It's somewhat surreal, but Red Sox Sign Lefty Okajima is the headline of the afternoon. Contract's for 2 years, $2.5 million according to the AP.
Hideki Okajima, a tall hefty lefty who will be 31 on Christmas, played for most of his career with the Giants, winning two Japan Series with them before being part of the Nippon Ham Fighters team which won this year. He grew up in Kyoto, and went to Higashiyama High, pitching at the spring invitational Koshien tournament in 1992 and 1993. He was drafted as the Giants third-round pick in the 1993-1994 offseason, and went on to pitch well in various roles, shining as both a lefty relief ace and a closer for the Giants. This year he was 2-2 with 4 saves and an ERA of 2.14, striking out 63 in 54.2 innings with a WHIP of 1.09. Lefties hit a miniscule .186 against him, and all of the 5 home runs he gave up were to right-handed batters.
He came to the Fighters in a trade right before the 2006 season, the Fighters sending no-bat catcher Kazunari Sanematsu and journeyman infielder Shigeyuki Furuki to the Giants for him. It's easily one of the best trades the Fighters have ever made. I will always remember Okajima best for moments like this, striking out Kosuke Fukudome in the Japan Series, over and over and over again. Hopefully he will find a suitable new lefty slugger over here to become the bane of. Personally, I suggest Big Jim Fuku-Thome.
The real downside to Okajima's new team being the Red Sox is that there's very little chance of me getting to tell him how awesome I thought he was in the Japan Series, as Sox fans are notorious for filling up Safeco within about five seconds of the gates opening for batting practice, and all the Japanese fans are going to come in to see Matsuzaka, too.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Shinjo's new career?
Thanks to The2Belo informing me about it, I went and watched the November 20th episode of the TV variety show SMAPxSMAP. (Everyone loves SMAP, right?) Recently-retired Fighters outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo was the guest, and it was probably the funniest episode of any Japanese TV show I've ever seen. I literally was laughing so hard I almost fell out of my chair.
Shinjo started off the show by coming out and pretending he was the owner of "Bistro SMAP", the Iron-Chef-like food competition they do on the show... as the real owner Masahiro Nakai walks out, dressed in an identical host outfit, wondering what the hell is going on. Shinjo's just like, "There's been a change in ownership here." The other four SMAP guys are like "Yeah, I heard that too." After the gag, Shinjo says that the food he wants to eat is "nippon ichi oishii ryouri", which could be interpreted as "the best cooking in Japan", or more likely, "tasty food for a Japan Champion!"
(screen capture from SMAPxSMAP 11/20/2006, Fuji TV)
They went down to the kitchen for a while after that to chat while the SMAP guys prepared a feast for champions. Takuya Kimura and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi were one team, and Shingo Katori and Goro Inagaki were the other. Shinjo talked about various stunts he'd pulled and other details about the team (at one point he was talking about Hichori, and the other guys are like "Hichori... is that a nickname?" and Masa and Shinjo are both like "No, it's his real name! Did you see when he dressed up as Piccolo at the All-Star Game?"). Katori even said how he didn't really follow baseball, but watching Shinjo made him think it looked really fun and exciting, and Shinjo said, "Hearing that from people makes me really happy."
The food they made was really really yummy. Despite that Kimura and Kusanagi won, I liked Shingo and Goro's arrangement better, partially because I've had a weird craving for good omurice lately, but mostly because they made this awesome dessert that was basically a baseball in a glove bowl, the ball being made out of strawberry mousse and cake, and they even decorated it with a "Shinjo HT 63". So cool! (So yummy-looking...)
Shingo Katori came out dressed up in a Fighters uniform when Shinjo was trying the desserts, and he was like "Look, I'm manager Hillman! 1, 2, 3, SHINJIRARENAAAAAIIII". It was pretty funny.
Now, here's the scary part. After the Bistro SMAP half of the show, they did this second half where it was almost like they were parodying themselves or something. They were initiating Shinjo into an idol group called the "Skate Boys", where they were all dressed up as an 80's boy band, in pink tank tops with a glittery "S" on them, and white shorts, and high white knee socks, and headbands with cutesy nicknames on them. First they sang and danced to a song. Shinjo really did try pretty hard to follow the routine.
Then, uhhh... they practiced doing their smiles as "cute boy band idols". It was pretty frightening. Shinjo's in the middle of the bottom row here as they all pose together.
Then they went and did this gag where all six "boy band members" had caricatures drawn on this carnival-board thingy, and they all had to throw baseballs to try to knock out the faces. Shinjo's is in the bottom right. Since there was another Tsuyoshi in the band, Shinjo became "Tsuyo-tsuyo", as Kusanagi was "Tsuyo-chan".
At one point Kimura threw a few baseballs and utterly missed the board, which was funny enough, but then he got down on one knee and put his glove on his head in the same pose Shinjo and Hichori and Inaba used to do all year in the Fighters outfield, and Shinjo cracked up and joined him here too:
Yeah.
Well, anyway. This was a tremendously funny episode of SMAPxSMAP. To be fair, the last time I watched it was when Orix's Kiyohara and Nakamura were on it, and they aren't anywhere near as charismatic. The disturbing part was how well Shinjo fit in with SMAP -- he's about the same age as the older members, has similar looks (they all have disturbingly white bright teeth and smiles), and similar mannerisms and charisma. I think he's going to be pretty awesome if and when he ends up as a TV personality somewhere. I'd almost like to see him teamed up with Kazushige Nagashima for something. Maybe they could be a pair of cops and have to hunt down Kazuhiro Kiyohara as a yakuza lord. That'd rule.
Shinjo started off the show by coming out and pretending he was the owner of "Bistro SMAP", the Iron-Chef-like food competition they do on the show... as the real owner Masahiro Nakai walks out, dressed in an identical host outfit, wondering what the hell is going on. Shinjo's just like, "There's been a change in ownership here." The other four SMAP guys are like "Yeah, I heard that too." After the gag, Shinjo says that the food he wants to eat is "nippon ichi oishii ryouri", which could be interpreted as "the best cooking in Japan", or more likely, "tasty food for a Japan Champion!"
(screen capture from SMAPxSMAP 11/20/2006, Fuji TV)
They went down to the kitchen for a while after that to chat while the SMAP guys prepared a feast for champions. Takuya Kimura and Tsuyoshi Kusanagi were one team, and Shingo Katori and Goro Inagaki were the other. Shinjo talked about various stunts he'd pulled and other details about the team (at one point he was talking about Hichori, and the other guys are like "Hichori... is that a nickname?" and Masa and Shinjo are both like "No, it's his real name! Did you see when he dressed up as Piccolo at the All-Star Game?"). Katori even said how he didn't really follow baseball, but watching Shinjo made him think it looked really fun and exciting, and Shinjo said, "Hearing that from people makes me really happy."
The food they made was really really yummy. Despite that Kimura and Kusanagi won, I liked Shingo and Goro's arrangement better, partially because I've had a weird craving for good omurice lately, but mostly because they made this awesome dessert that was basically a baseball in a glove bowl, the ball being made out of strawberry mousse and cake, and they even decorated it with a "Shinjo HT 63". So cool! (So yummy-looking...)
Shingo Katori came out dressed up in a Fighters uniform when Shinjo was trying the desserts, and he was like "Look, I'm manager Hillman! 1, 2, 3, SHINJIRARENAAAAAIIII". It was pretty funny.
Now, here's the scary part. After the Bistro SMAP half of the show, they did this second half where it was almost like they were parodying themselves or something. They were initiating Shinjo into an idol group called the "Skate Boys", where they were all dressed up as an 80's boy band, in pink tank tops with a glittery "S" on them, and white shorts, and high white knee socks, and headbands with cutesy nicknames on them. First they sang and danced to a song. Shinjo really did try pretty hard to follow the routine.
Then, uhhh... they practiced doing their smiles as "cute boy band idols". It was pretty frightening. Shinjo's in the middle of the bottom row here as they all pose together.
Then they went and did this gag where all six "boy band members" had caricatures drawn on this carnival-board thingy, and they all had to throw baseballs to try to knock out the faces. Shinjo's is in the bottom right. Since there was another Tsuyoshi in the band, Shinjo became "Tsuyo-tsuyo", as Kusanagi was "Tsuyo-chan".
At one point Kimura threw a few baseballs and utterly missed the board, which was funny enough, but then he got down on one knee and put his glove on his head in the same pose Shinjo and Hichori and Inaba used to do all year in the Fighters outfield, and Shinjo cracked up and joined him here too:
Yeah.
Well, anyway. This was a tremendously funny episode of SMAPxSMAP. To be fair, the last time I watched it was when Orix's Kiyohara and Nakamura were on it, and they aren't anywhere near as charismatic. The disturbing part was how well Shinjo fit in with SMAP -- he's about the same age as the older members, has similar looks (they all have disturbingly white bright teeth and smiles), and similar mannerisms and charisma. I think he's going to be pretty awesome if and when he ends up as a TV personality somewhere. I'd almost like to see him teamed up with Kazushige Nagashima for something. Maybe they could be a pair of cops and have to hunt down Kazuhiro Kiyohara as a yakuza lord. That'd rule.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Japan Photos, Part 2 - Tokyo Dome / Seibu Dome
Yeah, I'm aware that the Yankees won the posting bid of $25 million or so for Kei Igawa, but you can read about that all over the place. I'll do some sort of post-posting post at some point. I guess we already know what he looks like in pinstripes, so it's all good. (Does this mean it's my job to make fun of the way he dresses more or less now that he'll be a Yankee? And is it cool or uncool for MLB players to carry around anime totebags? Ah, Kei-chan, I do hope you do well... except when facing the Mariners, of course.)
Anyway, these pictures are from my second full day in Japan, where I hung out with my friend Li again. Being from New York, he actually wanted to find a Shinjo jersey, so we met up at the Tokyo Dome so I could show him the big baseball store there and take some pictures, and we could then take the train out to Tokorozawa for the Lions-Fighters game. You can read my blog entry about the day, or the game log on the Fighters' site. Quick version is that Fighters' starter Satoru Kanemura gave up a grand slam to catcher Toru Hosokawa, and the Lions' Fumiya Nishiguchi had much better luck keeping the Fighters lineup down, so the Lions won 6-2 in the end.
I sat in the outfield unreserved turf "seating" during this game, cheering my lungs out with a ton of other Fighters fans, so most of the pictures are actually of fans and such, rather than of players. Plus, the lighting at the Seibu Dome is pretty atrocious and they had pretty thick fences around the field.
Photo set with thumbnails and descriptions is here:
Tokyo Dome and Invoice Seibu Dome, full photo set
Outside the Tokyo Dome; outside and inside the Seibu Dome
To:Do shop, Giants Adidas shop, and "Giants Is Giants" poster:
A Hichori sign, a Shinjo sign, and a baseball caught by the guy next to me.
Cardboard cutouts of Lions players outside a bento stand, an oendan leader, a beer guy, and a cute kid.
There's some other fun things in the photo set, and this one is less than half the size of the Sendai one. Enjoy!
Next up: Swallows vs. Dragons at the Nagoya Dome. Should be up in time to be a Friday Foto, even!
Anyway, these pictures are from my second full day in Japan, where I hung out with my friend Li again. Being from New York, he actually wanted to find a Shinjo jersey, so we met up at the Tokyo Dome so I could show him the big baseball store there and take some pictures, and we could then take the train out to Tokorozawa for the Lions-Fighters game. You can read my blog entry about the day, or the game log on the Fighters' site. Quick version is that Fighters' starter Satoru Kanemura gave up a grand slam to catcher Toru Hosokawa, and the Lions' Fumiya Nishiguchi had much better luck keeping the Fighters lineup down, so the Lions won 6-2 in the end.
I sat in the outfield unreserved turf "seating" during this game, cheering my lungs out with a ton of other Fighters fans, so most of the pictures are actually of fans and such, rather than of players. Plus, the lighting at the Seibu Dome is pretty atrocious and they had pretty thick fences around the field.
Photo set with thumbnails and descriptions is here:
Tokyo Dome and Invoice Seibu Dome, full photo set
Outside the Tokyo Dome; outside and inside the Seibu Dome
To:Do shop, Giants Adidas shop, and "Giants Is Giants" poster:
A Hichori sign, a Shinjo sign, and a baseball caught by the guy next to me.
Cardboard cutouts of Lions players outside a bento stand, an oendan leader, a beer guy, and a cute kid.
There's some other fun things in the photo set, and this one is less than half the size of the Sendai one. Enjoy!
Next up: Swallows vs. Dragons at the Nagoya Dome. Should be up in time to be a Friday Foto, even!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Random Roundups
Well, let's see. Today (the 27th) was Willie Bloomquist's birthday (and Pudge Rodriguez and Jimmy Rollins and Mike Scioscia, if you're counting) and his present this year from the Mariners is a contract extension! Whee!
The Hall of Who?
The 2007 Hall of Fame candidate list is now out. Let's face it, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr are pretty much guarantees. There are a lot of question marks out there for a lot of the other players on the list -- many of whom are close, but not quite HOF quality. The only one I feel somewhat strongly about is Rich Gossage -- it just seems wrong that last year they voted in the Bruce but not the Goose. Either way, this would be an opportune time to plug The Goose Is Loose, which was one of the funniest baseball books I've ever read. The other funny case on the list to me (besides Jay Buhner, heh heh) is Tommy John -- I don't actually think he should be in the HOF, but I do think he had a long and amazing career, and that he doesn't actually have to be in the HOF to be immortalized, since pretty much every pitcher from now on who blows out his elbow will think of the guy.
Who Wants To Pay A Millionaire?
This past week saw Gary Matthews sign a ridiculous 5/50 contract with the Angels, the Astros sign Carlos Lee to an even more ridiculous 6/100 contract (and Woody Williams for 2/12.5), and the Orioles signed Danys Baez to a ridiculous 3/19 contract. But it's not all completely ridiculous. Philly is signing Adam Eaton to a 3/24 contract, and David Dellucci is following the J-Mike path from the Phillies to Cleveland, signing a reported 3/12 contract. Former Pepperdine Wave Randy Wolf is supposedly returning to South California with the Dodgers, for a very reasonable 1/8 contract coming off TJ surgery. (So much for the Wolf Pack in Philly.)
Around the Blogs in 80 Seconds
Jeff at Lookout Landing neatly summed up the Mariners 2006 season in quotes, Derek at USSM wrote Winter Meetings: The Text Adventure, Dave forwarded an interesting article about the life of King Felix, Conor Glassey wrote a song parody called White 'n' Dirty about Willie Bloomquist, and Phillies Flow has a lot of good recent stuff on Chris Coste, including a link to an article about his career path, and an entry arguing why Coste should make the 2007 roster. Mike Berquist has finished his series on the 1950 "Whiz Kids" Phillies, posting the final entry today; links to the rest of the series are at the bottom of that entry. Last, but not least, MetsGrrl wonders how I omitted the latest GQ model Jose Reyes from my NL All-Cute Team; but in reality, seeing that hair, I have to consider DFA'ing David Wright, actually.
Welcome to Sapporo, Mr. Green
Hey, it appears that Andy Green is signing with the Fighters, which is rad. At 5'9" and 175 pounds, he's got about the right physique to fit in (he'll pretty much mimic Kensuke Tanaka), and if he can hit in Japan like he did in 2005 in the PCL (.343/.422/.587, voted league MVP), that'll be pretty sweet. Not quite an Ogasawara replacement, but I think he'd be a good righty to put between Kensuke and Inaba or Seguignol, what with Naoto Inada (another lefty batter) most likely stepping in to take over at either third or first.
In the natural cycle of gaijin, the Fighters are not offering Brad Thomas a contract for next year. The big left-hander was 4-1 with a 3.74 ERA, striking out 43 in 45.2 innings pitched. He'd be a good pickup for some other team in Japan, given the general musical chairs game going on right now.
I'm not Gary Garland, Nor Do I Play Him On TV
Without Gary out there reading all the Japanese newspapers and translating interesting tidbits into English, I guess I have to go try to make sense of what's going on. I'm not as thorough in reading the news, but here's a few things:
First, Julio Zuleta is a free agent, having come to a halt in contract talks with the Hawks, as he wanted a multiyear deal and they wouldn't budge on it. I wonder if another Japanese team will sign him or if he'll get any interest from MLB.
Zuleta's former team, the Cubs, seem more interested in Kei Igawa. I do wonder whether Igawa knows he's a "second-tier" pitcher.
I keep seeing articles about "Nippon Ham's Kaneko signs" referring to Youhei Kaneko, the drafted outfielder from Honda. Oops.
Bobby Valentine keeps going on these trips to Okinawa to talk with Yaeyama Shoko ace Yuta Ohmine, who originally said he wouldn't play for any team except the Hawks, but has since relented and signed with Lotte. They promised him uniform number 1, and on this trip to Ishigaki Bobby brought him a uniform.
In other "What's Bobby V Up To?" news, Bobby posted a link on his blog to a YouTube clip where he's leading a cha-cha dance on stage before a Marines game earlier this year.
Komadai Tomakomai high school ace Masahiro Tanaka, drafted onto the Rakuten Eagles a few months ago, has been told that he will start on the top-level team in spring camp, as the management has said that he's "just not a minor league player". Tanaka will wear uniform number 18, which has a connotation of being worn by ace pitchers.
There was a second tryout at Chiba Marine Stadium on Monday with representatives watching from all 12 teams. 36 players participated, including released players such as the Fighters' Tomochika Tsuboi, the Hawks' Katsuhiko Miyaji, and Seibu's Fumikazu Takanami. (It doesn't sound like Tsuboi did particularly well, unfortunately.)
Dragonbutt Masahiko Morino is apparently causing a stir with the Chunichi management by demanding a significant raise in his contract.
Sounds like half of the Fighters don't want to go on their victory trip to New Zealand from December 14-26. Ogasawara's ducking out on account of switching teams, Shinjo retired, Yagi has a leave of absence, and Inaba and Hillman are only going for part of the trip, etc. Takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?
The Yakult Swallows are getting rid of Rick Guttormson. He wanted a 2-year, 700-million yen contract; they offered him a 1-year, 150-million yen contract; and alas, it appears they have agreed to disagree. Guttormson was 9-10 with a 2.58 ERA this year, and a no-hitter on May 25th against Rakuten.
Tomoaki Egawa has apparently been designated to be the Hawks' "post-Kokubo" third baseman, and as such is apparently assigned to train with him and absorb some "Kokuboism". Egawa's had a somewhat crazy few years, as he was a pitcher for Ujiyamada high school, pitched at Koshien, was drafted as a pitcher by the Hawks, but since he hit a lot of home runs and the Hawks are so pitching-heavy already he was converted to shortstop/third base, and then entirely played outfield for the Waikiki BeachBoys in the Hawaiian Winter League this year. He hit .274/.343/.483 on the Hawks' farm team in 2006; that's not too shabby for a 19-year-old kid.
Err, anyway. So on one final note, mostly bookmarked for myself: Nikkan Sports's contract signing news page with everything they know about contracts, which is pretty much everything I know about contracts.
The Hall of Who?
The 2007 Hall of Fame candidate list is now out. Let's face it, Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr are pretty much guarantees. There are a lot of question marks out there for a lot of the other players on the list -- many of whom are close, but not quite HOF quality. The only one I feel somewhat strongly about is Rich Gossage -- it just seems wrong that last year they voted in the Bruce but not the Goose. Either way, this would be an opportune time to plug The Goose Is Loose, which was one of the funniest baseball books I've ever read. The other funny case on the list to me (besides Jay Buhner, heh heh) is Tommy John -- I don't actually think he should be in the HOF, but I do think he had a long and amazing career, and that he doesn't actually have to be in the HOF to be immortalized, since pretty much every pitcher from now on who blows out his elbow will think of the guy.
Who Wants To Pay A Millionaire?
This past week saw Gary Matthews sign a ridiculous 5/50 contract with the Angels, the Astros sign Carlos Lee to an even more ridiculous 6/100 contract (and Woody Williams for 2/12.5), and the Orioles signed Danys Baez to a ridiculous 3/19 contract. But it's not all completely ridiculous. Philly is signing Adam Eaton to a 3/24 contract, and David Dellucci is following the J-Mike path from the Phillies to Cleveland, signing a reported 3/12 contract. Former Pepperdine Wave Randy Wolf is supposedly returning to South California with the Dodgers, for a very reasonable 1/8 contract coming off TJ surgery. (So much for the Wolf Pack in Philly.)
Around the Blogs in 80 Seconds
Jeff at Lookout Landing neatly summed up the Mariners 2006 season in quotes, Derek at USSM wrote Winter Meetings: The Text Adventure, Dave forwarded an interesting article about the life of King Felix, Conor Glassey wrote a song parody called White 'n' Dirty about Willie Bloomquist, and Phillies Flow has a lot of good recent stuff on Chris Coste, including a link to an article about his career path, and an entry arguing why Coste should make the 2007 roster. Mike Berquist has finished his series on the 1950 "Whiz Kids" Phillies, posting the final entry today; links to the rest of the series are at the bottom of that entry. Last, but not least, MetsGrrl wonders how I omitted the latest GQ model Jose Reyes from my NL All-Cute Team; but in reality, seeing that hair, I have to consider DFA'ing David Wright, actually.
Welcome to Sapporo, Mr. Green
Hey, it appears that Andy Green is signing with the Fighters, which is rad. At 5'9" and 175 pounds, he's got about the right physique to fit in (he'll pretty much mimic Kensuke Tanaka), and if he can hit in Japan like he did in 2005 in the PCL (.343/.422/.587, voted league MVP), that'll be pretty sweet. Not quite an Ogasawara replacement, but I think he'd be a good righty to put between Kensuke and Inaba or Seguignol, what with Naoto Inada (another lefty batter) most likely stepping in to take over at either third or first.
In the natural cycle of gaijin, the Fighters are not offering Brad Thomas a contract for next year. The big left-hander was 4-1 with a 3.74 ERA, striking out 43 in 45.2 innings pitched. He'd be a good pickup for some other team in Japan, given the general musical chairs game going on right now.
I'm not Gary Garland, Nor Do I Play Him On TV
Without Gary out there reading all the Japanese newspapers and translating interesting tidbits into English, I guess I have to go try to make sense of what's going on. I'm not as thorough in reading the news, but here's a few things:
First, Julio Zuleta is a free agent, having come to a halt in contract talks with the Hawks, as he wanted a multiyear deal and they wouldn't budge on it. I wonder if another Japanese team will sign him or if he'll get any interest from MLB.
Zuleta's former team, the Cubs, seem more interested in Kei Igawa. I do wonder whether Igawa knows he's a "second-tier" pitcher.
I keep seeing articles about "Nippon Ham's Kaneko signs" referring to Youhei Kaneko, the drafted outfielder from Honda. Oops.
Bobby Valentine keeps going on these trips to Okinawa to talk with Yaeyama Shoko ace Yuta Ohmine, who originally said he wouldn't play for any team except the Hawks, but has since relented and signed with Lotte. They promised him uniform number 1, and on this trip to Ishigaki Bobby brought him a uniform.
In other "What's Bobby V Up To?" news, Bobby posted a link on his blog to a YouTube clip where he's leading a cha-cha dance on stage before a Marines game earlier this year.
Komadai Tomakomai high school ace Masahiro Tanaka, drafted onto the Rakuten Eagles a few months ago, has been told that he will start on the top-level team in spring camp, as the management has said that he's "just not a minor league player". Tanaka will wear uniform number 18, which has a connotation of being worn by ace pitchers.
There was a second tryout at Chiba Marine Stadium on Monday with representatives watching from all 12 teams. 36 players participated, including released players such as the Fighters' Tomochika Tsuboi, the Hawks' Katsuhiko Miyaji, and Seibu's Fumikazu Takanami. (It doesn't sound like Tsuboi did particularly well, unfortunately.)
Sounds like half of the Fighters don't want to go on their victory trip to New Zealand from December 14-26. Ogasawara's ducking out on account of switching teams, Shinjo retired, Yagi has a leave of absence, and Inaba and Hillman are only going for part of the trip, etc. Takes the fun out of it, doesn't it?
The Yakult Swallows are getting rid of Rick Guttormson. He wanted a 2-year, 700-million yen contract; they offered him a 1-year, 150-million yen contract; and alas, it appears they have agreed to disagree. Guttormson was 9-10 with a 2.58 ERA this year, and a no-hitter on May 25th against Rakuten.
Tomoaki Egawa has apparently been designated to be the Hawks' "post-Kokubo" third baseman, and as such is apparently assigned to train with him and absorb some "Kokuboism". Egawa's had a somewhat crazy few years, as he was a pitcher for Ujiyamada high school, pitched at Koshien, was drafted as a pitcher by the Hawks, but since he hit a lot of home runs and the Hawks are so pitching-heavy already he was converted to shortstop/third base, and then entirely played outfield for the Waikiki BeachBoys in the Hawaiian Winter League this year. He hit .274/.343/.483 on the Hawks' farm team in 2006; that's not too shabby for a 19-year-old kid.
Err, anyway. So on one final note, mostly bookmarked for myself: Nikkan Sports's contract signing news page with everything they know about contracts, which is pretty much everything I know about contracts.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Japan Photos, Part 1 - Sendai
I had some spare time this long weekend and cropped/resized/thumbed/labelled/sorted the first installment of Japanese baseball pictures from my trip in September. (If you are new to this blog or weren't paying attention in September or are putting off doing work on a Monday morning, feel free to read my Japan Trip entries, care of Blogger's handy new labelling tool!)
I realized that part of why I have felt such a huge mental block towards actually going through the trip collection is that I took around 400 pictures in Sendai. It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny Saturday afternoon and I was in a stadium and city I'd never been to before. I'm pretty sure I took more pictures at that game than any other game I attended, seriously. So in theory I should be able to go through my other sets a lot more quickly in the future, and will be hacking away at them in the next few weeks.
So, these pictures are from September 2nd, at a game of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks vs. the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles at Miyagi Fullcast Stadium in Sendai, Japan. Blog entry from that day is here and the scoreboard/gamelog/etc is here. Short version: I hadn't even been in Japan for 24 hours when I hopped on a shinkansen to Sendai just to see the Hawks' Saitoh pitch against Rakuten's Ichiba. Saitoh was wonderful and the Hawks won the game 4-1, Nobuhiko Matsunaka scoring the first run for Softbank on a solo home run and Jose Fernandez scoring the only run for Rakuten on a solo home run off closer Mahara in the ninth.
Photo set with thumbnails and descriptions is here:
Eagles vs. Hawks at Miyagi Fullcast Stadium, Full Photo Set
Though I have no idea whether anyone will actually click on that link and look at the 128 pictures I sorted out, so I figured I'd throw a few thumbnails up here as encouragement:
The stadium itself:
Pre-game, and the complexities of trash:
Selling goods, selling food, and a mighty swing:
Shibahara, Matoba, Honda, Fernandez, Jolbert Cabrera:
Kazumi Saitoh, Yasuhiro Ichiba:
More Saitoh/Ichiba, and some cheerleaders:
The balloons go a-flying!
I dunno, seriously, there's a LOT of pictures there, as I was really in "wow! take pictures of EVERYTHING!" mode. I think I took too many of Julio Zuleta and Munenori Kawasaki. (No such thing as taking too many pictures of Kazumi Saitoh, of course.) I ended up with a lot of pictures where faces weren't clear though, due to the bright sun that day and the shade of baseball caps, or due to it just being too far to zoom; and of course, it was hard to get on-field shots from my seat because of all the damn fences, though I spent two innings standing up on the walkway.
Anyway, uh, hi! Hope you have fun looking through these! Next set will be Lions vs. Fighters at the Seibu Dome. It is a much much much smaller set. Stupid roofs with bad lighting and all.
I realized that part of why I have felt such a huge mental block towards actually going through the trip collection is that I took around 400 pictures in Sendai. It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny Saturday afternoon and I was in a stadium and city I'd never been to before. I'm pretty sure I took more pictures at that game than any other game I attended, seriously. So in theory I should be able to go through my other sets a lot more quickly in the future, and will be hacking away at them in the next few weeks.
So, these pictures are from September 2nd, at a game of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks vs. the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles at Miyagi Fullcast Stadium in Sendai, Japan. Blog entry from that day is here and the scoreboard/gamelog/etc is here. Short version: I hadn't even been in Japan for 24 hours when I hopped on a shinkansen to Sendai just to see the Hawks' Saitoh pitch against Rakuten's Ichiba. Saitoh was wonderful and the Hawks won the game 4-1, Nobuhiko Matsunaka scoring the first run for Softbank on a solo home run and Jose Fernandez scoring the only run for Rakuten on a solo home run off closer Mahara in the ninth.
Photo set with thumbnails and descriptions is here:
Eagles vs. Hawks at Miyagi Fullcast Stadium, Full Photo Set
Though I have no idea whether anyone will actually click on that link and look at the 128 pictures I sorted out, so I figured I'd throw a few thumbnails up here as encouragement:
The stadium itself:
Pre-game, and the complexities of trash:
Selling goods, selling food, and a mighty swing:
Shibahara, Matoba, Honda, Fernandez, Jolbert Cabrera:
Kazumi Saitoh, Yasuhiro Ichiba:
More Saitoh/Ichiba, and some cheerleaders:
The balloons go a-flying!
I dunno, seriously, there's a LOT of pictures there, as I was really in "wow! take pictures of EVERYTHING!" mode. I think I took too many of Julio Zuleta and Munenori Kawasaki. (No such thing as taking too many pictures of Kazumi Saitoh, of course.) I ended up with a lot of pictures where faces weren't clear though, due to the bright sun that day and the shade of baseball caps, or due to it just being too far to zoom; and of course, it was hard to get on-field shots from my seat because of all the damn fences, though I spent two innings standing up on the walkway.
Anyway, uh, hi! Hope you have fun looking through these! Next set will be Lions vs. Fighters at the Seibu Dome. It is a much much much smaller set. Stupid roofs with bad lighting and all.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
Requisite Ogasawara Post
(aka "Guts, I think you screwed up".)
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Or the prefecture of Hokkaido, as the case may be.
My favorite Japanese baseball player, Michihiro "Guts" Ogasawara, the first-and-sometimes-third baseman for the Nippon Ham Fighters for the last ten years, has apparently agreed to be the third baseman for the Yomiuri Giants. (Japanball/Kyodo article.) This sucks. For anyone who's watched the Yankees sign away their favorite player from a team at some point, you can understand the feeling of the suckage -- but what's weirder about this situation is threefold:
1) He didn't actually get a salary raise at all to move to the Giants (according to most sources, it'll be a 4 year, 1.6-billion yen contract; the Fighters were offering 3 years, 1.5 billion yen)
2) The motivation for the move is theorized to be because his wife and daughters never moved up to Hokkaido, and have been bugging him to move back to the Tokyo region instead
3) He never came clear with the fans about his intentions. Everyone heard about this through the media, not from him. The media had been saying rumors that he was going to sign with the Giants on the 22nd over and over again, but since Ogasawara himself didn't actually say anything about it during the fan festival and parade weekend in Hokkaido, a lot of people held out false hope. One group went and got 30,000 fan signatures on a "Please stay with the Fighters" petition. Due to the timing, I don't think he even knew about them before he made his decision.
Things got even weirder because apparently he put up a long message on the Fighters' official web site... which was subsequently edited down in the next few hours. I only saw the latest version, which reads:
全国のファイターズファンの皆さんへ
テレビ・新聞などの報道で、皆さんすでに御承知の事とは思いますが、自分はファイターズを去ることになりました。北海道で培った３年間の経験を生かし、新天地でまた一からのスタートを切りたいと思います。北海道で成長させていただいた経験は、決して忘れることなど出来ないもので、３年という短い時間ではありましたが、自分の人生の中でも非常に濃い３年でした。北海道は自分にとって”第２の故郷”として、一生忘れることの出来ない場所となり、そこでの出会いはかけがえのないものになりました。ファイターズファンの皆さんとは、お別れとなる訳ですが、プロ野球の世界にいる限り、札幌ドームには帰ってくる機会が必ずあります。その時は「ファイターズファンに育ててもらった小笠原道大はここにいます」と胸を張って札幌ドームのグラウンドに帰って来たいと思います。
最後まで自分を信じて応援し続けてくれたファンのみんなには大変申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱいです。 今でも目を閉じるとスタンドいっぱいにこだまする皆の声援が聞こえるようです。この気持ちを忘れることなく、応援してくれるみんなの気持ちを忘れることなく、そして北海道を決して忘れることなく挑戦し続けていきたい。皆の力がファイターズをさらに大きくすることを信じています。本当にありがとうございました。
Translated (more for sentiment than accuracy): "To the Fighters fans all over the country: I know this is too late to be informing everyone, after the newspapers and TV shows already reported it, but I am leaving the Fighters. After experiencing three years in Hokkaido, I think I need to try to find a new dream to pursue, starting from square one. In Hokkaido, I grew a lot as a player and I will never be able to forget the experience here, because those three short years were some of the best of my life. Hokkaido has become like a "second home" to me, and I will never forget the place; all of you I have met can never be replaced in my heart. I may be leaving you now, but within the world of pro baseball I will certainly have the chance to come back to the Sapporo Dome to see all of you. At that time, I want to return to these grounds with pride, as the "Ogasawara who was raised by Fighters fans".
