NPB Tracker

Links in English:

• Simon at jhockey breaks down Japan’s Olympic team selections. Biggest surprise? Koji Uehara made the cut despite a 6.00+ ERA.
• Deanna at Marinerds, etc, went to another Nippon Ham Fighters farm team game. More good pics.
• It seems like at least a small portion of my traffic comes from people looking for current stats of NPB players. I get my NPB stats in Japanese, so I didn’t realize until recently that JapaneseBaseball.com has a leaderboard here. Career stat are available here. In the career section, current season stats are available to registered users for foreign players such as Michael Restovich.
• Anyone remember Yukinaga Maeda? I found his triple-a stats while looking for info on Kazuo Fukumori. I didn’t even realize he had signed with an MLB organization. He’s doing a bit better than I would have expected; that 4.29 ERA is high for a reliever but the 41/5 K/BB ratio in 35.2 IP is pretty good. Maybe we’ll see him in MLB this year.

Links in Japanese:

• Orix introduced new import hurler John Koronka. He’ll make his Japan debut pitching 3 innings in a farm game on July 20, then hit the top team around the All-Star break.
• Seibu pounded Lotte 17-10. Lotte starter Naruse surrendered nine runs in 6 2/3 innings in what might be the worst outing of his career.
• Former MLB’er Kazuhito Tadano gave up five runs in Nippon Ham’s loss to Orix. According to Ham pitching coach Masato Yoshii, Tadano’s undoing was a balk.
• Marine.tv is up to date with highlights as of yesterday’s game.
• This Softbank Hawks fan blog has some good pics of Hitoshi Tamura.

So I must say that I’m disappointed to see Hideo Nomo‘s career end as it did. Although Nomo was obviously a shadow of his former self these past few years, I still think he deserves better. It would be nice to see him get a one-day contract with the Dodgers or Orix Buffaloes so he could get a last cheer from the fans. Nomo suited up for a lot of different teams over the last 18 years, but I’ll always think of him as either a Dodger or a Buffalo.

If you’ve made your way to this site, you can no doubt find the many English language articles that have been published on Nomo in the last day or two. So I’m going to focus on Japanese language content (translations courtesy of me).

Comments from Daisuke Matsuzaka, via Sponichi Annex:

“He was the one who inspired me to clearly aim for the Major Leagues while I was in middle school. Since then my goal had been to stand in the same park with him.

“It’s a shame that we couldn’t meet on the field while we had the chance this year and last”

Comments from (Kintetsu Buffaloes teammates) Daijiro Ohishi, Motoyuki Akahori, Hideki Irabu, and Yu Darvish, again via Sponichi Annex:

Ohishi: “I knew he was going to retire someday, but actually hearing it makes me sad. He was a strikeout/walk pitcher, so as fielder it was tough defending (behind him).”

Akahori: “He really was an amazing pitcher. It feels like an era has ended. I want to say ‘well done'”

Irabu: “He was the one that contributed the bridge between Japanese and American baseball. I’d like to tell him ‘you did great work’. I hope that he’ll continue to work hard for baseball in another form”

Darvish: “I think he can still play. I expect him to come out of retirement, but for now I’d like to say ‘well done'”

And last but not least, here’s a YouTube video of Nomo’s first career victory for the old Kintetsu Buffaloes team. It was Nomo’s third career appearance and he struck out 17 Orix Braves, mostly with his splitter.