NPB Tracker

Sanspo reports that Yokohama is looking to acquire two Korean players, SK Wyverns outfielder Lee Jin-Young and Doosan Bears pitcher Lee Hye-Chun. According to the articles, Lee Hye-Chun is a fastball/slider lefty with a three-quarters motion, while Lee Jin-Young is a steady defender with gap power.

This marks a different approach for the BayStars, who got very little production from their six foreign players in 2008, and won’t bring any of them back for next year. This off-season they’re looking for quality rather than quantity from their foreign roster. Attracting Korean players seems to be business driven as well: “Now Korea is a big market. This time we definitely want to acquire a player from Korea,” said the team official scouting Lee Hye-Chun.

The Giants have defeated Chunichi to advance to their first Nippon Series since 2002. Yomiuri will face traditional Pacific League rival Seibu for the title. 

Members of the Giants management smiled for a few seconds before going back to serious thoughts, and the players were permitted to take part in a modest on-field celebration. Meanwhile, Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima publicly reminded the troops that the real challenge is ahead of them: “‘You’ll want to be told ‘congratulations’ after the Series… the challenge is the battle against Seibu starting on November 1”.

Yomiuri-Seibu is a classic Japan Series matchup; I equate to something like a Yankees-Dodgers or Tigers-Cardinals World Series. The two teams also met in 2002, 1994, 1990, 1987, and 1983, with the Lions holding a 3-2 edge. The teams also met in the 50’s with Seibu predecessor Nishitetsu beating out the Giants three years in a row from 1956-58.

The first Japan Series I ever saw was the 1994 Series, which was televised in the Chicago area (where I grew up) during the MLB labor dispute that canceled the World Series. I watched every game and it’s really what got me started on Japanese baseball.

I’ve been piling up random bullet points for over a month now, so rather than sift threw ’em I thought I’d throw them all out there and let you decide what’s interesting. 

Japanese Articles

• Chunichi is preparing a multi-year offer for closer HItoki Iwase. I think the Dragons’ offer could actually be comparable to the offers he’ll get from MLB teams.
• The SoftBank Hawks’ billionaire owner Masayoshi Son attended three Hawks games this year, the last of which was on Sept 28.
• Kazuhiro Kiyohara got quite a send-off around NPB. In his last game against Seibu, he was treated to a dou-age* by the opposing Lions, the team he began his pro career with. A few days earlier he struck out in his final appearance in Kobe’s beautiful Skymark Stadium.
• I stumbled across a Yu Darvish promotion on some kind of frozen breafast food.

English Articles

• Mainichi has an interesting piece on Phillies manager Charlie Manuel’s time as a player in Japan.