NPB Tracker

Yu Darvish threw another shutout today, devouring the Yakult Swallows 3-0, striking out nine, but also allowing eight hits.

I’ve put together a velocity chart for this game, but if you’re on the homepage you’ll have to click the “continue reading” link to check it out.

Here’s what the Yankees saw when they watched Yu Darvish last week.

Note that this velocity chart is in a groovy new javascript format. I’m hoping to add some interactivity to it over the next couple of weeks. This one is kind of the proof of concept, once I see that things are working I’ll jump back on to my schedule. I’ve looked at this chart in Firefox and Chrome, but not much in IE, so if anyone sees any issues please let me know.

Update: hover over each object on the chart and enjoy the effects.

Sports Hochi ran a piece the other day saying that the Yankees had three scouts watching Yu Darvish make his shortest start of the season, a seven-inning performance in Nippon Ham’s 10-1 win over Orix. Darvish didn’t have his best stuff, topping out at about 91mph, but still held the Buffaloes to one run on four hits.

Obligatory repeating of myself: Darvish is five years away from free agency and has repeatedly denied any interest in moving to MLB. I find it interesting that that doesn’t stop the scouts from watching him though. The Yankees sent Gene Michael to Japan last year to check him out, so they’re obviously interested in acquiring him down the road. Maybe this persistance will pay off.

More data from Yu Darvish’s most recent start against the Lions

Note that Darvish got every pitch in his arsenal over for at least one called strike, but the Lions were mostly able to make contact when the swung.

Here is the velocity chart from Yu Darvish’s win last night over Seibu. More info coming later. More info is here.

Click the chart to view full size.

There are more velocity charts here and here. You can get all the velocity charts here. Is this data compelling? npbtracker@gmail.com

An obvious shortcut to marketability in Japan is making a name for yourself in the National High School Tournament held at Koshien Stadium every spring and summer. That’s the road many players took to gain national attention, including Daisuke Matsuzaka, with his stellar performance in the 1998 tournament, and Hideki Matsui, who was intentionally walked in five straight at bats in the 1992 tournament. Let’s take a look at some other Koshien heroes who were on this year’s WBC roster, and how they feature on Japan’s promotional landscape.

• Masahiro Tanaka (Two-time champion, 2004, 2005 tournaments) has become one of the most newsworthy pitchers in Japan. Known affectionately as Maa-Kun, he has been seen nationally in commercials for organizations such as the Red Cross and House Food Product, which have nothing to do with baseball, but the decided to use him as a symbol. Also the parent company of the Golden Eagles is using Tanaka in thier own business as Rakuten Shouken has assigned him as the image character for their new program, Money TV.
•  Yu Darvish (No-Hitter, 2004 tournament) is another popular figure appearing in many commercials, but the most interesting use of his character is seen by the Japan Water Forum. The organization partnered with Yu Darvish and founded the Yu Darvish Water Fund, which is not only a charity program that he participates in, but a way to raise awareness of the water problems seen throughout the world.
• Toshiya Sugiuchi (No-Hitter, 1998 tournament) lacks in national attention compared to the other two, but is still one of the faces of the Softbank Hawks franchise. The Hawks organized a player recognition day for the fans to receive a original photo album by purchasing game tickets in a certain section. The project will kick off with Sugiuchi being the first player to be recognized.

These players are some that comes to mind that are currently playing in the NPB, had on the WBC team roster and performed well in the Koshien Tournament. Not all stars from the tournament are able to transfer their stardom into a professional career, but receiving the coverage from national media throughout the tournament definitely helps players to be more marketable at the start of their professional careers.

Yu Darvish is approaching Ichiro status in Japan. However, this time it’s not on the baseball field, but inside classrooms. He will be featured in the new edition of an English textbook, “Earthliner 09-10”, which is mainly used in high schools in Japan. Every edition of the textbook features a different public figure who has been active internationally and Darvish will be the second baseball player used after Ichiro.

A comment from the publisher states: “Darvish is popular figure with high school kids with thier similarity in age. He has made a name for himself in international competitions such as the Olympics and the WBC.”

