NPB Tracker

First links roundup in a while, as usual all in Japanese today.

• The monthly MVPs were announced yesterday. In the Pacific League, Yu Darvish and Tadahito Iguchi won, while Wladimir Balentien and Tetsuya Utsumi took home the prizes in the Central League. It’s nice to see Balentien get the award this month as I think he got robbed in April.
• At an elementary school visit, Darvish was asked “why did you start to play baseball?”, to which he answered “when I was an elementary school student I also played ice hockey but the practices were tough.” I could see Darvish as a defenseman with great reach.
• Nippon Ham racked up a team scoreless streak of 52 innings last week, tying the NPB record set by Hanshin in 1942. After the streak came to an end Saturday against Yakult, Nippon Ham immediately went out and put up back-to-back shutouts against Yomiuri, so they already have another 18 inning scoreless streak. Nippon Ham has a cool 2.21 team ERA, which amazingly is second to Softbanks 2.15.
• My re-translation of Alex Cabrera’s comments regarding his 350th NPB home run wound up getting translated to Spanish for a Venezuelan publication. Now that this has gone through a few iterations I’d love to see how close this Spanish translation comes to Cabu’s original remarks.
• Cleveland minor leaguer Tooru Murata has a blog going. One post that caught my eye was this one, in which he writes about traveling by bus, saying “the air conditioning is too strong so the bus is too cold. I lose the feeling in my fingertips.” Murata seems to be on the DL, but he has a good K:BB ratio so far this year. He very experienced for his level though.
• Orix is selling “pro model uniforms” jerseys this summer, for JPY 34,500.
• This photo was taken above Hakkodate Ocean Stadium in Hokkaido back on May 15th.
• Personal non-news observation #1: I haven’t watched much major league baseball at all this year, but yesterday I watched a bit of the Giants game against Colorado. The Giants started a righthanded #32, who I had never seen before, and I kept thinking “wow, this guy is great, who is he?” It turned out to be former Hanshin and Orix pitcher Ryan Vogelsong.
• Personal non-news observation #2: I don’t think any pitcher in NPB enjoys what he does as much as Orix’s Yuki Nishi does. I’ve really enjoyed watching him this season.

For the first time in Arizona Fall League’s 17-year history, players from teams outside of Major League Baseball have been invited to take part in the league. NPB has agreed to send five pitchers to participate in the league.

LHP Hiroshi Katayama (Golden Eagles) and RHP Toshiyuki Yanuki (Fighters) is on the Phoenix Sea Dogs roster. RHP Tooru Murata (Giants), RHP Ken Nishimura (Tigers) and LHP Takanobu Tsujiuchi (Giants) will be on the pitching staff of the Scottsdale Scorpions. RHP Kenta Abe (Tigers) will be joining the Scorpions mid-season and switching spots with teammate Nishimura.

This is a great opportunity for Japanese pitching prospects with limited big league experience to mingle with players in the States and face big time prospects like Dustin Ackley and Jason Heyward. It should be a valuable learning experience for the young pitchers and a good relationship builder for NPB and MLB. The ability to bring in players from around the globe to participate in the Arizona Fall League can be a huge opportunity for the MLB to develop Arizona as an Autumn mecca for young prospects.