Patrick »
13 February 2009 »
In npb »
Coming: Dan Johnson, Les Walrond, Ryan Glynn, Tom Mastny, Toshihiro Noguchi, Kosuke Kato
Going: Ryoji Aikawa, JJ Furmaniak, Matt White, Dave Williams, Larry Bigbie, Mike Wood, Travis Hughes, Takuro Ishii, Takahiro Saeki (retirement)
Staying: Daisuke Miura
Trending: unknown
Synopsis: Held on to their most valuable free agent in Miura, swapped out an ineffective group of foreigners for a mostly unproven group. On paper, the additions of Glynn, Johnson and Mastny look good. Noguchi is somewhat of a step down from Aikawa. Overall, it doesn’t look like the ‘Stars made any acquisitions that will get them out of the cellar in ’09.
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Tags: Daisuke Miura, Dan Johnson, Dave Williams, JJ Furmaniak, Kosuke Kato, Larry Bigbie, Les Walrond, Matt White, Mike Wood, Ryan Glynn, Ryoji Aikawa, Tom Mastny, Toshihiro Noguchi, Travis Hughes
Patrick »
12 February 2009 »
In international baseball, mlb »
…while it lasted.
Jack Zduriencik and Don Wakamatsu can breathe a sigh of relief. Ichiro’s flirtation with the mound is over. Word got back around to Seattle’s brass and coincidentally, Ichiro announced that he’s stopping. I’m sure the Mariners would have found out about this anyway, but I’d like to think that NPB Tracker played a role in this development.
Anyway, after his mound session on the 7th, Ichiro took three days off. Ichiro is training on his own so we don’t know if he would have taken those days off anyway, but when he returned, he commented to Sanspo: “my upper-right body is still. I’m quitting (pitching) (big laughter)”. Nikkan Sports had a similiar quote: “my shoulder is stiff and won’t move. Getting caught up with pitching got me into a little trouble”*. And with that, Ichiro returned to hitting and fielding drills in the wonderful Green Stadium Kobe Skymark Stadium.
I think Ichiro proved a point — he has enough baseball talent to do something like this with credibility. Most of the commentary I saw on this was positive, aside from the Mariners fans who were reasonably worried he’d get hurt. It’s tempting to think we could see Ichiro play in the field and then come into pitch — it’s too bad he doesn’t throwlefthanded, so we could see him play in the field, pitch to a batter, and then go back. Maybe it’s better for this to be part of the Ichiro folklore, but I’ll go on the record and say I would like to see him pitch in a real game.
Before I go, let me be pedantic and clear up a couple of mistranslations I’ve seen around the web on this story:
- Ichiro didn’t throw 21 curveballs, he threw his first breaking pitch on his 21st throw
- There was never any mention of Ichiro throwing a curveball, only forkballs
- Ichiro isn’t training with Team Japan. He’s training on his own at Kobe’s Skymark stadium, and he has a couple former players working out with him
- As far as I know, Tatsunori Hara didn’t ask Ichiro to warm up as a pitcher. From what I’ve seen he simply said he’d have to use a fielder in an emergency situation given pitch count and tiebreaker rules, and Ichiro took to the mound on his own. If someone else knows differently, let me know.
*The phrases Ichiro used are a little ambigious to a non-native Japanese speaker like myself. Here’s the original Japanese: 「肩ãŒãƒ‘ンパンã«ãªã£ã¦å‹•ã‘ãªããªã£ãŸã€‚調åã“ã„ã¦ãƒ”ッãƒãƒ³ã‚°ã—ãŸã‚‰ã‚¨ãƒ©ã‚¤ã“ã¨ã«ãªã£ãŸã€
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Tags: Ichiro
Patrick »
11 February 2009 »
In mlb prospects »
Sports Hochi is reporting that Toronto has agreed to terms with another Japanese lefty, former Yomiuri Giant Shigeki Noguchi. Noguchi was once one of the best pitchers in Japan, taking the 1999 Sawamura Award and MVP with 19 wins for the Central League Champion Chunichi Dragons. He’s never recovered his old form since missing most of 2002 with an injury, and didn’t pitch at the top level at all in 2008.Â
Noguchi gets a minor league contract and will take part in the minor league camp, and start the season in AA or AAA. Definitely a low risk acquisition for the Jays.
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Tags: Shigeki Noguchi
Patrick »
11 February 2009 »
In mlb »
In an effort to get the average time of games down under three hours, NPB has decided to introduce a new rule requiring pitchers to deliver each pitch within 15 seconds. This is part of NPB’s Green Baseball Project, in which the league is trying to do it’s part for the environment by cutting down on energy expenditures associated with playing games. A noble goal with a laughable logo.
This rule change hasn’t gone over well with the players:
Nippon Ham ace Yu Darvish: “That’s not baseball”.
2008 Sawamura Award winner Hisashi Iwakuma: “Darvish is correct. Even now our time is pressed. If the time is going to be compressed, they should be thorough and widen the strike zone. This is how we make our living”.
