Blondes have more fun.

Swallows Present

• As mentioned in our most recent podcast, Balentien could start the year on the top team. Because he’s starting to show some life at the plate, mixed with Roman’s continued stability on the mound, and abetted by Lim’s tender throwing arm, Tokyo’s well-paid closer could start the year on the farm instead. Yet more evidence that a change in hairstyle works wonders for one’s career.
• Although we can’t be entirely sure that his hands are completely banned from meddling in team affairs, the guy who gave us his pal Takada as a manager for 2+ painful seasons, Tadashi Suzuki, has finally stepped down from his post as team advisor.
• Shingo Kawabata (wrist injury), whose rehab has not gone as smoothly as everyone had hoped, rejoined the first team today.
• The Tokyo Swallows, in cahoots with Yomiuri and Yokohama, have announced a stamp collection scheme (rubber, not postal) through which fans can attend games at all three stadiums and earn prizes such as a big button. I find this to be hilarious because it’s evidence of how far Yomiuri has fallen. Can anyone else think of another time when the Giants worked together with their CL enemies to put more bums in seats? Neither can I.
• To go along with rehabbing his throwing hand (off-season surgery to correct a “blood-flow problem”, Shohei Tateyama’s left leg (ankle?) disagreed with an injection he received last week. This is not the first time that this has happened to a Tokyo player in recent memory. Who is administering these injections, Tsubakurou?
• Masubuchi could start 2012 in the bullpen thanks to the potential starting depth that the team has at this point. This is good news for those of us that remember his breakout season in 2010 when he was first moved to the pen (2.69 ERA over 60.1 innings). With Barnette, Kyuko, Oshimoto, Matsuoka, and Masubuchi all waiting in the wings, there’s a little less pressure on Tokyo’s starters.

Swallows Past

• After a bit of a slump recently, brand new Brewer, Norichika Aoki, found some life against brand new Ranger, Yu Darvish. Disciples of Uecker feels that he needs to do a lot more of what he did during his 3-3 outing against the Rangers (video here) if he hopes to stay relevant and possibly graduate from being a backup player this year.
• Alex Ramirez, Yokohama’s prized acquisition from Yomiuri through free agency, has a leg injury that will probably keep him on the sidelines for the next couple of weeks.

Wannabe Swallows

• While nobody was looking, I wrote some poop about Watanabe and his Yomiuri Giants over at Tokyo Weekender. There’s a Cartman reference in there.

2012 Season

The season kicks off in exactly one week! The Tokyo Swallows will be travelling across town to Tokyo Dome for a 6PM date with the new-look Softbank Giants.

There will be sporadic updates during the opening series on our Twitter account. If you haven’t already, follow us now.

You can also find us on Facebook. Like us here.

The country's most famous knuckleballer will be playing in Japan in 2012.

Chunichi Dragons

• Signed reliever Jorge Sosa to a one year deal. Sosa has a 4.72 ERA through 294 big league appearances.

Yomiuri Giants

• NPB Tracker thinks the Giants should be legitimate contenders this year.

Hanshin Tigers

• Kubo and Hirano finally re-signed. The team shaved 40 million yen off of Kubo’s salary and tacked 30 of it onto Hirano’s.
• According to NPB Tracker, Hanshin are a lot like Tokyo before the 2011 season–on the outside looking in.

Hiroshima Carp

• This write-up over at NPB Tracker says that the Carp will be fielding another strong starting rotation even though Kuroda opted to spend another season in MLB.

Yokohama Baystars

• Alex Ramirez came down with the flu last weekend despite the fact that he allegedly got a flu shot before leaving the US. Funny things, those flu shots.
• First year manager, Kiyoshi Nakahata, who has been out of action with the flu, returned to spring camp on Tuesday donning the requisite facial mask. He hammed it up pretty big-time for the reporters on hand, so he seems to be feeling pretty well now.
• Patrick Newman says that the team should be a lot more fun to watch this year even though they look destined for a bottom-half finish once again.
• The team reported that it planned to kick the tires on three prospective imports at some point during spring camp. Wes Bankston, Chris Nowak, and Oscar Salazar are the players hoping to be offered a contract.

Pacific League News

• Fukuoka (Softbank) may have found a way to ensure a few more wins by signing Brad Penny from MLB. Penny notched double-digit wins for the Detroit Tigers last season but was released at the end of the season after playing out a one year contract.

Elsewhere in Japanese Baseball

• Gen has a handy post detailing the various suspensions handed out by Japan’s student baseball administrative body. The infractions range from smoking to beating the piss out of younger players. One suspension was meted for purchasing a train ticket in an illegal manner. Huh?
• Female knuckleball phenom, Eri Yoshida (20), will be pitching in the Kansai Independent Baseball League once again as she signed a deal with the 2011 champion Hyogo Blue Sandars. You may remember that Yoshida started her pro career in the KIBL back in 2009 with the now inactive Kobe 9 Cruise. She then signed with the Chico Outlaws early in 2010. Here’s an article with a little more information on what Yoshida experienced during her two seasons of minor league baseball in the US.

