cardinals
• Takateru Iyono -> Unsigned
• Tatsuya Ozeki -> trying out with the Rockies in March
• Ryohei Tanaka -> Orioles
• Michinao Yamamura -> Unsigned (Golden League?)
• Koichi Misawa -> Unsigned (played in the Northern League in ’08)
• Yoshinori Yamarin -> Braves
• Itsuki Shoda -> Sinon Bulls (Taiwan)

Five Players are still unsigned, which doesn’t surprise me, but I can see Yamamura and Iyono getting a shot as they’re still in their 20’s. Takeoka has worked out twice for the Braves and played AAA ball, so he might a chance too.

Notable MLB returnees:

• Jeremy Powell -> Pirates
• Jason Standridge -> Marlins
• Craig Brazell -> Orioles
• Winston Abreu -> Rays

Without a doubt, all of the players listed above obvious face big uphill battles to making it to the majors. But the fact that they are getting a chance indicates either a heightened respect for the level of talent in Japan, or a greater need to find low-cost, low-risk players through non-traditional channels. There will be 22 Japanese players in 14 big league camps this spring.

Reasons not to write these guys off just yet: Tomo Ohka, Takashi Saito, Hector Carrasco, Buddy Carlyle, Brian Shouse and  Pedro Feliciano. Saito looked like he was on the downside of his career when he came over, and none of the other guys had lasting success at the top level in Japan. All have been at least useful MLB players.

Quick notes about Koji Uehara — he’ll make his spring debut on Feb 27 vs the Marlins, and his regular season debut on April 8 at home against the Yankees. Uehara opens the season as the Orioles’ #2 starter behind Jeremy Guthrie (who as it happens, has a Japanese-American mom).

Shigeki Noguchi’s agreed-upon contract with the Blue Jays will not be completed. According to Sports Hochi, Noguchi’s physical turned up irregularities in his left (throwing) elbow, and he’s already returned to Japan. Noguchi had been training in Florida in advance of the Blue Jays’ minor league camp opening.

Noguchi wants to continue his career, but said earlier in the offseason that he’d retire if he didn’t get a chance to pitch in the US or Japan. Noguchi failed an audition with Rakuten last autumn.

Two WBC-related videos to pass along… the first is Rakuten pitcher Masahiro Tanaka taking on Ichiro. Tanaka gets the better of him with a battery of breaking pitches.

And here’s a video of the whole team working out. The most notable thing about this clip is that there were, according to reports, over 40,000 people on hand to greet the team. I doubt that 40k people made it in to the stadium, but you can see that the whole infield lower deck and the rightfield bleachers are full. Keep in mind this is workout and not an actual game.

Also, here is a collection of pics from Sanspo.

After slumping to a surprising 6th-place finish in the Pacific League last year, the SoftBank Hawks went into the offseason looking to acquire some offense, but only came away with Chris Aguila, who himself admits to being more of a gap hitter. It had been reported that the Hawks were after Nelson Cruz and Eric Hinske, but Cruz couldn’t be pried away from Texas and Hinske signed with Pittsburgh.

The Hawks haven’t given up on finding a power hitter for the 2009 season. They’re now targetting guys who are now in camp with MLB teams, but fall off active rosters as the teams head North. Team COO Takeuchi says, “even for the same player, the salary is many times different after being dropped from the majors. We’ve reached out but haven’t had any concrete financial discussions yet”. They have a list, but no names are public yet.

Of course, I should point out that Manny Ramirez is still unsigned, and Barry Bonds hasn’t “officially” retired yet.