Tokyo Swallows

The inimitable Gen Sueyoshi has published his additions/subtractions post for the 2012 Tokyo Swallows. On a scale of -10 to +10, how do you feel the team compares to its 2011 rendition?

Chang-yong Lim may start the 2012 regular season on the farm team due to soreness in his throwing arm. Does that mean that Balentien’s roster spot  is safe for now? And more importantly, who’s going to close?

Yoshinori has been taking it easy since taking a ball off the leg during an exhibition game against Hiroshima on the 11th. It’s a “contusion” at this point, and there’s no definite word on how long he’ll be sidelined. Provided it’s not a serious injury, the silver lining is that he’s already thrown more than enough during spring training and could probably benefit from a bit of a breather. In case anyone cares, Tokyo won that game 5-4.

Quick hypothetical: would you be in favor of Hideki Matsui in a Tokyo Swallows uniform? He is still without an employer.

How about Kozo Ota in a Tokyo Swallows uniform?

Here’s Johnny Knoxville in one.

Despite having scads of practice games scrapped due to rain and poor field conditions, the Tokyo Swallows currently have the second best pre-season record (3-1-2; .750 winning %). Not that it means anything.

Elsewhere in NPB

Gen also reported that the Japanese National Baseball Team is in search of a new manager. I hereby recommend David Watkins for the post. All in favor?

Miyamoto is like a fine wine...

Shinya Miyamoto and his teammates have been busy with spring camp for the past two weeks, so we thought it might be nice to profile

some of the Tokyo players that are within shouting distance of significant milestones this season.

We’ve thought for quite some time that Miyamoto would begin regressing at any moment, but he’s been an absolute rock on the left side of the infield over the past 17 seasons. He won his first Golden Glove back in 1997, and he’s won eight more since.

But the milestone that he’s rapidly closing in on, and will likely reach by the middle/end of May, is one of the tallies that qualifies players for automatic induction into the Meikyukai, or Golden Players Club. That milestone is none other than the 2,000 hits mark that few have reached.

Miyamoto ended the 2011 season with a career tally of 1,975 hits leaving him just 25 hits shy. If he makes it, as we suspect he will, then he’ll join a small group of great Japanese baseball players. To give you an idea of the ranks of the elite club he’s on the verge of joining, the Meikyukai counts among it’s active members Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and another Tokyo great, Shingo Takatsu (250+ saves).

 

Shinya Miyamoto
Year	Games	Hits
1995	67	11
1996	68	65
1997	115	109
1998	114	95
1999	131	124
2000	136	143
2001	125	129
2002	114	135
2003	140	154
2004	90	104
2005	135	145
2006	73	82
2007	131	139
2008	116	130
2009	128	138
2010	129	129
2011	136	143
Total	1948	1975

A choice selection from the article:

Then there was also the fact that every year during spring training, Matsui took the Yankees-beat writers out to dinner, perhaps the only Yankee in the history of the franchise to do such a thing. And at the end of the first such dinner, he handed out gifts to each of the correspondents, including items from his personal collection of adult videos. New York writers can be merciless, especially to newcomers who do not live up to their hype. But when Matsui, hailed as the Babe Ruth from Japan, struggled in the early going, the New York press was less vitriolic than one might have expected. Perhaps it was the porn effect.

Another enjoyable read by Robert Whiting even if he does refer to Yomiuri as the “Tokyo Giants”. Head on over and read the rest.

Norichika Aoki throws with his right hand but hits lefty.

A brief article on the Washington University in Saint Louis website discusses how left-handed pitchers and hitters have a distinct advantage in the game of baseball.

This is probably not surprising news to most readers of this site, but the math has been done, and despite roughly 90% of the adult population being right-handed, about 25% of professional baseball players are left-handed. Two and a half times the national average is no joke.

Statistics brought out in the article to support the thesis that baseball favors lefties include the fact that 59 of the 138 hitters enshrined at the baseball hall of fame are lefties. That’s nearly 43%.

When the eight switch-hitters are added to the tally, the percentage rises to 49.

The number of lefty pitchers in the hall of fame was 21% of the total, which isn’t nearly as impressive as the hitters, but still twice the left-handedness rate of the general population.

The reasons given for the disadvantages experienced by righties are many. From a right-handed hitter’s perspective, first of all, southpaw pitchers are few and far between, so the unfamiliarity of the pitching motion probably hurts the hitters in that situation. The advantage is probably greatest in little league and pre-university baseball.

That said, the southpaw’s advantage is assumed to dissipate at higher levels due to the fact that right-handed batters have more experience against them and are able to see the ball slightly better against a lefty because the batter is not required to turn his head so much to see the pitcher’s release.

Right-handed hitters, at the professional level at least, hit better against left-handed pitchers than against the more predominant right-handed pitchers. Left-handed batters, due to being able to pick up the ball more easily, have a relative advantage when facing right-handed pitchers. Because 75% of pitchers at the pro level are right-handed, left-handed batters have a natural match-up advantage most of the time.

Left-handed batters also have a roughly 5.5 foot advantage in terms of their proximity to first base. Additionally, a lefty’s swing-generated momentum will carry them towards first base while a righty’s will pull them towards third. This means that lefties reach first base about a sixth of a second faster than right-handed batters. In other words, it’s easier for them to beat the throw to first base.

All of the numbers crunched in this study were for MLB, but it’s easy to see how they can be validated by a casual look at the success stories here in NPB.

As of games played July 12th, 2008 in the Central League, five of the top ten batters (statistical rankings) are left-handed hitters. The same is true for the Pacific League standings (Chiba’s Nishioka is a switch-hitter).

Furthermore, when looking at the Japanese players that have gone on to play professional baseball in North America, big names like Ichiro (lefty), Hideki Matsui (lefty), Kaz Matsui (switch hitter), Akinori Iwamura (lefty) and Kousuke Fukudome (lefty) all come to mind.

This is, of course, not to say that right-handed pitchers and hitters can not also be outstanding baseball players. Yomiuri’s Alex Ramirez, Yokohama’s Seiichi Uchikawa, Seibu’s Hiroyuki Nakajima and Rakuten’s Rick Short are all righties.

As for the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, several members of the first team that play regularly are left-handed hitters. Norichika Aoki, Aaron Guiel, Shinichi Takeuchi, Yuuichi and Kazuki Fukuchi (switch-hitter) all bat left-handed. Interestingly enough, they are also all outfielders.