"I feel like I can't possibly apologize enough to the fans who have believed in me and cheered me until the end. Even now when I open my eyes towards the stands, I can almost hear the echoes of everyone's voices cheering. I will never forget that feeling, of everyone cheering for me, and I will never forget Hokkaido when facing future challenges. Furthermore, I believe that everything I ever accomplished for the Fighters came from the power given to me by the fans. Truly, I want to thank you all."
It's a nice sentiment, I guess, but yeah, I can see why a lot of people would have definitely liked to have heard it from him BEFORE reading about his decision in the newspaper.
It's funny, I personally don't entirely know how to react. I know I feel a little bit betrayed, but I'm also in that Japanese mindset of "it can't be helped" and "Ogasawara will always be our Ogasawara" and "we are still Fighters fans no matter what". Watching the Sapporo parade footage on YouTube, I was sitting there convincing myself that I'd still love the Fighters even if Guts left. I think I still feel that way. I don't know who's going to replace him at first base or with his consistent 900+ OPS. But just because Ogasawara and Okajima are leaving for other teams, and Shinjo's retiring, and so on, doesn't mean I don't love Kaneko, Yukio, Hichori, Kensuke, Inaba, Inada, Seguignol, Takahashi, Tsuruoka, Darvish, Yagi, Takeda(s), Micheal, and yes, even Kanemura. I'm excited to see if Inada and Konta can step up and join the starting lineup next year; I'm hoping to see good things from Keizo Kawashima; I'd like to see Kimoto come back; I'm hoping Hichori stops chasing bad outside pitches; and I'm hoping to see if Ken Miyamoto can be a shorter Tomoya Yagi.
But, I'm not sure what to do with my Ogasawara #2 jersey now. I don't know whether I should continue trying to read his autobiography now, since it might make me feel pretty sad. (I only read about 20 pages so far, the WBC chapter.) I deflated the blue dolphin that had been sitting up on my Fighters Shrine, which I still haven't taken down. And I'm finally replacing this as my desktop background.
Apparently the Giants are going to make Makoto Kosaka give up #2 so Ogasawara can wear it. (Of course, Lotte fans will recall that Kosaka mostly wore #1 with the Marines, but #1 is retired on the Giants for Sadaharu Oh. Saburo wore #2 for Lotte until Bobby Valentine claimed it.)
I don't know if this is the first and last post about the whole Ogasawara situation, or if you're going to hear me continue to whine about it all winter until the Fighters find someone to fill the gaping hole in their lineup. I wouldn't mind seeing the Fighters try to pick up Adam Riggs (as the Swallows apparently released him and Guttormson), maybe. At least he's already a proven hitter in Japan, unlike certain players I could name later. I dunno. And there was the Andy Green rumor too -- I wonder what came of that.
Either way, I guess we'll see what happens. It's going to be pretty weird next time I go to a Fighters game, when they get up to the third batter in the lineup and there's no special banners and signs and flags and "tachiagare Ogasawara..."
Something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Or the prefecture of Hokkaido, as the case may be.
My favorite Japanese baseball player, Michihiro "Guts" Ogasawara, the first-and-sometimes-third baseman for the Nippon Ham Fighters for the last ten years, has apparently agreed to be the third baseman for the Yomiuri Giants. (Japanball/Kyodo article.) This sucks. For anyone who's watched the Yankees sign away their favorite player from a team at some point, you can understand the feeling of the suckage -- but what's weirder about this situation is threefold:
1) He didn't actually get a salary raise at all to move to the Giants (according to most sources, it'll be a 4 year, 1.6-billion yen contract; the Fighters were offering 3 years, 1.5 billion yen)
2) The motivation for the move is theorized to be because his wife and daughters never moved up to Hokkaido, and have been bugging him to move back to the Tokyo region instead
3) He never came clear with the fans about his intentions. Everyone heard about this through the media, not from him. The media had been saying rumors that he was going to sign with the Giants on the 22nd over and over again, but since Ogasawara himself didn't actually say anything about it during the fan festival and parade weekend in Hokkaido, a lot of people held out false hope. One group went and got 30,000 fan signatures on a "Please stay with the Fighters" petition. Due to the timing, I don't think he even knew about them before he made his decision.
Things got even weirder because apparently he put up a long message on the Fighters' official web site... which was subsequently edited down in the next few hours. I only saw the latest version, which reads:
全国のファイターズファンの皆さんへ
テレビ・新聞などの報道で、皆さんすでに御承知の事とは思いますが、自分はファイターズを去ることになりました。北海道で培った３年間の経験を生かし、新天地でまた一からのスタートを切りたいと思います。北海道で成長させていただいた経験は、決して忘れることなど出来ないもので、３年という短い時間ではありましたが、自分の人生の中でも非常に濃い３年でした。北海道は自分にとって”第２の故郷”として、一生忘れることの出来ない場所となり、そこでの出会いはかけがえのないものになりました。ファイターズファンの皆さんとは、お別れとなる訳ですが、プロ野球の世界にいる限り、札幌ドームには帰ってくる機会が必ずあります。その時は「ファイターズファンに育ててもらった小笠原道大はここにいます」と胸を張って札幌ドームのグラウンドに帰って来たいと思います。
最後まで自分を信じて応援し続けてくれたファンのみんなには大変申し訳ない気持ちでいっぱいです。 今でも目を閉じるとスタンドいっぱいにこだまする皆の声援が聞こえるようです。この気持ちを忘れることなく、応援してくれるみんなの気持ちを忘れることなく、そして北海道を決して忘れることなく挑戦し続けていきたい。皆の力がファイターズをさらに大きくすることを信じています。本当にありがとうございました。
Translated (more for sentiment than accuracy): "To the Fighters fans all over the country: I know this is too late to be informing everyone, after the newspapers and TV shows already reported it, but I am leaving the Fighters. After experiencing three years in Hokkaido, I think I need to try to find a new dream to pursue, starting from square one. In Hokkaido, I grew a lot as a player and I will never be able to forget the experience here, because those three short years were some of the best of my life. Hokkaido has become like a "second home" to me, and I will never forget the place; all of you I have met can never be replaced in my heart. I may be leaving you now, but within the world of pro baseball I will certainly have the chance to come back to the Sapporo Dome to see all of you. At that time, I want to return to these grounds with pride, as the "Ogasawara who was raised by Fighters fans".
"I feel like I can't possibly apologize enough to the fans who have believed in me and cheered me until the end. Even now when I open my eyes towards the stands, I can almost hear the echoes of everyone's voices cheering. I will never forget that feeling, of everyone cheering for me, and I will never forget Hokkaido when facing future challenges. Furthermore, I believe that everything I ever accomplished for the Fighters came from the power given to me by the fans. Truly, I want to thank you all."
It's a nice sentiment, I guess, but yeah, I can see why a lot of people would have definitely liked to have heard it from him BEFORE reading about his decision in the newspaper.
It's funny, I personally don't entirely know how to react. I know I feel a little bit betrayed, but I'm also in that Japanese mindset of "it can't be helped" and "Ogasawara will always be our Ogasawara" and "we are still Fighters fans no matter what". Watching the Sapporo parade footage on YouTube, I was sitting there convincing myself that I'd still love the Fighters even if Guts left. I think I still feel that way. I don't know who's going to replace him at first base or with his consistent 900+ OPS. But just because Ogasawara and Okajima are leaving for other teams, and Shinjo's retiring, and so on, doesn't mean I don't love Kaneko, Yukio, Hichori, Kensuke, Inaba, Inada, Seguignol, Takahashi, Tsuruoka, Darvish, Yagi, Takeda(s), Micheal, and yes, even Kanemura. I'm excited to see if Inada and Konta can step up and join the starting lineup next year; I'm hoping to see good things from Keizo Kawashima; I'd like to see Kimoto come back; I'm hoping Hichori stops chasing bad outside pitches; and I'm hoping to see if Ken Miyamoto can be a shorter Tomoya Yagi.
But, I'm not sure what to do with my Ogasawara #2 jersey now. I don't know whether I should continue trying to read his autobiography now, since it might make me feel pretty sad. (I only read about 20 pages so far, the WBC chapter.) I deflated the blue dolphin that had been sitting up on my Fighters Shrine, which I still haven't taken down. And I'm finally replacing this as my desktop background.
Apparently the Giants are going to make Makoto Kosaka give up #2 so Ogasawara can wear it. (Of course, Lotte fans will recall that Kosaka mostly wore #1 with the Marines, but #1 is retired on the Giants for Sadaharu Oh. Saburo wore #2 for Lotte until Bobby Valentine claimed it.)
I don't know if this is the first and last post about the whole Ogasawara situation, or if you're going to hear me continue to whine about it all winter until the Fighters find someone to fill the gaping hole in their lineup. I wouldn't mind seeing the Fighters try to pick up Adam Riggs (as the Swallows apparently released him and Guttormson), maybe. At least he's already a proven hitter in Japan, unlike certain players I could name later. I dunno. And there was the Andy Green rumor too -- I wonder what came of that.
Either way, I guess we'll see what happens. It's going to be pretty weird next time I go to a Fighters game, when they get up to the third batter in the lineup and there's no special banners and signs and flags and "tachiagare Ogasawara..."
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
NPB College/Industrial Draft List
I'm sorry, I needed something to take my mind off Ogasawara signing with the Giants, because I can't deal with that right now. I just can't.
So I went and translated the full lists of the college/industrial draft. Hopefully it'll be useful to someone.
I worked with the Sankei Sports list as my master list (so all height/weight info is from there) and then did web searches to figure out various other things, mostly hometown prefectures. There's like three where I took the hometown of their high school since I couldn't find anything else (and those are denoted with a dash afterwards), I'm sure I can find out as details come in. I also used the industry/college draft issue of Shukan Baseball for some info.
Players with pages linked are just because I ended up looking them up to find out info in the first place so figured I might as well save that info.
I've got some thoughts about how some teams did their drafting (notably Hiroshima taking all industry-league older players), but I'm pretty mentally shot.
I'm thinking of trying to write up how the draft works, too, at some point. It's incredibly convoluted, but I think I finally understand the whole pick-skipping thing, at least. You'll notice in most of these there's a K and then a 3 -- because the K is the pre-signed kibouwaki player, then almost every team except Rakuten didn't have a pick until the technical "third round", due to not skipping the first round of the high school draft and due to signing a kibouwaki outside the draft.
So I went and translated the full lists of the college/industrial draft. Hopefully it'll be useful to someone.
I worked with the Sankei Sports list as my master list (so all height/weight info is from there) and then did web searches to figure out various other things, mostly hometown prefectures. There's like three where I took the hometown of their high school since I couldn't find anything else (and those are denoted with a dash afterwards), I'm sure I can find out as details come in. I also used the industry/college draft issue of Shukan Baseball for some info.
Players with pages linked are just because I ended up looking them up to find out info in the first place so figured I might as well save that info.
I've got some thoughts about how some teams did their drafting (notably Hiroshima taking all industry-league older players), but I'm pretty mentally shot.
I'm thinking of trying to write up how the draft works, too, at some point. It's incredibly convoluted, but I think I finally understand the whole pick-skipping thing, at least. You'll notice in most of these there's a K and then a 3 -- because the K is the pre-signed kibouwaki player, then almost every team except Rakuten didn't have a pick until the technical "third round", due to not skipping the first round of the high school draft and due to signing a kibouwaki outside the draft.
Name Pos Univ/Company B/T DOB Ht/Wt Hometown
-------------------- --- ------------ --- ---------- ---------- --------
Chunichi Dragons
K: Daisuke Tanaka C Toyo Univ R/R 12/18/1984 174cm/78kg Hiroshima
3. Takuya Asao P Nihon Fukushi Univ R/R 10/22/1984 182cm/71kg Aichi
4. Masanori Kikuchi P Toho Gas L/L 09/09/1984 177cm/82kg Shizuoka
5. Tatsuro Iwasaki IF Nippon Oil (ENEOS) R/R 12/28/1984 175cm/75kg Kanagawa
6. Akinobu Shimizu P Meijo Univ R/R 10/26/1983 175cm/85kg Mie
7. Akira Nishikawa IF Hosei Univ L/R 04/02/1984 175cm/72kg Mie
Hanshin Tigers
K: Tatsuya Kojima P Osaka Gas L/L 10/07/1985 180cm/73kg Osaka
3. Keiji Uezono P Musashi Univ R/R 06/30/1984 180cm/80kg Fukuoka
4. Takashi Shimizu C Kanzei Gakuin Univ R/R 04/23/1984 177cm/75kg Hyogo
5. Yuuji Oshiro IF TDK Chikumagawa S/R 10/07/1985 172cm/75kg Okinawa
Yakult Swallows
K: Shun Takaichi P Aoyama Gakuin Univ R/R 07/09/1984 177cm/80kg Chiba
3. Satoshi Nishizaki P JR Hokkaido R/R 08/01/1982 174cm/68kg Fukuoka
4. Atsushi Kinugawa C Sumitomo Kashima R/R 03/20/1981 180cm/90kg Hyogo
Yomiuri Giants
K: Norihito Kaneto P Ritsumeikan Univ L/L 04/10/1984 177cm/83kg Hyogo
3. Takahisa Ueno P NTT East L/L 12/09/1984 177cm/75kg Tokyo
4. Hidetoshi Tsuburaya IF Aoyama Gakuin Univ L/R 09/17/1984 181cm/75kg Kanagawa
5. Kazuho Fukasawa P Shikoku / Kagawa* L/L 09/16/1983 180cm/72kg Yamanashi
6. Takayuki Terauchi IF JR East R/R 05/27/1983 177cm/75kg Tochigi
7. Ryousuke Fukamachi P Chukyo Univ R/R 10/25/1984 181cm/81kg Aichi
(Shikoku League, Kagawa Olive Guyners)
Hiroshima Carp
K: Michito Miyazaki P Honda Suzuka R/R 09/06/1978 181cm/78kg Wakayama
3. Hirofumi Ueno P Toyota R/R 04/10/1981 176cm/82kg Kagoshima
4. Takahiro Aoki P Nissan L/L 11/26/1981 187cm/80kg Gifu
5. Naoki Nakahigashi OF Honda Suzuka L/R 10/05/1981 168cm/68kg Hiroshima
Yokohama Bay Stars
K: Kentarou Takasaki P Nissan R/R 06/24/1985 175cm/80kg Kumamoto
3. Yuta Kimura P Tokyo Gas L/L 05/21/1985 189cm/80kg Akita
4. Tatsuya Shimozono OF Kyushu Kokusai Univ L/L 11/22/1984 179cm/81kg Miyazaki
5. Yusuke Shimokubo OF Nippon Express R/R 01/21/1979 173cm/78kg Kagoshima
6. Michiomi Yoshihara P Honda Sayama R/R 10/29/1981 181cm/83kg Tokyo
Nippon Ham Fighters
K: Ken Miyamoto P Waseda Univ L/L 04/18/1984 174cm/78kg Okayama
3. Keisaku Itokazu P Asia Univ R/R 11/07/1984 180cm/88kg Okinawa
4. Hisayoshi Chono OF Japan Univ R/R 12/06/1984 178cm/78kg Saga
5. Kazunori Yamamoto P Waseda Univ L/L 06/13/1983 184cm/90kg Shimane
6. Youhei Kaneko OF Honda R/R 12/04/1981 177cm/83kg Yamaguchi
7. Takahiro Imanami IF Meiji Univ L/R 07/06/1984 170cm/75kg Fukuoka
8. Yusuke Uchiyama P Asahikawa Univ R/R 08/21/1984 182cm/83kg Kanagawa
Seibu Lions
K: Takayuki Kishi P Tohoku Gakuin Univ R/R 12/04/1984 180cm/69kg Miyagi
3. Jun Yamamoto P TDK Chikumaguma R/R 04/16/1982 188cm/80kg Kanagawa
4. Takuya Hara IF Kanto Gakuin Univ L/R 05/18/1984 174cm/74kg Kanagawa
5. Tetsuya Iwasaki P Mitsubishi Yokohama R/R 10/13/1982 190cm/88kg Saitama
6. Yutaro Ohsaki OF Aoyama Gakuin Univ L/R 10/18/1984 170cm/80kg Ibaraki
Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
K: Kenji Ohtonari P Kinki Univ L/L 11/19/1984 174cm/82kg Kyoto
3. Hiroaki Takaya C Hakuoh Univ L/R 11/13/1981 178cm/83kg Tochigi
4. Masahiko Morifuku P Shidax L/L 07/29/1986 175cm/67kg Aichi
5. Yuuya Hasegawa OF Senshu Univ L/R 12/22/1984 178cm/81kg Yamagata
6. Hideto Kawazu P Fukuoka Univ R/R 03/26/1985 181cm/80kg Saga-
Chiba Lotte Marines
3. Takumi Kobe OF Ryutsu Keizai Univ L/R 02/23/1985 191cm/95kg Ibaraki
4. Tadahiro Ogino P Hitachi R/R 04/16/1982 174cm/71kg Tokyo
5. Ryousuke Eguchi P Aichi Gakuin Univ L/L 08/12/1984 175cm/77kg Tokyo-
6. Taiki Nakagoh P JR Shikoku R/R 09/21/1984 175cm/68kg Tokushima-
7. Tatsuya Kakunaka OF Shikoku/Kochi* R/R 05/25/1987 180cm/80kg Ishikawa
8. Kodai Matsumoto P Duplo L/L 12/23/1980 175cm/75kg Hyogo
(Shikoku League, Kochi Fighting Dogs)
Orix Buffaloes
K: Satoshi Komatsu P JR Kyushu R/R 10/29/1981 180cm/78kg Fukushima
3. Keiji Ohbiki IF Hosei Univ R/R 06/29/1984 177cm/75kg Osaka
Rakuten Golden Eagles
1: Satoshi Nagai P Toyo Univ L/R 09/27/1984 177cm/69kg Gunma
3. Motohiro Shima C Kokugakuin Univ R/R 12/13/1984 178cm/82kg Gifu
4. Fuminori Yokogawa OF Aoyama Gakuin Univ R/L 12/03/1984 186cm/90kg Ibaraki
5. Naoto Watanabe IF Mitsubishi Fuso R/R 10/15/1980 173cm/70kg Ibaraki
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Roster moves and MVPs
I was going to write more about the NPB Industrial/College draft, but got sidetracked. If I don't see a translated list of the draftees anywhere else by tonight, I'll put one together here, at the very least.
So instead, here's what I've been reading today:
There were Jeremy Reed trade rumors abounding in a USSM comment thread yesterday. They haven't turned into anything yet, though.
Pat Lagreid informed me that manager Mike Hargrove is going to be a guest on the Hot Stove League hour on Mariners Radio tonight at 7pm on KOMO 1000, so if you want to hear what Grover's got to say about the offseason so far, tune in and have a listen.
Mariner Minors has a good report up on the Mariners' recent 40-man roster management, about which players are being protected from the Rule 5 draft, which players aren't, and which players have departed (notably, TJ Bohn was claimed by the Braves off waivers and Jeff Harris was signed by Cleveland (I still haven't seen an article confirming it but our Harris informer at LL mentioned it as well)). There's a press release up about the roster moves.
In the realm of "headlines you could amusingly misread", today there was one reading Sox Have Matsuzaka For Dinner. It probably doesn't help that the picture of him in the article makes him look really chubby!
MVPs have been announced for both leagues now. Ryan Howard won the NL Award, a day after turning 27 on Sunday. The Phillies unfurled a banner celebrating it out at CBP, but even better, he stopped by an elementary school in Philly and helped them paint a mural they were making to honor him. They sang happy birthday to him and gave him cake. Sounds like he'll have one busy offseason, making appearances all over the place.
This marks the second MVP in two weeks for Howard, as he was awarded the Japan-MLB All-Star Games MVP as well, captivating the crowds over there with his charming smile and powerful bat.
At least this year, unlike last year, there isn't some stupid football player starting a ton of controversy and keeping Howard from getting his due recognition in Philly; last year when he won the Rookie of the Year, there was barely any coverage of it.
You could make an argument that Albert Pujols deserved the NL MVP more; you could make an argument that Derek Jeter deserved the AL MVP more too, but the winner in that league was Justin Morneau, making a nice Twin set of awards with Johan Santana's Cy Young.
Justin Morneau was also awarded the accolade of "Boyfriend of the Year" by the sasstistical analysts at Bat-Girl. Whether or not he considered this to be a higher honor is unknown, as Morneau could not be reached for comment.
On another note of Cardinals being snubbed, my baseball calendar lists Ken Griffey Jr. for today's player birthday. That's just ridiculous, given that it's Stan Musial's birthday AND the ballpark of the month is Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
I haven't come up with a catchy tune idea for an MVP song parody yet this year, unfortunately.
So instead, here's what I've been reading today:
There were Jeremy Reed trade rumors abounding in a USSM comment thread yesterday. They haven't turned into anything yet, though.
Pat Lagreid informed me that manager Mike Hargrove is going to be a guest on the Hot Stove League hour on Mariners Radio tonight at 7pm on KOMO 1000, so if you want to hear what Grover's got to say about the offseason so far, tune in and have a listen.
Mariner Minors has a good report up on the Mariners' recent 40-man roster management, about which players are being protected from the Rule 5 draft, which players aren't, and which players have departed (notably, TJ Bohn was claimed by the Braves off waivers and Jeff Harris was signed by Cleveland (I still haven't seen an article confirming it but our Harris informer at LL mentioned it as well)). There's a press release up about the roster moves.
In the realm of "headlines you could amusingly misread", today there was one reading Sox Have Matsuzaka For Dinner. It probably doesn't help that the picture of him in the article makes him look really chubby!
MVPs have been announced for both leagues now. Ryan Howard won the NL Award, a day after turning 27 on Sunday. The Phillies unfurled a banner celebrating it out at CBP, but even better, he stopped by an elementary school in Philly and helped them paint a mural they were making to honor him. They sang happy birthday to him and gave him cake. Sounds like he'll have one busy offseason, making appearances all over the place.
This marks the second MVP in two weeks for Howard, as he was awarded the Japan-MLB All-Star Games MVP as well, captivating the crowds over there with his charming smile and powerful bat.
At least this year, unlike last year, there isn't some stupid football player starting a ton of controversy and keeping Howard from getting his due recognition in Philly; last year when he won the Rookie of the Year, there was barely any coverage of it.
You could make an argument that Albert Pujols deserved the NL MVP more; you could make an argument that Derek Jeter deserved the AL MVP more too, but the winner in that league was Justin Morneau, making a nice Twin set of awards with Johan Santana's Cy Young.
Justin Morneau was also awarded the accolade of "Boyfriend of the Year" by the sasstistical analysts at Bat-Girl. Whether or not he considered this to be a higher honor is unknown, as Morneau could not be reached for comment.
On another note of Cardinals being snubbed, my baseball calendar lists Ken Griffey Jr. for today's player birthday. That's just ridiculous, given that it's Stan Musial's birthday AND the ballpark of the month is Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.
I haven't come up with a catchy tune idea for an MVP song parody yet this year, unfortunately.
Monday, November 20, 2006
NPB Roundup: Shiggy, Drafting, and other fun
Hey, it looks like Terry Collins wants to hire Shigetoshi Hasegawa as a coach for Orix. Collins managed the Angels when Shiggy first came over and played for them, and Shiggy came to the US from the Orix Blue Wave in the first place. It seems like it'll be a good fit if he wants it, though it sounds like Shiggy's just thinking about it for now and will give them an answer depending on the circumstances when spring camp starts. He's one of my favorite Mariners ever, and I think his unique set of skills and knowledge and intelligence would make him an excellent coach, should he choose to pursue it.
Industrial/College draft starts tomorrow, by which I mean Tuesday in Japan, which is Monday afternoon/evening in Seattle. I realize I still don't fully understand exactly how it works, but it sounds like Lotte and Rakuten don't get to take a pre-pick - Lotte because they actually took a second round pick in the high school draft, and Rakuten because they didn't decide in time or didn't have their unofficial offer accepted. The list of pre-picks (kibouwaku, whatever) is up various places; SportsNavi (among others) has profiles for them all, if you read Japanese -- and my guess is that anyone else who cares about the NPB industrial/college draft probably does :)
The list, anyway:
Yokohama: Kentarou Takasaki, Nissan, RHP
Hiroshima: Michito Miyazaki, Honda, RHP
Orix: Satoshi Komatsu, JR Kyushu, RHP
Giants: Norihito Kaneto, Ritsumeikan Univ, LHP
Yakult: Shun Takaichi, Aoyama Gakuin Univ, RHP
Softbank: Kenji Ohtonari, Kinki Univ, LHP
Tigers: Tatsuya Kojima, Osaka Gas, LHP
Seibu: Takayuki Kishi, Tohoku Gakuin Univ, RHP
Chunichi: Daisuke Tanaka, Toyodai Univ, C
Nippon Ham: Ken Miyamoto, Waseda Univ, LHP
I have to admit that Miyamoto's the only one I've really looked into at all, for obvious reasons.
The soon-to-be newest Devil Ray, Akinori Iwamura, apparently is going to try for the media 'Good Guy Award'... or something. He's also hoping to have a Japanese interpreter/trainer.
37,741 people came to Fighters Fan Fest at the Sapporo Dome on Sunday. Shinjo wasn't there, but Ogasawara was, and this is too cute for words. But never let the Fighters be without goofiness anyway, as Atsunori Inaba got the entire stadium to do an "Inaba Jump" and make the ground shake like it did during the Japan Series, and Hichori Morimoto apparently gave a rousing rendition of Yutaka Ozaki's "Happy Birthday".
(All the articles are also saying Ogasawara will announce signing with the Giants on Tuesday or Wednesday NOTLISTENINGCANTHEARYOUBLAHBLAHBLAHWAAAAAAHHHH)
The Fighters are looking at hiring Dave Owen as a coach. Owen and [manager Trey] Hillman both went to the University of Texas at Arlington (though not at the same time, I don't think), and with the release of pitching coach Mike Brown (for whatever reason -- the Fighters' pitching this year was sensational!), they wanted to find an American coach so Hillman would at least have someone he could discuss plans with in English (or Texan, as the case may be -- he's got the best drawl!) on his staff. Owen has been working as an infield coordinator in the Phillies minor league system.
I could talk about stuff going on in the MLB Hot Stove, but as usual you could just look at the tracker and see what's occurred, or look anywhere else on the net and see what rumors abound. The Big Hurt going to Toronto is probably the biggest news of the last week, or maybe the Big Contract going to Soriano supposedly. I guess the smallest news would be that Scott Spiezio signed for another two years with the Cardinals. In completely unrelated news, I bought a new pair of character shoes today made by Capezio. I hope they last me a while; if they wear out in a year and get released to Goodwill and someone else pays $3 and fixes them up and gets a good year or two out of them and wins a ballroom world championship, I'm going to be annoyed.
Industrial/College draft starts tomorrow, by which I mean Tuesday in Japan, which is Monday afternoon/evening in Seattle. I realize I still don't fully understand exactly how it works, but it sounds like Lotte and Rakuten don't get to take a pre-pick - Lotte because they actually took a second round pick in the high school draft, and Rakuten because they didn't decide in time or didn't have their unofficial offer accepted. The list of pre-picks (kibouwaku, whatever) is up various places; SportsNavi (among others) has profiles for them all, if you read Japanese -- and my guess is that anyone else who cares about the NPB industrial/college draft probably does :)
The list, anyway:
Yokohama: Kentarou Takasaki, Nissan, RHP
Hiroshima: Michito Miyazaki, Honda, RHP
Orix: Satoshi Komatsu, JR Kyushu, RHP
Giants: Norihito Kaneto, Ritsumeikan Univ, LHP
Yakult: Shun Takaichi, Aoyama Gakuin Univ, RHP
Softbank: Kenji Ohtonari, Kinki Univ, LHP
Tigers: Tatsuya Kojima, Osaka Gas, LHP
Seibu: Takayuki Kishi, Tohoku Gakuin Univ, RHP
Chunichi: Daisuke Tanaka, Toyodai Univ, C
Nippon Ham: Ken Miyamoto, Waseda Univ, LHP
I have to admit that Miyamoto's the only one I've really looked into at all, for obvious reasons.
The soon-to-be newest Devil Ray, Akinori Iwamura, apparently is going to try for the media 'Good Guy Award'... or something. He's also hoping to have a Japanese interpreter/trainer.
37,741 people came to Fighters Fan Fest at the Sapporo Dome on Sunday. Shinjo wasn't there, but Ogasawara was, and this is too cute for words. But never let the Fighters be without goofiness anyway, as Atsunori Inaba got the entire stadium to do an "Inaba Jump" and make the ground shake like it did during the Japan Series, and Hichori Morimoto apparently gave a rousing rendition of Yutaka Ozaki's "Happy Birthday".
(All the articles are also saying Ogasawara will announce signing with the Giants on Tuesday or Wednesday NOTLISTENINGCANTHEARYOUBLAHBLAHBLAHWAAAAAAHHHH)
The Fighters are looking at hiring Dave Owen as a coach. Owen and [manager Trey] Hillman both went to the University of Texas at Arlington (though not at the same time, I don't think), and with the release of pitching coach Mike Brown (for whatever reason -- the Fighters' pitching this year was sensational!), they wanted to find an American coach so Hillman would at least have someone he could discuss plans with in English (or Texan, as the case may be -- he's got the best drawl!) on his staff. Owen has been working as an infield coordinator in the Phillies minor league system.
I could talk about stuff going on in the MLB Hot Stove, but as usual you could just look at the tracker and see what's occurred, or look anywhere else on the net and see what rumors abound. The Big Hurt going to Toronto is probably the biggest news of the last week, or maybe the Big Contract going to Soriano supposedly. I guess the smallest news would be that Scott Spiezio signed for another two years with the Cardinals. In completely unrelated news, I bought a new pair of character shoes today made by Capezio. I hope they last me a while; if they wear out in a year and get released to Goodwill and someone else pays $3 and fixes them up and gets a good year or two out of them and wins a ballroom world championship, I'm going to be annoyed.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Fighters Victory Parade!
I can count on one hand the amount of things I can clearly recall from the first 4-5 years of my life:
- when my little brother was born
- spraining my ankle jumping off a table (you think little boys do stupid things, you should see the stupid things little tomboys do)
- getting my first library card
- my grandfather dying
- the Phillies winning the World Series
Thus, getting to see pictures of yesterday's Fighters Japan Series victory parade in Sapporo brought back a really long-buried memory of mine, being outside in Philadelphia on a cold October morning trying to see the Phillies parade going by, too small to see much, too big to stay on my dad's shoulders for very long, too scared of the hundreds of thousands of people cheering.
According to Sankei Sports and others, approximately 143,000 fans came out for the parade, even though it was about 40 degrees out. The parade started with an opening ceremony in front of the south entrance to the JR Sapporo station, where a full band played the Fighters team songs and various people spoke, including the governor of Hokkaido and the mayor of Sapporo. The parade went for approximately 1.3 kilometers, heading south at about 2-3 km/h. Most of the players were on top of two buses, waving to the crowds. Several were either in uniform or wearing Fighters jackets, except Shinjo, who was wearing plain clothes (and tossing his designer bracelets into the crowd). In front of the buses were three cars; manager Trey Hillman and player rep Makoto Kaneko were in the front car, while team captain Yukio Tanaka and veteran pitcher Satoru Kanemura followed in another car, and Yoshinori Tateyama and Shinji Takahashi were in another car behind them.
Shinjo gave a shivering Hichori Morimoto a scarf to wear. "I forgot my long sleeves," Hichori said. "The cold made me very tense. But gathering outside the ballpark like this made me so happy!"
"The confetti makes it look more like Hokkaido with snow falling, doesn't it?" said Makoto Kaneko. "Seeing everyone smiling was great, too."
Doshin sports had a truck out there that said "シンジテタ！日本一" ("We believed! Japan Champions", a reference to Trey Hillman's saying "I can't believe it!" so much), and as they reported, fans held up signs that said anything from "thank you Shinjo!" to "don't go, Ogasawara".