Spring camp is officially under way!

• Spring camp started for the top team in Okinawa today. Here’s a list of the players that were invited. The Swallows’ Japanese website has a handy schedule that will give you a light peak into what’s ahead for the team.
• The top team camp has only four officially-scheduled days off, and camp concludes on February 28th.
• Aikawa was named just the third team captain since the turn of the century. Former star catcher and player-manager, Atsuya Furuta, and current third baseman, Shinya Miyamoto, were the two preceding captains.
• The farm team also started its spring training camp today. The team will practice in Tokyo until this Saturday. The fifth (Sunday) is a travel day, and camp resumes on Monday in Miyazaki Prefecture.
• Scroll down to the bottom of this article on the Tokyo Swallows’ Japanese site for some photos of the players and fans down in Okinawa. There are also a couple of photos of manager Ogawa and the team’s player rep, Takeuchi, at a shrine praying for a safe and productive spring camp and 2012 season.
• Here are a couple more photos featuring the manager and business-suited versions of Balentien and Barnette arriving at their spring training camp facility.

Former Tokyo player news:

• New Yokohama manager, Nakahata, had this to say about Alex Ramirez’s defense, “ラミレスは直線を走ったら速いんだよ。” (“Ramirez is quick when he’s running in a straight line.”)
• Josh Whitesell and Seth Greisinger were introduced to the media on Monday as two of the newest members of the Chiba Marines.

Aoki is now a Brewer. Makes me proud. I was once a brewer, too. Long live Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT).

The Milwaukee Brewers announced that the team signed Norichika Aoki, Tokyo’s star 30-year-old outfielder, to a multi-year deal.

Congratulations to both Aoki and the Brewer community! We here at Tsubamegun hope that it truly is a match made in Milwaukee heaven.

Details are sketchy at this point, but it seems like the two sides were able to come to some kind of preliminary agreement.

It’s a two-year deal with a club option for 2014.

Think Hanshin would give us a half-decent pitcher for Iihara?

Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s another stab at a news roundup for our beloved Central League.

Chunichi Dragons

• Under new management, the Dragons seem to be taking the whole ‘fan experience’ thing very seriously. Both the manager and the head of the team’s player group, starter Kazuki Yoshimi, have a bunch of ideas that range from more face time between the players and fans to cheaper tickets at Nagoya Dome. I would suggest making draft beer cheaper and playing a style of baseball that doesn’t put people to sleep, but hey.
• Despite making it all the way to the Japan Series yet again, the Dragons lost money on the year. Second season in a row, apparently. Not that it’s that big of a deal though. The parent company, Chunichi, can just write it off as an advertising expense.

Yomiuri Giants

• There will not be a special veterans group at spring training this year, according to the team’s manager, Tatsunori Hara. Players such as Abe, Takahashi, Ramirez and Tani were granted special privileges during spring training last year and everyone except for Tani missed time with an injury in 2011.

Hanshin Tigers

• Sounds like the Tigers are on the prowl for a right-handed bat. Any chance we can offload Yasushi Iihara for a number four or five starting pitcher?
• Left out of Hanshin’s plans for 2012, former ikusei infielder, Marco Vechionacci wouldn’t mind another shot at playing in Japan.

Hiroshima Carp

• There’s a new cafe or something going in at the stadium, but other than that not a whole lot is going on down there.

Yokohama Baystars

• The closer’s role has yet to be decided according to Nakahata. Shun Yamaguchi has been getting better and better over the past three years, but in announcing that the ninth inning is still up for grabs it seems like Nakahata doesn’t want him to relax too much.
• The team has been salivating over the sliver-thin possibility that Hideki Matsui could return to Japan. This is, of course, despite the fact that Matsui himself has stated publicly that he has no desire to play in Japan at this time. However, if he does play in Japan again one day, it would be absolutely hilarious if he decided against playing for the Giants.

It’s been a while since our last audio edition, but David and Christopher sat down again on a Sunday afternoon to make fun of each other a little bit and talk about everything that has happened since the Central League playoffs kicked off at Meiji Jingu Stadium at the end of October.

After a brief recap of the playoffs and Japan Series, David and Christopher run through some of the off-season player moves and what might be in store for 2012.

They hit on Norichika Aoki’s upcoming move to Milwaukee, Yomiuri’s free-spending consumption of the best free agent’s from both leagues, and soap that smells like bacon.

Happy holidays to everyone out there who keep checking and listening in. All the best to you and yours!

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Hanshin Tigers 4

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: WWWWL

(Koshien Stadium)

Tokyo’s magnificent run of good form finally came to an end as they ran into a very effective starter in Kubo. This game saw some interesting switches within the lineup as Miyamoto and Aikawa both had the night off.

