チェン特番

シーズン後の行き先が話題の中日チェン投手、この特番は一見の価値ありです。

2009年8月16日　 スポスタ　 台湾出身のサウスポーチェンの物語　　 出演：陳偉殷　 故郷の大先輩 郭源治　 二軍時代の恩師 小林聖始　 元同僚 樋口龍美　 協力：チェンの家族　　 スポスタは企画自体もそうですが、編集もなんつーか面白いですね 。

Advertisement

AL Preseason Shorts + Ichiro

• Oji Eagles and Nippon Paper Cranes played a pair of free admission preseason games in Tomakomai, Hokkaido over the weekend. Results were 3-2 and 4-1 for an Oji sweep.

• Tohoku Free Blades were officially admitted into the league on 5 September. Well, this was just a rubber stamping process since the club is starting out its life on stable grounds.

• Blades will host their first ever official (preseason) game on 12 September against the Nikko Ice Bucks. Faceoff at 13:00 in Hachinohe, Aomori. All tickets are general admission and 1000 yen each.

• Ex-Seibu Prince Rabbit D Ryuichi Kawai and (probably) his younger brother and ex-Gatineau Olympique Takuma Kawai are going to be on the ice for the University of Lethbridge team’s tryouts, even though they’re both not enrolled with the university. Apparently the training camp has guys trying to crack AHL and ECHL clubs, so it’ll be interesting to see how they fare. The brothers are staying and training with ex-Seibu Ryan Fujita whose home is about a 40 minute drive from Lethbridge, Alberta.

• The immortal Ichiro earned his 2000th Major League hit in style with a double against the A’s. Always a showman who marks special occasions with crafty hits or big bombs more often than his usual slap and dash.

Robot Baseball Players Can Pitch and Bat

Out of Japan, there’s a baseball player who has an edge like no other: a fastball-pitching, homer-hitting robot.

The pitching robot fires into the strike zone 90% of the time. It currently throws a plastic foam ball at 25 miles per hour, with hopes to later improve its speed to 93 mph. The team that designed the robot are planning to move the bot’s range of motion beyond fastballs into curveballs and spitballs.

The batting robot hits pitches in the strike zone almost 100% of the time, and does not swing at pitches outside the strike zone. The robots resemble cars with arms rather than human forms.

“The demand level of the robotics technology of each robot is very high,” University of Tokyo professor Masatoshi Ishikawa said. “What was difficult was to create a mechanism to satisfy such a high level of demand.”

http://www.weirdasianews.com/2009/08/01/baseball-robot-throws-hits-fastballs/

無課金の壁

プロ野球チームをつくろうオンライン２（やきゅつくオンライン２）をフォスター鯖で無課金でずっとやってますが、どうやら壁にぶちあたってる感じがします。

メジャー上位はキープできてるんだけど、ＣＴ出場が合計１回、しかも初戦敗退… そろそろ引き際かな。

３ペナに貯金して、今回の１ペナでカード引きまくったけど、出たのが最高コスト☆６、しかも現在これがチーム最高コスト、今サイクルはかなりヤヴァイかも…あー、名前出して自慢できる選手すらいない…orz

インド人プロ野球投手の史上初勝利

Singh gets first victory

LAKELAND, Fla. — Pittsburgh Pirates farmhand and reality show contestant Rinku Singh earned his first win Monday in the second game of a Gulf Coast League doubleheader.

Singh struck out the only batter he faced in the Bradenton Pirates’ 10-5 victory over theDetroit Tigers‘ affiliate He is believed to be the first India-born player to win a professional baseball game in the United States.

インドで開催された、プロ野球選手発掘プロジェクトの「１００万ドルの腕」コンテストの結果により、ピッツバーグ・パイレーツと契約した投手の一人リンク・シンが、野球人生初勝利をリリーフで挙げました、おめでとう！インド人メジャーリーガー誕生に向けて、また新たな一歩ですね。

インド人初のプロ野球選手のデビュー戦

インドで開催された「１００万ドルの腕」（ブログにビデオもあります）選手権で権利を勝ち取ったリンク・シン（Rinku Singh）とディネシュ・パテル（Dinesh Patel）がピッツバーグ・パイレーツのGulf Coast League （シングルＡの下）のチームでデビューしました。フルボッコにされなかっただけでも上出来です。共に１イニングを投げ、シンは１失点、パテル三者凡退に抑え、二人とも１奪三振でした。メジャーの育成システムでどこまで行けるか、見ものですね、頑張れ！

MLB equivalencies for NPB players

Nothing remotely close to data crunching here, just observations over the years (so, obviously, there will be mistakes and omissions).

The art of predicting can be tricky. Nobody knows exactly how to predict the future. I was curious how some Japanese pitchers would project to MLB so I created an index based upon past Japanese pitcher performances.

http://www.japanesebaseball.com/forum/thread.gsp?forum=21&thread=59243

There’s of course the big x-factor, the cultural and environmental and mental adaptation process that players crossing the Pacific (in both directions) have to endure. Some thrive (Nomo, Okajima, Saito, etc. with the latter two outperforming their NPB records), some fail (Kobayashi, Fukumori, Igawa, etc.), some fluctuate (Irabu, Matsuzaka, etc.), some thrive then fade (Sasaki, Takatsu, etc. though this might be due to more age and wear and tear) and others meander (a little early to tell but Kawakami and Uehara seem to be adapting well). I don’t think there’s a large enough sample size yet for reliable equivalencies when it comes to pitchers.