Yu Darvish looks so incredibly happy. And so incredibly young.
Kensuke Tanaka couldn't be at the parade because he had an operation on the 16th to remedy an embedded bone fracture that apparently was a result of getting hit by a pitch by Nagisa Arakaki in the summer of 2004. (Sorry, I suck at medical terms, Japanese article here. The end of the above linked Sankei article says it was the top of his ankle.)
Lefty relief ace and Fukudome-killer Hideki Okajima was at the parade, saying that as a free agent, he's had offers from a few MLB teams, and is likely to accept as they've offered him more money.
And as for other free agents... Ogasawara looks pretty happy waving from the top of the bus. Hopefully all of the "Please don't go, Ogasawara!" signs had an effect on him.
Approximately 3,000 people volunteered to clean up the confetti after the parade.
(I see that there's clips of the parade of up on Youtube -- no idea whether they'll stay there. Eight segments: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, about 9 mins each. The second one has the opening ceremony. The third one actually has the exact lineup of who's in what bus at about 5 mins in. Parade starts in segment 4 with Hichori running around on the bus like a weirdo. Segment 5 starts off with confetti. In segment 6 the parade passes by the office building the TV guys are narrating/shouting from (and the band is playing "Seishun Amigo"?! WTF?))
Oh, and the 2006 Fighters DVD was released on Saturday as well! I need to go order my copy.
- when my little brother was born
- spraining my ankle jumping off a table (you think little boys do stupid things, you should see the stupid things little tomboys do)
- getting my first library card
- my grandfather dying
- the Phillies winning the World Series
Thus, getting to see pictures of yesterday's Fighters Japan Series victory parade in Sapporo brought back a really long-buried memory of mine, being outside in Philadelphia on a cold October morning trying to see the Phillies parade going by, too small to see much, too big to stay on my dad's shoulders for very long, too scared of the hundreds of thousands of people cheering.
According to Sankei Sports and others, approximately 143,000 fans came out for the parade, even though it was about 40 degrees out. The parade started with an opening ceremony in front of the south entrance to the JR Sapporo station, where a full band played the Fighters team songs and various people spoke, including the governor of Hokkaido and the mayor of Sapporo. The parade went for approximately 1.3 kilometers, heading south at about 2-3 km/h. Most of the players were on top of two buses, waving to the crowds. Several were either in uniform or wearing Fighters jackets, except Shinjo, who was wearing plain clothes (and tossing his designer bracelets into the crowd). In front of the buses were three cars; manager Trey Hillman and player rep Makoto Kaneko were in the front car, while team captain Yukio Tanaka and veteran pitcher Satoru Kanemura followed in another car, and Yoshinori Tateyama and Shinji Takahashi were in another car behind them.
Shinjo gave a shivering Hichori Morimoto a scarf to wear. "I forgot my long sleeves," Hichori said. "The cold made me very tense. But gathering outside the ballpark like this made me so happy!"
"The confetti makes it look more like Hokkaido with snow falling, doesn't it?" said Makoto Kaneko. "Seeing everyone smiling was great, too."
Doshin sports had a truck out there that said "シンジテタ！日本一" ("We believed! Japan Champions", a reference to Trey Hillman's saying "I can't believe it!" so much), and as they reported, fans held up signs that said anything from "thank you Shinjo!" to "don't go, Ogasawara".
Yu Darvish looks so incredibly happy. And so incredibly young.
Kensuke Tanaka couldn't be at the parade because he had an operation on the 16th to remedy an embedded bone fracture that apparently was a result of getting hit by a pitch by Nagisa Arakaki in the summer of 2004. (Sorry, I suck at medical terms, Japanese article here. The end of the above linked Sankei article says it was the top of his ankle.)
Lefty relief ace and Fukudome-killer Hideki Okajima was at the parade, saying that as a free agent, he's had offers from a few MLB teams, and is likely to accept as they've offered him more money.
And as for other free agents... Ogasawara looks pretty happy waving from the top of the bus. Hopefully all of the "Please don't go, Ogasawara!" signs had an effect on him.
Approximately 3,000 people volunteered to clean up the confetti after the parade.
(I see that there's clips of the parade of up on Youtube -- no idea whether they'll stay there. Eight segments: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, about 9 mins each. The second one has the opening ceremony. The third one actually has the exact lineup of who's in what bus at about 5 mins in. Parade starts in segment 4 with Hichori running around on the bus like a weirdo. Segment 5 starts off with confetti. In segment 6 the parade passes by the office building the TV guys are narrating/shouting from (and the band is playing "Seishun Amigo"?! WTF?))
Oh, and the 2006 Fighters DVD was released on Saturday as well! I need to go order my copy.
Friday, November 17, 2006
Friday Foto - In honor of Johan Santana
I took this one last September when I was at the Metrodome for Laurel's wedding, during batting practice.
A bunch of kids who know greatness when they see it.
Going back, it appears that these Santana-jersey-wearing kids were actually watching Francisco Liriano warm up, too.
This post is in honor of the fact that for once, nobody disagreed with the obvious choice for the Cy Young Award in the American League, Johan Santana. Much like I was happy when Kazumi Saitoh won the Sawamura unanimously, I'm overjoyed for Santana here.
The pitching triple crown is funny in that the categories work together -- if you strike out a lot of guys, it'll help you keep a lower ERA, which in turn will help you win a lot of games. Whereas the hitting triple crown is tougher, as a home run power swing often comes at the cost of a few points of batting average. There hasn't been a hitting triple crown winner since 1967, but there have been seven pitching triple crown winners since then, counting Santana this year. He is the first to win it with less than 20 wins, as well (19-6, 2.77, 245 K).
A bunch of kids who know greatness when they see it.
Going back, it appears that these Santana-jersey-wearing kids were actually watching Francisco Liriano warm up, too.
This post is in honor of the fact that for once, nobody disagreed with the obvious choice for the Cy Young Award in the American League, Johan Santana. Much like I was happy when Kazumi Saitoh won the Sawamura unanimously, I'm overjoyed for Santana here.
The pitching triple crown is funny in that the categories work together -- if you strike out a lot of guys, it'll help you keep a lower ERA, which in turn will help you win a lot of games. Whereas the hitting triple crown is tougher, as a home run power swing often comes at the cost of a few points of batting average. There hasn't been a hitting triple crown winner since 1967, but there have been seven pitching triple crown winners since then, counting Santana this year. He is the first to win it with less than 20 wins, as well (19-6, 2.77, 245 K).
Thursday, November 16, 2006
The Bunt Heard Round The World
"Home run, home run, Hosokawa! Timely, timely, Hosokawa!"
The cheers from the outfield bleachers filled the Invoice Dome on a crisp September night. But what were they cheering for? The shortest home run in history?
Toru Hosokawa, the catcher for the Seibu Lions, was at the plate, squaring away to bunt for the third time that evening. Three times, he'd stood on deck and watched Shogo Akada hit a single, and didn't even need to see the coach's signal to know he should bunt the runner ahead to second base. Three times, he'd come in, ready to unselfishly sacrifice his own at-bat in order to advance his team's cause. Three times, the crowd screamed wildly for him to get a hit, to drive in a run.
He caught the ball with the bat, rolling it along the ground in front of home plate, and took off running as fast as he could. Matoyama's throw to first was in plenty of time for the out. Hosokawa headed back to the dugout to a roar of cheers from the Lions fans, and the words "Mission Accomplished!" flashed on the big screen.
Mission accomplished, indeed.
Sacrifice bunts are as big a symbol of Japanese baseball as Sadaharu Oh or Koshien Stadium. It's well-known that Japanese baseball players are about twice as likely to bunt as their American counterparts. But exactly how effective a strategy is it?
This year the Nippon Ham Fighters won the Japan Series against the Chunichi Dragons. One obvious reason for this is that in the 5 games that the series lasted, the Fighters scored more than twice as many runs as the Dragons did, 20 to 8. However, another significant thing they did twice as often was sacrifice bunt -- 13 times to the Dragons' 6 times. They also capitalized on those bunting opportunities more, as over half of their bunts (7) led to runners scoring, yet the Dragons only scored two runs from their 6 bunts.
Kensuke Tanaka, the Fighters second baseman who led the Pacific League in sacrifice bunts this year with 34, also set a special record in the Japan Series by hitting six successful sacrifice bunts. Even more impressively, five out of the six resulted in Hichori Morimoto scoring a run. The other run-scoring bunts for the Fighters happened in what would become the final game of the Series. Down by one run in the fifth inning, Naoto Inada doubled, Shinya Tsuruoka bunted him to third, and Makoto Kaneko successfully executed a suicide squeeze bunt to tie the game.
Elegant? Perhaps. Effective? Definitely.
The Fighters also grounded into only two double plays compared to the Dragons' six, which could also be a result of having one runner on second more often than one runner on first. Having a speedy and smart baserunner like Morimoto on second also allowed the Fighters to let RBI-men Ogasawara, Seguignol, and Inaba do their jobs more effectively.
The sacrifice bunt, a fundamental part of "small ball" baseball tactics, has been rolling towards a slow death on the MLB side of the Pacific. Sabermetrics have shown that without any other situational knowledge of a game, a sacrifice bunt will generally lower the probability of a run scoring, not raise it. And regardless of whether a manager listens to their inner stathead, most big-league skippers would generally rather play for a big inning than squander their outs, with the exception of pitchers hitting in the National League.
The number of home runs in the MLB and the number of sacrifice bunts didn't change significantly between 2005 and 2006. On average, teams bunted once more (55) and hit 12 more home runs (179) than they did last year. National League teams bunted 1190 times, about two and a half times as many as the American League 461. The World Series teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers, did not bunt significantly more or less than they did last year, although the Cardinals hit 14 more home runs and the Tigers hit 35 more.
Looking at the NPB, however, yields wildly different results.
From 2005 to 2006, Japanese pro baseball saw a 30% increase in sacrifice bunts from 1014 to 1323, but they also saw a 17% decrease in the number of home runs hit, from 1747 to 1453. Only the Yakult Swallows went against the trend, both increasing their home runs and decreasing their sacrifice bunts.
There were two teams that increased their sacrifice bunts far and away more than any other teams in Japan -- none other than the Japan Series contenders, the Nippon Ham Fighters and the Chunichi Dragons, reporting increases of 79 and 73 respectively. The Fighters even went from hitting a Pacific League-low 54 bunts in 2005 to their league-leading 133 in 2006. Bobby Valentine's Chiba Lotte Marines, in comparison, hit exactly one more sacrifice bunt in 2006 than in 2005, their 57 total being the lowest in all of Japan, the Yomiuri Giants' 89 being the second lowest. They also dropped from being Japan Series champions to finishing in fourth place.
Fighters manager Trey Hillman said at spring training that he was willing to listen to his coaches and players and try to play more Japanese-style small ball, rather than going for big innings. The Fighters scored 38 less runs than they did the previous year, but they also won a club record 82 games and their first Japan Series title since 1962. Hillman hoped the new strategy would let the players play better and harder, getting one run on the board first and worrying about the rest later. It worked far better than anyone expected.
Bunts, strong defense, and young pitchers with fighting spirit - ingredients of a classic Japanese recipe.
Or maybe just for the breakfast of champions.
(Data for this article culled from mlb.com and bis.npb.or.jp; my spreadsheets are here and here.)
The cheers from the outfield bleachers filled the Invoice Dome on a crisp September night. But what were they cheering for? The shortest home run in history?
Toru Hosokawa, the catcher for the Seibu Lions, was at the plate, squaring away to bunt for the third time that evening. Three times, he'd stood on deck and watched Shogo Akada hit a single, and didn't even need to see the coach's signal to know he should bunt the runner ahead to second base. Three times, he'd come in, ready to unselfishly sacrifice his own at-bat in order to advance his team's cause. Three times, the crowd screamed wildly for him to get a hit, to drive in a run.
He caught the ball with the bat, rolling it along the ground in front of home plate, and took off running as fast as he could. Matoyama's throw to first was in plenty of time for the out. Hosokawa headed back to the dugout to a roar of cheers from the Lions fans, and the words "Mission Accomplished!" flashed on the big screen.
Mission accomplished, indeed.
Sacrifice bunts are as big a symbol of Japanese baseball as Sadaharu Oh or Koshien Stadium. It's well-known that Japanese baseball players are about twice as likely to bunt as their American counterparts. But exactly how effective a strategy is it?
This year the Nippon Ham Fighters won the Japan Series against the Chunichi Dragons. One obvious reason for this is that in the 5 games that the series lasted, the Fighters scored more than twice as many runs as the Dragons did, 20 to 8. However, another significant thing they did twice as often was sacrifice bunt -- 13 times to the Dragons' 6 times. They also capitalized on those bunting opportunities more, as over half of their bunts (7) led to runners scoring, yet the Dragons only scored two runs from their 6 bunts.
Kensuke Tanaka, the Fighters second baseman who led the Pacific League in sacrifice bunts this year with 34, also set a special record in the Japan Series by hitting six successful sacrifice bunts. Even more impressively, five out of the six resulted in Hichori Morimoto scoring a run. The other run-scoring bunts for the Fighters happened in what would become the final game of the Series. Down by one run in the fifth inning, Naoto Inada doubled, Shinya Tsuruoka bunted him to third, and Makoto Kaneko successfully executed a suicide squeeze bunt to tie the game.
Elegant? Perhaps. Effective? Definitely.
The Fighters also grounded into only two double plays compared to the Dragons' six, which could also be a result of having one runner on second more often than one runner on first. Having a speedy and smart baserunner like Morimoto on second also allowed the Fighters to let RBI-men Ogasawara, Seguignol, and Inaba do their jobs more effectively.
The sacrifice bunt, a fundamental part of "small ball" baseball tactics, has been rolling towards a slow death on the MLB side of the Pacific. Sabermetrics have shown that without any other situational knowledge of a game, a sacrifice bunt will generally lower the probability of a run scoring, not raise it. And regardless of whether a manager listens to their inner stathead, most big-league skippers would generally rather play for a big inning than squander their outs, with the exception of pitchers hitting in the National League.
The number of home runs in the MLB and the number of sacrifice bunts didn't change significantly between 2005 and 2006. On average, teams bunted once more (55) and hit 12 more home runs (179) than they did last year. National League teams bunted 1190 times, about two and a half times as many as the American League 461. The World Series teams, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers, did not bunt significantly more or less than they did last year, although the Cardinals hit 14 more home runs and the Tigers hit 35 more.
Looking at the NPB, however, yields wildly different results.
From 2005 to 2006, Japanese pro baseball saw a 30% increase in sacrifice bunts from 1014 to 1323, but they also saw a 17% decrease in the number of home runs hit, from 1747 to 1453. Only the Yakult Swallows went against the trend, both increasing their home runs and decreasing their sacrifice bunts.
There were two teams that increased their sacrifice bunts far and away more than any other teams in Japan -- none other than the Japan Series contenders, the Nippon Ham Fighters and the Chunichi Dragons, reporting increases of 79 and 73 respectively. The Fighters even went from hitting a Pacific League-low 54 bunts in 2005 to their league-leading 133 in 2006. Bobby Valentine's Chiba Lotte Marines, in comparison, hit exactly one more sacrifice bunt in 2006 than in 2005, their 57 total being the lowest in all of Japan, the Yomiuri Giants' 89 being the second lowest. They also dropped from being Japan Series champions to finishing in fourth place.
Fighters manager Trey Hillman said at spring training that he was willing to listen to his coaches and players and try to play more Japanese-style small ball, rather than going for big innings. The Fighters scored 38 less runs than they did the previous year, but they also won a club record 82 games and their first Japan Series title since 1962. Hillman hoped the new strategy would let the players play better and harder, getting one run on the board first and worrying about the rest later. It worked far better than anyone expected.
Bunts, strong defense, and young pitchers with fighting spirit - ingredients of a classic Japanese recipe.
Or maybe just for the breakfast of champions.
(Data for this article culled from mlb.com and bis.npb.or.jp; my spreadsheets are here and here.)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Blogger Beta, Redux
I know some of you read this blog on an RSS feed. Can someone confirm/deny for me whether me going back and adding labels to old posts is completely screwing things up for you or not? If it is, I'm really sorry -- and I warn in advance that over the next week or two I'm seriously going to be trying to tag everything in this blog, and I'm not really sure I can stop it from republishing everything with new dates. (Hmm... tried a test of disabling RSS and no, that doesn't help either.)
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
More NPB Awards - Best Nine, ROY, and MVPs
2006 Pacific League Awards (Japanese):
MVP: Michihiro Ogasawara (Fighters, .313/.397/.573, 32 HR, 100 RBI)
ROY: Tomoya Yagi (Fighters, 12-8, 2.48)
Pretty much everybody predicted Yagi as the PL ROY, I think. He lived up to every expectation anyone could have possibly had of the Soka University graduate, becoming part of a powerful young one-two punch with Yu Darvish that will anchor the Fighters for years to come. Yagi was an almost unanimous ROY candidate (175/180 votes).
I predicted Ogasawara as the HR king before the season started, but even in mid-September I was still figuring he'd only get MVP if the Fighters won the league. Oddly, I thought it'd be between him and Alex Cabrera though, and instead he only edged out Kazumi Saitoh by 20 points in the voting, while Cabrera barely got any at all.
PL Best Nine:
P: Kazumi Saitoh, Hawks
C: Tomoya Satozaki, Marines
1B: Michihiro Ogasawara, Fighters
2B: Kensuke Tanaka, Fighters
3B: Jose Fernandez, Eagles
SS: Munenori Kawasaki, Hawks
OF: Atsunori Inaba, Fighters
OF: Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Hawks
OF: Kazuhiro Wada, Lions
DH: Fernando Seguignol, Fighters
2006 Central League Awards (Japanese):
MVP: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons (.351/.438/.653, 31 HR, 104 RBI)
ROY: Eishin Soyogi, Carp (.289/.332/.422)
I was fairly sure Fukudome would get the award, even though one could make a pretty good argument for Tyrone Woods (.310/.402/.635, 47 HR, 144 RBI), who finished third in the balloting, with Kenshin Kawakami placing second. Woods is not the worst defensive first baseman that has ever lived, but Fukudome's one of the top outfielders in Japan.
Soyogi's not a bad choice for ROY at all, though I actually would have voted for the guy who placed second, Yuuki Yoshimura of the Bay Stars (.311/.336/.573, 26 HR). Neither one really took the league by storm like Norichika Aoki did last year, but both were respectably good players on relatively bad teams.
CL Best Nine:
P: Kenshin Kawakami, Dragons
C: Akihiro Yano, Tigers
1B: Tyrone Woods, Dragons
2B: Masahiro Araki, Dragons
3B: Akinori Iwamura, Swallows
SS: Hirokazu Ibata, Dragons
OF: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons
OF: Tomoaki Kanemoto, Tigers
OF: Norichika Aoki, Swallows
Yeah, these lists do look fairly similar to the Gold Gloves, don't they...
Pictures: MVP/ROYs, Fukudome and Ogasawara, Soyogi and Yagi
WBC Medal/Ribbon ceremony. Wada and Matsuzaka.
(I also saw that Brandon Webb won the NL Cy Young over on this side of the ocean. AL Cy will be announced Thursday.)
(Yes, I am very specifically not talking about Matsuzaka and the Red Sox, for now. I vaguely debated making a post listing exactly what $51 million is worth in terms of things like tacos, playstations, automobiles, and small countries in Africa, but have other things I need to work on. There's plenty of hibachi coverage on mlb.com right now anyway.)
MVP: Michihiro Ogasawara (Fighters, .313/.397/.573, 32 HR, 100 RBI)
ROY: Tomoya Yagi (Fighters, 12-8, 2.48)
Pretty much everybody predicted Yagi as the PL ROY, I think. He lived up to every expectation anyone could have possibly had of the Soka University graduate, becoming part of a powerful young one-two punch with Yu Darvish that will anchor the Fighters for years to come. Yagi was an almost unanimous ROY candidate (175/180 votes).
I predicted Ogasawara as the HR king before the season started, but even in mid-September I was still figuring he'd only get MVP if the Fighters won the league. Oddly, I thought it'd be between him and Alex Cabrera though, and instead he only edged out Kazumi Saitoh by 20 points in the voting, while Cabrera barely got any at all.
PL Best Nine:
P: Kazumi Saitoh, Hawks
C: Tomoya Satozaki, Marines
1B: Michihiro Ogasawara, Fighters
2B: Kensuke Tanaka, Fighters
3B: Jose Fernandez, Eagles
SS: Munenori Kawasaki, Hawks
OF: Atsunori Inaba, Fighters
OF: Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Hawks
OF: Kazuhiro Wada, Lions
DH: Fernando Seguignol, Fighters
2006 Central League Awards (Japanese):
MVP: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons (.351/.438/.653, 31 HR, 104 RBI)
ROY: Eishin Soyogi, Carp (.289/.332/.422)
I was fairly sure Fukudome would get the award, even though one could make a pretty good argument for Tyrone Woods (.310/.402/.635, 47 HR, 144 RBI), who finished third in the balloting, with Kenshin Kawakami placing second. Woods is not the worst defensive first baseman that has ever lived, but Fukudome's one of the top outfielders in Japan.
Soyogi's not a bad choice for ROY at all, though I actually would have voted for the guy who placed second, Yuuki Yoshimura of the Bay Stars (.311/.336/.573, 26 HR). Neither one really took the league by storm like Norichika Aoki did last year, but both were respectably good players on relatively bad teams.
CL Best Nine:
P: Kenshin Kawakami, Dragons
C: Akihiro Yano, Tigers
1B: Tyrone Woods, Dragons
2B: Masahiro Araki, Dragons
3B: Akinori Iwamura, Swallows
SS: Hirokazu Ibata, Dragons
OF: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons
OF: Tomoaki Kanemoto, Tigers
OF: Norichika Aoki, Swallows
Yeah, these lists do look fairly similar to the Gold Gloves, don't they...
Pictures: MVP/ROYs, Fukudome and Ogasawara, Soyogi and Yagi
WBC Medal/Ribbon ceremony. Wada and Matsuzaka.
(I also saw that Brandon Webb won the NL Cy Young over on this side of the ocean. AL Cy will be announced Thursday.)
(Yes, I am very specifically not talking about Matsuzaka and the Red Sox, for now. I vaguely debated making a post listing exactly what $51 million is worth in terms of things like tacos, playstations, automobiles, and small countries in Africa, but have other things I need to work on. There's plenty of hibachi coverage on mlb.com right now anyway.)
Blogger Beta
I actually don't have that much to say, but I want to play with this new blogger beta thing. It says that it can now do post labels, which is really awesome. Post labels, and the ability to cut posts, were really about all I wanted, and now, look, they exist! Whee! Now I'll have to go back and label everything. Don't count on another post from me until sometime in 2009.
Anyway, let's see if I can make up some content.
Once upon a time, Jim Bunning was embarrassed to say he was the manager of the Toledo Mud Hens. Now, imagine what someone's going to have to go through with the reins of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs? Eeeek. I mean, Ooooiiiink.
I'm not much for roster speculation or the whole free agent circus, but I have to admit that I do bookmark the Free Agent Tracker this time of the year and check it most days. Today, at least, it was interesting to see that Kazuo Matsui re-signed with the Rockies. It occurs to me that it would have been funnier if he'd gone back to Japan to take Akinori Iwamura's place, though.
This is also the Awards Season, and today the Rookies of the Year were announced. Justin Verlander won it for the AL, and.. Hanley Ramirez for the NL? I thought Ryan Zimmerman would edge him out, and the Marlins rookie jar would fight among itself for other votes, but I guess not.
This year's Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers were announced a couple of days ago as well. There's a lot of arguments to be made for or against the picks, but I thought the most interesting thing was looking at which players won both: Carlos Beltran and Derek Jeter.
Hmm, so Trey Hillman mysteriously is no longer in the Oakland manager candidate mix. Japanese press predicts that he will re-sign with the Fighters. That's good -- I think he's built a great relationship with the team and with the fans. Now if only certain Ogasawaras would make up their minds, we'd be in good shape!
Seibu is stringing out the Matsuzaka hype another day or three. On an almost completely unrelated note, I was at Target tonight and randomly saw the Upper Deck World Baseball Classic Boxed Set for sale for $9.99, and impulsively bought it. The selection of Japanese players in the set is a bit odd, though, the strangest being that there aren't cards for Uehara and Matsuzaka. I sort of figured both of them were a lot more hyped up than, say, Shunsuke Watanabe, who is included. I'd personally rather have a Watanabe card, of course, but I'm weird.
Anyway, I'm going to go publish this article and then go play with the new Blogger gadgets for a bit. Exciting!
Anyway, let's see if I can make up some content.
Once upon a time, Jim Bunning was embarrassed to say he was the manager of the Toledo Mud Hens. Now, imagine what someone's going to have to go through with the reins of the Lehigh Valley IronPigs? Eeeek. I mean, Ooooiiiink.
I'm not much for roster speculation or the whole free agent circus, but I have to admit that I do bookmark the Free Agent Tracker this time of the year and check it most days. Today, at least, it was interesting to see that Kazuo Matsui re-signed with the Rockies. It occurs to me that it would have been funnier if he'd gone back to Japan to take Akinori Iwamura's place, though.
This is also the Awards Season, and today the Rookies of the Year were announced. Justin Verlander won it for the AL, and.. Hanley Ramirez for the NL? I thought Ryan Zimmerman would edge him out, and the Marlins rookie jar would fight among itself for other votes, but I guess not.
This year's Gold Gloves and Silver Sluggers were announced a couple of days ago as well. There's a lot of arguments to be made for or against the picks, but I thought the most interesting thing was looking at which players won both: Carlos Beltran and Derek Jeter.
Hmm, so Trey Hillman mysteriously is no longer in the Oakland manager candidate mix. Japanese press predicts that he will re-sign with the Fighters. That's good -- I think he's built a great relationship with the team and with the fans. Now if only certain Ogasawaras would make up their minds, we'd be in good shape!
Seibu is stringing out the Matsuzaka hype another day or three. On an almost completely unrelated note, I was at Target tonight and randomly saw the Upper Deck World Baseball Classic Boxed Set for sale for $9.99, and impulsively bought it. The selection of Japanese players in the set is a bit odd, though, the strangest being that there aren't cards for Uehara and Matsuzaka. I sort of figured both of them were a lot more hyped up than, say, Shunsuke Watanabe, who is included. I'd personally rather have a Watanabe card, of course, but I'm weird.
Anyway, I'm going to go publish this article and then go play with the new Blogger gadgets for a bit. Exciting!
Monday, November 13, 2006
Book Review - Clearing the Bases, by Mike Schmidt
Okay, I guess technically the book is really called Clearing the Bases: Juiced Players, Monster Salaries, Sham Records, and a Hall of Famer's Search for the Soul of Baseball, by Mike Schmidt with Glen Waggoner. But whatever. I actually got my copy of this book several months ago -- Schmitty was doing some book signings around Philly when it first came out, so my dad went and got me a signed copy as an early birthday present.
I finally got around to reading this book this past week. It took me about eight 30-minute commuting bus rides to get through it. It's really a very good bus book, actually -- I could get through at least a chapter per bus ride, sometimes two, and there wasn't a lot of context to worry about since the subject matter jumps all over the place.
The first six chapters of this book are really awesome; they're basically the autobiography section, where Schmidt talks about his career from the time he signed out of Ohio University, to the day he retired. He just tells a lot of stories in a really fun way; there may have been a really big "oh my god! Mike Schmidt!" factor for me, given that I spent the first 12 years of my life watching him play third base for the Phillies, but I think that the stories do stand on their own just fine.
Unfortunately, just as his career ends, so does the light part of the book. The rest of it deals with his opinions on a bunch of the current issues surrounding the game, and while the tone is still light in most places, the subject matter really isn't quite so much. I think the last eight chapters could be summarized as such (no, these are not direct quotes, I'm just paraphrasing from his point of view):
7,8. "You know, I understand why guys did steroids. They were looking for an edge. I briefly thought I might have done them too if the opportunity had existed when I was a player, but now that I researched stuff for this book and found out what that crap does to your body? No way, man. No way."
9,10. "Hitters today are a lot better than they used to be. The balls and bats are lighter, too. So when you're looking at all the records set nowadays, the numbers guys are racking up, they're legit, you just have to remember to take them in context. Hank woulda hit a thousand homers if he'd played thirty years later. Hell, I might have had 700. Remember, I used to lead the league with 38 homers, after all. Context."
11. "The Hall of Fame selection process kind of sucks. Writers can be jerks. And personally, I'd vote McGwire in, regardless of the controversy."
12. "Oh, for the love of god, will you guys forgive Pete Rose already? I think he knows he screwed up."
13. "Managing a minor league team is really hard. But I think I had a lot of fun. Why, though, do teams invest millions of dollars in prospects and then pay some random dude in single-A $30,000/yr to teach these kids fundamentals? Shouldn't they invest more in lower-level training?"
14. "Okay, so now that you've read my rant, let me just remind you all: Baseball rules. I may be an old-timer and I may sound bitter, and I definitely think today's stars are way overpaid and there's no team loyalty and all that stuff. But who cares, you're reading this because you love baseball as much as I do. Anyone know who's starting for the Phillies tomorrow?"
Anyway, I think this is a pretty entertaining book overall regardless, a fairly quick read, it has some very good points made within it, and it's definitely worth it for Phillies fans or for anyone who was a big Mike Schmidt fan. There'll definitely be moments when you're left shaking your head thinking, "Oh, come ON, whatever, get over it," (which he's very self-aware of and pokes fun of within the book, even), but plenty of moments of "that's awesome", or "yeah, that's a really good point," or "huh, that's an interesting idea, I wonder if it could work" as well.
If nothing else, if you read it this offseason, there'll definitely be moments when he's talking about contracts in the 1970's where you'll suddenly be struck by the amazing salary inflation since free agency -- Schmidt mentions signing a 6yr/$3.3mil contract, making him the highest-paid player in the NL in 1976 at $550k/year. Nowadays, that's not that far above the major league minimum salary. Later he'll remind you of the early 80's when Nolan Ryan was making a million dollars a year for playing baseball. Even I remember my parents saying how ridiculous that was. Funny how things have changed.
Interestingly enough, Mike has his own website now and even a blog.
I finally got around to reading this book this past week. It took me about eight 30-minute commuting bus rides to get through it. It's really a very good bus book, actually -- I could get through at least a chapter per bus ride, sometimes two, and there wasn't a lot of context to worry about since the subject matter jumps all over the place.
The first six chapters of this book are really awesome; they're basically the autobiography section, where Schmidt talks about his career from the time he signed out of Ohio University, to the day he retired. He just tells a lot of stories in a really fun way; there may have been a really big "oh my god! Mike Schmidt!" factor for me, given that I spent the first 12 years of my life watching him play third base for the Phillies, but I think that the stories do stand on their own just fine.
Unfortunately, just as his career ends, so does the light part of the book. The rest of it deals with his opinions on a bunch of the current issues surrounding the game, and while the tone is still light in most places, the subject matter really isn't quite so much. I think the last eight chapters could be summarized as such (no, these are not direct quotes, I'm just paraphrasing from his point of view):
7,8. "You know, I understand why guys did steroids. They were looking for an edge. I briefly thought I might have done them too if the opportunity had existed when I was a player, but now that I researched stuff for this book and found out what that crap does to your body? No way, man. No way."
9,10. "Hitters today are a lot better than they used to be. The balls and bats are lighter, too. So when you're looking at all the records set nowadays, the numbers guys are racking up, they're legit, you just have to remember to take them in context. Hank woulda hit a thousand homers if he'd played thirty years later. Hell, I might have had 700. Remember, I used to lead the league with 38 homers, after all. Context."
11. "The Hall of Fame selection process kind of sucks. Writers can be jerks. And personally, I'd vote McGwire in, regardless of the controversy."
12. "Oh, for the love of god, will you guys forgive Pete Rose already? I think he knows he screwed up."
13. "Managing a minor league team is really hard. But I think I had a lot of fun. Why, though, do teams invest millions of dollars in prospects and then pay some random dude in single-A $30,000/yr to teach these kids fundamentals? Shouldn't they invest more in lower-level training?"
14. "Okay, so now that you've read my rant, let me just remind you all: Baseball rules. I may be an old-timer and I may sound bitter, and I definitely think today's stars are way overpaid and there's no team loyalty and all that stuff. But who cares, you're reading this because you love baseball as much as I do. Anyone know who's starting for the Phillies tomorrow?"
