NPB Tracker

Yu Darvish was examined after the all-star game and some worried of his status for the start of second half of the season, but he seems to be ready to go. He participated in the team practice at Marine Stadium and completed the full workout with the team. The team will keep evaluating his status, but he seems to be on schedule to start his second half versus the Softbank Hawks on July 31st.

Darvish talked with the head trainer before practice and the trainer stated, “He was able to play catch normally,”  so he gave him the okay to participate in full practice. The swelling is alleviating according to reports and he took the precaution of icing his shoulder after practice.

He will be evaluated again in his bullpen session two days prior to the start. His pitching coach, former major leaguer Masato Yoshii stated that he looks fine and there should be no problem.

As Ryo mentioned in his report on Game 1 of the All Star series, Yu Darvish took a line drive off the bat of Alex Ramirez to the shoulder, and left the game after one inning of work. Sanspo has 1 2 3 pics of the aftermath.

While the rest of the All Stars headed down to Hiroshima for game 2, Darvish stayed in Sapporo to have his arm x-rayed and mri’ed, and was diagnosed with a bruised right (throwing) deltoid. According to Nippon Ham’s team trainer, there isn’t any internal bleeding and aren’t any broken bones, and he’ll resume playing catch as the pain subsides.

Yu Darvish’s Pitching Bible has been on sale in Japan since last week.

The 84-paged full-color book features a special interview, demonstration of his breaking ball and off-speed pitches, and interviews by his former pitching coach, trainer, and catchers. His history will be revealed in depth and the results of the survey conducted to 50 current NPB players regarding his number one pitch will be presented.

The content of the book can be seen here. As mentioned before Yu Darvish will appear on CNN and he is taking the next step in marketing himself; having become one of the best pitchers in recent years. I am not sure how many of his “secrets” will be revelead in this book, but this shows some confidience in letting the nation know that he is not scared to present what he is made of to the whole country or maybe in his case, to the world.

I was able to catch the last couple innings of Game 1 on justin.tv and the slugfest resulted with the Central League defeating the Pacific League, 10-8. The MVP was Norichika Aoki (Tokyo Yakult Swallows) blasting a go-ahead 2-run HR in the 9th inning. Aoki went 2-4 with a 2B, HR, 2RBI, 3RS and a BB.

Aoki has had some struggles in the first half of the season for the Swallows hitting .249 with 7HR and this performance at the break might be a postive for him heading into the second half of the season, with the Swallows hunting for a playoff spot.

Yu Darvish (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) went one inning and allowed two hits on 14 pitches. He did not throw the scheduled two innings as he left the game after taking a liner to the right shoulder. According to a statement issued by his team, it did not seem serious. Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten Golden Eagles) picked up the extra work, going three innings and allowing 2H, ER with 2K facing 11 batters. Daisuke Miiura (Yokohama Baystars) earned the win throwing the last two innings without allowing a hit.

For game two, Hideaki Wakui (Saitama Seibu Lions) will start for the Pacific League and Kan Ohtake (Hiroshima Toyo Carp) will make the start at his home stadium for the Central League in Hiroshima.

Yu Darvish (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters) and Dicky Gonzalez (Yomiuri Giants) will get the starts for the Game 1 of the All-Star game hosted at the Sapporo Dome. Darvish will have only one day of rest in between from his outing against the Chiba Lotte Marines throwing a complete game for the league leading 12th win. He is still scheduled to throw two innings at the All-Star game hosted in his home stadium.

Tetsuya Yamaguchi (Tokyo Yomiuri Giants) will be the first player to participate in the All-Star game starting his career from the Ikusei Player System. Tadashi Settsu, a reliever for the Softbank Hawks will be the only rookie in participating in the All-Star game.

The Fresh All-Star game, which is the All-Star game for the Ni-gun was held at the Sapporo Dome. The starters for this game was Kenji Tsuchiya (Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters), a 4th-round draft pick from 2008, and Taiwan-born Sho Iketsu (Xiao Yijie), a 1st round draft pick from the Hanshin Tigers in the 2008 draft.

The game resulted one-sided with the Eastern League defeating the Western League, 7-0. The MVP of the game was another player hoping to call Sapporo Dome his home in the near future, Sho Nakata. The 1st rounder from the 2007 draft went 2-4 with two doubles, 2RBI, RS, BB and a SB. Taishi Ota, first rounder from the Yomiuri Giants in the 2008 draft went 1-5 with a double.

Yu Darvish will appear on CNN’s interview program, “Talk Asia“. The interview was already filmed in Sapporo Dome during June and will be shown sometime in September. Aside from Darvish, the only other Japanese baseball player to appear on the show is current New York Yankee Hideki Matsui and Darvish will be the first present NPB player to get the call.

CNN staff states in an interview by Houchi Shimbun, “He is a pitcher not only noticed in Japan, but the world is keeping an eye on him. We are planning to not only introduce his baseball background, but his entire lifestyle of growing up half Iranian and half Japanese.”

Darvish has already made his debut on the field at the world stage participating in the Beijing Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. Now it’s time for him to reveal his character and personality off the field to the whole world.

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a high probability that you’ve heard of Keith Law. Keith is a veteran of Baseball Prospectus and the Toronto Blue Jays’ front office, and currently the lead baseball analyst for ESPN’s Scouts Inc. Keith took the time to answer a few questions on how Yu Darvish compares to Washington Nationals draftee, Stephen Strasburg.

NPB Tracker: How does Strasburg’s repertoire compare to Darvish’s?

Keith Law: Darvish shows far more pitches than Strasburg, who has four but spent most of the spring using just two.

NT: Who do you like better mechanically?

KL: I would say Strasburg – he’s easier and cleaner – although the sheer arm speed puts us into uncertain territory with Strasburg. We have little experience with starters who throw that hard and get their arms going that fast.

NT: If you had to choose one of the two pitchers for an MLB rotation this year, who would it be?

KL: I don’t think there’s a wrong answer here, but I’d take Darvish, given his experience facing a higher level of competition.

NT: Which of the two has the higher upside, and why?

KL: That’s a good question and I have gone back and forth on this. I think Strasburg’s fastball and hard curve rate well ahead of Darvish’s top two pitches, so I’d take Strasburg.

NT: Thank you Keith.

日本語訳

Last Friday, Yu Darvish took a no-hitter into the 8th inning against the Chiba Lotte Marines. The Marines broke up the no-no with two singles in the eight, but Darvish still left the game without allowing a run as he picked up his Japan-leading 10th win.

Here’s how he did it:

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 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.