Go Tanaka to Germany

Japanese national team and former Seibu Prince Rabbit forward Go Tanaka has signed a one year contract with ESV Kaufbeuren (his picture’s already on the team roster page), a team that apparently just got promoted to Bundesliga 2nd division. Since this is only one level removed from the DEL, an elite European league, Tanaka figures to be closer to elite level play than Yutaka Fukufuji who has just signed to play in the Netherlands. Look for both players to represent Japan in the IIHF World Championships next year though.

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Fukufuji to play in Holland

26 year old goalie Yutaka Fukufuji has signed with Dutch club DESTIL Trappers of Tilburg. He hopes that this move will open doors for him to move around in Europe aiming for higher leagues in Germany, Italy, France, etc. Fukufuji and the Trappers’ new coach Mark Pederson were together with the Bakersfield Condors last season. Fukufuji did not receive an offer to re-sign with the team, but he did not make the reason clear in his blog. He considered returning to Japan, but he feared that once he gets back here, that he would never challenge himself again abroad.

Despite the fact that he sunk when thrown into NHL waters prematurely when the LA Kings wanted to avoid having Jason LaBarbera claimed off waivers, Fukufuji did put up respectable numbers in the AHL when given the chance. But I guess he felt frustrated that he was not being given a chance to perform at a higher level in North America despite performing well on mediocre teams.

WBC uniform watch

I’m sure many people noticed this, but some WBC uniforms are alarmingly similar to MLB uniforms. Guess that’s template at work (and lack of creative colour schemes due to flag colours, though not every nation adheres to their flag stripes). Anyways, without further ado, here they are:

Australia

South Africa

It was difficult to tell them apart on quick glance, especially since they played in the same pool in Mexico City.

Oakland Athletics

Different font, obviously, but pretty similar otherwise.

Canada (home)

LAnaheim Angels

Canada has the faux vest thing going.

Canada (away)

Arizona Diamondbacks

Reverse the font colouring, and you’re basically there.

Dominican Republic

Future Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez pitching for his homeland, earning a job with the Mets in the process.

Texas Rangers

There’s that annoying underarm panel in many WBC jerseys, and the helmet bill’s different colour, but otherwise…

Italy

LA Dodgers

(Immortal Manny at work)

Obviously. Was this done because of the Piazza-Lasorda connection from the first WBC?

Netherlands (the Cinderella!)

Baltimore Orioles

Cap colours need to be reversed, and MLB teams seem to be fond of cursive fonts while WBC unis tend to use block fonts.

Now for the more far fetched connections after this jump

Leon Boyd, the Dutch-Canuck Blue Jay

A couple of interesting posts from the Canadutch blog of Leon Boyd, the Dutch-Canadian pitcher who was the closer for the both Dutch wins over the Dominican Republic in the 2009 WBC. One about the daily routine in the Toronto Blue Jays camp in Dunedin, Florida, and another with a collection of links and photos to interesting articles about his Dutch exploits.

WBC Pitch f/x

Some interesting WBC Pitch f/x articles for Japanese, Korean, and Cuban pitchers for their games pitched in MLB parks, these are normally data that are not seen or available, either in these pitchers home countries or in the US. The websites BeyondTheBoxscore and FanGraphs are doing a great job gathering and breaking down the data, so I’m just gonna link to them here (also for posterity since these articles are already getting buried under the usual barrage of MLB articles). All articles are interesting.

Yu Darvish (Japan) – FanGraphs, BeyondTheBoxscore (satisfying all observers with his stuff)

Hisashi Iwakuma (Japan) – FanGraphs (getting rave reviews for his pitch selection)

Ryu Hyun-Jin (Korea) – FanGraphs

Yoon Suk-Min (Korea) – BeyondTheBoxscore

Felix (Venezuela), LaMura and Cody Cirillo (Italy, the latter with his 67mph “changeup”) – BeyondTheBoxscore 

Cuban pitchers who pitched in their first game against Japan (from wild Chapman to Maya to Vladimir Garcia) – BeyondTheBoxscore

Wily Cuban veterans Vera and Lazo (and his 57mph somthing) in their elimination game against Japan – BeyondTheBoxscore

HardballTimes also has analyzed Pitch f/x data from Round 1 and Round 2 featuring pitchers in the Toronto Round (Yoel Hernandez, DiFelice, Mestri, Cillo), and the 2nd Round in Florida (Leon Boyd, who pitched himself into the Toronto Blue Jays organization, congrats!) and San Diego (Chapman, Vladimir Garcia, Oliver Perez).

Added: Hisashi Iwakuma and Kyuji Fujikawa (Japan), and Bong Jung-Keun and Ryu Hyun-Jin (Korea) – Hardball Times

WBC pitch speeds, they were generally slower than during the regular season showing that pitchers are not ready in March, not a big surprise. The pitcher with the most decline in velocity was Matsuzaka, which is kinda surprising considering he was training from January – BeyondTheBoxscore

The Dutch-Canadian pitcher and recent Toronto Blue Jays signee Leon Boyd – one, two

Honkbal!!

Hot on the heels of the Dutch baseball team’s second triumph over the superstar studded Dominincan Republic team in the last four days in the WBC, I’ve been busy for the last couple of hours reading the Canadutch blog by the Netherlands team pitcher and Vancouver native Leon Boyd… instead of working on my taxes. Yeah, procrastination. Anyways, an interesting behind the scenes athlete blog for those interested in baseball where its played as a minor sport, with a little Canadian flavour, and if you go back far enough the Beijing Olympics and their pre-Games preparation in Korea posts are neat too.