Anyway, I think this is a pretty entertaining book overall regardless, a fairly quick read, it has some very good points made within it, and it's definitely worth it for Phillies fans or for anyone who was a big Mike Schmidt fan. There'll definitely be moments when you're left shaking your head thinking, "Oh, come ON, whatever, get over it," (which he's very self-aware of and pokes fun of within the book, even), but plenty of moments of "that's awesome", or "yeah, that's a really good point," or "huh, that's an interesting idea, I wonder if it could work" as well.
If nothing else, if you read it this offseason, there'll definitely be moments when he's talking about contracts in the 1970's where you'll suddenly be struck by the amazing salary inflation since free agency -- Schmidt mentions signing a 6yr/$3.3mil contract, making him the highest-paid player in the NL in 1976 at $550k/year. Nowadays, that's not that far above the major league minimum salary. Later he'll remind you of the early 80's when Nolan Ryan was making a million dollars a year for playing baseball. Even I remember my parents saying how ridiculous that was. Funny how things have changed.
Interestingly enough, Mike has his own website now and even a blog.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Konami Cup / Asia Series, Finals - Fighters vs. Bears
Ok, even though I can't watch this one, and Westbay's actually AT the game so he isn't broadcasting it or anything, I'm going to stay up to see what happens, follow the Gameday tickers online and translate them here. Let's go Fighters!
Also, um, I love these people, who are organizing a "please stay, Ogasawara!" signature/etc campaign. It's the exact sort of thing I'd do if I lived in Sapporo.
I'm following the game from here and here. It's a little depressing that the Fighters don't actually have a ticker up on their own site, but oh well. If anyone's in Japan and feels like broadcasting or slingboxing the game to me, that'd be great :)
First inning, top: Huang led off the game by striking out swinging. Lu followed that by striking out swinging as well. And... Lin struck out too. Yay Darvish! He threw 14 pitches that inning.
First inning, bottom: Hichori grounded out to short. Kensuke lofted a high pitch for a pop-out to center. Ogasawara hit a hard liner up the first base line but it was snagged by Bears first baseman Pan. Hsu threw a meager 7 pitches that inning.
Second inning, top: Chin-Feng Chen struck out swinging on a low outside slider. Shih struck out swinging on a slider as well. And then for a change, Zheng grounded out to short. Man, for a minute I thought Darvish was going to strike out everyone tonight. He threw 13 pitches that inning for 27 through two.
Second inning, bottom: Inaba grounded out to second. Kimoto hit a "half liner" fly out to short. Naoto Inada got the first hit of the game when he smacked the ball down the third-base line into left field for a double! Unfortunately, Tsuruoka hit a fly ball in foul territory which was caught near first base, stranding Inada at second. Doh. Hsu threw 11 pitches that inning for a total of 18. Still no score.
Third inning, top: Pan continues the trend by striking out swinging on another slider. Feng-Min Chen hits a fly ball in foul territory on the first-base side, Ogasawara making the catch. Chiang struck out swinging. Darvish threw 11 pitches that inning for a total of 38.
Third inning, bottom: Konta grounded to short but Lin booted the ball for an error. He immediately made up for that when Kaneko grounded to short though, firing to Chiang at second and Pan at first for the double play. Hichori grounded back to the mound and that was the inning. Hsu threw 6 pitches that inning for a depressingly low 24 through three.
Fourth inning, top: Huang curbed the no-hitter thoughts with a single to left. Lu bunted him to second. Lin took a low outside 3-1 pitch and walked. Chin-Feng Chen struck out looking at a fastball right down the middle. Shih struck out swinging to end the inning, stranding Huang and Lin at second and first. Darvish has struck out 9 batters through 4 innings -- no joke -- and has thrown 56 pitches, 18 that inning. Still no score.
Fourth inning, bottom: Kensuke Tanaka hit a pop fly out to center. Ogasawara grounded out to second. Inaba also hit a pop fly to center. At least they finally made Hsu throw a couple of pitches, 14 that inning, but still a meager 38 through four. Come on, guys! There hasn't been a full count yet this game on either side.
Fifth inning, top: Zheng flies out to second. Pan hits the ball up the first-base line, where Ogasawara extracts revenge for that play in the first inning. Feng-Min Chen hit a fly ball towards first which Ogasawara caught for the third out. Darvish didn't strike out anyone that inning and he threw 14 pitches for a total of 70 through five.
Fifth inning, bottom: WOW! A FULL COUNT! Kimoto gets to a 3-2 count and hits the sixth pitch to second, grounding out. Naoto Inada, who I had originally thought about jokingly putting quotes around "DH" for, singles to center, and with that second hit is still the only Fighters batter to get a hit at all! Centerfielder Huang makes an error getting the ball in and Inada slides headfirst into second base. Tsuruoka grounds out to short, and Inada can't advance to third. Konta then strikes out swinging to end the chance. Doh.
Three notes here: 1) Hsu threw 16 pitches that inning for a total of 54 through five; 2) apparently he made a good guts pose at the end of the inning; and 3) Konta was his first strikeout victim. Hsu 1, Darvish 9. Yeeeeeah.
Sixth inning, top: Chiang flies out to left. Huang grounds out to third. Lu grounds out to second. I guess Darvish gave up on striking out everything in sight, but that was 9 pitches for the inning, 79 through six. Still no score.
My internet chose this exact moment to totally flake out on me for like fifteen minutes. It's been sporadically doing this all weekend, and it's REALLY annoying, but I have to remind myself that back in the old days, people would get together by the thousands to stand in front of mechanical scoreboards in a shop window downtown or something, and following a Japanese baseball game was absolutely unheard of. So it could be much much worse.
Sixth inning, bottom: My internet dropped JUST as I saw that Kaneko hit a single to left-center! Hichori bunted him over to second. Kensuke apparently pounded a rather nice ball way the hell out to left field but Zheng made a running catch to get it. Fortunately Hichori got back to the bag. Ogasawara was unsurprisingly intentionally walked, and unfortunately, Inaba struck out to end the inning, stranding Kaneko and Ogasawara on base. Hsu threw 16 pitches that inning for 70 through six.
Seventh inning, top: Lin struck out but the pitch got away from Tsuruoka, so it was called a passed ball and Lin got to first base safely. Fortunately then Chin-Feng Chen grounded the ball back to Darvish who threw to second to catch Lin, and Chen was out at first to complete the double play. Shih hit a fly ball to second to end the inning. Darvish threw 8 pitches that inning for 87 through seven. They have a comment here about how Chen is now 0-for-7 against the Japan teams, though he was 6-for-8 against Korea and China.
Seventh inning, bottom: Ooooh, a pitching change. James Fiore comes in for the Bears. Hsu's line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 70 pitches. Not bad, really.
Kimoto grounded out to third, but they made an error on the play and he was safe at first. Inada, rather than getting another single, bunted Kimoto over to second. During Tsuruoka's at-bat there was a wild pitch and Kimoto advanced to third, setting the stage for Tsuruoka to get an RBI single to right! Fighters score, 1-0! I guess that pissed off Fiore because he struck out Konta and Kaneko after that, though at least Konta got up to a full count first. Fiore threw 20 pitches that inning.
Eighth inning, top: Iiyama comes in to play third for the Fighters. Zheng starts the inning off by walking. I wondered why SportsNavi was hanging, but it appears that a pitching change is in order, and Hisashi Takeda is replacing Darvish on the mound, and Satoshi Nakajima is replacing Shinya Tsuruoka at the plate. Darvish's line: 7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 10 K, 92 pitches. HOLY CRAP!
Hisashi gets off to a good start by striking out Chung-Wei Pan. Great, my internet is flaking out again. Unfortunately, Feng-Min Chen also gets a single to right, advancing Zheng to second. Chin-Te Yu comes in to pinch run for Zheng as Chiang grounds into a 4-6-3 double play. WHEW. Hisashi threw 9 pitches that inning. Score is still 1-0 Fighters, runners stranded on first and second.
Eighth inning, bottom: Ahhh, we're back to our old tricks, of course. Hichori leads off by singling to left, and Kensuke bunts him to second. Ogasawara gets up to a full count before being unintentionally walked. Inaba struck out and Iiyama grounded out to short, first baseman Pan stretching out to get the quick throw. Fiore threw 23 pitches that inning for a total of 43 in his two innings. (That's more than Hsu threw in 4 innings, heh.)
Ninth inning, top: Micheal took the mound for the Fighters and struck out Long-Yi Huang and a pinch-hitting Hsiao-Wei Huang. Lin hit a fly ball out to second, Kensuke caught the ball, Micheal made his standard guts pose, and that was the game.
Fighters win, 1-0!
(photo from Nikkan Sports)
Of course, they won 1-0 on an unearned run. That's pretty crazy -- what a close game! You have to wonder how different it would have been if Seguignol, or maybe even Shinjo, had been able to be there.
Darvish was the game hero (and apparently the Series Hero as well).
Congratulations to both teams though, it sounds like it was a very well pitched and defended game on both sides.
Last year a total of 37k people showed up for the final game, whereas this year it was only 24k. I could guess that the extra 13k people last year could have been attributed to Lotte's Seung-Yeop Lee playing against the Lions, his former team in Korea, though it might also have just been a matter of the Marines having a larger fan base in Tokyo than the Fighters do.
Japanball article here.
Also, um, I love these people, who are organizing a "please stay, Ogasawara!" signature/etc campaign. It's the exact sort of thing I'd do if I lived in Sapporo.
Huang CF Morimoto CF
Lu RF K. Tanaka 2B
Lin SS Ogasawara 1B
C.F. Chen DH Inaba RF
Shih 3B Kimoto 3B
Zheng LF Inada DH
Pan 1B Tsuruoka C
F.M. Chen C Konta LF
Chiang 2B Kaneko SS
--------------- ----------------
Hsu (2-4, 2.94) Darvish (12-5, 2.89)
I'm following the game from here and here. It's a little depressing that the Fighters don't actually have a ticker up on their own site, but oh well. If anyone's in Japan and feels like broadcasting or slingboxing the game to me, that'd be great :)
First inning, top: Huang led off the game by striking out swinging. Lu followed that by striking out swinging as well. And... Lin struck out too. Yay Darvish! He threw 14 pitches that inning.
First inning, bottom: Hichori grounded out to short. Kensuke lofted a high pitch for a pop-out to center. Ogasawara hit a hard liner up the first base line but it was snagged by Bears first baseman Pan. Hsu threw a meager 7 pitches that inning.
Second inning, top: Chin-Feng Chen struck out swinging on a low outside slider. Shih struck out swinging on a slider as well. And then for a change, Zheng grounded out to short. Man, for a minute I thought Darvish was going to strike out everyone tonight. He threw 13 pitches that inning for 27 through two.
Second inning, bottom: Inaba grounded out to second. Kimoto hit a "half liner" fly out to short. Naoto Inada got the first hit of the game when he smacked the ball down the third-base line into left field for a double! Unfortunately, Tsuruoka hit a fly ball in foul territory which was caught near first base, stranding Inada at second. Doh. Hsu threw 11 pitches that inning for a total of 18. Still no score.
Third inning, top: Pan continues the trend by striking out swinging on another slider. Feng-Min Chen hits a fly ball in foul territory on the first-base side, Ogasawara making the catch. Chiang struck out swinging. Darvish threw 11 pitches that inning for a total of 38.
Third inning, bottom: Konta grounded to short but Lin booted the ball for an error. He immediately made up for that when Kaneko grounded to short though, firing to Chiang at second and Pan at first for the double play. Hichori grounded back to the mound and that was the inning. Hsu threw 6 pitches that inning for a depressingly low 24 through three.
Fourth inning, top: Huang curbed the no-hitter thoughts with a single to left. Lu bunted him to second. Lin took a low outside 3-1 pitch and walked. Chin-Feng Chen struck out looking at a fastball right down the middle. Shih struck out swinging to end the inning, stranding Huang and Lin at second and first. Darvish has struck out 9 batters through 4 innings -- no joke -- and has thrown 56 pitches, 18 that inning. Still no score.
Fourth inning, bottom: Kensuke Tanaka hit a pop fly out to center. Ogasawara grounded out to second. Inaba also hit a pop fly to center. At least they finally made Hsu throw a couple of pitches, 14 that inning, but still a meager 38 through four. Come on, guys! There hasn't been a full count yet this game on either side.
Fifth inning, top: Zheng flies out to second. Pan hits the ball up the first-base line, where Ogasawara extracts revenge for that play in the first inning. Feng-Min Chen hit a fly ball towards first which Ogasawara caught for the third out. Darvish didn't strike out anyone that inning and he threw 14 pitches for a total of 70 through five.
Fifth inning, bottom: WOW! A FULL COUNT! Kimoto gets to a 3-2 count and hits the sixth pitch to second, grounding out. Naoto Inada, who I had originally thought about jokingly putting quotes around "DH" for, singles to center, and with that second hit is still the only Fighters batter to get a hit at all! Centerfielder Huang makes an error getting the ball in and Inada slides headfirst into second base. Tsuruoka grounds out to short, and Inada can't advance to third. Konta then strikes out swinging to end the chance. Doh.
Three notes here: 1) Hsu threw 16 pitches that inning for a total of 54 through five; 2) apparently he made a good guts pose at the end of the inning; and 3) Konta was his first strikeout victim. Hsu 1, Darvish 9. Yeeeeeah.
Sixth inning, top: Chiang flies out to left. Huang grounds out to third. Lu grounds out to second. I guess Darvish gave up on striking out everything in sight, but that was 9 pitches for the inning, 79 through six. Still no score.
My internet chose this exact moment to totally flake out on me for like fifteen minutes. It's been sporadically doing this all weekend, and it's REALLY annoying, but I have to remind myself that back in the old days, people would get together by the thousands to stand in front of mechanical scoreboards in a shop window downtown or something, and following a Japanese baseball game was absolutely unheard of. So it could be much much worse.
Sixth inning, bottom: My internet dropped JUST as I saw that Kaneko hit a single to left-center! Hichori bunted him over to second. Kensuke apparently pounded a rather nice ball way the hell out to left field but Zheng made a running catch to get it. Fortunately Hichori got back to the bag. Ogasawara was unsurprisingly intentionally walked, and unfortunately, Inaba struck out to end the inning, stranding Kaneko and Ogasawara on base. Hsu threw 16 pitches that inning for 70 through six.
Seventh inning, top: Lin struck out but the pitch got away from Tsuruoka, so it was called a passed ball and Lin got to first base safely. Fortunately then Chin-Feng Chen grounded the ball back to Darvish who threw to second to catch Lin, and Chen was out at first to complete the double play. Shih hit a fly ball to second to end the inning. Darvish threw 8 pitches that inning for 87 through seven. They have a comment here about how Chen is now 0-for-7 against the Japan teams, though he was 6-for-8 against Korea and China.
Seventh inning, bottom: Ooooh, a pitching change. James Fiore comes in for the Bears. Hsu's line: 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 K, 70 pitches. Not bad, really.
Kimoto grounded out to third, but they made an error on the play and he was safe at first. Inada, rather than getting another single, bunted Kimoto over to second. During Tsuruoka's at-bat there was a wild pitch and Kimoto advanced to third, setting the stage for Tsuruoka to get an RBI single to right! Fighters score, 1-0! I guess that pissed off Fiore because he struck out Konta and Kaneko after that, though at least Konta got up to a full count first. Fiore threw 20 pitches that inning.
Eighth inning, top: Iiyama comes in to play third for the Fighters. Zheng starts the inning off by walking. I wondered why SportsNavi was hanging, but it appears that a pitching change is in order, and Hisashi Takeda is replacing Darvish on the mound, and Satoshi Nakajima is replacing Shinya Tsuruoka at the plate. Darvish's line: 7 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 10 K, 92 pitches. HOLY CRAP!
Hisashi gets off to a good start by striking out Chung-Wei Pan. Great, my internet is flaking out again. Unfortunately, Feng-Min Chen also gets a single to right, advancing Zheng to second. Chin-Te Yu comes in to pinch run for Zheng as Chiang grounds into a 4-6-3 double play. WHEW. Hisashi threw 9 pitches that inning. Score is still 1-0 Fighters, runners stranded on first and second.
Eighth inning, bottom: Ahhh, we're back to our old tricks, of course. Hichori leads off by singling to left, and Kensuke bunts him to second. Ogasawara gets up to a full count before being unintentionally walked. Inaba struck out and Iiyama grounded out to short, first baseman Pan stretching out to get the quick throw. Fiore threw 23 pitches that inning for a total of 43 in his two innings. (That's more than Hsu threw in 4 innings, heh.)
Ninth inning, top: Micheal took the mound for the Fighters and struck out Long-Yi Huang and a pinch-hitting Hsiao-Wei Huang. Lin hit a fly ball out to second, Kensuke caught the ball, Micheal made his standard guts pose, and that was the game.
Fighters win, 1-0!
(photo from Nikkan Sports)
Of course, they won 1-0 on an unearned run. That's pretty crazy -- what a close game! You have to wonder how different it would have been if Seguignol, or maybe even Shinjo, had been able to be there.
Darvish was the game hero (and apparently the Series Hero as well).
Congratulations to both teams though, it sounds like it was a very well pitched and defended game on both sides.
Last year a total of 37k people showed up for the final game, whereas this year it was only 24k. I could guess that the extra 13k people last year could have been attributed to Lotte's Seung-Yeop Lee playing against the Lions, his former team in Korea, though it might also have just been a matter of the Marines having a larger fan base in Tokyo than the Fighters do.
Japanball article here.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
The Hanshin Adventures of Ryan Vogelsong, Part 2
Wow, as if the pictures I linked a few entries ago weren't enough, today's Tigers pictures were even better.
Yo, roshi, coo?
Wow, a whole BOX of little Japanese baseballs! You shouldn't have...
Whoops, Nicole, maybe you should make sure that's the 'OK' sign.
Kyuji, meet Ryan. Ryan, meet the best relief ace in the world.
Nicole, meet Okada. Okada, look happier.
Hi, I'm Kei Igawa and I still need a haircut. Dig my suit.
(And of course in going through today's set I was hit in the head by CUTE)
And speaking of which, I got this week's 週刊ベースボール issue about the college/industrial draft, read through it on the bus home, and now I'm really intrigued by Keio's catcher, formerly of Chiben Wakayama, Yoshihiro Okazaki. Mostly for my own benefit, I have to more carefully read through this and this sometime later. Seriously, though, for some reason I never hear much about Keio prospects, but this guy is leading the Big Six batting race this season at a .370/.431/.609 clip, apparently batting 5th in the lineup; as a righty-hitting 175cm and 78kg he even almost seems like he'd be comparable to Satozaki. Of course, it also looks like he's going to JFE Steel.
I don't know if I'm going to bother going back through the Fighters-China game, by the way. They won it 6-1. More surprising is that the LA New Bears beat the Samsung Lions 3-2 in their final game that evening, so the Fighters and Bears get a rematch tonight. (Japanball article)
Yo, roshi, coo?
Wow, a whole BOX of little Japanese baseballs! You shouldn't have...
Whoops, Nicole, maybe you should make sure that's the 'OK' sign.
Kyuji, meet Ryan. Ryan, meet the best relief ace in the world.
Nicole, meet Okada. Okada, look happier.
Hi, I'm Kei Igawa and I still need a haircut. Dig my suit.
(And of course in going through today's set I was hit in the head by CUTE)
And speaking of which, I got this week's 週刊ベースボール issue about the college/industrial draft, read through it on the bus home, and now I'm really intrigued by Keio's catcher, formerly of Chiben Wakayama, Yoshihiro Okazaki. Mostly for my own benefit, I have to more carefully read through this and this sometime later. Seriously, though, for some reason I never hear much about Keio prospects, but this guy is leading the Big Six batting race this season at a .370/.431/.609 clip, apparently batting 5th in the lineup; as a righty-hitting 175cm and 78kg he even almost seems like he'd be comparable to Satozaki. Of course, it also looks like he's going to JFE Steel.
I don't know if I'm going to bother going back through the Fighters-China game, by the way. They won it 6-1. More surprising is that the LA New Bears beat the Samsung Lions 3-2 in their final game that evening, so the Fighters and Bears get a rematch tonight. (Japanball article)
Konami Cup, Day Two, Fighters Game Log
Fun stuff. Keizo Kawashima finally gets to play in a game, Yukio Tanaka gets to start, and former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Kenny Rayborn gets to exact a little revenge on Japan.
Read full game log here (cut post)
First inning, top: Hichori grounded the 2-2 pitch back to the mound. Kensuke Tanaka grounded out to third on an inside pitch. Ogasawara hit a fastball down the middle for a single to center, but Inaba grounded out to short, ending the inning. Rayborn threw 10 pitches.
First inning, bottom: Huang struck out swinging on the 2-2 pitch. Lu was called out on strikes on the 1-2 pitch. Lin grounded out to short. Takeda threw 11 pitches.
Second inning, top: Takahashi struck out on three straight pitches. Kimoto grounded out to first. Yukio Tanaka watched a curveball go by for a called third strike on the outside corner. Rayborn threw 9 pitches for a total of 19.
Second inning, bottom: Chin-Feng Chen struck out swinging. Shih lined out to third. Pan watched a fastball go by on the high inside corner for a called third strike. Takeda threw 10 pitches.
Third inning, top: Kawashima watched a 2-2 fastball go by on the low outside corner for a called third strike. Kaneko hit a low curve and popped out to center. Hichori was hit on the left hand by the first pitch he saw, a curveball. Kensuke got under a cutter and popped out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 33.
Third inning, bottom: Zheng got up to a full count and eventually walked. Feng-Min Chen hit a huge fly ball to deep right field, Inaba making a running catch while facing the back wall. Chiang struck out swinging on a change-up. Huang finally got the first hit for the Bears with a single to left, but Lu grounded out to short. Takeda threw 16 pitches for a total of 37.
Fourth inning, top: Ogasawara flew out to left. Inaba flew out to second. Takahashi got up to a full count before hitting a hard grounder to second which Chih-Tsung Chiang apparently made a really nice diving leap to his side to catch. Rayborn threw 13 pitches for a total of 46 through four.
Fourth inning, bottom: Lin singled through the short-third gap. Chin-Feng Chen grounded back to the mound, where Takeda threw to Kaneko covering second for the force-out on Lin, who slid in hard and prevented him from making the double play, so Chen was safe at first. Shih grounded to third, Kimoto making the throw to second to get the forceout on Chen. Pan struck out swinging to end the inning. Takeda threw 18 pitches for a total of 55.
Fifth inning, top: Kimoto got up to a full count before grounding out to short. Yukio Tanaka lofted an outside curve for a fly out to right. Kawashima struck out again, this time swinging. Rayborn threw 16 pitches for a total of 62 through five.
Fifth inning, bottom: Hao-Ju Zheng took the second pitch he saw and sent it flying into the left-field stands for a home run as the Bears took a 1-0 lead. Feng-Min Chen flew out to right. Chiang grounded out to short, and Huang flew out to center. Takeda threw 12 pitches for a total of 67.
Sixth inning, top: Kaneko got hit on his left hand by the 2-2 pitch, or at least he thought he did, and though the trainers came out to look at his hand and all, the ball was ruled a foul. A few pitches later he grounded out to second. Hichori hit a ball to centerfield which fell in for a single. Kensuke hit a fly ball to left, but Hichori wasn't able to tag up and advance. Ogasawara grounded out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 76 through six.
Sixth inning, bottom: Lu struck out swinging. Lin got up to a full count and also struck out swinging. Chin-Feng Chen struck out on three straight pitches as well. Takeda threw 12 pitches to strike out the side.
Seventh inning, top: Inaba flew out to right. Takahashi struck out swinging on a 143km/h fastball. Kimoto sat around fouling off pitches for a while until he had a full count, and on the 10th pitch of the at-bat he finally struck out swinging. Rayborn threw 17 pitches for a total of 93 through seven.
Seventh inning, bottom: Shih hit the ball to shallow left field where it looked like it would fall for a single, but Kawashima ran it down and stretched to make the catch. Pan singled to right. Zheng hit the ball off the end of his bat towards first, and Ogasawara threw to second for the forceout on Pan. Feng-Min Chen flew out to left after that. Takeda threw 8 pitches that inning for 87 through seven.
Eighth inning, top: Inada came in to pinch-hit for Yukio Tanaka. Inada broke his bat hitting a change-up back to the pitcher, but the ball snapped out of his glove for what was ruled an infield hit. Konta came in to pinch-hit for Kawashima, and for whatever reason he sac bunted on a 3-0 count, Inada advancing to second. For whatever reason at this point, Rayborn was taken out of the game and replaced with Ramon Rafael Morel.
(Rayborn's line: 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1 R/ER, 100 pitches. Not bad!)
Kaneko got up to a full count and walked. Hichori also got up to a full count and walked. This loaded the bases. Kensuke Tanaka came up and grounded to first, but first baseman Pan was slightly offtarget when throwing home and so Inada scored the tying run, bringing it to 1-1; the play was called a fielder's choice. Everyone advanced. Ogasawara hit a sac fly to left field, and Kaneko scored from third to bring the score to 2-1, but Hichori also tried to tag up and get to third and he was tagged out, ending the inning. Morel threw 19 pitches.
Eighth inning, bottom: Hisashi Takeda replaced Masaru Takeda on the mound. Satoshi Nakajima came in to catch.
(Masaru Takeda's line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 HR (1 ER/R). Wow!)
Chiang flew out to right. Huang grounded out to third. Min-Yen Chang came in to pinch-hit for Lu and ended up watching a fastball go by on the outside for a called third strike. Hisashi threw 9 pitches.
Ninth inning, top: Wen-Hsiung Hsu took the mound. Chin-Te Yu went to play right field. (Morel's line: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 R/ER, and the loss eventually.)
Inaba got an infield hit to second, and Nakajima predictably bunted him ahead. Kimoto followed that up with a single to left. Yuuji Iiyama came in to pinch-run for Kimoto. Inada hit a fly ball caught at second. With two outs and runners at first and third and the count at 2-2, Iiyama took off to steal second. As soon as the catcher threw the ball Inaba took off for home from third, and the pitcher cut off the throw to second and threw it to third and caught Inaba in a rundown, where he was tagged out to end the inning. (Or something. I know Inaba ended up in a rundown, I'm not clear on whether the catcher actually threw all the way to second or not.) Hsu threw 14 pitches.
Ninth inning, bottom: Micheal Nakamura took the mound. (Hisashi's line: 1 IP, 1 K, 0 everything else)
Lin lead off the inning by getting hit in the head by a super looping curveball. Chin-Feng Chen flew out to second. Shih struck out swinging. During Pan's at-bat, on a 1-2 count, Lin ran for second, and the pitch bounced away from Nakajima, so Pan got to third base. Unfortunately for him, Pan grounded out to short and ended the game. Michael threw 14 pitches.
Fighters won the game, 2-1. Log, Box Score
Oh, there's also apparently a Japanball article about the game, too.
Apparently Ogasawara was game hero.
I finally finished going through this game... and the Fighters have already completed their Saturday afternoon game. Oops. I'm a little worried by the small margin they beat the Taiwan and China teams by, honestly, although it could also be said that they had a lot of second-string guys playing in the lineup, so eh.
Hichori Morimoto CF Long-Yi Huang CF
Kensuke Tanaka 2B Chun-Hsiung Lu RF
Ogasawara 1B Chih-Sheng Lin SS
Inaba RF Chin-Feng Chen DH
Takahashi C Chih-Wei Shih 3B
Kimoto 3B Chung-Wei Pan 1B
Yukio Tanaka! DH Hao-Ji Zheng LF
Kawashima LF Feng-Min Chen C
Kaneko SS Chih-Tsung Chiang 2B
--------------- ----------------
M. Takeda (5-2, 2.04) Rayborn (16-5, 1.94)
Read full game log here (cut post)
First inning, top: Hichori grounded the 2-2 pitch back to the mound. Kensuke Tanaka grounded out to third on an inside pitch. Ogasawara hit a fastball down the middle for a single to center, but Inaba grounded out to short, ending the inning. Rayborn threw 10 pitches.
First inning, bottom: Huang struck out swinging on the 2-2 pitch. Lu was called out on strikes on the 1-2 pitch. Lin grounded out to short. Takeda threw 11 pitches.
Second inning, top: Takahashi struck out on three straight pitches. Kimoto grounded out to first. Yukio Tanaka watched a curveball go by for a called third strike on the outside corner. Rayborn threw 9 pitches for a total of 19.
Second inning, bottom: Chin-Feng Chen struck out swinging. Shih lined out to third. Pan watched a fastball go by on the high inside corner for a called third strike. Takeda threw 10 pitches.
Third inning, top: Kawashima watched a 2-2 fastball go by on the low outside corner for a called third strike. Kaneko hit a low curve and popped out to center. Hichori was hit on the left hand by the first pitch he saw, a curveball. Kensuke got under a cutter and popped out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 33.
Third inning, bottom: Zheng got up to a full count and eventually walked. Feng-Min Chen hit a huge fly ball to deep right field, Inaba making a running catch while facing the back wall. Chiang struck out swinging on a change-up. Huang finally got the first hit for the Bears with a single to left, but Lu grounded out to short. Takeda threw 16 pitches for a total of 37.
Fourth inning, top: Ogasawara flew out to left. Inaba flew out to second. Takahashi got up to a full count before hitting a hard grounder to second which Chih-Tsung Chiang apparently made a really nice diving leap to his side to catch. Rayborn threw 13 pitches for a total of 46 through four.
Fourth inning, bottom: Lin singled through the short-third gap. Chin-Feng Chen grounded back to the mound, where Takeda threw to Kaneko covering second for the force-out on Lin, who slid in hard and prevented him from making the double play, so Chen was safe at first. Shih grounded to third, Kimoto making the throw to second to get the forceout on Chen. Pan struck out swinging to end the inning. Takeda threw 18 pitches for a total of 55.
Fifth inning, top: Kimoto got up to a full count before grounding out to short. Yukio Tanaka lofted an outside curve for a fly out to right. Kawashima struck out again, this time swinging. Rayborn threw 16 pitches for a total of 62 through five.
Fifth inning, bottom: Hao-Ju Zheng took the second pitch he saw and sent it flying into the left-field stands for a home run as the Bears took a 1-0 lead. Feng-Min Chen flew out to right. Chiang grounded out to short, and Huang flew out to center. Takeda threw 12 pitches for a total of 67.
Sixth inning, top: Kaneko got hit on his left hand by the 2-2 pitch, or at least he thought he did, and though the trainers came out to look at his hand and all, the ball was ruled a foul. A few pitches later he grounded out to second. Hichori hit a ball to centerfield which fell in for a single. Kensuke hit a fly ball to left, but Hichori wasn't able to tag up and advance. Ogasawara grounded out to short. Rayborn threw 14 pitches for a total of 76 through six.
Sixth inning, bottom: Lu struck out swinging. Lin got up to a full count and also struck out swinging. Chin-Feng Chen struck out on three straight pitches as well. Takeda threw 12 pitches to strike out the side.
Seventh inning, top: Inaba flew out to right. Takahashi struck out swinging on a 143km/h fastball. Kimoto sat around fouling off pitches for a while until he had a full count, and on the 10th pitch of the at-bat he finally struck out swinging. Rayborn threw 17 pitches for a total of 93 through seven.
Seventh inning, bottom: Shih hit the ball to shallow left field where it looked like it would fall for a single, but Kawashima ran it down and stretched to make the catch. Pan singled to right. Zheng hit the ball off the end of his bat towards first, and Ogasawara threw to second for the forceout on Pan. Feng-Min Chen flew out to left after that. Takeda threw 8 pitches that inning for 87 through seven.
Eighth inning, top: Inada came in to pinch-hit for Yukio Tanaka. Inada broke his bat hitting a change-up back to the pitcher, but the ball snapped out of his glove for what was ruled an infield hit. Konta came in to pinch-hit for Kawashima, and for whatever reason he sac bunted on a 3-0 count, Inada advancing to second. For whatever reason at this point, Rayborn was taken out of the game and replaced with Ramon Rafael Morel.
(Rayborn's line: 7.1 IP, 3 H, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HBP, 1 R/ER, 100 pitches. Not bad!)
Kaneko got up to a full count and walked. Hichori also got up to a full count and walked. This loaded the bases. Kensuke Tanaka came up and grounded to first, but first baseman Pan was slightly offtarget when throwing home and so Inada scored the tying run, bringing it to 1-1; the play was called a fielder's choice. Everyone advanced. Ogasawara hit a sac fly to left field, and Kaneko scored from third to bring the score to 2-1, but Hichori also tried to tag up and get to third and he was tagged out, ending the inning. Morel threw 19 pitches.
Eighth inning, bottom: Hisashi Takeda replaced Masaru Takeda on the mound. Satoshi Nakajima came in to catch.
(Masaru Takeda's line: 7 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 1 HR (1 ER/R). Wow!)