Rakuten manager Katsuya Nomura: “to have a rule for that is nonsense. Baseball has always been a sport without a time limit. The fans pay a lot of money to come to the ballpark, so we should be in the park as much as possible”.
Darvish again: “I’m not going to take any kind of action. I’ll ignore it.”
Commissioner Ryozo Kato: “you’re pros so get used to it”.
Kyuji Fujikawa was the first take a hit from the new rule, taking three balls in his first spring training practice game appearance. Gotta take the players’ side on this one. I hope this rule doesn’t make it out of spring training.
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Tags: Hisashi Iwakuma, Katsuya Nomura, Kyuji Fujikawa, Ryozo Kato, Yu Darvish
Patrick »
11 February 2009 »
In npb »
Coming: Justin Germano, Kameron Loe, Chris Aguila, Arihito Muramatsu, Brian Falkenborg, manager Koji Akiyama
Going: Jeremy Powell, Rick Guttormson, CJ Nitkowski, Jason Standridge, Â Michael Restovich, Naoyuki Ohmura, manager Sadaharu Oh
Staying: DJ Houlton
Trending: neutral
Synopsis: SoftBank didn’t get much out of it’s foreign roster in 2008, hence the high turnover. The Hawks had reportedly been after Eric Hinske and Nelson Cruz, but so far haven’t landed either. Germano and Loe should be useful pieces, and a bit more MLB-caliber than the guys they replace. The Hawks did get the worse of the Muramatsu-Ohmura trade with Orix.
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Tags: Arihito Muramatsu, Brian Falkenborg, Chris Aguila, CJ Nitkowski, Eric Hinske, Jason Standridge, Jeremy Powell, Justin Germano, Kameron Loe, Koji Akiyama, Michael Restovich, Naoyuki Ohmura, Nelson Cruz, Rick Guttormson, Sadaharu Oh
Patrick »
10 February 2009 »
In international baseball, mlb »
Not to be outdone by Ichiro, Akinori Iwamura has dusted off his pitcher’s glove and begun working on his repertoire. Sanspo, of course, has the news and a picture. According to the article, he has six breaking pitches, including a cut fastball and a shuuto. No word on whether he can reach 92 with his heater.Â
So does Tatsunori Hara have another option for emergency situations? Let’s ask Iwamura: “there won’t be an appearance. Ichiro-san will go for us (laughter)”.
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Tags: Akinori Iwamura, Ichiro
Patrick »
10 February 2009 »
In npb »
Coming: Jaime D’Antona, Hei-Chun Lee, Ricky Barrett, Ryoji Aikawa, Ryosuke Morioka
Going: Adam Riggs, Dicky Gonzales, Sean Douglass, Wilson Valdez
Staying: Aaron Guiel, Chang Yong Lim, Ryota Igarashi
Trending: slightly upward
Synopsis: Aikawa arrives to give Yakult their first regular catcher since Atsuya Furuta retired, while hope springs eternal for untested foreigners D’Antona, Lee, and Barrett. I don’t think any of these guys puts Yakult into playoff contention, but they should be more effective than the group they replace.
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Tags: Aaron Guiel, Adam Riggs, Atsuya Furuta, Chang Yong Lim, Dicky Gonzales, Hei-Chun Lee, Jaime D'Antona, Ricky Barrett, Ryoji Aikawa, Sean Douglass, Wilson Valdez
Patrick »
09 February 2009 »
In nichibei »
Things are progressing slowly for the ex-NPB farmhands who are looking minor league deals in America, but there is some news:
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Tags: Kazuhiro Takeoka, Koichi Misawa, Michinao Yamamura, Ryohei Tanaka
Patrick »
09 February 2009 »
In npb »
Coming:Â Darrell Rasner, Matt Childers, Norihiro Nakamura, Makoto Kosaka
Going: Jose Fernandez, Domingo Guzman, In-Che
Staying: Rick Short, Marcus Gwyn, Fernando Seguignol, Lin Yu-En
Trending: upward
Synopsis: The Eagles added a no. 3 starter (Rasner) to go with Hisashi Iwakuma and Masahiro Tanaka, a corner infield bat (Nakamura), depth to their bullpen (Childers), and depth to their bench (Kosaka) while retaining two strong foreign hitters. On paper, they go into 2009 with the best roster in their short history.
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Tags: Darrell Rasner, Domingo Guzman, Fernando Seguignol, In-Che, Jose Fernandez, Lin Yu-En, Makoto Kosaka, Marcus Gwyn, Norihiro Nakamura, Rick Short
Patrick »
08 February 2009 »
In npb »
Sponichi is reporting that the Yomiuri Giants are set to announce the official signing of Edgardo Alfonzo on the 9th JST. Alfonzo has been in camp with Yomiuri and apparently impressed manager Tatsunori Hara with his ability to handle the practice sessions. Alfonzo was with the San Francisco earlier in the decade, so this will be his second Giants uniform.
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Tags: Edgardo Alfonzo