We’ve had plenty to be pessimistic about over the last couple months years, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk about one of the positives that the team can claim at the moment.
Meet infielder Kazuhiro Hatakeyama. The 26-year-old from Iwate prefecture is currently in his 8th season with the club, and through his first seven seasons he only managed 59 appearances for the top team. His career average at the beginning of this season was an even .200.
It seems as though all those years of patience may have finally paid off for the multi-talented Hatakeyama. He has played both of the corners to help make up for the disappearance of Adam Riggs and the inconsistency of Keizou Kawashima (who, to be fair, was an excellent snag from the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters).
But his greatest asset to the team is undoubtedly his patience at the plate. The guy knows how to get on base. He just reached the 35 game mark in terms of appearances, but he has already managed to get himself into second place on the team in terms of doubles and walks. Furthermore, he has 56 total bases which is good enough for sixth on the team, he’s tied for fifth in total hits and rbi’s, and his chest-puffing numbers stand at .348 (batting average), .434 (on-base percentage), and .514 (slugging). Those numbers aren’t bad (especially the second and third ones!).
His glove still needs a little extra practice, and we’re looking forward to the day when he is able to decrease the number of times that he strikes out, but if he keeps his spot in the lineup, then it should be interesting to see how he ends up at the conclusion of the season.
It’s great to see Hatakeyama doing well with the big club. He’s been steadily improving in the minors, OPSing about .800, .850, then 1.100(!) in the minors over the past 3 seasons. He’s entering his prime years as well, so we can expect continued success, hopefully (unless the big league pitchers find an exploitable hole in his swing, but he’s always been patient and has great plate discipline, so things are looking good).
I think being drafted out of high school is tough because NPB only has a single tier minor league system, so these young kids don’t get to compete and develop against players with similar experience and skill level, but instead have to compete against career minor leaguers and rehabbing 1-gun players (taking valuable playing time away from them too).
Bobby Valentine’s idea of forming a 3-gun league was too grand, but loaning some players to the independent leagues seems like a feasible idea if the NPB brass have learned to become more flexible in recent years (a sliver of hope).
[...] by simoncurrie on 2008 June 15日 Sunday A comment I made at the great new Tokyo Yakult Swallows blog was rather lengthy so I think it deserves it’s own post here. I’m still kinda hung over [...]
Simon,
Thanks for stopping by!
I’m a big fan of Bobby V’s efforts to reform NPB’s farm system. I agree that a three-tiered system is a bit ambitious, but I’ll buy a lot more shares in Yakult if they buy one of the independent leagues. A loan system is the least that they could do (modeled after that used in European soccer, for example).
I, too, feel (and hope) that Hatakeyama is here to stay. It’s just unfortunate that guys like Ken Suzuki kept getting playing time over Hatakeyama in the past. I can’t claim to know very much about his skills within his “zone” when fielding, but about 40 extra games each of the last two seasons might have helped iron things out.
With OPS numbers like that, it’s absolutely unbelievable that he wasn’t getting more appearances on the first team.