Chiang flew out to right. Huang grounded out to third. Min-Yen Chang came in to pinch-hit for Lu and ended up watching a fastball go by on the outside for a called third strike. Hisashi threw 9 pitches.
Ninth inning, top: Wen-Hsiung Hsu took the mound. Chin-Te Yu went to play right field. (Morel's line: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 2 BB, 1 R/ER, and the loss eventually.)
Inaba got an infield hit to second, and Nakajima predictably bunted him ahead. Kimoto followed that up with a single to left. Yuuji Iiyama came in to pinch-run for Kimoto. Inada hit a fly ball caught at second. With two outs and runners at first and third and the count at 2-2, Iiyama took off to steal second. As soon as the catcher threw the ball Inaba took off for home from third, and the pitcher cut off the throw to second and threw it to third and caught Inaba in a rundown, where he was tagged out to end the inning. (Or something. I know Inaba ended up in a rundown, I'm not clear on whether the catcher actually threw all the way to second or not.) Hsu threw 14 pitches.
Ninth inning, bottom: Micheal Nakamura took the mound. (Hisashi's line: 1 IP, 1 K, 0 everything else)
Lin lead off the inning by getting hit in the head by a super looping curveball. Chin-Feng Chen flew out to second. Shih struck out swinging. During Pan's at-bat, on a 1-2 count, Lin ran for second, and the pitch bounced away from Nakajima, so Pan got to third base. Unfortunately for him, Pan grounded out to short and ended the game. Michael threw 14 pitches.
Fighters won the game, 2-1. Log, Box Score
Oh, there's also apparently a Japanball article about the game, too.
Apparently Ogasawara was game hero.
I finally finished going through this game... and the Fighters have already completed their Saturday afternoon game. Oops. I'm a little worried by the small margin they beat the Taiwan and China teams by, honestly, although it could also be said that they had a lot of second-string guys playing in the lineup, so eh.
Friday, November 10, 2006
Konami Cup, Day Two - Friday Foto
I won't be ticking tonight's game. If anyone was actually counting on it, I'm sorry. I plan to do the final game in real-time, and I will probably translate Friday and Saturday's Fighters game logs, probably Friday night PST. Have I completely alienated all of the Mariners-type readers I ever had by now? It's not my fault the offseason is so dreadfully boring on this side of the Pacific.
Anyway, I called this Friday Foto because I have a few pictures to link to first:
First, for a change of pace, here's what the cheerleader girls look like for each of the four teams in the Asia Series. (Is that close enough to beer girls, Gary?) I'm biased, but I still think the Fighter girls are best:
Japan Cheer Girls
Korea Cheer Girls
China Cheer Girls
Taiwan Cheer Girls
Those are all taken from the Asia Series photo pages, except I can't seem to link to individual images, so I recaptured them. That way I can link to cool things like this dude batting with nunchucks.
I like this shot of Ogasawara bowing to the Tokyo cheering section.
And here is Konta getting initiated into Glovehead Central. It really did look pretty strange without Shinjo or some other third person.
The Hanshin Tigers' photos on Nikkan Sports feature the latest addition to the Tigers family: former Pittsburgh Pirate Ryan Vogelsong! Here they show him with his wife Nicole on a "Koshien Date", and holding a baseball, and um, this is a terrible joke but niko-Nicole.
This is the guy who will supposedly replace Kei Igawa: Tatsuya Kojima, the southpaw from Osaka Gas. (I don't understand the exact rules, but I think he's their confirmed pre-pick from the industrial/college draft, much like how the Fighters picked the Waseda lefty Ken Miyamoto)
(And yes, I said replace. In theory they're actually posting him. So, ladies and gentlemen, your 2007 Hanshin Tigers starting rotation: Old Man Shimoyanagi, Shinobu Fukuhara, Yuuya "CIA" Andoh, Ryan Vogelsong, and... Tatsuya Kojima? Whee.)
For more fun pictures from the NPB-MLB and the East-West games, take a look at Kazuo Fukumori's blog. Some of the captions: "Joe Mauer is a nice guy. Shame I didn't get to face him. His trademark is his sideburns! See why?" "Here's me with Julio Franco... he said he was 47 but I thought he looks 57. Sorry, Franco-san." "Here's the guy who replaced Kazuo Matsui as the Mets leadoff-hitting shortstop, Jose Reyes." "Here's me with Hichori Morimoto. Even out of uniform, that guy's a funny character." "Tomoya Yagi had to come out of the game today with worries about his shoulder condition." "Here's Kei Igawa. I heard he is going to the majors, so I wanted to get a memory of him. If he does go across the sea, good luck!" The final shot is him in Roppongi at a bar with a bunch of the MLB guys, including Andruw Jones. Whee.
Sometimes the things that end up in "sports photos" are sort of odd. Like this one of Kazumi Saitoh at a "touch the egg" roadshow for the movie Eragon. The real question is, could any other guy look that good in that girly a sweater?
In other news, Bay Stars journeyman free agent Ken Kadokura supposedly has two MLB offers. Wowzers. It doesn't say there, but an article in Japanese speculates that his offers are from the Royals and Pirates. He's not a superstar or anything but still, sucks for Yokohama. I don't really know whether he could be another sleeper like recent Bay Star Takashi Saito, but hey, nobody expected Saito to turn into what he did either. The game I saw Kadokura pitch in September, he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, mostly coming on a Tomoaki Kanemoto home run. Of course, he also gave up a single to the opposing pitcher, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi.
Anyway...
The China Stars got walloped by the Samsung Lions this afternoon, this time with 2,024 people in attendance. Ouch. At least last night's Fighters-Lions game drew 15,147, which is about twice the normal attendance of a Fighters game back when they played in the Tokyo Dome. Just kidding. Sort of.
The CBA-KBO game was called on the mercy rule as well after 6 and a half innings with the Lions winning 13-1. It was mostly due to a huge 10-run 5th inning; yet again, they had a semi-decent starter, took him out, and then the bloodletting began. The sequence basically goes: single to left, single to left, sac bunt, lined out to third, intentional walk, 2-RBI single, RBI single, error, RBI single, RBI single, 2-RBI double, RBI double, RBI single, merciful ground out to short, going through 14 batters. Yow. Craziest is that they pulled off the last 9 batters on two outs.
Fun lineup tonight for the Fighters vs. LA New Bears. Same guys in the 1-4 slots and in the 9-spot for the Fighters, but Takahashi's catching, Kimoto's at third and batting sixth, Yukio Tanaka is the DH batting seventh, and Keizo Kawashima (!!) is playing left and batting eighth. Masaru Takeda is pitching. Oddly, the starting pitcher for the LA New Bears is former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Kenny Rayborn, who apparently had a pretty good year pitching in Taiwan (16-5, 1.94). Interesting.
I'm off to sleep, though.
Anyway, I called this Friday Foto because I have a few pictures to link to first:
First, for a change of pace, here's what the cheerleader girls look like for each of the four teams in the Asia Series. (Is that close enough to beer girls, Gary?) I'm biased, but I still think the Fighter girls are best:
Japan Cheer Girls
Korea Cheer Girls
China Cheer Girls
Taiwan Cheer Girls
Those are all taken from the Asia Series photo pages, except I can't seem to link to individual images, so I recaptured them. That way I can link to cool things like this dude batting with nunchucks.
I like this shot of Ogasawara bowing to the Tokyo cheering section.
And here is Konta getting initiated into Glovehead Central. It really did look pretty strange without Shinjo or some other third person.
The Hanshin Tigers' photos on Nikkan Sports feature the latest addition to the Tigers family: former Pittsburgh Pirate Ryan Vogelsong! Here they show him with his wife Nicole on a "Koshien Date", and holding a baseball, and um, this is a terrible joke but niko-Nicole.
This is the guy who will supposedly replace Kei Igawa: Tatsuya Kojima, the southpaw from Osaka Gas. (I don't understand the exact rules, but I think he's their confirmed pre-pick from the industrial/college draft, much like how the Fighters picked the Waseda lefty Ken Miyamoto)
(And yes, I said replace. In theory they're actually posting him. So, ladies and gentlemen, your 2007 Hanshin Tigers starting rotation: Old Man Shimoyanagi, Shinobu Fukuhara, Yuuya "CIA" Andoh, Ryan Vogelsong, and... Tatsuya Kojima? Whee.)
For more fun pictures from the NPB-MLB and the East-West games, take a look at Kazuo Fukumori's blog. Some of the captions: "Joe Mauer is a nice guy. Shame I didn't get to face him. His trademark is his sideburns! See why?" "Here's me with Julio Franco... he said he was 47 but I thought he looks 57. Sorry, Franco-san." "Here's the guy who replaced Kazuo Matsui as the Mets leadoff-hitting shortstop, Jose Reyes." "Here's me with Hichori Morimoto. Even out of uniform, that guy's a funny character." "Tomoya Yagi had to come out of the game today with worries about his shoulder condition." "Here's Kei Igawa. I heard he is going to the majors, so I wanted to get a memory of him. If he does go across the sea, good luck!" The final shot is him in Roppongi at a bar with a bunch of the MLB guys, including Andruw Jones. Whee.
Sometimes the things that end up in "sports photos" are sort of odd. Like this one of Kazumi Saitoh at a "touch the egg" roadshow for the movie Eragon. The real question is, could any other guy look that good in that girly a sweater?
In other news, Bay Stars journeyman free agent Ken Kadokura supposedly has two MLB offers. Wowzers. It doesn't say there, but an article in Japanese speculates that his offers are from the Royals and Pirates. He's not a superstar or anything but still, sucks for Yokohama. I don't really know whether he could be another sleeper like recent Bay Star Takashi Saito, but hey, nobody expected Saito to turn into what he did either. The game I saw Kadokura pitch in September, he gave up 4 runs in 5 innings, mostly coming on a Tomoaki Kanemoto home run. Of course, he also gave up a single to the opposing pitcher, Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi.
Anyway...
The China Stars got walloped by the Samsung Lions this afternoon, this time with 2,024 people in attendance. Ouch. At least last night's Fighters-Lions game drew 15,147, which is about twice the normal attendance of a Fighters game back when they played in the Tokyo Dome. Just kidding. Sort of.
The CBA-KBO game was called on the mercy rule as well after 6 and a half innings with the Lions winning 13-1. It was mostly due to a huge 10-run 5th inning; yet again, they had a semi-decent starter, took him out, and then the bloodletting began. The sequence basically goes: single to left, single to left, sac bunt, lined out to third, intentional walk, 2-RBI single, RBI single, error, RBI single, RBI single, 2-RBI double, RBI double, RBI single, merciful ground out to short, going through 14 batters. Yow. Craziest is that they pulled off the last 9 batters on two outs.
Fun lineup tonight for the Fighters vs. LA New Bears. Same guys in the 1-4 slots and in the 9-spot for the Fighters, but Takahashi's catching, Kimoto's at third and batting sixth, Yukio Tanaka is the DH batting seventh, and Keizo Kawashima (!!) is playing left and batting eighth. Masaru Takeda is pitching. Oddly, the starting pitcher for the LA New Bears is former Hiroshima Carp pitcher Kenny Rayborn, who apparently had a pretty good year pitching in Taiwan (16-5, 1.94). Interesting.
I'm off to sleep, though.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Konami Cup, Day One
Well, the Asia Series, aka the "Konami Cup", is underway. The afternoon game saw a whopping 2,127 people come to the Tokyo Dome to predictably see the CPBL champion LA New Bears slaughter the China All-Stars (managed by the one and only Jim Lefebvre), in a game that was called after 8 innings due to the mercy rule, winning 12-2. It should be noted that the score actually was 2-1 in favor of the China team in the fourth inning for a brief moment, until the Taiwanese team obliterated Haifeng Chen and Bu Tao in the top of the fifth for nine runs, four of them coming off a grand slam by Chin-Feng Chen and another three off a home run by Feng-Min Chen. Chin-Feng Chen, who ultimately went 4-for-5 with two home runs and 6 RBI, would also hit another 2-run homer in the 8th inning. The China All-Stars struck out in order for their half of the 8th and that was that.
The Fighters are taking on the once-more KBO champion Samsung Lions, who were beaten both times they faced the Chiba Lotte Marines in last year's Series. This should be interesting. I don't think I'll be staying up for the whole game, especially as I have no clue where to get a video or audio feed for it. But I might as well provide an English running game ticker while I'm awake. (ED: I ended up translating the first six innings as they happened and the last three in the morning. Scroll down if you want to read the game log, or look here if you just quickly want to see a box score.)
Tomoya Yagi (12-8, 2.48) starts for the Fighters against the Lions' Dong-gyu Lim (8-7, 3.59). I've got to admit that I know very little about Samsung's team, but looking at the team stats, this guy doesn't really seem like their best starter (it'd appear to be Su-Bae Young?), so maybe they're leaving their best for the finals. I dunno. All I know is that Seung-Hwan Oh is their amazing closer.
Fighters lineup looks normal except that Seguignol is not there (I think he's still in the US resolving a passport issue?), and Shinjo isn't playing, so we've got:
Anyway, this post may or may not be a moving target. Game starts in ten minutes, but I'm pretty tired.
You know, now that I've typed in the Korean lineup, I realized a lot of their names ARE actually pretty familiar from last year's Asia Series, and from the WBC. That's kind of cool.
I'm just reloading SportsNavi a lot to get game updates. Whee.
First inning, top: Hichori grounded out to short, Kensuke popped out to shallow center. Ogasawara doubled off the right-field fence, but then Inaba flew out to center. Lim threw 14 pitches.
First inning, bottom: Han-Yi Park flew out behind second base, shortstop Kaneko making the catch. Cho hit an inside pitch and flew out to second, Tanaka making the catch. Young flew out to center. Yagi threw 9 pitches.
Second inning, top: Kimoto flew out to left. Inada grounded out to third. Tsuruoka struck out looking. Lim threw 12 pitches for a total of 26.
Second inning, bottom: Shim grounded out to short on the first pitch he saw. Jin-Man Park struck out swinging on three straight pitches. Kab-Yong Jin got up to the first full count of the game and walked. Han-soo Kim struck out swinging. Yagi threw 14 pitches for a total of 23.
Third inning, top: Konta got up to a full count and fouled off a few balls but then grounded out to second. Kaneko hit a foul fly ball behind the plate caught by the catcher. Hichori got up to a 3-1 count but grounded out to short. Lim threw 17 pitches that inning for a total of 43.
Third inning, bottom: Jong-Ho Park grounded weakly towards short, Kaneko apparently charging in and making a jumping throw to get him out at first. Jong-Hoon Kim struck out swinging. Han-Yi Park grounded the first pitch he saw back to the mound. Yagi threw 7 pitches that inning for a total of 30.
Fourth inning, top: Kensuke gruonded out to third. Ogasawara grounded out to short. Inaba... Inaba got a high inside pitch and hit a hard liner that flew over the right-field fence for a solo home run! Yay! Kimoto flew out to center after that, but the score is now 1-0 Fighters. Lim only threw 12 pitches that inning for a total of 51, though.
Fourth inning, bottom: Okay, so Cho grounded to short, and Kaneko fired the ball to first... but made a throwing error and Cho ended up at second. Yang grounded out to first, advancing Cho to third. Shim hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Cho, so the score is now tied at 1-1. Jin-Man Park walked. Kab-Yong Jin hit a single to left field, advancing Park to second. Fortunately, Han-Soo Kim grounded out to third after that. Yagi threw 18 pitches that inning for a total of 48. The run scored was unearned, of course.
Fifth inning, top: Inada leads off the inning by singling to left. Tsuruoka okuri-bunts him over to second. Konta, sadly, strikes out looking, and Kaneko flies out to center. Oh well. Score is still tied 1-1, Lim threw 14 pitches that inning for a total of 65.
Fifth inning, bottom: Yagi walks Jong-Ho Park and then apparently gets taken out of the game on account of a shoulder injury. Ugh. I totally blame Ogasawara for this. (Though to be fair, Yagi was taken out of the East-West game with shoulder problems too. Arrrrgggghhhh.)
Yagi's line: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 K, 3 BB, 53 pitches.
Takehiko Oshimoto (yay!) comes in to take his place on the mound. Jong-Hoon Kim okuri-bunts Jong-Ho Park to second. Han-Yi Park walks. Cho grounds out to third, advancing the two Parks. Then Young gets up to a full count before he grounds out to second, ending the threat. Oshimoto threw 17 pitches, though. Score is still 1-1.
Sixth inning, top: Jae-Gul Kim enters the game playing second base and batting eighth. And Hichori leads off by hitting a double into the right-center gap! And.. that appears to be a pitching change, Young-Sik Kang coming in to replace Dong-gyu Lim.
Lim's line: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R/ER, 1 HR, 2 K, 0 BB, 69 pitches. (updated after Hichori scored)
Okay, so of course the first thing Kensuke Tanaka does, as always, is okuri-bunt Hichori over to third base. Predictably, they walk Ogasawara. (It doesn't say it was intentional, but it was on four straight pitches...) And Inaba, reminding us all why he was Japan Series MVP, goes ahead and hits an RBI single to right, scoring Hichori and moving Ogasawara to second. So it's now 2-1 Fighters! Kimoto comes up and hits a single to left, loading the bases! Kang is pulled from the game in favor of Oh-Joon Kwon, apparently known as the "KO Punch". At a glance he looks like the team's relief ace / setup man.
Kang's line: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 R/ER, 16 pitches. Poor guy.
Then Yukio Tanaka (!!!!!!) comes in to pinch-hit for DH Naoto Inada, and draws a bases-loaded walk, scoring Ogasawara! That brings it to 3-1 Fighters. Shinya Tsuruoka comes up and hits a single to center, scoring Inaba! Now, 4-1 Fighters, bases still loaded. Konta grounds to second, almost starting a double play but he manages to beat the throw to first. Kimoto scores on the play, making it 5-1 Fighters. Kaneko sadly strikes out, and that ends the party. Kwon threw 17 pitches in that mess.
Sixth inning, bottom: Shim gets to a full count and is called out on strikes. Jin-Man Park flies out to left. Kab-Yong Jin flies out to right. Oshimoto threw 13 pitches that inning, 30 through two. Still 5-1.
I am going to sleep. I'll translate the rest in the morning or something. I think the Fighters will be just fine from here on in... (EDIT: Yeah, they were. Of course. Finishing up:)
Seventh inning, top: Hyuk Kwon came in to pitch for the Lions and Jung-Sik Lee came in to catch. (Oh-Joon Kwon's line: 17 pitches, 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 3 inherited runners scored.)
Hichori leads off by popping out to left, Shim making the catch at the warning track. Kensuke pops out to short. Ogasawara hits a 148km/h fastball into the corner in left field for a double. Inaba grounds out to end the inning. Hyuk Kwon threw 14 pitches, score is still 5-1.
Seventh inning, bottom: Yoshinori Tateyama comes in to pitch for the Fighters. Oshimoto's line: 2 IP, 0 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 30 pitches.
Han-soo Kim hits a hard bouncer towards third, which Kimoto gets his glove on but can't hold onto, so it's ruled an infield single. Young-Hoon Cho comes in to pinch-run for him. Jae-Gul Kim strikes out looking after that. Dae-Ik Kim pinch-hits for Jong-Hoon Kim, and flies out to short. Han-Yi Park flies out to left. Tateyama threw 10 pitches and the score is still 5-1.
Eighth inning, top: Chang-Hee Kim comes in to play RF for the Lions. Kuniyuki Kimoto grounds out to second. Yukio Tanaka gets called out on strikes. Tsuruoka gets called out on a 146km/h high fastball strike. (They actually list Kwon's pitch speeds; he must be fast.) Kwon threw 11 pitches, score is still 5-1.
Eighth inning, bottom: Yuuji Iiyama comes in to play third, and Hisashi Takeda comes in to pitch. (Tateyama's line: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K, 10 pitches.)
Dong-Chan Cho breaks his bat grounding out to first. Joon-Hyuk Yang flies out to right. Jung-Soo Shim grounds out to third. Takeda threw 8 pitches for 3 outs.
Ninth inning, top: Hong-Jun Jung comes in to pitch for the Lions and Myung-Gu Kang comes in to play left field. Kwon's line: 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K, 25 pitches. Not bad.
Konta leads off by striking out. Kaneko hits an infield single between third and short. Hichori flies out to right. Kensuke Tanaka walks, putting runners at first and second. Ogasawara comes up and smashes the ball into the right-center gap for a 2-RBI doublem scoring Kaneko and Tanaka, bringing the score to 7-2. Inaba grounds out to second after that. Jung threw 21 pitches (1 IP, 2 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 2 ER/R.)
Ninth inning, bottom: Micheal Nakamura comes in to pitch. Jung-Hwan Park singles to right, and then Jung-Sik Lee is hit by a pitch. With runners at first and second, Micheal then proceeds to strike out Young-Hoon Cho, Jae-Gul Kim, and Chang-Hee Kim on the next 10 pitches, all strikes. Whoosh. Micheal threw 17 pitches in the inning (1 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 1 HBP).
Fighters win the game, 7-2. Here's the box score (and in English). It appears from the photo gallery that Inaba was the game MVP.
EDIT: Okay, there's now a Japanball English article up about the games.
The Fighters are taking on the once-more KBO champion Samsung Lions, who were beaten both times they faced the Chiba Lotte Marines in last year's Series. This should be interesting. I don't think I'll be staying up for the whole game, especially as I have no clue where to get a video or audio feed for it. But I might as well provide an English running game ticker while I'm awake. (ED: I ended up translating the first six innings as they happened and the last three in the morning. Scroll down if you want to read the game log, or look here if you just quickly want to see a box score.)
Tomoya Yagi (12-8, 2.48) starts for the Fighters against the Lions' Dong-gyu Lim (8-7, 3.59). I've got to admit that I know very little about Samsung's team, but looking at the team stats, this guy doesn't really seem like their best starter (it'd appear to be Su-Bae Young?), so maybe they're leaving their best for the finals. I dunno. All I know is that Seung-Hwan Oh is their amazing closer.
Fighters lineup looks normal except that Seguignol is not there (I think he's still in the US resolving a passport issue?), and Shinjo isn't playing, so we've got:
(hey, wtf, look at that, Kimoto's back)
Hichori Morimoto CF Han-Yi Park CF
Kensuke Tanaka 2B Dong-Chan Cho 3B
Michihiro Ogasawara 1B Joon-Hyuk Yang DH
Atsunori Inaba RF Jung-Soo Shim LF
Kuniyuki Kimoto 3B Jin-Man Park SS
Naoto Inada DH Kab-Yong Jin C
Shinya Tsuruoka C Han-Soo Kim 1B
Toshimasa Konta LF Jong-Ho Park 2B
Makoto Kaneko SS Jong-Hoon Kim RF
---------- ----------
Tomoya Yagi (12-8, 2.48) Dong-Gyu Lim (8-7, 3.59)
Anyway, this post may or may not be a moving target. Game starts in ten minutes, but I'm pretty tired.
You know, now that I've typed in the Korean lineup, I realized a lot of their names ARE actually pretty familiar from last year's Asia Series, and from the WBC. That's kind of cool.
I'm just reloading SportsNavi a lot to get game updates. Whee.
First inning, top: Hichori grounded out to short, Kensuke popped out to shallow center. Ogasawara doubled off the right-field fence, but then Inaba flew out to center. Lim threw 14 pitches.
First inning, bottom: Han-Yi Park flew out behind second base, shortstop Kaneko making the catch. Cho hit an inside pitch and flew out to second, Tanaka making the catch. Young flew out to center. Yagi threw 9 pitches.
Second inning, top: Kimoto flew out to left. Inada grounded out to third. Tsuruoka struck out looking. Lim threw 12 pitches for a total of 26.
Second inning, bottom: Shim grounded out to short on the first pitch he saw. Jin-Man Park struck out swinging on three straight pitches. Kab-Yong Jin got up to the first full count of the game and walked. Han-soo Kim struck out swinging. Yagi threw 14 pitches for a total of 23.
Third inning, top: Konta got up to a full count and fouled off a few balls but then grounded out to second. Kaneko hit a foul fly ball behind the plate caught by the catcher. Hichori got up to a 3-1 count but grounded out to short. Lim threw 17 pitches that inning for a total of 43.
Third inning, bottom: Jong-Ho Park grounded weakly towards short, Kaneko apparently charging in and making a jumping throw to get him out at first. Jong-Hoon Kim struck out swinging. Han-Yi Park grounded the first pitch he saw back to the mound. Yagi threw 7 pitches that inning for a total of 30.
Fourth inning, top: Kensuke gruonded out to third. Ogasawara grounded out to short. Inaba... Inaba got a high inside pitch and hit a hard liner that flew over the right-field fence for a solo home run! Yay! Kimoto flew out to center after that, but the score is now 1-0 Fighters. Lim only threw 12 pitches that inning for a total of 51, though.
Fourth inning, bottom: Okay, so Cho grounded to short, and Kaneko fired the ball to first... but made a throwing error and Cho ended up at second. Yang grounded out to first, advancing Cho to third. Shim hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring Cho, so the score is now tied at 1-1. Jin-Man Park walked. Kab-Yong Jin hit a single to left field, advancing Park to second. Fortunately, Han-Soo Kim grounded out to third after that. Yagi threw 18 pitches that inning for a total of 48. The run scored was unearned, of course.
Fifth inning, top: Inada leads off the inning by singling to left. Tsuruoka okuri-bunts him over to second. Konta, sadly, strikes out looking, and Kaneko flies out to center. Oh well. Score is still tied 1-1, Lim threw 14 pitches that inning for a total of 65.
Fifth inning, bottom: Yagi walks Jong-Ho Park and then apparently gets taken out of the game on account of a shoulder injury. Ugh. I totally blame Ogasawara for this. (Though to be fair, Yagi was taken out of the East-West game with shoulder problems too. Arrrrgggghhhh.)
Yagi's line: 4 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 K, 3 BB, 53 pitches.
Takehiko Oshimoto (yay!) comes in to take his place on the mound. Jong-Hoon Kim okuri-bunts Jong-Ho Park to second. Han-Yi Park walks. Cho grounds out to third, advancing the two Parks. Then Young gets up to a full count before he grounds out to second, ending the threat. Oshimoto threw 17 pitches, though. Score is still 1-1.
Sixth inning, top: Jae-Gul Kim enters the game playing second base and batting eighth. And Hichori leads off by hitting a double into the right-center gap! And.. that appears to be a pitching change, Young-Sik Kang coming in to replace Dong-gyu Lim.
Lim's line: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R/ER, 1 HR, 2 K, 0 BB, 69 pitches. (updated after Hichori scored)
Okay, so of course the first thing Kensuke Tanaka does, as always, is okuri-bunt Hichori over to third base. Predictably, they walk Ogasawara. (It doesn't say it was intentional, but it was on four straight pitches...) And Inaba, reminding us all why he was Japan Series MVP, goes ahead and hits an RBI single to right, scoring Hichori and moving Ogasawara to second. So it's now 2-1 Fighters! Kimoto comes up and hits a single to left, loading the bases! Kang is pulled from the game in favor of Oh-Joon Kwon, apparently known as the "KO Punch". At a glance he looks like the team's relief ace / setup man.
Kang's line: 0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 3 R/ER, 16 pitches. Poor guy.
Then Yukio Tanaka (!!!!!!) comes in to pinch-hit for DH Naoto Inada, and draws a bases-loaded walk, scoring Ogasawara! That brings it to 3-1 Fighters. Shinya Tsuruoka comes up and hits a single to center, scoring Inaba! Now, 4-1 Fighters, bases still loaded. Konta grounds to second, almost starting a double play but he manages to beat the throw to first. Kimoto scores on the play, making it 5-1 Fighters. Kaneko sadly strikes out, and that ends the party. Kwon threw 17 pitches in that mess.
Sixth inning, bottom: Shim gets to a full count and is called out on strikes. Jin-Man Park flies out to left. Kab-Yong Jin flies out to right. Oshimoto threw 13 pitches that inning, 30 through two. Still 5-1.
I am going to sleep. I'll translate the rest in the morning or something. I think the Fighters will be just fine from here on in... (EDIT: Yeah, they were. Of course. Finishing up:)
Seventh inning, top: Hyuk Kwon came in to pitch for the Lions and Jung-Sik Lee came in to catch. (Oh-Joon Kwon's line: 17 pitches, 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K, 3 inherited runners scored.)
Hichori leads off by popping out to left, Shim making the catch at the warning track. Kensuke pops out to short. Ogasawara hits a 148km/h fastball into the corner in left field for a double. Inaba grounds out to end the inning. Hyuk Kwon threw 14 pitches, score is still 5-1.
Seventh inning, bottom: Yoshinori Tateyama comes in to pitch for the Fighters. Oshimoto's line: 2 IP, 0 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 30 pitches.
Han-soo Kim hits a hard bouncer towards third, which Kimoto gets his glove on but can't hold onto, so it's ruled an infield single. Young-Hoon Cho comes in to pinch-run for him. Jae-Gul Kim strikes out looking after that. Dae-Ik Kim pinch-hits for Jong-Hoon Kim, and flies out to short. Han-Yi Park flies out to left. Tateyama threw 10 pitches and the score is still 5-1.
Eighth inning, top: Chang-Hee Kim comes in to play RF for the Lions. Kuniyuki Kimoto grounds out to second. Yukio Tanaka gets called out on strikes. Tsuruoka gets called out on a 146km/h high fastball strike. (They actually list Kwon's pitch speeds; he must be fast.) Kwon threw 11 pitches, score is still 5-1.
Eighth inning, bottom: Yuuji Iiyama comes in to play third, and Hisashi Takeda comes in to pitch. (Tateyama's line: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 K, 10 pitches.)
Dong-Chan Cho breaks his bat grounding out to first. Joon-Hyuk Yang flies out to right. Jung-Soo Shim grounds out to third. Takeda threw 8 pitches for 3 outs.
Ninth inning, top: Hong-Jun Jung comes in to pitch for the Lions and Myung-Gu Kang comes in to play left field. Kwon's line: 2 IP, 1 H, 2 K, 25 pitches. Not bad.
Konta leads off by striking out. Kaneko hits an infield single between third and short. Hichori flies out to right. Kensuke Tanaka walks, putting runners at first and second. Ogasawara comes up and smashes the ball into the right-center gap for a 2-RBI doublem scoring Kaneko and Tanaka, bringing the score to 7-2. Inaba grounds out to second after that. Jung threw 21 pitches (1 IP, 2 H, 1 K, 1 BB, 2 ER/R.)
Ninth inning, bottom: Micheal Nakamura comes in to pitch. Jung-Hwan Park singles to right, and then Jung-Sik Lee is hit by a pitch. With runners at first and second, Micheal then proceeds to strike out Young-Hoon Cho, Jae-Gul Kim, and Chang-Hee Kim on the next 10 pitches, all strikes. Whoosh. Micheal threw 17 pitches in the inning (1 IP, 1 H, 3 K, 1 HBP).
Fighters win the game, 7-2. Here's the box score (and in English). It appears from the photo gallery that Inaba was the game MVP.
EDIT: Okay, there's now a Japanball English article up about the games.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Ironically, we're having several days of rain
Johnny Sain dies at 89
I was once at a pub quiz where one of the questions was, "Name one of the 'two days of rain' from the 1948 Boston Braves," and I had to rack my brain for a bit before I came up with Vern Bickford. 60 years later, "Spahn and Sain" is about all anyone remembers about that team, but most people still remember Johnny Sain as the coach who developed pitchers like Whitey Ford, Jim Kaat, and Denny McLain.
Sometimes I wonder whether coaches really make that big a difference on a team's pitching or hitting. But you take a guy like Sain, or current-day Mazzone, and know that there's something special there that sets him apart.
I was once at a pub quiz where one of the questions was, "Name one of the 'two days of rain' from the 1948 Boston Braves," and I had to rack my brain for a bit before I came up with Vern Bickford. 60 years later, "Spahn and Sain" is about all anyone remembers about that team, but most people still remember Johnny Sain as the coach who developed pitchers like Whitey Ford, Jim Kaat, and Denny McLain.
Sometimes I wonder whether coaches really make that big a difference on a team's pitching or hitting. But you take a guy like Sain, or current-day Mazzone, and know that there's something special there that sets him apart.
2006 NPB Golden Gloves
The lists are out, and I'm sure nobody's surprised that they're dominated by Fighters and Dragons players.
Announced here (in Japanese):
The number in parentheses is how many golden gloves they've won.
(As it is, this is Shinjo's third GG in the Pacific League but he got 7 in the Central League when he played for the Tigers; this is Ogasawara's 5th GG at first base, he has one at third base as well. I haven't detailed the players' consecutive GG streaks.)