Position players, on the other hand, are more predictable creatures, so their production are more predictable when making the NPB=>MLB move. BA/OBP drops somewhat, HR gets cut in half (and SLG drops accordingly), defence is usually above par (except whatever happened to Kaz Matsui), and many hitters change their approach at the plate (Godzilla not swinging for the fences, Iwamura exchanging power for on base ability, Little Matsui exchanging power for speed, Ichiro becoming more or less a slap hitter, etc.)

So, predicting Darvish? Well, he pitches half his games in the most pitcher friendly park in Japan (Sapporo Dome) in front of a solid defence, so right there are strikes one and two against him if he makes the move across the pond, unless he ends up in Petco with the Pads, Safeco with the Mariners (only possibility?), or at the Coliseum with the A’s, since most modern and ancient MLB parks are of the hitter friendly variety.

So, as the usual caveat goes, pitching is much less predictable than hitting, on a season by season basis.

Just my rambling 2 yen late at night when I should be sleeping.

Seibu Lions Classic

This season’s Lions Classic games have begun with Seibu wearing its home uniforms from the dynasty era. (Koji Akiyama #1 and Hisanobu Watanabe #41 flanking Kazuhiro Kiyohara #3.)

Well, the uniform design was used until quite recently as it can be seen here with a young Daisuke Matsuzaka wearing it.

However, the Lions were unable to replicate their success of the awesome uniforms as the team has lost its first two games wearing it against the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks managed by former Lions star Koji Akiyama. Incidentally, another former 80’s Lions star, Hisanobu Watanabe, is currently managing the Lions, so the ceremonial first pitch for Sunday’s game was old teammates Watanabe facing off against Akiyama, and Koji fouled the pitch off to the third base side.

Saitama Seibu Lions looking great (except for the lack of stirrups and addition of the Nike logo) in losing the first two games wearing these classic uniforms 3-10 and 5-7.

You can see the ceremonial first pitch here, Akiyama’s front foot slips but he still makes contact with NabeQ’s pitch.

JPN-KOR Championship to replace the Asia Series

An idea to replace the money losing Asia Series (since it lost its title sponsor Konami, the Series lost 2-oku yen (approx. $2m) last year, yeah small change for a Hanshin Tigers import suketto) has been floated.

It will pit the Japan Series champions against the Korea Series champions in an one game showdown at a regional stadium in November (no dome? must be in southern Japan then).

Japan used to host Korea in an all-star series (similar to the now defunct NPB-MLB all-star series) format back in the 90’s but it got cancelled due to lack of fan interest. But the champion clubs meeting each other in this manner will be a first.

The problem with this newly and severely reduced format is the exclusion of Taiwan. The Uni-President 7Eleven Lions made it to the Asia Series final last year and only lost to the depleted Saitama Seibu Lions in a sayonara walkoff fashion. The Taiwanese clubs have been putting up solid efforts, so it’s a shame to lose them. Maybe once Taiwanese baseball is back in order from its current post-scandals shambles, they can host an NPB-KBO-CPBL championship, as their climate suits November ball the most.

The one game showdown idea will be put forth in July for approval.

大学エースの実力？

結局メジャーでは（完全に）開花しなかった大学のスーパー・エース達は結構いる（？）

さて、どうなるか。スティーブン・ストラスバーグとワシントン・ナショナルズとスコット・ボラス？ｗ 

YEAR PITCHER SCHOOL W-L G IP BB SO ERA 

2007 David Price Vanderbilt 11-1 18 133.1 31 194 2.63 

2004 Jered Weaver LB St. 15-1 19 144 21 213 1.62 

2001 Mark Prior USC 15-1 20 138.2 18 202 1.69 

1996 Kris Benson Clemson 14-2 19 156 27 204 2.02 

1989 Ben McDonald LSU 14-4 26 152.1 n/a 202 3.49 

1986 Mike Loynd Fla. St. 20-3 25 164.2 48 223 2.45 

1985 Greg Swindell Texas 19-2 26 172 n/a 204 1.67 

1979 Derek Tatsuno Hawaii 20-1 22 174.1 n/a 234 1.86 

1976 Floyd Bannister Ariz. St. 19-2 25 186 66 213 1.45 

1975 Floyd Bannister Ariz. St. 15-4 21 157.1 42 217 1.66 

1973 Eddie Bane Ariz. St. 15-1 18 140 46 192 1.93 

1972 Eddie Bane Ariz. St. 14-1 20 144.2 42 213 0.99 

1971 Burt Hooton Texas 11-1 n/a 97.1 24 153 1.11 

1966 Steve Arlin Ohio St. 11-1 n/a 104.1 n/a 129 1.72 

1965 Steve Arlin Ohio St. 13-2 n/a 141.1 n/a 165 2.48