NPB Tracker

田沢純一選手はアメリカの野球に上手く対応しているようで現在2-Aポートランドで67回を投げ63三振を奪い、防御率2.67を保持しています。田沢選手の成績についてもう少し具体的な内容を得るべく、ポートランド・プレスヘールドで記者をしていらっしゃるケビン・トーマスさんにお話を伺いました。

ケビンさんはポートランド・プレスヘールド/メイーンサンデーで野球を取材している記者です。彼が始めに野球に関わったのは1978年にセイントピーターズバーグ・タイムズの記者としてスプリング・トレーニングの取材をした時です。彼は1994年にメイン州へ移り、現在はリトル・リーグでコーチをしていない時にはポートランド・シードッグスとボストン・レッドソックスについて書いています。

ケビンさんのブログはmainetoday.comにてご覧できます。

NPB TRACKER: 田沢選手はローテーションの順番を守り、決め球を捉える能力のある打者に対応していかなくてはいけません。どれほどまでに順応できているでしょうか。

Kevin Thomas: 大変良く順応出来ています。投球ミスは少ないですし、ボールを低く狙ったところに投げられています。すでに今シーズンはイースタン・リーグ屈指の投手となっています。

NPBT: レッドソックスに加わるまでは常にセットポジションから投げていました。ワインドアップから同じ投球を続けることは出来ていますか。

KT: 本人曰くワインドアップから投げることで直球が生きてくるようですが、当初は変化球を安定させるのに苦労をしていたようです。最近では安定した変化球をコントロール問題なく投げれるようになってきています。

NPBT: 田沢選手のどういった部分に感心をしていますか？

KT: どんな状況に陥ってもぶれない姿勢ですね。逆にランナーを塁に出した方が良くなっていくように感じます。

NPBT: どういった部分を上達させる必要がありますか？

KT: このレベルで投げる投手はみな安定感を求められます。とは言っても彼はすでに投球を上手く織り交ぜており、直球でストライクを取って上手くスライダー、カーブ、そしてSFFを活かしています。

NPBT: シードッグスの有力選手の中でどの辺りの位置づけですか？

KT: レッドソックスはクレイ・バックホールズやマイケル・ボーデンを含めてすでにマイナーで有望な投手はいくらか存在しています。私自身は彼らのすぐ後に田沢選手を位置づけており、今年中にでもトリプル3-Aのパータケットに合流するのではと予想しています。

NPBT: ケビンさんありがとうございました！

Todd Linden and Kazuo Fukumori are officially in the fold for Rakuten, and Sanspo has the pics to prove it. There are no guarantees for Fukumori, he’ll have to prove himself with the farm team before getting a chance with the top club.

Mazda is taking advantage of the popularity of the newly-built stadium it sponsors to show off some its newest products.

Mazda utilized the concourses and the big screen of the ballpark to promote their new Mazda AXELA. Mazda is showing a little bit of innovative thinking in finding this way to leverage the naming rights they hold for the stadium. Sometimes you’ll see a car exhibited in American ballparks, or a section or suite sponsored by a car company, but I personally never heard of a car show being held at a ballpark.

The ballparks in Japan are not mostly owned by individual teams, instead they are owned by the cities. The teams pay usage fees to the city in most cases, so it’s hard for the teams to be creative and conduct their own events like many of the professional teams do here in the United States. It would be nice to see non-sporting events conducted at the ballparks and arenas rather than having them sit silent and dark on days when there are no home games.

With the draft over in the United States, the next focus will be on teams negotiating with agents to reach agreements for the players starting their professional careers. Agents occasionally get the national spotlight for some negotiations and have become a big part of sports business and the baseball world, which has led to a paradigm shift in professional sports. For those with a passion for other sports, items like Bushnell packages may be worth exploring.