I know that I might have been a little bit biased about the Fighters' defense when evaluating it last month, but I don't think any of these picks are particularly bad. Funny part is that the player I think is strongest defensively of the Fighters -- today's birthday boy, Makoto Kaneko -- is the one who didn't get a golden glove. Go figure. I wonder if the Fighters Golden Glove Outfield has anything to do with them spending all that time wearing their gloves on their heads.
Announced here (in Japanese):
Central League Pacific League
(2) Kenshin Kawakami (CD) P (7) Daisuke Matsuzaka (SL)
(2) Motonobu Tanishige (CD) C (1) Tomoya Satozaki (CLM)
(2) Andy Sheets (HT) 1B (6) Michihiro Ogasawara (NHF)
(3) Masahiro Araki (CD) 2B (1) Kensuke Tanaka (NHF)
(6) Akinori Iwamura (YS) 3B (2) Toshiaki Imae (CLM)
(3) Hirokazu Ibata (CD) SS (2) Munenori Kawasaki (FSH)
(4) Kosuke Fukudome (CD) OF (1) Hichori Morimoto (NHF)
(1) Norichika Aoki (YS) OF (10) Tsuyoshi Shinjo (NHF)
(5) Norihiro Akahoshi (HT) OF (1) Atsunori Inaba (NHF)
The number in parentheses is how many golden gloves they've won.
(As it is, this is Shinjo's third GG in the Pacific League but he got 7 in the Central League when he played for the Tigers; this is Ogasawara's 5th GG at first base, he has one at third base as well. I haven't detailed the players' consecutive GG streaks.)
I know that I might have been a little bit biased about the Fighters' defense when evaluating it last month, but I don't think any of these picks are particularly bad. Funny part is that the player I think is strongest defensively of the Fighters -- today's birthday boy, Makoto Kaneko -- is the one who didn't get a golden glove. Go figure. I wonder if the Fighters Golden Glove Outfield has anything to do with them spending all that time wearing their gloves on their heads.
More NPB roundup stuff
I'm up a bit later than I expected to be, so I'm watching a little of tonight's MLB-Japan game. Apparently I missed Lackey striking out Soyogi, Aoki, and Arai in a row, but I did get to see Tsuyoshi Wada strike out Ryan Howard, Andrew Jones, and Joe Mauer in a row. It seems like Fukuoka faithful are happy to see Iguchi and Johjima out on the field together here again.
Okay, so on suggestion from msb I actually went and watched the Bronson Arroyo "home videos of Tokyo", which are actually pretty amusing. (And in the meantime I missed seeing Takahiro Arai hit a home run!) It's just sort of funny footage of Arroyo going around Tokyo, and of some of the other players, and whatnot. (Ha, and Shuichi Murata just hit a solo homer.) Lots of silly footage of Eric Bedard. Also, you can see Arroyo and Bill Hall singing/rapping on MTV Japan, which is... frightening.
BTW, if you read Japanese and you're not reading Kazuo Fukumori's blog through this series, you're really missing out, it's hilarious. Talking about Saturday's game he's like... "then I see Ryan Howard from the mound... OMG HIS NOSE IS HUGE! (oh and his body too)" and then comes back to the bench joking to Nomura that "So I defeated the 3-4-5 of the MLB players, I even struck one out, next year I'm going to the majors, ok?" Then after his terrible outing yesterday, he's talking like he has multiple personality disorder or something.
You know, it's Makoto Kaneko's birthday on November 8th. Oddly, it's also Orix's Chihiro Kaneko's birthday. The former is turning 31 and the latter is turning 23, though. What's fun about timezones is that it's only the same day in both countries from midnight-7am PST.
Anyway, I originally started this post intending to do something I don't tend to do all that often, and talk about the Yomiuri Giants.
Namely, what the hell are they doing? Is this some sort of attempt at a Pat Gillick Special, Japan-Style?
1. They signed Seung-Yeop Lee to a gargantuan contract, which isn't that terrible in itself; that keeps him from ages 30-34.
2. They traded Toshihisa Nishi to Yokohama for Masakuni Odajima. This is also not a terrible move (infact, if anything it's a bad move for Yokohama). Odajima has amazingly good numbers on the farm team (.933 OPS this year, .925 OPS last year), but hasn't really put up much on the top team as a catcher/1B backup. With Nishi in a decline and either 25-year-old Ryota Wakiya or 22-year-old Masahiro Nagata able to come take over second (assuming Nioka at short, not Kosaka), it makes sense to ditch him, and Odajima is probably a better backup catcher than, say, Sanematsu (Yeah, yeah, I know, shut up about him already). But then they
3. traded Nagata and RHP Takashi Kamoshida to Orix for Yoshitomo Tani, who will be 34 coming into next season. Now, I realize Kamei isn't exactly tearing it up in Hawaii, and Shimizu had a lousy year in 2006 and is unlikely to bounce back, and Takahashi never stays healthy for an entire season anymore, but Tani's been struck by nagging injuries these last few years too (and is almost a year older than Shimizu). Then again, Nagata had a whopping .516 OPS on the farm team this year, though Kamoshida was awesome, going 5-2 with 6 saves, striking out 55 and walking 14 in 34.1 innings with an ERA of 1.57. Of course, last year he was 1-5 and walked 40 in 59.1 innings, striking out 61 with an ERA of 5.31, on the farm team. I dunno. Yomiuri needs pitching though, so trading away a stronger farm pitcher and a weaker farm hitter seems sort of silly.
4. Traded for (or signed, whatever) Noriyoshi Ohmichi from the Hawks. Now, I like Ohmichi just fine, but getting a 37-year-old platoon outfielder to go with a 34-year-old outfielder?
5. They're going after Ogasawara, assuming Hiroki Kokubo is going back to the Hawks. However, from the big picture, is that such a great move for them either? They'll have to play him at third (with no DH, Lee will be at first), and they want to sign him for his age 33-36 years. The funny part is, I honestly think they'd be better off trying to grab a cheaper AAAA third baseman from the MLB -- a Justin Leone type. Plus, then I won't be forced to place a billion hexes on them.
I dunno. It just all seems weird. I know they want to win win win win, and that in theory, the Giants doing well is good for Japanese baseball, but something just plain doesn't seem right here in the world of Yomiuri. It's like they're deliberately trying to assemble a team full of proven, well-known guys in their mid-30's with a few spare parts to hold it together. Sound familiar?
Oh, hey, the Golden Gloves have been announced. I should go translate those lists and then sleep. Good thing I doubt I can get a video feed for the Asia Series, thus I won't bother staying up for it when it starts tomorrow night.
(POSTNOTE: Watching the all-star game get tied up at 3-3 was exciting, but then watching Satozaki get robbed of an RBI hit in the 10th was sad. And then seeing Reyes win the game 5-3 in the bottom of the 10th with a walkoff 2-run homer kind of sucked. If someone had to do it, I wish it had been Johjima, at least. Though, seeing Iguchi chatting up the Yahoo Dome ballgirls was pretty funny.)
Okay, so on suggestion from msb I actually went and watched the Bronson Arroyo "home videos of Tokyo", which are actually pretty amusing. (And in the meantime I missed seeing Takahiro Arai hit a home run!) It's just sort of funny footage of Arroyo going around Tokyo, and of some of the other players, and whatnot. (Ha, and Shuichi Murata just hit a solo homer.) Lots of silly footage of Eric Bedard. Also, you can see Arroyo and Bill Hall singing/rapping on MTV Japan, which is... frightening.
BTW, if you read Japanese and you're not reading Kazuo Fukumori's blog through this series, you're really missing out, it's hilarious. Talking about Saturday's game he's like... "then I see Ryan Howard from the mound... OMG HIS NOSE IS HUGE! (oh and his body too)" and then comes back to the bench joking to Nomura that "So I defeated the 3-4-5 of the MLB players, I even struck one out, next year I'm going to the majors, ok?" Then after his terrible outing yesterday, he's talking like he has multiple personality disorder or something.
You know, it's Makoto Kaneko's birthday on November 8th. Oddly, it's also Orix's Chihiro Kaneko's birthday. The former is turning 31 and the latter is turning 23, though. What's fun about timezones is that it's only the same day in both countries from midnight-7am PST.
Anyway, I originally started this post intending to do something I don't tend to do all that often, and talk about the Yomiuri Giants.
Namely, what the hell are they doing? Is this some sort of attempt at a Pat Gillick Special, Japan-Style?
1. They signed Seung-Yeop Lee to a gargantuan contract, which isn't that terrible in itself; that keeps him from ages 30-34.
2. They traded Toshihisa Nishi to Yokohama for Masakuni Odajima. This is also not a terrible move (infact, if anything it's a bad move for Yokohama). Odajima has amazingly good numbers on the farm team (.933 OPS this year, .925 OPS last year), but hasn't really put up much on the top team as a catcher/1B backup. With Nishi in a decline and either 25-year-old Ryota Wakiya or 22-year-old Masahiro Nagata able to come take over second (assuming Nioka at short, not Kosaka), it makes sense to ditch him, and Odajima is probably a better backup catcher than, say, Sanematsu (Yeah, yeah, I know, shut up about him already). But then they
3. traded Nagata and RHP Takashi Kamoshida to Orix for Yoshitomo Tani, who will be 34 coming into next season. Now, I realize Kamei isn't exactly tearing it up in Hawaii, and Shimizu had a lousy year in 2006 and is unlikely to bounce back, and Takahashi never stays healthy for an entire season anymore, but Tani's been struck by nagging injuries these last few years too (and is almost a year older than Shimizu). Then again, Nagata had a whopping .516 OPS on the farm team this year, though Kamoshida was awesome, going 5-2 with 6 saves, striking out 55 and walking 14 in 34.1 innings with an ERA of 1.57. Of course, last year he was 1-5 and walked 40 in 59.1 innings, striking out 61 with an ERA of 5.31, on the farm team. I dunno. Yomiuri needs pitching though, so trading away a stronger farm pitcher and a weaker farm hitter seems sort of silly.
4. Traded for (or signed, whatever) Noriyoshi Ohmichi from the Hawks. Now, I like Ohmichi just fine, but getting a 37-year-old platoon outfielder to go with a 34-year-old outfielder?
5. They're going after Ogasawara, assuming Hiroki Kokubo is going back to the Hawks. However, from the big picture, is that such a great move for them either? They'll have to play him at third (with no DH, Lee will be at first), and they want to sign him for his age 33-36 years. The funny part is, I honestly think they'd be better off trying to grab a cheaper AAAA third baseman from the MLB -- a Justin Leone type. Plus, then I won't be forced to place a billion hexes on them.
I dunno. It just all seems weird. I know they want to win win win win, and that in theory, the Giants doing well is good for Japanese baseball, but something just plain doesn't seem right here in the world of Yomiuri. It's like they're deliberately trying to assemble a team full of proven, well-known guys in their mid-30's with a few spare parts to hold it together. Sound familiar?
Oh, hey, the Golden Gloves have been announced. I should go translate those lists and then sleep. Good thing I doubt I can get a video feed for the Asia Series, thus I won't bother staying up for it when it starts tomorrow night.
(POSTNOTE: Watching the all-star game get tied up at 3-3 was exciting, but then watching Satozaki get robbed of an RBI hit in the 10th was sad. And then seeing Reyes win the game 5-3 in the bottom of the 10th with a walkoff 2-run homer kind of sucked. If someone had to do it, I wish it had been Johjima, at least. Though, seeing Iguchi chatting up the Yahoo Dome ballgirls was pretty funny.)
Monday, November 06, 2006
Random NPB Roundups
Today is Walter Johnson's birthday. It seems like a fitting trivia bite for the next thing I'm going to mention, which is that
Hiroki Kuroda re-signed with the Hiroshima Carp for a 4-year, 1.2 billion yen contract. Yay! That's like 10 million dollars, which is about what pitchers of his quality here get paid in one year. I like that about Japanese baseball though -- players aren't quite so ridiculously overpaid. He has a clause in his contract about trying to go to the Major Leagues later on, which may or may not be linked to his concerns about the health of his 82-year-old father Kazuhiro Kuroda (a former Hawks/etc outfielder). I'm betting there are a lot of happy baseball fans in Hiroshima right now, and it seems I might have to continue with my "The Carp aren't THAT BAD" campaign for next year instead of shifting allegiances to the Yokohama Bay Stars.
Seung-Yeop Lee reportedly signed a 4-year deal with Yomiuri for 3 billion yen (about $25 million), which will make him one of the highest-paid players in Japan. On the other hand, he was a force to be reckoned with last year (.323/.389/.615, 41 HR). The contract supposedly has a clause about letting him go to the majors if the Giants win the pennant, which is weird, but cool.
This was kind of a big weekend for exhibition games in Japan. On Saturday, there was a game between the Yakult Swallows and a selection of Tokyo Big Six players, which the Swallows won 3-2, even though their lineup was mostly second-stringers, not counting Aoki, Miyade, and Yoneno. Aoki had to leave in the middle of the game to go play in the MLB-Japan all-star games, though. Swallows manager Atsuya Furuta put himself in as a pinch-hitter late in the game. The entire game was to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the building of Meiji Jingu Stadium, which has always housed the Big Six university games, and the Swallows games for the last 42 years. (Trivia: the last time the Fighters won the Japan Series before this year, in 1962, they were the Toei Flyers and Meiji Jingu was their home stadium.)
Then on Sunday there was the last ever Pacific League East-West All-star game in Shizuoka (still looking for a box score, here's an article). The East team was made up of players from the Fighters, Eagles, and Marines, and the West was from the Hawks, Lions, and Buffaloes. Orix's Muramatsu and Softbank's Shibahara knocked in three runs for the West team in the first inning, but Ogasawara struck back with a solo homer in the second, and Lotte's Heiuchi hit a 2-run RBI single in the fourth to tie it. In the fifth inning, Hichori Morimoto hit a solo homer and Toshiaki Imae hit a three-run homer in the midst of piling on 5 runs total. Atsunori Inaba added on a solo homer in the 8th and the eventual score was 9-4. In the meantime, both Ogasawara and Satozaki played in this game and then had to run off to Tokyo for the MLB-Japan all-star game as well.
I wonder what kind of insanity these guys had to be going through to try to play through two games -- two exhibition games at that -- in one day. At least Aoki just had to go from Jingu to the Tokyo Dome, which isn't so bad, but the guys playing in both the East-West game and the MLB-Japan one had to go all the way from Shizuoka to Tokyo, which is like an hour and a half train ride. I thought it was exhausting enough just attending two games in one day in Japan; I can't imagine playing in two of them.
The MLB all-stars have won all of their games against the NPB all-stars so far (not counting the tie game with Yomiuri), 3-2, 8-6, and 11-4.
Another fun note from this weekend was the Softbank Hawks Fan Fest on Friday afternoon, which looks like it was an absolute blast. Something like 30,000 fans attended, and most of the players from the team, as well. There was everything from picture booths to games to talk shows to auctions to Matoba in a pink wig to singer Fumiya Fujii performing to videogame contests to pitcher Michinao Yamamura as Razor Ramon HG (if you don't know who he is, you don't want to, trust me) with a bunch of players as his backups. A message from Sadaharu Oh was broadcast on the board at the stadium, which you can view online too.
Oh, and for Ice: Hanshin signed Ryohei Hashimoto, their third-round draft pick. Hashimoto was the star catcher for Chiben Wakayama high school and is being hailed as the "post-Yano" catcher for the team. He seemed like a pretty solid player at Koshien, and Hanshin definitely needs a younger catcher soon. He remarked in a press conference, "I want to catch for Kyuji Fujikawa". Who doesn't?
Hiroki Kuroda re-signed with the Hiroshima Carp for a 4-year, 1.2 billion yen contract. Yay! That's like 10 million dollars, which is about what pitchers of his quality here get paid in one year. I like that about Japanese baseball though -- players aren't quite so ridiculously overpaid. He has a clause in his contract about trying to go to the Major Leagues later on, which may or may not be linked to his concerns about the health of his 82-year-old father Kazuhiro Kuroda (a former Hawks/etc outfielder). I'm betting there are a lot of happy baseball fans in Hiroshima right now, and it seems I might have to continue with my "The Carp aren't THAT BAD" campaign for next year instead of shifting allegiances to the Yokohama Bay Stars.
Seung-Yeop Lee reportedly signed a 4-year deal with Yomiuri for 3 billion yen (about $25 million), which will make him one of the highest-paid players in Japan. On the other hand, he was a force to be reckoned with last year (.323/.389/.615, 41 HR). The contract supposedly has a clause about letting him go to the majors if the Giants win the pennant, which is weird, but cool.
This was kind of a big weekend for exhibition games in Japan. On Saturday, there was a game between the Yakult Swallows and a selection of Tokyo Big Six players, which the Swallows won 3-2, even though their lineup was mostly second-stringers, not counting Aoki, Miyade, and Yoneno. Aoki had to leave in the middle of the game to go play in the MLB-Japan all-star games, though. Swallows manager Atsuya Furuta put himself in as a pinch-hitter late in the game. The entire game was to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the building of Meiji Jingu Stadium, which has always housed the Big Six university games, and the Swallows games for the last 42 years. (Trivia: the last time the Fighters won the Japan Series before this year, in 1962, they were the Toei Flyers and Meiji Jingu was their home stadium.)
Then on Sunday there was the last ever Pacific League East-West All-star game in Shizuoka (still looking for a box score, here's an article). The East team was made up of players from the Fighters, Eagles, and Marines, and the West was from the Hawks, Lions, and Buffaloes. Orix's Muramatsu and Softbank's Shibahara knocked in three runs for the West team in the first inning, but Ogasawara struck back with a solo homer in the second, and Lotte's Heiuchi hit a 2-run RBI single in the fourth to tie it. In the fifth inning, Hichori Morimoto hit a solo homer and Toshiaki Imae hit a three-run homer in the midst of piling on 5 runs total. Atsunori Inaba added on a solo homer in the 8th and the eventual score was 9-4. In the meantime, both Ogasawara and Satozaki played in this game and then had to run off to Tokyo for the MLB-Japan all-star game as well.
I wonder what kind of insanity these guys had to be going through to try to play through two games -- two exhibition games at that -- in one day. At least Aoki just had to go from Jingu to the Tokyo Dome, which isn't so bad, but the guys playing in both the East-West game and the MLB-Japan one had to go all the way from Shizuoka to Tokyo, which is like an hour and a half train ride. I thought it was exhausting enough just attending two games in one day in Japan; I can't imagine playing in two of them.
The MLB all-stars have won all of their games against the NPB all-stars so far (not counting the tie game with Yomiuri), 3-2, 8-6, and 11-4.
Another fun note from this weekend was the Softbank Hawks Fan Fest on Friday afternoon, which looks like it was an absolute blast. Something like 30,000 fans attended, and most of the players from the team, as well. There was everything from picture booths to games to talk shows to auctions to Matoba in a pink wig to singer Fumiya Fujii performing to videogame contests to pitcher Michinao Yamamura as Razor Ramon HG (if you don't know who he is, you don't want to, trust me) with a bunch of players as his backups. A message from Sadaharu Oh was broadcast on the board at the stadium, which you can view online too.
Oh, and for Ice: Hanshin signed Ryohei Hashimoto, their third-round draft pick. Hashimoto was the star catcher for Chiben Wakayama high school and is being hailed as the "post-Yano" catcher for the team. He seemed like a pretty solid player at Koshien, and Hanshin definitely needs a younger catcher soon. He remarked in a press conference, "I want to catch for Kyuji Fujikawa". Who doesn't?
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Japan-MLB All-Star Series Annoyedblogging
These announcers are amazing, with their realizations such as "Nippon means Japan, that's why they call the Japanese league Nippon Professional Baseball."
HEY, announcers, you see that guy? The one in the red pinstriped jersey that says "Carp" on it, and "Arai" on the back? Yeah, him? Why are you STILL calling him "Murata" after four innings and two of his at-bats?
Hey, see that guy you just called slow, the catcher... yeah, see him taking second on a bad throw? Oh, and see him scoring on a bloop RBI single? Don't you guys EVER diss my Satozaki.
(OH AND SEE HIM HITTING A 2-RUN HOMER AFTER OGASAWARA WALKED? YEAH. SATO-WNED.)
Let me tell you how impressed I am with the Japan knowledge these guys have, saying things like "Soon we're going to be going to the Kyocera dome, which is... which is somewhere else on this island."
I don't think I can stay up to watch this game, partially because I'm exhausted and partially because I have no desire to put my fist through my monitor. It's not even their ridiculous mispronunciations of everything, it's just the feeling that nobody even prepped them with any information about the players, the league, or even the country they're in.
Infact, I think I have agreed with exactly one statement they've made all evening: "Ogasawara is just a lot of fun to watch at the plate."
Of course, they said it right after "He just filed for free agency", which I'm still sad about. Bleh. Though he's said he would continue negotiations with the Fighters, he needed to declare or he wouldn't be able to at all. (And before anyone starts drooling over him, he's pretty much said he's staying in Japan. Well, or his wife did. Either way, he has no interest in coming to the MLB, which is good, because the coaches here would take one look at his swing and mess with it and I'd have to go kill them all.)
But I'd like to point out that amusingly, a very high percentage of all three of my All-Cute rosters are in this series. They just interviewed Ryan Howard and Tomoya Satozaki, too. Awwww!
(Okay, I have to admit, I'm still watching, and Ogasawara just hit a shallow fly to center and Andruw Jones caught it on a dive for the third out, and Ogasawara's just got the best look on his face, like this really big smile of disbelief combined with amusement.)
HEY, announcers, you see that guy? The one in the red pinstriped jersey that says "Carp" on it, and "Arai" on the back? Yeah, him? Why are you STILL calling him "Murata" after four innings and two of his at-bats?
Hey, see that guy you just called slow, the catcher... yeah, see him taking second on a bad throw? Oh, and see him scoring on a bloop RBI single? Don't you guys EVER diss my Satozaki.
(OH AND SEE HIM HITTING A 2-RUN HOMER AFTER OGASAWARA WALKED? YEAH. SATO-WNED.)
Let me tell you how impressed I am with the Japan knowledge these guys have, saying things like "Soon we're going to be going to the Kyocera dome, which is... which is somewhere else on this island."
I don't think I can stay up to watch this game, partially because I'm exhausted and partially because I have no desire to put my fist through my monitor. It's not even their ridiculous mispronunciations of everything, it's just the feeling that nobody even prepped them with any information about the players, the league, or even the country they're in.
Infact, I think I have agreed with exactly one statement they've made all evening: "Ogasawara is just a lot of fun to watch at the plate."
Of course, they said it right after "He just filed for free agency", which I'm still sad about. Bleh. Though he's said he would continue negotiations with the Fighters, he needed to declare or he wouldn't be able to at all. (And before anyone starts drooling over him, he's pretty much said he's staying in Japan. Well, or his wife did. Either way, he has no interest in coming to the MLB, which is good, because the coaches here would take one look at his swing and mess with it and I'd have to go kill them all.)
But I'd like to point out that amusingly, a very high percentage of all three of my All-Cute rosters are in this series. They just interviewed Ryan Howard and Tomoya Satozaki, too. Awwww!
(Okay, I have to admit, I'm still watching, and Ogasawara just hit a shallow fly to center and Andruw Jones caught it on a dive for the third out, and Ogasawara's just got the best look on his face, like this really big smile of disbelief combined with amusement.)
Friday, November 03, 2006
Marinerds 2006 All-Cute Team, Part 3: Nippon Pro Yakyu
This is the third (and theoretically, last) installment in this year's All-Cute Team series. Here at Marinerds, we endeavor to bring you the absolute most relevant and up-to-date news in the world of baseball, which is why we're posting about stuff like this instead of about who's bidding or not bidding on people, and whether the MLB stars just nearly got their asses kicked by the second-string Yomiuri squad, or whatever. Never let it be said we don't have our priorities straight.
If you missed them, scroll down, or check out the Adorable American League and the Nice-Guy National League. And if you're actually here for relevant useful things like my Japan Series coverage and translations, check out October.
Anyway, today's edition might look a little strange, with a lot of different styles of pictures. This is because Japanese players don't seem to actually smile in their team headshots very often, so there were several cases where I simply couldn't find a good smiling picture of a player who I've admired as being cute for several years on TV or elsewhere. I did my best, though, and most of the normal headshots come from either Sponichi or Sankei Sports or the individual team sites.
If it was up to me, I would have made about half the team out of the Fighters, but figured that'd be unfair, so I included guys from every other team in Japan too with the exception of the Hiroshima Carp. Not sure exactly how that happened; just that none of their guys made the cut. Also, there are only 9 pitchers on this 25-man roster, but I figure with the standard workload of Japanese pitchers, they can easily handle the increased demand for smiling and being cute.
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. It's all entirely subjective, and if you disapprove of my selections, you are welcome to put out your own Equal Opportunity Endearer cute list, of course.
Pitchers
#11 Yu Darvish, RHP, Nippon Ham Fighters
#15 Kazuo Fukumori, RHP, Rakuten Golden Eagles
#11 Yasuhiro Ichiba, RHP, Rakuten Golden Eagles
#66 Kazumi Saitoh, RHP, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#42 Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, LHP, Hanshin Tigers
#21 Tsuyoshi Wada, LHP, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#16 Hideaki Wakui, RHP, Seibu Lions
#31 Shunsuke Watanabe, RHP, Chiba Lotte Marines
#21 Masato Yoshii, RHP, Orix Buffaloes
I should note that Masato Yoshii started pitching professionally before Yu Darvish or Hideaki Wakui were born, heh. But despite all that, Yoshii is really cute; I'd honestly forgotten how old he was. I think he's cute in a goofy Shigetoshi Hasegawa sort of way.
As for Darvish, he will someday be the greatest Iranian-Japanese pitcher in the history of baseball. But for the time being, he's got these great exotic looks from his mixed heritage, and the most lovely cheekbone structure ever. Watching him, it's actually hard to remember that he just turned 20 this season, though. The same couldn't be said for Wakui -- he really looks like a little kid, though he's actually two months older than Darvish. But, Wakui's pretty adorable as far as they go -- back towards the start of the season when Wakui was still 19 and he had a cute 18-year-old battery mate in Ginjiro Sumitani, I had to wonder if Seibu was trying more to attract teenage girls to the stadium. I don't think it worked, though.
Kazuo Fukumori might be one of the only truly talented guys on the Rakuten roster right now, which was the first reason I noticed him, but the second reason was that he's really good-looking. (Also, he has a really entertaining blog. The latest entry has a picture of him with Ryan Howard, even. The more I read his blog, the more I fall in love with him. He's so funny.)
Then again, Yasuhiro Ichiba actually has talent too. He's just cursed, so he never smiles, which is also a shame. It was really fortunate that the only weekend I could go up to Sendai to see the Eagles coincidentally featured Ichiba pitching against the Hawks' Kazumi Saitoh.
So, yeah, Kazumi Saitoh. If you haven't been around here for a while you probably haven't heard me talk about how much I love the guy. It's not just because he's such a great pitcher, and he is -- he's fun to watch, so incredibly tall and graceful, with a wonderfully classic motion, and a blazing fastball and wicked forkball. But in addition to that, he's really interesting as a person and just plain cute. He looks a lot better with longer hair than short, though.
The young Hawks lefty and former Waseda star Tsuyoshi Wada won me over earlier in this season when he basically kept ending up having to face other teams' aces, and said with a grin, something like "Bring it on. I prefer the challenge."
Shunsuke Watanabe is a submarine pitcher who is also amazingly fun to watch -- his knuckles do practically scrape the ground when he's throwing. But, last year, he was nigh unstoppable for a while, carrying the Lotte Marines into the postseason, over the Hawks, over the Tigers, and through the Japan Series. He had a rocky year this season, but still has one of the most genuine and contagious smiles (and distinctive jawlines) I've ever seen.
Okay, okay, I know most people would never expect to see Old Man Shimoyanagi on a list of cute players, but he really is! I dunno, he's funny and has a nice smile, but what really sealed it was when I found out he had an entire part of his website dedicated to his black labrador Lager. Yeah, I guess I have a soft spot for black labs, and apparently for some black-pinstriped Tigers.
I thought about including Micheal Nakamura, but he ended up getting cut due to the "too many Fighters" aspect. And while Kenshin Kawakami might be one of the better-looking players on the Chunichi Dragons, that's more because the Dragons are mostly a bunch of funny-looking old dudes than anything else.
Catchers
#8 Ryouji Aikawa, C, Yokohama Bay Stars
#22 Tomoya Satozaki, C, Chiba Lotte Marines
Tomoya Satozaki is the biggest dork on the entire planet. I just need to make that clear first. I mean, he's just so adorkable and goofy and making funny faces all the time. But at the same time, I love that -- I love his smile, I love seeing him laughing with teammates, I love the silly crap he writes in his blog, I loved his radio color commentary during the Pacific League playoffs. While it's true he probably let the Series and WBC stuff go to his head a bit, he really kicked ass this year, and was a bright spot in a lineup of Lotte guys who mostly saw a dropoff from last year.
Aikawa got on this list because outside Yokohama Stadium they have a bunch of player picture marquees of various people; Takuro Ishii grinning, Mark Kroon looking badass, Daisuke Miura with a ridiculous pompadour... and Aikawa just smiling and looking absolutely adorable. I wasn't really familiar with him before my trip to Yokohama, and as it is I only saw him play in one of the three Bay Stars games I saw, but still, he's a cutie if there ever was one.
Shinji Takahashi, of course, is pretty cute, but he got cut due to the Fighters factor, and maybe even due to the Takahashi factor (which will become apparent when we get to the outfielders).
Infield
#8 Makoto Kaneko, SS, Nippon Ham Fighters
#52 Munenori Kawasaki, SS, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#31 Masahiko Morino, 3B, Chunichi Dragons
#25 Shuichi Murata, 3B, Yokohama Bay Stars
#3 Hiroyuki Nakajima, SS, Seibu Lions
#7 Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2B, Chiba Lotte Marines
#2 Michihiro Ogasawara, 1B, Nippon Ham Fighters
#3 Kentaro Sekimoto, 3B, Hanshin Tigers
Do I even need to explain why Makoto Kaneko and Michihiro Ogasawara are on this roster? I've been in love with both of them pretty much since I became a Fighters fan. (PS - for the other Kaneko fans, I found a site full of "weekly Mack" interviews from the season, which are awesome to listen to! He's so charming and adorable!) Ogasawara is just so awesome in every way possible; he's handsome, intelligent, humble, well-spoken, and amazing at fielding and batting as well; he's like the classic respected Samurai leading his comrades into honorable battle.
Munenori Kawasaki wears high socks and has the most adorable smile ever. He just radiates cute.
Masahiko Morino is my Dragonbutt. What's weird about him is that I first saw him during fielding practice before a Carp-Dragons game in Hiroshima, and I thought -- "man, that guy's really cute! I wonder who he is," but at the time the players weren't wearing number shirts. I took a picture, but still couldn't figure out who the heck it was by looking at the roster, because most of the Dragons players are somewhat older, or they look really sullen in their headshots. Finally, one day I was reading Shukan Baseball; there was a Hichori interview in the front and a Morino interview in the back, and there's this picture of Morino actually smiling, and I realized -- he's my cute Dragon! In addition, he's my Dragonbutt! (I took that picture of Morino and Tatsunami just because it was a funny angle at the time; now it's become a running gag.) The other thing about Morino is that he reminds me of Kotaro Tanaka, the actor who played the third baseman Tachibana in the TV version of H2. He's also really cute.
Hiroyuki Nakajima has the best smile on the Seibu Lions, period. I decided he was pretty cute last year back when the Lions still broadcast their games over the net for free on Yahoo (which is, by the way, the only reason I can sing their fight song). Then this year I went to a Lions game and sat on the third-base side and watched him play, and he's quite good -- a worthy replacement to Kazuo Matsui, at least. But in addition to his adorable smile, he wears pastel pink wristbands and a pink glove, being as it's his lucky color or something. Now that takes a *real* man (not counting Shinjo, of course).
Shuichi Murata was scouted out at batting/fielding practice before one of the Bay Stars games I attended. He's one of those weird young talents that's somehow hiding on a terrible team. If the Bay Stars go anywhere anytime soon, I predict he will play a large part in it.
Ah, Tsuyoshi Nishioka. It's really a shame that I couldn't capture what I thought was his cutest moment ever -- when he appeared on the Japanese celebrity-blind-date-match TV show Koisuru Hanikami, where he met the actress Sakura, and it was the cutest thing ever. They went shopping, and then to Chiba Stadium (where he taught her to throw a baseball), and to the Fujikyu Highland amusement park, and then for a nice firework show on the beach. It was so cute you wanted to vomit (much like they probably did after the rollercoasters), and well... last I heard, Sakura and Nishioka are still dating, maybe even engaged now. It's funny because I sort of think he'd look good as a TV actor if he hadn't ended up as a baseball player. But it's a good thing he IS a baseball player, because he's young and fast and exciting to watch.
