NPB Bullet Points: Brazell Becomes a Dad, KBO Offers for Bobby
Japanese Stories:
- Craig Brazell commemorated the birth of his son, Trot, with two home runs in Hanshin’s 9-3 win over Yokohama. Congratulations to the Brazell family!
- Lotte reportedly has some interest in bringing Julio Zuleta back to Japan. Why? Good question — he wasn’t effective his last few years in Japan, and he got himself released from his Mexican League team early in the season. Lotte team management says he would have to pass a tryout get a contract.
- Chris Aguila is headed back to the States at the end of the month and is almost certainly done with SoftBank. He only managed to hit .095 and hasn’t played at ichi-gun since May.
- Yomiuri is considering sending pitcher Norihito Kaneto among others to the Arizona Fall League this year. The team sent a couple of guys to play in the Dominican last winter.
- “Shaggy” Shugo Fujii has qualified for domestic free agency.
- It was a “draw”: Hisahi Iwakuma threw 149 pitches over 10 innings on August 25, but Hideaki Wakui threw 162 over nine. Neither pitcher figured in the decision, which Seibu took in a walk-off in the 11th. The winning Lions stormed the field, Taketoshi Gotoh wearing a mask that is supposed to resemble Barrack Obama.
- Javelin thrower Yukifumi Murakami is reportedly getting a little attention from NPB teams as a pitcher. He supposedly hit 152 kmph (95mph) on the gun in college but maxed out at 142 kmph (87mph) in a recent speed gun competition.
English Stories:
- Gen passes along a Sponichi report saying that Bobby Valentine is getting offers to manage in Korea.
- You know those ESPN commercials that make Buster Olney look like an undercover operative or something? It took me two or three times to figure out what he’s supposed to be saying on the phone in Japanese. It’s “Ichiro! My favorite outfielder!” (“Ichiro! Boku no sukina gaiyashu!”).
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26/08/2009 at 6:25 pm Permalink
I was at the Seibu game on the 25th and it was really *bleeping* amazing. No other way to say it. Thanks for posting the Sanspo link Patrick, as I totally missed Gotoh in the Obama mask as I couldn’t see him cause he was hounded by the entire bench.
26/08/2009 at 8:53 pm Permalink
Is it really supposed to be Obama? It looks more like Dicky González.
27/08/2009 at 4:30 am Permalink
It is not Goto wearing the mask – he doesn’t wear anything red on his forearms.
http://sports.yahoo.co.jp/hl?c=npb&a=20090825-00000517-sanspo-base
It’s probably Kataoka.
27/08/2009 at 4:40 am Permalink
Another thing.
On July 28th I suggested to discuss “… that H. Nakajima was suddenly trying to pull outside pitches with power today against Iwakuma.”
I didn’t like the way he was trying to do that.
Looking over his recent stats today (period of July 17- Aug 23):
BA – .237
SLG – .309
OBP – .321
97 ABs, 4 doubles and just one HR.
10 walks, 24 SO.
Sinking ship 🙁 and BTW, what happened to T. Nakamura, anyone?
Why he’s not playing?
27/08/2009 at 4:55 am Permalink
Over the same time period
Runs scored/allowed per nine innings:
NHF 4.21 – 3.44
RGE 4.84 – 4.08
FSH 3.99 – 4.88
SL 3.54 – 3.50
OB 4.24 – 4.14
CLM 3.71 – 4.31
Lions offense has been in a funk …
As I write this Bayliss gives up a long bomb
Another straitish fastball, no control altogether
Where’d they find this guy: yeah, he looks a bit like Tom Hanks, but come on!
27/08/2009 at 5:04 pm Permalink
Okawari-kun (T Nakamura) is sitting out with leg soreness.
27/08/2009 at 10:49 pm Permalink
The rumor about LG being interested in Bobby has been shown to not originate at LG. If you follow the path of the rumor, you’ll find that it originated in Japan, not even in Korea, making it more likely to be the latest salvo fired by the anti-Bobby management at Lotte. But I don’t know why.
27/08/2009 at 11:08 pm Permalink
Whoops, that article sites a Korean newspaper source.
After further investigation, the Korean paper claims that a Korean acquaintance of Bobby’s was trying to make a deal with the LG Twins. If that story holds true, then he was doing so without telling Valentine-kantoku about it.
It gets curiouser and curiouser.