On the other hand, in NPB, player agents are still a fairly new idea, and agents are known as Dairinin (representative). One agent that comes to mind, having received national attention, is Don Nomura (the son of Sachiyo Nomura, and step-son of Rakuten Golden Eagles manager Katsuya Nomura). He was involved in negotiating a minor-league deal for Mac Suzuki and played a key role in Hideo Nomo crossing the Pacific.

Although agents are starting to gain recognition, NPB still has a closed culture toward accepting the role of agents. An agent needs to be a licensed lawyer or certified as an agent by MLB, or pass the exam provided by the Players Association. They also need to register with NPB in order to take part in a player’s contract negotiation. In order to register as an agent, the candidate must read the rules and apply downloading the materials from this page.

The biggest difference in the role of agents between MLB and NPB is that an agent can only represent a single player. This restriction reduces the appeal to become a player  agent as not many people will be able to live off of the five percent commission from one player.

Surveys have been taken by the Players Association in the past to look at what the players actually think about agents and if they would like to utilize an agent in the future (The Results from 2000). Players were still hesitant to embrace the idea of using agents, as only 2.2 % (14/633) of the players answering the surveys stated they would definitely like to use one.

However, in recent years, as agents have become well-known for representing players negotiating for major league deals, the idea of agents is gaining ground with players. A new development we’ve seen is established lawyers adding player representation to their resumes. “Lawyer Kitamura Joining the Baseball World” is one famous recent example.

Unless the rules change to allow agents to play a larger role in the sport, it’s hard to imagine an icon like Scott Boras appearing in the NPB world. However, as agents become more trusted by players, opportunities for sports agencies should grow. Notably, Hisashi Iwakuma signed a deal with IMG in December, 2007.

While Hosei University righthander Kazuhito Futagami has gotten some attention from MLB scouts, apparently the pitcher isn’t reciprocating the interest. Futagami addressed the issue in a brief Q&A wite Livedoor.

-It seems like Hanshin is very keen on you.

“I’m from Kochi, and I go to Hanshin’s camp (in Aki, Kochi), so that’s a team that’s near to my heart.”

-Major League teams have interest in you.

“I don’t have much intrest in the Major Leagues. You know, I like Japan (laughter). I think it’s off to go to America without succeeding in Japan.”

-Do you have a team that you would like to go to?

“There isn’t any team that I especially want to go to. But I’m paying attention to the Pacific League teams. Pitchers in my age group like Yu Darvish (Nippon Ham), who is one year older than me, and Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten), who is one year younger, are competing and maturing there.”

The other day, Sponichi ran some comments from Hideki Matsui in response to the revelation that Hanshin might be interested in signing him after the season. Here’s what he had to say:

When told about Hanshin’s interest…

“I’m happy that they would say that, I have to appreciate it. Because I was a Hanshin fan when I was a kid.”

When asked if he’d prefer to finish his career in the States…

“Basically that’s right, but since I don’t know what will come up I don’t know what will happen.”

It’s worth noting that Sponichi put the “I don’t know what will happen” quote in the headline, which I find a little out of character for the ultra-speculative Japanese media.

Sponichi has more from after the Yankees’ June 17 game against Washington:

“I flat-out can’t have this discussion now. But I appreciate that they have interest. I was a Hanshin fan when I was a kid.”

So there you have it. Keep an eye on this space come November.

While we’re here, to give you an idea of how analytical the Japanese press can be, the same blurb points out that Matsui’s batting average in games after he’s hit a home run is .111.

NPB teams still have a closed culture regarding new hires and job openings usually do not go open to the public. Although some teams are changing their mentality and internship opportunities are becoming a popular way to be involved with academics, the idea has not yet been fully embraced throughout the league.

During the off-season if you browse on some of the team’s websites you might be lucky enough to come across a job opening that the team is trying to fill. That was why I was actually suprised to come across this opening with the Hanshin Tigers at this time during the season. Applications are due by June 30th for this ballpark operations opportunity and the qualifications listed are that you need to have at least graduated high school, must have a strong interest in sports business, and must have a sense of leadership and responsibility among other things.