I have to admit that Nishioka's only listed at 2B because I had ninety billion shortstops and I inadvertantly cut the other guys I had down at 2B originally -- Kensuke Tanaka got cut due to the too many Fighters factor (notice a pattern here?) and Makoto Kosaka just didn't make the cut because -- and this is odd -- he actually looks pretty awful in most of the pro pictures I've seen of him this year, but the ones I took of him at Yokohama were actually great, him taking pregame practice wearing glasses and all, it's precious.
I have a somewhat embarrassing story behind how I found out Sekimoto was cute. Namely, I completely forgot he existed. I was in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, where they have this big "Full Swing" baseball in the plaques room. (Not a great shot but look here.) Anyway, the ball was signed by a ton of players during last offseason, and I was walking around reading it with these other people. One of the things said "Guts Guts! Hanshin Tigers #3". But we couldn't read the signature. So one guy's like... "Hanshin no seibango san, dare?" ("Who's #3?") And the three of us stood there for a good five minutes racking our brains unsuccessfully to figure out who it was. Worse, I'd even been to a Hanshin game recently where Sekimoto had played.
Anyway, a day or two later I remembered and went to look up exactly who #3 was, and suddenly it was like "Oh, that guy! Sekimoto! He's adorable!"
Outfield
#9 Shogo Akada, OF, Seibu Lions
#23 Norichika Aoki, OF, Yakult Swallows
#5 Osamu Hamanaka, OF, Hanshin Tigers
#24 Yoshinobu Takahashi, OF, Yomiuri Giants
#10 Yoshitomo Tani, OF, Orix Buffaloes
#46 Tsuchiya Teppei, OF, Rakuten Golden Eagles
I've had a crush on Yoshinobu Takahashi for about as long as I've been following Japanese baseball. He's so good-looking and smart (he's a Keio grad!) and talented, although it's really a shame about his slew of recent injuries.
I hadn't really noticed Shogo Akada much before this fall either, to be fair, and then I went to a game where he hit three singles, which was notable only because catcher Toru Hosokawa, batting behind him, hit three of the loudest-cheered bunts in history. Anyway, him being a switch-hitter and getting on base a lot, I saw him flash an absolutely stellar smile while standing at third at one point, and it was just like... "yeah, okay. He's in."
I knew who Aoki was during his insane rookie year when he blasted away all of Ichiro's hit records and other stuff, but it wasn't until the WBC that I got a really good look at him (being as the Central League teams didn't broadcast games over the net), and you know... in addition to being a kickass hitter, a great fielder, and so on, he's really cute, too! But finding a closeup picture of him smiling was nigh impossible for me for some reason. Understandably, he always looks like he's concentrating really hard in all of his game pictures.
Osamu Hamanaka is just plain freaking adorable. I'm not sure what else I could say about him.
I first remembered Teppei as being the guy who broke up Shunsuke Watanabe's attempt at a no-hitter earlier this year by being beaned twice, the second of which got Watanabe ejected from the game on the kikenkyu rule. Ironically, the first time I really saw him close up was at Chiba Marine Stadium a few months later; I was watching practice and thought, "hey, that guy's pretty cute, I wonder who he is." Then a bit later it was like, "Shit, that's Teppei!" Anyway, after watching the guy for a couple of games, I'm fairly convinced that he both has cute and has talent. The former's already there, the latter will hopefully continue to emerge.
Yoshitomo Tani's been around with Orix so long that he was once part of an outfield with Ichiro and Taguchi. Now he's sort of bumming around in left field with a bunch of scrubs. I've always thought he was kind of cute in a "chubby cheeks!" sort of way, and I was really annoyed that when I was sitting in left field at the Osaka Dome, he wouldn't turn around and look at the stands (understandable as the Fighters oendan were behind him), so I could never quite get a good picture.
Hmm. 17 guys from the Pacific League (3 per team except 2 from Orix), 8 from the Central. Duplicates of uniform numbers 3, 8, 11, 21, and 31. Three guys named Tsuyoshi but no other name duplicates. (See, Shinjo got denied both for being a Fighter and for being a Tsuyoshi, obviously!)
So, there you go.
No, this really isn't what I was doing in Japan last month, I swear.
And I really need to start posting some of my trip pictures, too. Sorry I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Oh yeah, I debated who would be the manager of this team. Keeping with the fact that I was actually going for an all-Japanese team here, rather than put one of the gaijin managers (Bobby V, Marty Brown, Trey Hillman -- all of whom are pretty cute) at the helm, I would instead put the adorable elder statesman Atsuya Furuta, the current player-manager of the Yakult Swallows. Now, if there was an All-Slow team, I'm sure Dragons manager Hiromitsu Ochiai could lead it, of course.
Maybe taking on three rosters like this was a bit much -- I didn't know it was possible to get burnt out babbling about cute baseball players, seriously. I am definitely not doing an All-Ugly team, anyway -- I'll leave that to the appropriate experts.
Anyway, we should be back to normal (for whatever definition of "normal" you choose to interpret) around here after this, with no further mentions of the word "cute" until next fall. I'm finally reading Mike Schmidt's book "Clearing the Bases" and will probably end up reviewing it once I finish it. This weekend is the Nichi-Bei series, next weekend is the Asia Series. You see, there's always baseball going on somewhere!
If you missed them, scroll down, or check out the Adorable American League and the Nice-Guy National League. And if you're actually here for relevant useful things like my Japan Series coverage and translations, check out October.
Anyway, today's edition might look a little strange, with a lot of different styles of pictures. This is because Japanese players don't seem to actually smile in their team headshots very often, so there were several cases where I simply couldn't find a good smiling picture of a player who I've admired as being cute for several years on TV or elsewhere. I did my best, though, and most of the normal headshots come from either Sponichi or Sankei Sports or the individual team sites.
If it was up to me, I would have made about half the team out of the Fighters, but figured that'd be unfair, so I included guys from every other team in Japan too with the exception of the Hiroshima Carp. Not sure exactly how that happened; just that none of their guys made the cut. Also, there are only 9 pitchers on this 25-man roster, but I figure with the standard workload of Japanese pitchers, they can easily handle the increased demand for smiling and being cute.
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. It's all entirely subjective, and if you disapprove of my selections, you are welcome to put out your own Equal Opportunity Endearer cute list, of course.
Pitchers
#11 Yu Darvish, RHP, Nippon Ham Fighters
#15 Kazuo Fukumori, RHP, Rakuten Golden Eagles
#11 Yasuhiro Ichiba, RHP, Rakuten Golden Eagles
#66 Kazumi Saitoh, RHP, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#42 Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi, LHP, Hanshin Tigers
#21 Tsuyoshi Wada, LHP, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#16 Hideaki Wakui, RHP, Seibu Lions
#31 Shunsuke Watanabe, RHP, Chiba Lotte Marines
#21 Masato Yoshii, RHP, Orix Buffaloes
I should note that Masato Yoshii started pitching professionally before Yu Darvish or Hideaki Wakui were born, heh. But despite all that, Yoshii is really cute; I'd honestly forgotten how old he was. I think he's cute in a goofy Shigetoshi Hasegawa sort of way.
As for Darvish, he will someday be the greatest Iranian-Japanese pitcher in the history of baseball. But for the time being, he's got these great exotic looks from his mixed heritage, and the most lovely cheekbone structure ever. Watching him, it's actually hard to remember that he just turned 20 this season, though. The same couldn't be said for Wakui -- he really looks like a little kid, though he's actually two months older than Darvish. But, Wakui's pretty adorable as far as they go -- back towards the start of the season when Wakui was still 19 and he had a cute 18-year-old battery mate in Ginjiro Sumitani, I had to wonder if Seibu was trying more to attract teenage girls to the stadium. I don't think it worked, though.
Kazuo Fukumori might be one of the only truly talented guys on the Rakuten roster right now, which was the first reason I noticed him, but the second reason was that he's really good-looking. (Also, he has a really entertaining blog. The latest entry has a picture of him with Ryan Howard, even. The more I read his blog, the more I fall in love with him. He's so funny.)
Then again, Yasuhiro Ichiba actually has talent too. He's just cursed, so he never smiles, which is also a shame. It was really fortunate that the only weekend I could go up to Sendai to see the Eagles coincidentally featured Ichiba pitching against the Hawks' Kazumi Saitoh.
So, yeah, Kazumi Saitoh. If you haven't been around here for a while you probably haven't heard me talk about how much I love the guy. It's not just because he's such a great pitcher, and he is -- he's fun to watch, so incredibly tall and graceful, with a wonderfully classic motion, and a blazing fastball and wicked forkball. But in addition to that, he's really interesting as a person and just plain cute. He looks a lot better with longer hair than short, though.
The young Hawks lefty and former Waseda star Tsuyoshi Wada won me over earlier in this season when he basically kept ending up having to face other teams' aces, and said with a grin, something like "Bring it on. I prefer the challenge."
Shunsuke Watanabe is a submarine pitcher who is also amazingly fun to watch -- his knuckles do practically scrape the ground when he's throwing. But, last year, he was nigh unstoppable for a while, carrying the Lotte Marines into the postseason, over the Hawks, over the Tigers, and through the Japan Series. He had a rocky year this season, but still has one of the most genuine and contagious smiles (and distinctive jawlines) I've ever seen.
Okay, okay, I know most people would never expect to see Old Man Shimoyanagi on a list of cute players, but he really is! I dunno, he's funny and has a nice smile, but what really sealed it was when I found out he had an entire part of his website dedicated to his black labrador Lager. Yeah, I guess I have a soft spot for black labs, and apparently for some black-pinstriped Tigers.
I thought about including Micheal Nakamura, but he ended up getting cut due to the "too many Fighters" aspect. And while Kenshin Kawakami might be one of the better-looking players on the Chunichi Dragons, that's more because the Dragons are mostly a bunch of funny-looking old dudes than anything else.
Catchers
#8 Ryouji Aikawa, C, Yokohama Bay Stars
#22 Tomoya Satozaki, C, Chiba Lotte Marines
Tomoya Satozaki is the biggest dork on the entire planet. I just need to make that clear first. I mean, he's just so adorkable and goofy and making funny faces all the time. But at the same time, I love that -- I love his smile, I love seeing him laughing with teammates, I love the silly crap he writes in his blog, I loved his radio color commentary during the Pacific League playoffs. While it's true he probably let the Series and WBC stuff go to his head a bit, he really kicked ass this year, and was a bright spot in a lineup of Lotte guys who mostly saw a dropoff from last year.
Aikawa got on this list because outside Yokohama Stadium they have a bunch of player picture marquees of various people; Takuro Ishii grinning, Mark Kroon looking badass, Daisuke Miura with a ridiculous pompadour... and Aikawa just smiling and looking absolutely adorable. I wasn't really familiar with him before my trip to Yokohama, and as it is I only saw him play in one of the three Bay Stars games I saw, but still, he's a cutie if there ever was one.
Shinji Takahashi, of course, is pretty cute, but he got cut due to the Fighters factor, and maybe even due to the Takahashi factor (which will become apparent when we get to the outfielders).
Infield
#8 Makoto Kaneko, SS, Nippon Ham Fighters
#52 Munenori Kawasaki, SS, Fukuoka Softbank Hawks
#31 Masahiko Morino, 3B, Chunichi Dragons
#25 Shuichi Murata, 3B, Yokohama Bay Stars
#3 Hiroyuki Nakajima, SS, Seibu Lions
#7 Tsuyoshi Nishioka, 2B, Chiba Lotte Marines
#2 Michihiro Ogasawara, 1B, Nippon Ham Fighters
#3 Kentaro Sekimoto, 3B, Hanshin Tigers
Do I even need to explain why Makoto Kaneko and Michihiro Ogasawara are on this roster? I've been in love with both of them pretty much since I became a Fighters fan. (PS - for the other Kaneko fans, I found a site full of "weekly Mack" interviews from the season, which are awesome to listen to! He's so charming and adorable!) Ogasawara is just so awesome in every way possible; he's handsome, intelligent, humble, well-spoken, and amazing at fielding and batting as well; he's like the classic respected Samurai leading his comrades into honorable battle.
Munenori Kawasaki wears high socks and has the most adorable smile ever. He just radiates cute.
Masahiko Morino is my Dragonbutt. What's weird about him is that I first saw him during fielding practice before a Carp-Dragons game in Hiroshima, and I thought -- "man, that guy's really cute! I wonder who he is," but at the time the players weren't wearing number shirts. I took a picture, but still couldn't figure out who the heck it was by looking at the roster, because most of the Dragons players are somewhat older, or they look really sullen in their headshots. Finally, one day I was reading Shukan Baseball; there was a Hichori interview in the front and a Morino interview in the back, and there's this picture of Morino actually smiling, and I realized -- he's my cute Dragon! In addition, he's my Dragonbutt! (I took that picture of Morino and Tatsunami just because it was a funny angle at the time; now it's become a running gag.) The other thing about Morino is that he reminds me of Kotaro Tanaka, the actor who played the third baseman Tachibana in the TV version of H2. He's also really cute.
Hiroyuki Nakajima has the best smile on the Seibu Lions, period. I decided he was pretty cute last year back when the Lions still broadcast their games over the net for free on Yahoo (which is, by the way, the only reason I can sing their fight song). Then this year I went to a Lions game and sat on the third-base side and watched him play, and he's quite good -- a worthy replacement to Kazuo Matsui, at least. But in addition to his adorable smile, he wears pastel pink wristbands and a pink glove, being as it's his lucky color or something. Now that takes a *real* man (not counting Shinjo, of course).
Shuichi Murata was scouted out at batting/fielding practice before one of the Bay Stars games I attended. He's one of those weird young talents that's somehow hiding on a terrible team. If the Bay Stars go anywhere anytime soon, I predict he will play a large part in it.
Ah, Tsuyoshi Nishioka. It's really a shame that I couldn't capture what I thought was his cutest moment ever -- when he appeared on the Japanese celebrity-blind-date-match TV show Koisuru Hanikami, where he met the actress Sakura, and it was the cutest thing ever. They went shopping, and then to Chiba Stadium (where he taught her to throw a baseball), and to the Fujikyu Highland amusement park, and then for a nice firework show on the beach. It was so cute you wanted to vomit (much like they probably did after the rollercoasters), and well... last I heard, Sakura and Nishioka are still dating, maybe even engaged now. It's funny because I sort of think he'd look good as a TV actor if he hadn't ended up as a baseball player. But it's a good thing he IS a baseball player, because he's young and fast and exciting to watch.
I have to admit that Nishioka's only listed at 2B because I had ninety billion shortstops and I inadvertantly cut the other guys I had down at 2B originally -- Kensuke Tanaka got cut due to the too many Fighters factor (notice a pattern here?) and Makoto Kosaka just didn't make the cut because -- and this is odd -- he actually looks pretty awful in most of the pro pictures I've seen of him this year, but the ones I took of him at Yokohama were actually great, him taking pregame practice wearing glasses and all, it's precious.
I have a somewhat embarrassing story behind how I found out Sekimoto was cute. Namely, I completely forgot he existed. I was in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, where they have this big "Full Swing" baseball in the plaques room. (Not a great shot but look here.) Anyway, the ball was signed by a ton of players during last offseason, and I was walking around reading it with these other people. One of the things said "Guts Guts! Hanshin Tigers #3". But we couldn't read the signature. So one guy's like... "Hanshin no seibango san, dare?" ("Who's #3?") And the three of us stood there for a good five minutes racking our brains unsuccessfully to figure out who it was. Worse, I'd even been to a Hanshin game recently where Sekimoto had played.
Anyway, a day or two later I remembered and went to look up exactly who #3 was, and suddenly it was like "Oh, that guy! Sekimoto! He's adorable!"
Outfield
#9 Shogo Akada, OF, Seibu Lions
#23 Norichika Aoki, OF, Yakult Swallows
#5 Osamu Hamanaka, OF, Hanshin Tigers
#24 Yoshinobu Takahashi, OF, Yomiuri Giants
#10 Yoshitomo Tani, OF, Orix Buffaloes
#46 Tsuchiya Teppei, OF, Rakuten Golden Eagles
I've had a crush on Yoshinobu Takahashi for about as long as I've been following Japanese baseball. He's so good-looking and smart (he's a Keio grad!) and talented, although it's really a shame about his slew of recent injuries.
I hadn't really noticed Shogo Akada much before this fall either, to be fair, and then I went to a game where he hit three singles, which was notable only because catcher Toru Hosokawa, batting behind him, hit three of the loudest-cheered bunts in history. Anyway, him being a switch-hitter and getting on base a lot, I saw him flash an absolutely stellar smile while standing at third at one point, and it was just like... "yeah, okay. He's in."
I knew who Aoki was during his insane rookie year when he blasted away all of Ichiro's hit records and other stuff, but it wasn't until the WBC that I got a really good look at him (being as the Central League teams didn't broadcast games over the net), and you know... in addition to being a kickass hitter, a great fielder, and so on, he's really cute, too! But finding a closeup picture of him smiling was nigh impossible for me for some reason. Understandably, he always looks like he's concentrating really hard in all of his game pictures.
Osamu Hamanaka is just plain freaking adorable. I'm not sure what else I could say about him.
I first remembered Teppei as being the guy who broke up Shunsuke Watanabe's attempt at a no-hitter earlier this year by being beaned twice, the second of which got Watanabe ejected from the game on the kikenkyu rule. Ironically, the first time I really saw him close up was at Chiba Marine Stadium a few months later; I was watching practice and thought, "hey, that guy's pretty cute, I wonder who he is." Then a bit later it was like, "Shit, that's Teppei!" Anyway, after watching the guy for a couple of games, I'm fairly convinced that he both has cute and has talent. The former's already there, the latter will hopefully continue to emerge.
Yoshitomo Tani's been around with Orix so long that he was once part of an outfield with Ichiro and Taguchi. Now he's sort of bumming around in left field with a bunch of scrubs. I've always thought he was kind of cute in a "chubby cheeks!" sort of way, and I was really annoyed that when I was sitting in left field at the Osaka Dome, he wouldn't turn around and look at the stands (understandable as the Fighters oendan were behind him), so I could never quite get a good picture.
Hmm. 17 guys from the Pacific League (3 per team except 2 from Orix), 8 from the Central. Duplicates of uniform numbers 3, 8, 11, 21, and 31. Three guys named Tsuyoshi but no other name duplicates. (See, Shinjo got denied both for being a Fighter and for being a Tsuyoshi, obviously!)
So, there you go.
No, this really isn't what I was doing in Japan last month, I swear.
And I really need to start posting some of my trip pictures, too. Sorry I haven't gotten around to it yet.
Oh yeah, I debated who would be the manager of this team. Keeping with the fact that I was actually going for an all-Japanese team here, rather than put one of the gaijin managers (Bobby V, Marty Brown, Trey Hillman -- all of whom are pretty cute) at the helm, I would instead put the adorable elder statesman Atsuya Furuta, the current player-manager of the Yakult Swallows. Now, if there was an All-Slow team, I'm sure Dragons manager Hiromitsu Ochiai could lead it, of course.
Maybe taking on three rosters like this was a bit much -- I didn't know it was possible to get burnt out babbling about cute baseball players, seriously. I am definitely not doing an All-Ugly team, anyway -- I'll leave that to the appropriate experts.
Anyway, we should be back to normal (for whatever definition of "normal" you choose to interpret) around here after this, with no further mentions of the word "cute" until next fall. I'm finally reading Mike Schmidt's book "Clearing the Bases" and will probably end up reviewing it once I finish it. This weekend is the Nichi-Bei series, next weekend is the Asia Series. You see, there's always baseball going on somewhere!
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Marinerds 2006 All-Cute Team, Part 2: American League
As promised in yesterday's National League post, here's yet another post full of who I think the cutest baseball players of the 2006 season were. If you're here for my Japan Series coverage and translations, take a look at October.
Yet again, in close cases, players' headshots got them voted off the island (a particularly painful one was Mark Teixeira, who I'm a big fan of, but let's face it, I've barely seen him smile at all this year). In almost every case, I'm actually basing it off having seen the players at Safeco Field at some point anyway. What, you thought I was shooting all those pictures of batting practice and bullpen warmups just to get more experience as a sports photographer? No, those were important scouting sessions!
...I'm kidding. Mostly. I mean, if it was all cute-list scouting I wouldn't have bothered with this guy, y'know?
(Just to be clear: I do take sports photography pretty seriously. But part of my shooting style is more to capture the players as people, rather than to capture sports action exactly, and thus I end up focusing more on guys I think will be good face pictures. The Oakland A's are a particularly photogenic bunch.)
Whoa, that was a somber introduction to a post that's going to be entirely frivolous from this point in.
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. It's all entirely subjective, and if you have an issue with me finding Nick "The Hick" Swisher cute, that's your problem, not mine.
Pitchers
#30 Scott Baker, RHP, Minnesota Twins
#45 Erik Bedard, LHP, Baltimore Orioles
#58 Justin Duchscherer, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#40 Rich Harden, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#26 Scott Kazmir, LHP, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
#44 Casey Janssen, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
#58 Dustin Moseley, RHP, Anaheim Angels
#36 Joe Nathan, RHP, Minnesota Twins
#52 George Sherrill, LHP, Seattle Mariners
#20 Huston Street, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#56 Jarrod Washburn, LHP, Seattle Mariners
You're not going to believe this, but Barry Zito got himself voted off the island for not smiling in his headshot. I had too many A's and had to ditch one or two of them. Honestly, Barry's very cute, and has always been extremely friendly around fans at Safeco, so he at least deserves a mention here.
J-Rod the Washburninator returns from last year, and he's still got the bluest eyes and the cutest smirk in baseball. Also, this year he added a great sense of humor to the qualities that make him adorable; anything from being a goofball at FanFest to deadpanning things like how Jamie Moyer should go out and pitch in the heat since he was older and closer to death. Whether he's an albatross is irrelevant, as the All-Cute roster knows no salaries.
I fell in love with Rich Harden during the last week of the season. I hadn't really understood why all the women on AN thought he was that great until I went down to the field before a game, got him to sign my ticket and talked to him a bit, and my god, when he smiles, it just knocks you out like a 98-mph fastball to the forehead. Well, not literally, but seriously, if the A's were smart they'd find some way to bottle up the charisma that flows from a Harden smile and use it instead of solar power.
As for Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer, I highly recommend standing behind the A's bullpen during a game sometime in general -- they're all a bunch of goofballs. But if I have to explain to you why Huston Street is drop-dead gorgeous, and probably the best-looking player in the American League, then maybe you shouldn't be reading this post. Duchscherer is not quite drop-dead, but he's really freaking cute and very friendly with another great sense of humor.
There's a funny story behind Dustin Moseley, actually. Back in April I went to a Tacoma Rainiers vs. Salt Lake Bees doubleheader with the guys who write Mariners Morsels, and in the second game I ended up sitting 3 rows behind home plate with Marc. Well, Rainiers pitchers Clint Nageotte and Francisco Cruceta were across the aisle from us, Cruceta holding a radar gun and Nageotte charting pitches... and a few rows behind us was another pair of guys charting pitches, one of whom was extremely cute with strawberry-blonde hair and a great smile. (I wonder how often the sentence, "Hey, who's that adorable guy with the radar gun?" has been uttered.) It was only later that I figured out they were Dustin Moseley and Joe Saunders, and have been hoping I'd get to see Moseley pitch sometime ever since.
George Sherrill is on this list because I basically said in January that he was a good candidate for it, and he's never proven me wrong. George has the most personality of anyone in the M's bullpen now that Teddy Beardado is gone, and as such has been a lot of fun for my photography projects; he's very expressive.
A prospect picked up during those bullpen scouting sessions, Casey Janssen wears high socks and has a precious smile. I'm not sure that many people around here recognize his name, let alone know how cute he is.
Joe Nathan may be twitchy, but I'd want him on just about any team -- the all-cute team, the all-Joe team, the all-twitchy team, whatever. As for Scott Baker, when I went to the Metrodome last year for a friend's wedding, I got a bunch of guys to sign stuff -- all the players seemed really laid-back and extremely friendly, and Scott Baker in particular was an absolute sweetheart. Really, the Twins sort of have a surplus of cute players around there, it seems.
Okay, yeah, Scott Kazmir looks like he's 14 years old, but that only adds to his aura of cute. Seriously. Have I whined recently about how timing has always worked out to prevent me from actually being at one of his starts here in Seattle?
Erik Bedard was on the midst of being voted out for not smiling in his headshot, but much like McCann, Bedard has this sort of inherent boyish cuteness that doesn't really come across very well in photographs. Plus, I'm really partial to him since I picked him up for my fantasy team right after Mazzone taught him that circle change-up and he started churning out 8-9 strikeouts per game, which made me bother following him much more closely. (Eugene, if you're reading, I still owe you for that heads-up, seriously.)
Catchers
#2 Kenji Johjima, Seattle Mariners
#7 Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
First, let me say that the All-Cute Team actually has some bullpen catchers on it as well: Oakland's Brandon Buckley (even if he hates me), and Seattle's Dominic Woody. And if it was on pure personality nobody beats Chicago's bullpen catcher, Man-Soo Lee, he's an absolute darling.
Mauer was on the All-Cute Team last year and that was BEFORE he became America's Next Top Model. At one point this year I had a conversation with my favorite fantasy baseball buddy that went something like:
Him: What? How did you end up with McCann AND Mauer?
Me: I dunno, I took them because they're really cute. I drafted Mauer and picked up McCann later.
Him: You really ought to trade one of them.
Me: But I CAN'T trade my dreamy catchers!
Him: You don't need the two batting title leaders if they're both catchers. It doesn't matter if they're dreamy.
Me: No, you don't understand, I can't trade my dreamy catchers because they hit me 9 home runs last week combined!
Anyway, Joe Mauer was an absolute joy to watch this year, in every way possible; he was the kind of player that pretty much any baseball fan of any gender or age could admire. Mauer Power!
And for the counterpart on the all-Joe team... no, just kidding. So, what's really sort of odd is that I was completely won over this year by both Kenji Johjima and Kazumi Saitoh... weird thing is, they did so on opposite sides of the Pacific, despite being former battery mates. I guess with the Hawks finally not dominating as much, I could step back and appreciate some of their players without getting so jealous.
But seriously, Johjima came in from day one with a sharp mind and an engaging smile and put both of them to good use on the Mariners staff and on the Seattle fans. Anyone who could still be smiling at the end of a Mariners season like this one deserves some recognition, and thus Kenji Johjima is my backup catcher on... wait a minute, I think he caught more games than Mauer. Nevermind.
#1 Brian Roberts, 2B, Baltimore Orioles
#21 Sean Casey, 1B, Detroit Tigers
#24 Joe Crede, 3B, Chicago White Sox
#25 Troy Glaus, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays
#19 Marco Scutaro, SS, Oakland Athletics
#33 Nick Swisher, 1B, Oakland Athletics
You know, I should just put Sean Casey on the list every year regardless of what team he's on. It would be sort of funny. But, he's a returner from last year's roster, and he's still just as cute.
Marco Scutaro is also a returning member of the roster, and if anything, he's actually gotten cuter in the last year. His birthday was on Monday, and there's a fitting tribute to him and his adorableness over on AN, and I wrote a song about him last year, and so on. I especially love the sign where people were calling him "Little Hurt", heh. Scooter just always looks so delighted to be playing baseball that I can't help but grin whenever I see him. I'm such a Scutard. Besides, his name is the answer to "which A's infielder is the best-looking?" "Marco's cuter, oh!"
Joe Crede, the Speedy Sweetie, is also a returner from last year's postseason roster. I think he was a lot cuter before he cut his hair, sadly, but hey, it's really the high socks that matter.
Nick Swisher's the cutest thing ever, like a big ol' puppydog or something. I could write an entire post about why he's so adorkable. I probably have. Seriously, go find any of the "Swisher Unscripted" episodes, or ESPN's Sophomore Year thingy, or anything where they put a camera on him and let him talk. He cracks me up.
Brian Roberts almost made last year's roster, but was edged out by Adam Kennedy at 2B for some reason, probably because it was before I started hating the Angels, which I fully blame SBNation for. I've always been partial to Troy Glaus, too, and I'm not even sure I can exactly explain why; he's got more of the "dark" good looks than the "happy smiley" sort, I think.
Outfield
#5 Mike Cuddyer, Minnesota TWins
#7 Mark DeRosa, Texas Rangers
#12 Eric Hinske, Boston Red Sox
#24 Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians
#32 Chris Snelling, Seattle Mariners
Sizemore and Cuddyer return from last year's roster, though at the time, Cuddyer was primarily a third baseman. Anyway, I'm not sure there's that much that have to be explained on why either of them remained. Grady's just as cute as ever, and the Indians are probably still selling out every time they reprint the "Mrs. Sizemore" shirts. And there's a damn good reason Bat-Girl and company call Cuddyer "DJ Cuddles". It's because the guy literally oozes cuddliness, like a big ol' teddy bear. When he smiles, his entire face smiles. His eyes smile, his nose smiles. It's almost cute enough to make you puke, sort of like this entire post.
This is going to sound extremely stupid, but Hinske and DeRosa are both cute in the same way Troy Glaus is cute, to me. Of course, oddly enough, I had originally thrown them in here as infielders, before realizing they were listed as right fielders by their respective teams this year. Texas has a reasonably cute infield in general, and which one of them got picked pretty much happened due to their headshots.
If only USSM hadn't gone up in flames like Julio Mateo, I could of course link to the Cult of Doyle to explain exactly why Chris Snelling is the darling of the Mariners blogosphere. But do I really have to? He's just a funny guy with an awesome Australian accent and an obsession with Star Wars (and thrift shopping, apparently). On a team that's been desperately starved for personality and for left-handed sock, Doyle has been a beacon of light in a mostly dark season. Okay, that might be pushing it. Anyway, he's wonderfully adorable and I hope he'll be around for a long time here.
Designated Hitter
#15 Tim Salmon, Anaheim Angels
I've always liked Tim Salmon. With him retiring this year, it seems like it's the last chance I have to honor him on this roster, as I didn't have a DH position last year and he spent the entire season on the DL anyway. In some ways his retirement makes me think of Mike Lieberthal; why does it seem so rare these days to have these "nice guys" who spend their whole career on one team? And how the hell was Tim Salmon never elected as an All-Star? The mind boggles. Anyway, I was glad to see him end his career on his own terms. Cheers to you, Mr. Fish.
And thus concludes the American League installment of the 2006 All-Cute roster. The only teams not represented here are the Yankees and Royals; the Royals simply didn't have anyone particularly cuteworthy; the Yankees were because I couldn't quite justify any of them. Mussina came the closest, of course, being darkly handsome and apparently being good at crosswords, too. Craig Wilson would have qualified if they hadn't made him get rid of all his hair. I kind of like Jorge Posada, but he was completely blocked at catcher.
Hmm, only a few number overlaps here; #7 for DeRosa and Mauer, #24 for Crede and Sizemore, and oddly... #58 for Moseley and Duchscherererer.
The next installment of "Deanna has weird taste in guys" will probably be up on Friday morning instead of tomorrow, and will feature cute Japanese players. No, my trip to Japan in September wasn't THAT kind of a "scouting trip".
Yet again, in close cases, players' headshots got them voted off the island (a particularly painful one was Mark Teixeira, who I'm a big fan of, but let's face it, I've barely seen him smile at all this year). In almost every case, I'm actually basing it off having seen the players at Safeco Field at some point anyway. What, you thought I was shooting all those pictures of batting practice and bullpen warmups just to get more experience as a sports photographer? No, those were important scouting sessions!
...I'm kidding. Mostly. I mean, if it was all cute-list scouting I wouldn't have bothered with this guy, y'know?
(Just to be clear: I do take sports photography pretty seriously. But part of my shooting style is more to capture the players as people, rather than to capture sports action exactly, and thus I end up focusing more on guys I think will be good face pictures. The Oakland A's are a particularly photogenic bunch.)
Whoa, that was a somber introduction to a post that's going to be entirely frivolous from this point in.
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. It's all entirely subjective, and if you have an issue with me finding Nick "The Hick" Swisher cute, that's your problem, not mine.
