中国シャークスの新外国人選手

五輪真っ只中に中国シャークスが重要な発表！

本拠地を北京から上海に移したアジアリーグの中国シャークスが、新外国人として選手兼コーチのSteve McKenna 選手（昨シーズンはHigh1）と、ゴーリー兼コーチのWade Flaherty 選手を獲得。

McKenna 選手は昨シーズン30試合で2G+11A=13P そして64PIMのタフガイ。ネット前で重要な働きをしてくれるディフェンスマンです。そして、最近オーストラリア代表のコーチとしてディビジョンＩＩ を優勝した経験もあるので、指導者としても価値のある獲得です。

そして40歳のFlaherty 選手ですが、未だに毎シーズン30試合以上ＡＨＬ で出場していて、ＧＡＡ2点台の.910以上のセーブ率の好成績を収めていますので、アジアリーグではかなり強力な助っ人となり、シャークスの為に一人で何試合も勝ち取ってしまうでしょう。そしてアジアリーグの少ない試合数は、彼みたいな大ベテランにも丁度良いだろうし。

あと、ＥＣＨＬで主にプレー経験のあるAdam Taylor 選手(RW)とも契約していましたね。昨シーズンは主にＡＨＬでプレーして苦労したみたいだけど（第４ラインとかだった？）、それ以前はECHL で試合平均1ポイント獲得しているので、西脇選手並の攻撃力はあるでしょう。

本拠地が上海になった事で、外国人選手も住みやすい環境になったでしょう（昨シーズン２試合だけ帰国しちゃったゴーリーがいましたが、さすがに準備万端な今シーズンはこれは無いだろう）。

2008.8.14 Koshien and Olympic Update

Koshien

Urasoe-Sho (Okinawa) is leading the game against Kanto-Daiichi (East Tokyo) 3-1 in the top of the 9th right now. (UPDATE: Iha pitched a complete game in the 3-1 win and looked very strong even at the end of the game, getting strike outs (127 pitches, 9 strikeouts) and even hitting 145 on the radar gun. Kinda worried about his arm though, he’s pitched all 27 innings for Urasoe so far at Koshien. Kanto-Daiichi lost without using their ace Matsumoto, who had pitched 4 days earlier on the 10th in the round of 32, instead they used a couple of younger pitchers who gained some valuable experience for next year and beyond.)

Follow up to yesterday’s action, the remaining games after Tokoha’s (Shizuoka) dramatic win was powerhouse Chiben-Wakayama (Wakayama) absolutely destroying Komadai-Iwamizawa (North Hokkaido) 15-3 with Chiben’s slugger Sakaguchi smacking 2 homeruns in the 11 run 8th inning (a Koshien first). The last game yesterday saw Hotoku-Gakuen (East Hyogo) win 7-3 over Kagoshima-Jitsugyo (Kagoshima).

A draw will be held after game 1 today (5th game in the round of 16) to determine the quarterfinal matchups. (UPDATE: Draw has been held, here’s the quarterfinals)

8.15 Day 14 (tomorrow!)

11:00 Hotoku-Gakuen (East Hyogo) v Toho – Osaka-Toin winner

13:30 Urasoe-Sho (Okinawa) v Aomori-Yamada – Keio winner

8.16 Day 15

11:00 Chiben-Wakayama (Wakayama) v Tokoha-Kikugawa (Shizuoka)

13:30 Seiko-Gakuin (Fukushima) v Yokohama – Sendai-Ikuei winner

Now I’m really worried about Urasoe’s Iha’s arm if he’s going to pitch in the quarters, not sure how good their second pitcher is, as I haven’t seen him (I don’t think hardly anyone has).

————

Olympics

It looks like Saitama Seibu Lion Hideaki Wakui will start against Taiwan tonight in Beijing. This likely means Japan’s rotation will go something like this (if Hoshino is sane).

8.13 Darvish v Cuba

8.14 Wakui v Taiwan

8.15 Wada v Netherlands

8.16 Sugiuchi v Korea

8.17 off

8.18 Darvish v Canada

8.19 Wakui v China

8.20 Wada v USA (hopefully a meaningless game)

8.21 off

8.22 Sugiuchi (semifinals)

8.23 Darvish (medal game)

Don’t count your chicks before they hatch and all that, but this looks likely (hopefully), as Sugiuchi has been one of the best pitchers in Japan this season, and Kawakami was a disaster in the warmup game against CL selects last week so he’ll likely be used in relief, this rotation would make sense. (Yeah, I know I’m doing a 180 from saying that Kawakami is ace 1A next to Darvish, but this rotation will probably work best for Japan at the moment, and Kawakami could be valuable out of the pen.)

