NPB Tracker

Some of you may have noticed the NPB Live link that appeared in the navigation bar a couple days ago. I’ve embedded a couple of justin.tv channels that show NPB games. Hanshin vs Hiroshima is on now.

Hanshin has deactivated Kevin Mench and replaced him on the roster with utility infielder Aarom Baldiris. Mench’s struggles have been well-publicized, and now the team is looking for a physiological explanation for his performance. Hanshin’s trainer commented that Mench is “horribly fatigued”.

Baldiris is a useful utility guy who made a good impression last year with his hustle and positive attitude, but he’s kind of a fringey NPB’er and certainly not the mid-lineup Hanshin thought they were getting in Mench. To that end, the Tigers have deployed US-based scouts Tom O’Malley and Andy Sheets in case they need to make a mid-season acquisition.

The Hiroshima Carp are looking to import some righthanded power in veteran slugger Scott McClain. Negotiations are reportedly going well and McClain is expected to head across the Pacific in May.

McClain is kind of a story of perseverance; he hit his first MLB home runs last year with the Giants at age 36. He has some NPB experience, having spent parts of four seasons with the Seibu Lions in the early 00’s. The Carp had pretty good results with their last veteran suketto acquisition (Alex Ochoa) and McClain figures to be a solid addition to their lineup.

Hisashi Iwakuma‘s stellar performance in the World Baseball Classic has lead to his first nationwide commercial appearance. Sukiya, a national fastfood chain, will utilize Iwakuma to promote its new prices for their main menu items. Selecting a nationally popular figure on the was the reasoning behind selecting Iwakuma as the face of the company for the forseeable future.

Iwakuma plays in a small home market, Sendai, and even though he was the Sawamura Award winner (top pitcher) in 2008, his marketability did not increase immediately. It was his performance on the international stage that boosted his publicity to a national level.

Although many players use the WBC as an audition for a Major League roster spot, Iwakuma is a great example of how performing on the international stage can lead to other opportunities. The players and manager of the Korean national team are also receiving endorsement opportunities as manager In-Sik Kim, pitcher Hyunjin Ryu, and infielders Tae Kyun Kim, and Bum Ho Lee are featured in an advertisment poster for the Galleria shopping mall. Infielder Dae Ho Lee also captilized on opportunities being the image character for Lotte Milk and Pusan Bank. Ownership companies for Korean teams tend to be more passive toward using their own players as their image character and the decision of utilizing players in this capacity shows how much of an impact the WBC had on Korea as well.

Here’s some delayed fallout from last year’s Junichi Tazawa signing. Per a request from NPB, the organizing bodies of Japanese amateur baseball are going to conduct a review of MLB amateur scouting activity in Japan. The crux of the issue is that there are specific limitations on when NPB scouts can contact players, but none on MLB scouts. I suppose the idea is to level the playing field a bit.

In unrelated news, NPB is going to take another look at the Asia Series, which lost about 200 million yen ($2m) last year.

Hat tip to the unintentionally prophetic EWC: Nikkan Sports is reporting noted fat toad Hideki Irabu is working out in LA and aiming to resume his career in the US independent leagues some time this season. The article says that he’s played in amateur games and is hitting 90 mph on the gun in his workouts. There’s also a lengthy quote from someone associated with Irabu:

That he’s aiming for a comeback is true. Because he’s gotten back into shape*, he came to want play again. He’s playing with a cheerful demeanor. He wants to get tryouts and find a club he can play for. He’s looking to make a comeback in the independent leagues during the season. Looking to the future, the thinking is that if possible he wants to return to a high level, like MLB or NPB. 

*the original Japanese translates more directly as “his condition has returned”, which I think is really more of an assertion that Irabu has recovered from the injuries that forced him to retire. Keep in mind that this is a guy who was known as “jellyfish” in Japan before he was ever called a toad. The jellyfish moniker was an affectionate one though.

I wonder if that’s Don Nomura talking. 

Nikkan Sports provides us with a picture of him throwing, but I think that it was taken before the WBC, when Kyuji Fujikawa was working out in LA and happened to bump into Irabu in Compton. That sounds too ridiculous to be true, but it’s what was reported. Irabu is a US green card holder and returned to the US earlier in the year. Putting two and two together, I’d say he’s looking for a spot in the Golden League.

The pitching data I’ve presented over the last week or so has proven to be a hit. Readers — who do you want to see me take a look at next? Please put your answers in the comments.

The ceremonial first pitch for the first game between the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers was thrown from a great distance. Koichi Wakata, an astronaut on a long-term mission at the International Space Station, filmed the first pitch wearing a Giants uniform (supplied by manager Tatsunori Hara) inside the station, and was shown on the scoreboard prior to the game at the Tokyo Dome.

The ball used for the ceremonial first pitch was a speciality made ball, the “School Lunch Ball.” Inside the ball was a message-filled ribbon signed by Giants captain Shinnosuke Abe and nine students selected from the School Lunch program that the Giants participate in. The “School Lunch” program involves players interacting with students and eating lunch together in school classrooms.

Wakata commented, “If I practice more, maybe I will be able to throw a pitch that is impossible to imitate in Earth. I will hope to continue reporting news of dreams and hope from space.”

A new gyro ball in the works, perhaps from outer space. Stay tuned.

It’s not Dallas McPherson, but SoftBank has acquired a bat. The Hawks have signed former Chiba Lotte Marine and Orix Blue Wave Jose Ortiz to a one year, $500k deal. Ortiz had been tearing up the Mexican League (.412, 7 hr in 68 ab), and has a track record of solid play in NPB, so this looks like a good move by the Hawks.

Ortiz will be available for game duty from the 28th.

The 2009 NPB season is underway, and I’m happy to say that there are more places to catch up on Japanese & Asian baseball in English than there were last year.

We already had these fine websites:

• Deanna’s Marinerds, etc
• Simon’s jhockey, which covers baseball in hockey’s offseason
• EastWindupChronicle
• Tsubamegun: The Tokyo Yakult Swallows
• True Stories of Korean Baseball
• The venerable JapaneseBaseball.com

Over the last couple months, I’ve discovered a few new ones:

• Yakyu All-Stars, a blog started by a member of the JapaneseBaseball.com community
• Japan Baseball News, a sister site of JapanBall.com
• Baseball81.com, a repository of English-language Japanese scouting information
• Steve Says Kanpai, a blog kind of in the vein of EWC
• A Noboru Aota Fan’s Notes, a blog that looks to mostly be about Japanese baseball history
• Gen’s NPB reports at Sim Central
• welovemarines, a new blog for Chiba Lotte Marines fans

I’m sure there are a few more out there — what else should be on this list?