Pitchers
#30 Scott Baker, RHP, Minnesota Twins
#45 Erik Bedard, LHP, Baltimore Orioles
#58 Justin Duchscherer, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#40 Rich Harden, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#26 Scott Kazmir, LHP, Tampa Bay Devil Rays
#44 Casey Janssen, RHP, Toronto Blue Jays
#58 Dustin Moseley, RHP, Anaheim Angels
#36 Joe Nathan, RHP, Minnesota Twins
#52 George Sherrill, LHP, Seattle Mariners
#20 Huston Street, RHP, Oakland Athletics
#56 Jarrod Washburn, LHP, Seattle Mariners
You're not going to believe this, but Barry Zito got himself voted off the island for not smiling in his headshot. I had too many A's and had to ditch one or two of them. Honestly, Barry's very cute, and has always been extremely friendly around fans at Safeco, so he at least deserves a mention here.
J-Rod the Washburninator returns from last year, and he's still got the bluest eyes and the cutest smirk in baseball. Also, this year he added a great sense of humor to the qualities that make him adorable; anything from being a goofball at FanFest to deadpanning things like how Jamie Moyer should go out and pitch in the heat since he was older and closer to death. Whether he's an albatross is irrelevant, as the All-Cute roster knows no salaries.
I fell in love with Rich Harden during the last week of the season. I hadn't really understood why all the women on AN thought he was that great until I went down to the field before a game, got him to sign my ticket and talked to him a bit, and my god, when he smiles, it just knocks you out like a 98-mph fastball to the forehead. Well, not literally, but seriously, if the A's were smart they'd find some way to bottle up the charisma that flows from a Harden smile and use it instead of solar power.
As for Huston Street and Justin Duchscherer, I highly recommend standing behind the A's bullpen during a game sometime in general -- they're all a bunch of goofballs. But if I have to explain to you why Huston Street is drop-dead gorgeous, and probably the best-looking player in the American League, then maybe you shouldn't be reading this post. Duchscherer is not quite drop-dead, but he's really freaking cute and very friendly with another great sense of humor.
There's a funny story behind Dustin Moseley, actually. Back in April I went to a Tacoma Rainiers vs. Salt Lake Bees doubleheader with the guys who write Mariners Morsels, and in the second game I ended up sitting 3 rows behind home plate with Marc. Well, Rainiers pitchers Clint Nageotte and Francisco Cruceta were across the aisle from us, Cruceta holding a radar gun and Nageotte charting pitches... and a few rows behind us was another pair of guys charting pitches, one of whom was extremely cute with strawberry-blonde hair and a great smile. (I wonder how often the sentence, "Hey, who's that adorable guy with the radar gun?" has been uttered.) It was only later that I figured out they were Dustin Moseley and Joe Saunders, and have been hoping I'd get to see Moseley pitch sometime ever since.
George Sherrill is on this list because I basically said in January that he was a good candidate for it, and he's never proven me wrong. George has the most personality of anyone in the M's bullpen now that Teddy Beardado is gone, and as such has been a lot of fun for my photography projects; he's very expressive.
A prospect picked up during those bullpen scouting sessions, Casey Janssen wears high socks and has a precious smile. I'm not sure that many people around here recognize his name, let alone know how cute he is.
Joe Nathan may be twitchy, but I'd want him on just about any team -- the all-cute team, the all-Joe team, the all-twitchy team, whatever. As for Scott Baker, when I went to the Metrodome last year for a friend's wedding, I got a bunch of guys to sign stuff -- all the players seemed really laid-back and extremely friendly, and Scott Baker in particular was an absolute sweetheart. Really, the Twins sort of have a surplus of cute players around there, it seems.
Okay, yeah, Scott Kazmir looks like he's 14 years old, but that only adds to his aura of cute. Seriously. Have I whined recently about how timing has always worked out to prevent me from actually being at one of his starts here in Seattle?
Erik Bedard was on the midst of being voted out for not smiling in his headshot, but much like McCann, Bedard has this sort of inherent boyish cuteness that doesn't really come across very well in photographs. Plus, I'm really partial to him since I picked him up for my fantasy team right after Mazzone taught him that circle change-up and he started churning out 8-9 strikeouts per game, which made me bother following him much more closely. (Eugene, if you're reading, I still owe you for that heads-up, seriously.)
Catchers
#2 Kenji Johjima, Seattle Mariners
#7 Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins
First, let me say that the All-Cute Team actually has some bullpen catchers on it as well: Oakland's Brandon Buckley (even if he hates me), and Seattle's Dominic Woody. And if it was on pure personality nobody beats Chicago's bullpen catcher, Man-Soo Lee, he's an absolute darling.
Mauer was on the All-Cute Team last year and that was BEFORE he became America's Next Top Model. At one point this year I had a conversation with my favorite fantasy baseball buddy that went something like:
Him: What? How did you end up with McCann AND Mauer?
Me: I dunno, I took them because they're really cute. I drafted Mauer and picked up McCann later.
Him: You really ought to trade one of them.
Me: But I CAN'T trade my dreamy catchers!
Him: You don't need the two batting title leaders if they're both catchers. It doesn't matter if they're dreamy.
Me: No, you don't understand, I can't trade my dreamy catchers because they hit me 9 home runs last week combined!
Anyway, Joe Mauer was an absolute joy to watch this year, in every way possible; he was the kind of player that pretty much any baseball fan of any gender or age could admire. Mauer Power!
And for the counterpart on the all-Joe team... no, just kidding. So, what's really sort of odd is that I was completely won over this year by both Kenji Johjima and Kazumi Saitoh... weird thing is, they did so on opposite sides of the Pacific, despite being former battery mates. I guess with the Hawks finally not dominating as much, I could step back and appreciate some of their players without getting so jealous.
But seriously, Johjima came in from day one with a sharp mind and an engaging smile and put both of them to good use on the Mariners staff and on the Seattle fans. Anyone who could still be smiling at the end of a Mariners season like this one deserves some recognition, and thus Kenji Johjima is my backup catcher on... wait a minute, I think he caught more games than Mauer. Nevermind.
#1 Brian Roberts, 2B, Baltimore Orioles
#21 Sean Casey, 1B, Detroit Tigers
#24 Joe Crede, 3B, Chicago White Sox
#25 Troy Glaus, 3B, Toronto Blue Jays
#19 Marco Scutaro, SS, Oakland Athletics
#33 Nick Swisher, 1B, Oakland Athletics
You know, I should just put Sean Casey on the list every year regardless of what team he's on. It would be sort of funny. But, he's a returner from last year's roster, and he's still just as cute.
Marco Scutaro is also a returning member of the roster, and if anything, he's actually gotten cuter in the last year. His birthday was on Monday, and there's a fitting tribute to him and his adorableness over on AN, and I wrote a song about him last year, and so on. I especially love the sign where people were calling him "Little Hurt", heh. Scooter just always looks so delighted to be playing baseball that I can't help but grin whenever I see him. I'm such a Scutard. Besides, his name is the answer to "which A's infielder is the best-looking?" "Marco's cuter, oh!"
Joe Crede, the Speedy Sweetie, is also a returner from last year's postseason roster. I think he was a lot cuter before he cut his hair, sadly, but hey, it's really the high socks that matter.
Nick Swisher's the cutest thing ever, like a big ol' puppydog or something. I could write an entire post about why he's so adorkable. I probably have. Seriously, go find any of the "Swisher Unscripted" episodes, or ESPN's Sophomore Year thingy, or anything where they put a camera on him and let him talk. He cracks me up.
Brian Roberts almost made last year's roster, but was edged out by Adam Kennedy at 2B for some reason, probably because it was before I started hating the Angels, which I fully blame SBNation for. I've always been partial to Troy Glaus, too, and I'm not even sure I can exactly explain why; he's got more of the "dark" good looks than the "happy smiley" sort, I think.
Outfield
#5 Mike Cuddyer, Minnesota TWins
#7 Mark DeRosa, Texas Rangers
#12 Eric Hinske, Boston Red Sox
#24 Grady Sizemore, Cleveland Indians
#32 Chris Snelling, Seattle Mariners
Sizemore and Cuddyer return from last year's roster, though at the time, Cuddyer was primarily a third baseman. Anyway, I'm not sure there's that much that have to be explained on why either of them remained. Grady's just as cute as ever, and the Indians are probably still selling out every time they reprint the "Mrs. Sizemore" shirts. And there's a damn good reason Bat-Girl and company call Cuddyer "DJ Cuddles". It's because the guy literally oozes cuddliness, like a big ol' teddy bear. When he smiles, his entire face smiles. His eyes smile, his nose smiles. It's almost cute enough to make you puke, sort of like this entire post.
This is going to sound extremely stupid, but Hinske and DeRosa are both cute in the same way Troy Glaus is cute, to me. Of course, oddly enough, I had originally thrown them in here as infielders, before realizing they were listed as right fielders by their respective teams this year. Texas has a reasonably cute infield in general, and which one of them got picked pretty much happened due to their headshots.
If only USSM hadn't gone up in flames like Julio Mateo, I could of course link to the Cult of Doyle to explain exactly why Chris Snelling is the darling of the Mariners blogosphere. But do I really have to? He's just a funny guy with an awesome Australian accent and an obsession with Star Wars (and thrift shopping, apparently). On a team that's been desperately starved for personality and for left-handed sock, Doyle has been a beacon of light in a mostly dark season. Okay, that might be pushing it. Anyway, he's wonderfully adorable and I hope he'll be around for a long time here.
Designated Hitter
#15 Tim Salmon, Anaheim Angels
I've always liked Tim Salmon. With him retiring this year, it seems like it's the last chance I have to honor him on this roster, as I didn't have a DH position last year and he spent the entire season on the DL anyway. In some ways his retirement makes me think of Mike Lieberthal; why does it seem so rare these days to have these "nice guys" who spend their whole career on one team? And how the hell was Tim Salmon never elected as an All-Star? The mind boggles. Anyway, I was glad to see him end his career on his own terms. Cheers to you, Mr. Fish.
And thus concludes the American League installment of the 2006 All-Cute roster. The only teams not represented here are the Yankees and Royals; the Royals simply didn't have anyone particularly cuteworthy; the Yankees were because I couldn't quite justify any of them. Mussina came the closest, of course, being darkly handsome and apparently being good at crosswords, too. Craig Wilson would have qualified if they hadn't made him get rid of all his hair. I kind of like Jorge Posada, but he was completely blocked at catcher.
Hmm, only a few number overlaps here; #7 for DeRosa and Mauer, #24 for Crede and Sizemore, and oddly... #58 for Moseley and Duchscherererer.
The next installment of "Deanna has weird taste in guys" will probably be up on Friday morning instead of tomorrow, and will feature cute Japanese players. No, my trip to Japan in September wasn't THAT kind of a "scouting trip".
Marinerds 2006 All-Cute Team, Part 1: National League
(Note: I decided to forward-date this post so it'd be at the bottom of the November archives, so I can point to October as my "Fighters Postseason" archive. If this breaks your RSS, sorry.)
Welcome to the 2006 edition of the Marinerds All-Cute Team!
Last year, this all started after NGFT did his "all-jerk" team and his "all-fun-to-watch" team, and even ESPN had an "all-run-into-a-wall" team, featuring Eric Byrnes, of course. I'd been joking all year about some players, how "that guy'd make it onto my All-Cute Team for sure", and even filled out All-Star ballots of cute players so I'd bother to go watch the game at someone else's house. Well, now I have housemates and cable TV, so the motivations changed, but the scouting became much easier.
This year, rather than picking one guy at each position in each league, I figured I'd do three lists: a 25-man roster for the National League, a 25-man roster for the American League, and a 25-man roster for Nippon Professional Baseball. (The other two will be in subsequent posts.) I'd originally wanted to actually make alternate headshots for most players, as several really cute guys have really awful headshots, but in the end what happened is that their MLB headshots were used as the tiebreakers for cutting the last few guys from the roster. Yeah, if they didn't have a high enough SLG (Smiling Likeable Guy) percentage, I sent them down. Tough beans.
Even though I mostly finalized this year's rosters a month or two ago, I hadn't bothered to sit down and actually write the posts about it. So here you go!
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. If you're looking for baseball poetry or translations or serious stuff, scroll down. This list is entirely subjective, and while I tried to find cuteness of all varieties, it's true that I tend towards tall white boys with brown hair and blue eyes.
(It's amusing to look back at last year's post and see that half of the guys on my All-Cute team got traded, too. Anyway.)
Pitchers
#29 Chris Carpenter, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals
#57 Zach Duke, LHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
#26 Jeff Francis, LHP, Colorado Rockies
#35 Cole Hamels, LHP, Philadelphia Phillies
#48 Aaron Heilman, RHP, New York Mets
#51 Noah Lowry, LHP, San Francisco Giants
#63 Ryan Madson, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
#22 John Patterson, RHP, Washington Nationals
#44 Jake Peavy, RHP, San Diego Padres
Carpenter, Duke, and Madson are returning from last year's team. Carpenter's still damn adorable, though I still haven't decided whether his scruffy bearded look is good or not. Zach Duke has the most adorable pout when he's pitching and a great smile when he's not. Ryan Madson is so odd, because he scrunches his face into an ugly mess when he's throwing the ball, so action shots of him are terrible, but when he's just talking to people or smiling for the camera, he's the most gorgeous guy on the planet, no joke. When I was in Philly this May, these little kids were cheering him during his on-field warmups, and he paused a second, looked up and waved at them with this "Aww, cute little kids" look on his face, but to me, it was "Aww, cute little Madson".
Noah Lowry earned his way onto this list two ways: first, he was in the same Perry Ellis spread that Joe Mauer made famous via Bat-Girl; second, he pitched when the Giants came to Safeco in June. From behind the bullpen, at first I thought he wasn't all that great in person, he was so serious, but then he finished his warmup and smiled, and yeah.
Cole Hamels earned his way onto this list when I was in Philly and was standing about eight feet away from him and got him to sign my ticket stub. Holy camels, batman, he's cute. Great smile and deep blue eyes.
Jeff Francis is on here as part of the "Cute British Columbian Players Association". Aaron Heilman, well, I think he's sort of cute in the same way Billy Wagner is cute, only I don't want to punch him. Jake Peavy's been a borderline cute team candidate for a while, actually, and he got pushed over when I was reading a blurb about him in Sam Walker's book Fantasyland this summer. And John Patterson is actually more of a "whoa, that guy's cute!" remnant from last fall when my brother took me to a Nats game. Unfortunately, both JP's have had bad luck this year with injuries, so it's a good thing they're on this list before they smile too big and break their jaws or something.
Catcher
#16 Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves
#26 David Ross, Cincinnati Reds
I have to first say that I really wanted to put Chris Coste on this list, but he didn't make it due to the inordinate number of Phillies I had already. Ten years in the minors didn't break his spirit, and you could always see Coste smiling and having a blast seeing his dream finally realized. Mike Lieberthal also suffered the "Too many Phillies" treatment here. Anyway.
Brian McCann's headshot is one of the worst ones of one of the cutest guys ever. So instead, how about this picture instead? I dunno. He's just such a cute kid -- as if it wasn't adorable enough last year in the postseason when he described hitting a home run off Roger Clemens by saying "it was really neat", it was even more adorable this year when I picked him up for my fantasy team because he was cute and then he proceeded to hit the snot out of NL pitching for the rest of the year. Great smile, great eyes, great everything.
David Ross has been one of my personal pet peeves for a while. When the Pirates traded Jason Kendall, I sort of hoped Ross would stay as the new backstop there, but no, he got way too many extra-base hits to be sucky enough for them, so they stopped playing him and traded him to San Diego. At the start of this year I said that I hoped he'd catch on with the Reds... and I'm pretty sure a .932 OPS with 21 home runs counts as catching on, so David Ross, *you* are my backup catcher on the team of the cutest players in the National League.
Infield
#7 J.J. Hardy, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
#6 Ryan Howard, 1B, Philadelphia Phillies
#1 Travis Ishikawa, 1B, San Francisco Giants
#16 Conor Jackson, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks
#28 Lance Niekro, 1B, San Francisco Giants
#26 Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies
#5 David Wright, 3B, New York Mets
#11 Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington Nationals
Yes, my team is full of first basemen. It's not my fault the NL doesn't have a Designated Hugger rule.
Chase Utley and David Wright are returning from last year's team, and if you have to ask why Chase Utley is on this team, then you have no idea how obsessed I used to be with him. First off, his name anagrams to "An ace homers cutely", among other things, which alone gives him lifetime membership to the All-Cute Team. Also, he's gorgeous, with deep blue eyes, thick wavy hair, and the best grin in the world (especially when avoiding talking about his hitting streak earlier this summer). Now, David Wright... it's funny, when I picked him for last year's team it was just like, "Dude, that cute third baseman on the Mets," and this year it's like "OMG DAVID WRIGHT11!!1!!1!" from half the female baseball fans in New York, or something (the other half are all "OMG DEREK JETER11!!1!!1!"). Okay, I'm exaggerating there, as I know there are fangirls for Mets of all shapes and sizes, even Cliff Floyd, but I digress. David Wright definitely seems to have gone overboard on the "trying to seem like a nice cute clean-cut kid" angle this year to the point that he's almost bland, but you know -- this list is about cute guys, and he does succeed in that.
JJ Hardy is on this list even though he spent most of the year on the DL, because I couldn't find another cute NL shortstop worthy of this list and I couldn't pick David Eckstein again with a clean conscience, even if he is the WORLD SERIES MVP1!11 and is a funny little dude who cracks me up. Besides, the Brewers were also lacking prospects in general (Derrick Turnbow's probably a good candidate for the "All-Scary Team"); Hardy's really good-looking, and it's just a shame about his ankle.
Ryan Howard actually has the best smile in the major leagues. And given his accomplishments this year, he had more opportunities to flash it than ever before. As a Phillies fan, it's really hard not to smile when Howard is smiling, both because it's a contagious smile and because it probably means he's kicking ass.
You know, I was torn between whether to kick Travis Ishikawa or Lance Niekro off the roster. They both were signed during that same Giants homestand here in June -- at the time, Ishikawa was filling in at first for Niekro, and that was when he had the crazy fielding escapades of diving over railings, fences, dugouts, etc to make catches in foul territory. So he caught my attention for his plays, and then afterwards for his face. But Niekro was at the stadium on the trip, and came out to chat with fans before the game, and he caught my attention for his smile. Then I learned that Lance's dad, Joe Niekro, passed away last week. And how can I possibly kick a guy when he's down? Thus, I suppose I effectively have two swoon platoons at first base. Oh well.
As for Ryan Zimmerman, this is also my brother-the-Nats-fan's fault. My brother went to UVA, so he wouldn't shut up about Zimmerman until I started paying attention to him. And in the process of paying attention, it was hard to ignore the fact that Zim's just a really cute kid; he just turned 22 and surely has a bright future ahead of him.
Oh, who's left, that's 7 out of... oh, Conor Jackson. Heh. He's cute, he shares my birthday, he spells his name with one n, he caused a hive of bees to attack the Oakland A's in spring training, and I thought he could represent the Diamondbacks (because I still can't put Eric Byrnes on this list in good conscience).
Outfielders
#15 Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
#5 Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies
#25 Mike Cameron, San Diego Padres
#16 Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers
#7 Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta Braves
#22 Xavier Nady, Pittsburgh Pirates
Pat Burrell returns from last year's team. Why? Because in building this roster, I don't really care about how much money he's making or whether he has any working feet left; this roster only requires that he's a dreamboat and that he looks good limping along in the outfield like that. Technically, Jeff "Frenchy" Francoeur also returns from the postseason cute list; he got on there by being a cute kid (seriously, last year him and McCann talking about going home to play XBox games after the NLDS games just cracked me up), and he stayed on there by continuing to be adorkable. In all honesty, his inability to take a walk sort of frightens me, but you know, he's kind of cute when he strikes out.
What the hell was I thinking not putting the classically good-looking Mike Cameron on the list last year? Oh, right, he wasn't particularly cute at the time, having had his face smashed in by Carlos Beltran. So this year I've just gone ahead and put them both on it, as they're now playing on opposite coasts and can't have any more of those collisions. To be honest, just like Wright, I feel a little guilty having Beltran on here, but he's really expressive and has a really nice face. I had vaguely debated between including both of Los Dos Carlos, as Delgado was actually also in that aforementioned Perry Ellis fashion shoot, but Delgado's headshot got him demoted off the roster. Also, it was just too many Mets for anyone's good.
And to add to the list of ex-Met outfielders, might as well have Xavier Nady in the mix. I know that if msb was making this list, she probably would have favored current Met Shawn Green over him, but again, too many Mets. Green would have probably been a better representative for the Snakes On A Plane than Conor Jackson, but ah well. To be fair, there were a few teams that ended up with no representatives on the roster because of the only candidate getting traded. Jeremy Affeldt, for example... I didn't feel like he outranked Jeff Francis (or Brad Hawpe or several others) on the Rockies, but he would have outranked pretty much anyone on the Royals except maybe Grudzilla.
And on that note, Andre Ethier's on this list because he's actually cute and most of the rest of his team doesn't really fit the "cute" mold, even though several of them are good-looking to some extent. None of them really seemed right for this list; maybe Russell Martin, but he was definitely blocked at catcher. So.
Hmmm, my roster has three #26's and three #16's. Weird.
I guess I'm missing guys on the Cubs, Marlins, and Astros. See, the Marlins have lots of young guys, and youth usually trumps other characteristics, but even their young guys are sort of funny-looking. (Dan Uggla: It's not just the name.) The Astros and Cubs is probably an oversight on my part; I might have to do some DFA'ing and callups down the line.
Anyway, there you go. Second installment of "Deanna has weird taste in guys" will hopefully be up tomorrow night.
Welcome to the 2006 edition of the Marinerds All-Cute Team!
Last year, this all started after NGFT did his "all-jerk" team and his "all-fun-to-watch" team, and even ESPN had an "all-run-into-a-wall" team, featuring Eric Byrnes, of course. I'd been joking all year about some players, how "that guy'd make it onto my All-Cute Team for sure", and even filled out All-Star ballots of cute players so I'd bother to go watch the game at someone else's house. Well, now I have housemates and cable TV, so the motivations changed, but the scouting became much easier.
This year, rather than picking one guy at each position in each league, I figured I'd do three lists: a 25-man roster for the National League, a 25-man roster for the American League, and a 25-man roster for Nippon Professional Baseball. (The other two will be in subsequent posts.) I'd originally wanted to actually make alternate headshots for most players, as several really cute guys have really awful headshots, but in the end what happened is that their MLB headshots were used as the tiebreakers for cutting the last few guys from the roster. Yeah, if they didn't have a high enough SLG (Smiling Likeable Guy) percentage, I sent them down. Tough beans.
Even though I mostly finalized this year's rosters a month or two ago, I hadn't bothered to sit down and actually write the posts about it. So here you go!
Disclaimer as usual: This is my annual "I'm a girl, goddamnit" posting spree. If you're looking for baseball poetry or translations or serious stuff, scroll down. This list is entirely subjective, and while I tried to find cuteness of all varieties, it's true that I tend towards tall white boys with brown hair and blue eyes.
(It's amusing to look back at last year's post and see that half of the guys on my All-Cute team got traded, too. Anyway.)
Pitchers
#29 Chris Carpenter, RHP, St. Louis Cardinals
#57 Zach Duke, LHP, Pittsburgh Pirates
#26 Jeff Francis, LHP, Colorado Rockies
#35 Cole Hamels, LHP, Philadelphia Phillies
#48 Aaron Heilman, RHP, New York Mets
#51 Noah Lowry, LHP, San Francisco Giants
#63 Ryan Madson, RHP, Philadelphia Phillies
#22 John Patterson, RHP, Washington Nationals
#44 Jake Peavy, RHP, San Diego Padres
Carpenter, Duke, and Madson are returning from last year's team. Carpenter's still damn adorable, though I still haven't decided whether his scruffy bearded look is good or not. Zach Duke has the most adorable pout when he's pitching and a great smile when he's not. Ryan Madson is so odd, because he scrunches his face into an ugly mess when he's throwing the ball, so action shots of him are terrible, but when he's just talking to people or smiling for the camera, he's the most gorgeous guy on the planet, no joke. When I was in Philly this May, these little kids were cheering him during his on-field warmups, and he paused a second, looked up and waved at them with this "Aww, cute little kids" look on his face, but to me, it was "Aww, cute little Madson".
Noah Lowry earned his way onto this list two ways: first, he was in the same Perry Ellis spread that Joe Mauer made famous via Bat-Girl; second, he pitched when the Giants came to Safeco in June. From behind the bullpen, at first I thought he wasn't all that great in person, he was so serious, but then he finished his warmup and smiled, and yeah.
Cole Hamels earned his way onto this list when I was in Philly and was standing about eight feet away from him and got him to sign my ticket stub. Holy camels, batman, he's cute. Great smile and deep blue eyes.
Jeff Francis is on here as part of the "Cute British Columbian Players Association". Aaron Heilman, well, I think he's sort of cute in the same way Billy Wagner is cute, only I don't want to punch him. Jake Peavy's been a borderline cute team candidate for a while, actually, and he got pushed over when I was reading a blurb about him in Sam Walker's book Fantasyland this summer. And John Patterson is actually more of a "whoa, that guy's cute!" remnant from last fall when my brother took me to a Nats game. Unfortunately, both JP's have had bad luck this year with injuries, so it's a good thing they're on this list before they smile too big and break their jaws or something.
Catcher
#16 Brian McCann, Atlanta Braves
#26 David Ross, Cincinnati Reds
I have to first say that I really wanted to put Chris Coste on this list, but he didn't make it due to the inordinate number of Phillies I had already. Ten years in the minors didn't break his spirit, and you could always see Coste smiling and having a blast seeing his dream finally realized. Mike Lieberthal also suffered the "Too many Phillies" treatment here. Anyway.
Brian McCann's headshot is one of the worst ones of one of the cutest guys ever. So instead, how about this picture instead? I dunno. He's just such a cute kid -- as if it wasn't adorable enough last year in the postseason when he described hitting a home run off Roger Clemens by saying "it was really neat", it was even more adorable this year when I picked him up for my fantasy team because he was cute and then he proceeded to hit the snot out of NL pitching for the rest of the year. Great smile, great eyes, great everything.
David Ross has been one of my personal pet peeves for a while. When the Pirates traded Jason Kendall, I sort of hoped Ross would stay as the new backstop there, but no, he got way too many extra-base hits to be sucky enough for them, so they stopped playing him and traded him to San Diego. At the start of this year I said that I hoped he'd catch on with the Reds... and I'm pretty sure a .932 OPS with 21 home runs counts as catching on, so David Ross, *you* are my backup catcher on the team of the cutest players in the National League.
Infield
#7 J.J. Hardy, SS, Milwaukee Brewers
#6 Ryan Howard, 1B, Philadelphia Phillies
#1 Travis Ishikawa, 1B, San Francisco Giants
#16 Conor Jackson, 1B, Arizona Diamondbacks
#28 Lance Niekro, 1B, San Francisco Giants
#26 Chase Utley, 2B, Philadelphia Phillies
#5 David Wright, 3B, New York Mets
#11 Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, Washington Nationals
Yes, my team is full of first basemen. It's not my fault the NL doesn't have a Designated Hugger rule.
Chase Utley and David Wright are returning from last year's team, and if you have to ask why Chase Utley is on this team, then you have no idea how obsessed I used to be with him. First off, his name anagrams to "An ace homers cutely", among other things, which alone gives him lifetime membership to the All-Cute Team. Also, he's gorgeous, with deep blue eyes, thick wavy hair, and the best grin in the world (especially when avoiding talking about his hitting streak earlier this summer). Now, David Wright... it's funny, when I picked him for last year's team it was just like, "Dude, that cute third baseman on the Mets," and this year it's like "OMG DAVID WRIGHT11!!1!!1!" from half the female baseball fans in New York, or something (the other half are all "OMG DEREK JETER11!!1!!1!"). Okay, I'm exaggerating there, as I know there are fangirls for Mets of all shapes and sizes, even Cliff Floyd, but I digress. David Wright definitely seems to have gone overboard on the "trying to seem like a nice cute clean-cut kid" angle this year to the point that he's almost bland, but you know -- this list is about cute guys, and he does succeed in that.
JJ Hardy is on this list even though he spent most of the year on the DL, because I couldn't find another cute NL shortstop worthy of this list and I couldn't pick David Eckstein again with a clean conscience, even if he is the WORLD SERIES MVP1!11 and is a funny little dude who cracks me up. Besides, the Brewers were also lacking prospects in general (Derrick Turnbow's probably a good candidate for the "All-Scary Team"); Hardy's really good-looking, and it's just a shame about his ankle.
Ryan Howard actually has the best smile in the major leagues. And given his accomplishments this year, he had more opportunities to flash it than ever before. As a Phillies fan, it's really hard not to smile when Howard is smiling, both because it's a contagious smile and because it probably means he's kicking ass.
You know, I was torn between whether to kick Travis Ishikawa or Lance Niekro off the roster. They both were signed during that same Giants homestand here in June -- at the time, Ishikawa was filling in at first for Niekro, and that was when he had the crazy fielding escapades of diving over railings, fences, dugouts, etc to make catches in foul territory. So he caught my attention for his plays, and then afterwards for his face. But Niekro was at the stadium on the trip, and came out to chat with fans before the game, and he caught my attention for his smile. Then I learned that Lance's dad, Joe Niekro, passed away last week. And how can I possibly kick a guy when he's down? Thus, I suppose I effectively have two swoon platoons at first base. Oh well.
As for Ryan Zimmerman, this is also my brother-the-Nats-fan's fault. My brother went to UVA, so he wouldn't shut up about Zimmerman until I started paying attention to him. And in the process of paying attention, it was hard to ignore the fact that Zim's just a really cute kid; he just turned 22 and surely has a bright future ahead of him.
Oh, who's left, that's 7 out of... oh, Conor Jackson. Heh. He's cute, he shares my birthday, he spells his name with one n, he caused a hive of bees to attack the Oakland A's in spring training, and I thought he could represent the Diamondbacks (because I still can't put Eric Byrnes on this list in good conscience).
Outfielders
#15 Carlos Beltran, New York Mets
#5 Pat Burrell, Philadelphia Phillies
#25 Mike Cameron, San Diego Padres
#16 Andre Ethier, Los Angeles Dodgers
#7 Jeff Francoeur, Atlanta Braves
#22 Xavier Nady, Pittsburgh Pirates
Pat Burrell returns from last year's team. Why? Because in building this roster, I don't really care about how much money he's making or whether he has any working feet left; this roster only requires that he's a dreamboat and that he looks good limping along in the outfield like that. Technically, Jeff "Frenchy" Francoeur also returns from the postseason cute list; he got on there by being a cute kid (seriously, last year him and McCann talking about going home to play XBox games after the NLDS games just cracked me up), and he stayed on there by continuing to be adorkable. In all honesty, his inability to take a walk sort of frightens me, but you know, he's kind of cute when he strikes out.
What the hell was I thinking not putting the classically good-looking Mike Cameron on the list last year? Oh, right, he wasn't particularly cute at the time, having had his face smashed in by Carlos Beltran. So this year I've just gone ahead and put them both on it, as they're now playing on opposite coasts and can't have any more of those collisions. To be honest, just like Wright, I feel a little guilty having Beltran on here, but he's really expressive and has a really nice face. I had vaguely debated between including both of Los Dos Carlos, as Delgado was actually also in that aforementioned Perry Ellis fashion shoot, but Delgado's headshot got him demoted off the roster. Also, it was just too many Mets for anyone's good.
And to add to the list of ex-Met outfielders, might as well have Xavier Nady in the mix. I know that if msb was making this list, she probably would have favored current Met Shawn Green over him, but again, too many Mets. Green would have probably been a better representative for the Snakes On A Plane than Conor Jackson, but ah well. To be fair, there were a few teams that ended up with no representatives on the roster because of the only candidate getting traded. Jeremy Affeldt, for example... I didn't feel like he outranked Jeff Francis (or Brad Hawpe or several others) on the Rockies, but he would have outranked pretty much anyone on the Royals except maybe Grudzilla.
And on that note, Andre Ethier's on this list because he's actually cute and most of the rest of his team doesn't really fit the "cute" mold, even though several of them are good-looking to some extent. None of them really seemed right for this list; maybe Russell Martin, but he was definitely blocked at catcher. So.
Hmmm, my roster has three #26's and three #16's. Weird.
I guess I'm missing guys on the Cubs, Marlins, and Astros. See, the Marlins have lots of young guys, and youth usually trumps other characteristics, but even their young guys are sort of funny-looking. (Dan Uggla: It's not just the name.) The Astros and Cubs is probably an oversight on my part; I might have to do some DFA'ing and callups down the line.
Anyway, there you go. Second installment of "Deanna has weird taste in guys" will hopefully be up tomorrow night.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Comment Feed (RSS)