————-

Swimming

Kosuke Kitajima has just won the 200m breaststroke in Olympic Record time. With his double gold (100 and 200) in consecutive Olympics, the little man has shown that technique matters more than height and size in this discipline. (Kinda like how another short man, Shimizu, won the 500m speed skating in Nagano, surrounded by much taller opponents with longer strides.)

Japan v Cuba impressions and Olympic baseball

Olympic baseball has started. Canada trounced hosts China 10-0 (Canada has both Tim Burton and Stubby Clapp on its roster, how awesome is that!?… namewise), Taiwan breezed by the Netherlands 5-0, and Korea came from behind in the bottom of the 9th and scored 2 runs to win dramatically against the US 8-7 after allowing 3 runs in the top of the frame (EWC’s take on the game). That must’ve been one dramatic game. (Game results and rosters for all games.)

Japan lost to Cuba 2-4 (boxscore, many photos of Darvish looking displeased with himself here). Some impressions:

• Cuban batters’ control of the strike zone was impeccable, they were exactly the same as Puerto Rican umpire’s zone, coincidentally or not. The batters hardly swung at balls out of the zone, except for one batter trying to hit a sacrifice fly against Naruse. They made the Japanese pitchers throw A LOT of pitches. We’ll see if they’ll take the same approach to other teams (well, I won’t really be able to see them again until the medal rounds, probably).

• Darvish was far from his sharp self. He had good stuff at times, but his command was often off, leaving pitches hanging down the middle of the plate and the Cubans didn’t miss many of these, or completely missing the zone, seemed to be having a little problem with the game ball that other pitchers in the game seemed to be ok with. Reminded me of this season’s Matsuzaka, getting out of jam after jam, though he was charged with 4 runs in 4 innings and credited with the loss.

• Darvish was mercifully replaced in the 5th after he had thrown more than 100 pitches. Since he’s likely to pitch on 4 days rest against Canada on 18 Aug, and he was struggling, this was probably the right move.

• Naruse promptly let in the 2 runners he inherited from Darvish, but then managed to hold his own.

• Tanaka “Ma-kun” was pretty impressive, able to get strike outs when needed as he struck out the side in the 7th.

• Japanese bullpen ace Kyuji Fujikawa put down the Cubans in order in his inning of work, but the balls were hard hit and he was lucky to escape unscathed, not dominant at all like he is in NPB.

• Young OF Alexei Bell was impressive with a couple of extra base hits.

• Strike zone seemed both narrow and thin, with some inconsistent calls. Guess we’ll see how the rest of the umpires are.

• Long time closer 99 Lazo’s alive and well (35 year old is in his 4th Olympics). He doesn’t have dominating stuff anymore, but his pitches seem to have late movement, as there were lots of pop ups and fly outs by Japanese hitters against him in his 3 innings of work to save the game.

• Injured SS Kawasaki had hits in all 3 of his plate appearances despite a visible limp. Perhaps it ironically helped him by changing his weight shift during his swing(?) He should be rested, as Japan’s full of shortstops anyways, and having an player with range limiting injury in the most important defensive position is not advisable. He was replaced by the Lions Nakajima as a pinch runner in the 7th after his third hit. Though Nakajima’s got rather poor range to be the starting shortstop. Morino at second and Nishioka at short might be ideal under current conditions. (Or Araki at second for a defensive configuration, but he’ll be a blackhole in the lineup.)

• Guess red hot Lions and late additions to the roster OF G.G. Sato and SS/3B Nakajima are going to be platooned against left handed pitchers, otherwise why were they brough along to Beijing.. only to be used when some “trusted” players are in an obvious slump? I say, replace DH Abe with one of these guys, at least. But Hoshino is loyal, this trait better not be too costly.

• Japan was unable to get an extra base hit when in need, and grounded into lots of double plays into the hands of slick Cuban middle infielders.

• Veteran Cubans were very wily, often disrupting the rhythm of the game with unnecessarily stepping out of the box, taking extra long between pitches, and taking their time putting on body armour, and generally delaying the game (this is nothing new for them). This seemed to have distracted the younger Japanese team who are coddled mainly with domestic competition.

• Manager Senichi Hoshino almost got ejected from the game for disputing a Satozaki check swing (didn’t look like the bat went around). But he has to realize that only in NPB can managers really get in the face of umps and pressure them psychologically. (Japanese umps don’t have the same authority that American (and international?) umps seem to have.)

• Cuba looks like a lock for the playoffs, so Japan, Korea, USA, Taiwan, and Canada should be battling out for the other 3 playoff positions, with Taiwan and Canada being underdogs, but they can upset any of the top teams on any given day.

• Tomorrow (14 Aug, Day 2), Americans will breeze breeze by the Dutch, Korea will pummel China, Taiwan has a legitimate chance against Japan but they are looking to avenge today’s loss, and Cuba looks too strong for Canada.