I will be looking for a full-time opportunity in the off-season myself hoping to stay in the sports industry, but I will not be applying for this obviously, so I thought I’d share this opening with the readers here who might be looking for an opportunity with a NPB team like the Hanshin Tigers.

• The Chiba Lotte Marines’ dedicated fans presented team management with a petition signed by 112,493 to keep Bobby Valentine in Makuhari next year. The bald guys is the one who collected the signatures.
• Marty Brown went with a five-man infield in the 12th inning of the Carp’s saturday game with the Lions, and it actually worked. With the bases loaded and one out, Brown brought Tetsuya Okubo in from left and put him in between short and third. The Lions pitch hitter Haruki Kurose grounded one right at him, and Okubo threw home for a rare 7-2-3 double play.
• Yu Darvish won his eighth game of the season on Friday and also high-fived these TV personalities.
• Craig Brazell fouled three straight pitches off himself Friday against Lotte, then hit a home run. (thanks to reader bloodsmurf for the video)
• Yakult set an NPB record by getting hits in 11 straight at bats, which they did in the fifth inning of their 14-10 win over Orix on June 14. Tsubamegun has a nice write-up of Yakult’s big inning.
• Just a few days before Yakult offensive explosion, Lotte cranked out 10 straight hits as part of a 15-run inning. Steve Novosel caught it in hi-res. Also from Steve is this pic of a couple maiko (geisha) at a Marines game.
• Naoya Washiya has signed his first professional contract with Washington. He’ll start his career in rookie ball.
• We’ll wrap this one up with a couple of photoposts from Deanna and Matt.

Comments made by an unnamed member of the Hanshin Tigers front office about the possibility of Hanshin going after Hideki Matsui this offseason are making the rounds in the Japanese media. Here’s what was said in Sponichi:

“There’s a feeling that if he comes back to Japan, it will be with Hanshin. He’s had knee issues, and if he’s going to play in Japan the natural grass at Koshien would be good.”

And Nikkan Sports:

“Certainly with that type of hitter, it wouldn’t be that we don’t have interest. Are the Yankees really not going to resign him, and if so, how much would we need? We want to do our homework so that if it comes to that, we’ll be able to move quickly.”

“Realistically money would be a problem.”

Comments attributed to Matsui appear in Sponichi:

“Of course, the best thing would be to continue to be a player who is needed by the Yankees. Of course I can’t even imagine playing for another team.”

“I might have to return to Japan.”

I think we can expect to see this kind of speculation about Matsui’s future more frequently as the season goes on. In the US media, Matsui has been pretty consistent in saying that he’d like to stay in MLB, so his Sponichi comments come as a little bit of a surprise to me.

It feels like Hanshin is posturing a little bit with these comments, though the are openly acknowledging that it would be an expensive move for them. Hanshin talked a pretty good game when Kenshin Kawakami was on the market last year as well. It’s also hard to see where Matui fights in with the Tigers in a baseball sense. Still, Hanshin was Matsui’s favorite team growing up, and he’d obviously be a huge draw anywhere in Japan, so I wouldn’t rule this out completely.

One year ago, I started this blog with a post about Shingo Takatsu signing with the Woori Heroes of Korea. Interestingly, year two of NPB Tracker starts (partially) with the news of Shingo’s minor league contract with the Giants.

According to reports published by Sponichi and Nikkan Sports, Shingo hung around in the Giants extended camp in Arizona after his May tryout with the team. After a physical and some other checks, the Giants signed him to a minor league contract. After the visa paperwork clears he’s expected to join AAA Fresno.

Nikkan Sports quotes Shingo as saying: “the number one thing is that I’m relieved. I don’t feel any differently, but at this age it’s difficult to challenge (a comeback) without the cooperation of those around me. I’ve caused a lot of bother so I want to do my very best for those who have supported me”.

The Giants also have Keiichi Yabu in their AAA bullpen.