The Earthliner textbook selects a figure that will stimulate students’ interest in English. Two pages out of the 32 page textbook will cover his career from his play, from the Koshien National High School Tournament to his performance on the international stage. Four million copies have been sent to schools around the country already and Darvish will look not only to entertain the fans at the ballpark, but the students in the classrooms as well.

The NPB season opened last night, 4/3, and I was remiss in only giving it a passing mention. Here are some highlights:

• Hisashi Iwakuma got the better of Yu Darvish, with Rakuten beating Nippon Ham 3-1. Darvish pitched a complete game in a losing effort, while Iwakuma went six innings, allowing one run while throwing only 59 pitches. Highlights are available on YouTube.
• Tsuyoshi Wada struck out 14 Orix Buffaloes in an 8-0 shutout victory. SoftBank may have to prove me wrong about their offense.
• Colby Lewis defeated countryman Seth Greisinger in the Carp’s 6-3 win over the Giants.
• Kevin Mench went 0-4 in his Hanshin debut, continuing his spring slump, but the Tigers beat the Swallows 5-2.

All the box scores in Japanese but I’ll have an English source for them soon. The WBC live chats were fun, I’m going to try doing that again during the season, if a) the time difference is reasonable and b) we can find a reliable live stream.

And in other brief news, yu-darvish.com is now an NPB Tracker property.

As MLB camps wrap up, players are making their final tweaks before the regular season starts. For Koji Uehara, that means finally testing his new pitches in a game situation. Uehara is planning on testing his newly-developed changeup in his  appearance today against the Mets. No word on whether the curve ball he was working on will make an appearance.

Meanwhile, Daisuke Matsuzaka took a souvenier home from the WBC — a new forkball. I was a little surprised to see that in the news, because Matsuzaka threw a forkball in Japan and I didn’t realize he stopped in MLB. Apparently he couldn’t keep his forkball under control with an MLB ball, and didn’t throw any forks at all last season. The WBC afforded him the opportunity to work with noted forkballers Hisashi Iwakuma and Yu Darvish, who gave him some tips on how to thow the pitch. Matsuzaka threw five forkballs in his first bullpen session with the Red Sox, and said it’s possible that he’ll use it during the season.

Scouting Asia has become a full-time operation for a number of MLB teams. Here are a few that I expect to see watching Japan this season.

Note that I haven’t included the most obvious teams here; by now it isn’t a surprise if the Red Sox, Dodgers or Mets are in the mix for a Japanese player. Nor is it meant to be an exhaustive list; there’s always room for surprises.

Texas Rangers: Pacific Rim scout Jim Colborn’s name shows up in the Japanese media fairly frequently. Colborn coached in Japan in the early 90’s and has Kazuo Fukumori and Yukinaga Maeda. He was last seen scouting a couple of pitchers from Hosei University. Texas also had the top dollar offer for Junichi Tazawa but were rebuffed for Boston.

Toronto Blue Jays: The Jays set up a Pacific Rim department last offseason, headed up by former Nippon Ham Fighter Rob Ducey. They also signed lefthanders Ken Takahashi and Shigeki Noguchi to minor league deals over the offseason, though Noguchi failed his physical. The linked report indicates they’ll be looking for more central pieces as the department ramps up.

San Francisco Giants: Not much to go on here, but Asia scout John Cox’s name has shown up in the media a couple of times. I can’t think of a notable Japanese/NPB signing the Giants have made (unless we count Masashi Murakami) so we’ll see if they make one this year.

New York Yankees: Gene Michael made a trip to Japan last year, reportedly to watch Yu Darvish. I expect that they’ll continue to monitor top guys like Darvish and Norichika Aoki as longer-term prospects, but not be hunting for bargains or middling players.

Atlanta Braves: Signed Kenshin Kawakami and Yoshinori Yamarin last season, and also made a strong bid for Tazawa. Atlanta has also signed minor league-level amateurs such as Ryohei Shimabukuro and Kazuhiro Takeoka in the past.

I’ll have a list of guys they might be competing for within a week or so.