Lineup:

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Iihara LF
4. Hatakeyama 3B
5. Whitesell 1B
6. Balentien RF
7. Kawabata SS
8. Kawamoto C
9. Yamamoto P

Kubo pitched an amazing game. He was nearly perfect through the first six frames save for a minor blip in the form of a solo Kawamoto homer to left in the top of the third. It was his fourth hit of the season and first homer. 1-0 Tokyo.

But after Kawamoto’s blast, the Swallows managed only two more hits. The first was a Tanaka lead-off single in the seventh (quickly followed by another Iihara GIDP), and the second was a Whitesell double to start the eighth.

Hanshin chased Tokyo starter Yamamoto from the game before he could finish the fifth inning. It was his first loss of the season, and his record now stands at 1-1. He surrendered four earned runs off of five hits and helped the Hanshin cause by issuing three walks–two of which came in that fateful fifth inning. His ERA blossomed to 3.09.

Arai and Rin recorded two RBIs each to give Hanshin the game. 4-1 Final.

Kyuko (0.00), Oshimoto (3.86), Hashimoto (0.00) and Matsui (0.00) combined to finish the game without allowing any more runs to score.

Game two of this series is tomorrow night at 2PM.

Notes:

• Hatakeyama leads the lead in slugging (.854) and homers (6) [tied with Balentien and Yokohama's Sledge].
• Balentien leads the league in walks (10) and homers (6).
• Miyamoto leads the league in hits (21) and batting average (.412).
• With Whitesell in the lineup, things are starting to look formidable. I kind of like the idea of Whitesell and Balentien on either side of Aoki in the outfield with Hatakeyama at first. If Balentien can continue to be patient and lay off the forkballs, Josh gets back into the swing of things, and Hatakeyama doesn’t experience too serious of a slump, then the Swallows will be sporting a pretty serious lineup. Miyamoto and Kawabata have been doing an excellent job of forcing pitchers to throw to the middle part of the order, and Whitesell’s bat in the lineup means that the problem with the number three hitter all but disappears.

Yokohama BayStars 6

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Streak: Drew 1    Last 5: LLLD

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Technically, we didn’t lose this game. But it sure felt like we did.

Swallows lineup:

1. Aoki CF
2. Tanaka 2B
3. Iihara LF
4. Whitesell 1B

Muranaka was left in just a little too long.

5. Aikawa C
6. Balentien RF
7. Miyamoto 3B
8. Kawabata SS
9. Muranaka P

Muranaka had a bit of a wobbly first inning on the mound, but he was allowed to sit down for a bit when Murata hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

Tokyo got on the board in the second when Whitesell walked, Aikawa reached first thanks to a Murata error at third, and Balentien also earned a free trip. With the bases loaded, Miyamoto hit a sac fly to Morimoto in center that wasn’t quite deep enough. Whitesell started barreling for home, but the throw easily beat him to the plate.

However, that made little difference, because Whitesell was able to pop the ball free with a very hard slide into Yokohama’s catcher. In fact, it kind of looked like Josh popped the guy’s head free from his shoulders on that slide. He didn’t get up for a while, but ended up finishing the inning. 1-0 Tokyo.

Kawabata followed that up with a second sac fly, this time to right, and Aikawa was able to scamper home. 2-0 Tokyo.

Although he didn’t score in the second, Balentien made it home in the fourth when he hit the longest home run I’ve ever seen slugged at Jingu. I didn’t see it land, but it turns out that it reached the picnic area at the top of the left field stands. 3-0 Tokyo.

Tokyo extended its lead to four in the fifth care of a Tanaka RBI single. 4-0 Tokyo.

But then Yokohama started to climb back into the game.

They got two back in the sixth when Tanaka’s throwing error put a man on base for Murata to bring home with this first home run of the season. 4-2 Tokyo.

Tokyo then recreated the four-run lead when Aikawa’s drive down the line in right field plated both Aoki and Fukuchi (pinch-running for Whitesell). 6-2 Tokyo.

But Yokohama manufactured three more runs in the eighth when Muranaka was nearing the end of his afternoon. He allowed two hits and a walk which yielded three  earned runs before Barnette was called in to clean up the inning. 6-5 Tokyo.

Lim was then called in to protect the team’s delicate one run lead  and hopefully grab his first save of 2011. But it wasn’t meant to be.

He allowed two hits, one walk and the tying run. 6-6 Final.

Muranaka had a long outing today for which he deserves credit. It’s just a shame that it ended the way that it did. He threw 128 pitches over seven innings and change. His ERA is 3.86 after giving up five runs of which three were earned. He also recorded nine strikeouts to go with his eight hits and three walks.

On offense, both Aoki and Kawabata had two-hit games while Aoki also added a walk. Whitesell also reached base three times on walks (the third was intentional).

Game three of this series is tomorrow afternoon with a 2PM scheduled start.

Tidbits:

• Three sacrifice bunts by the Swallows in this game. Only two of them qualify as Tak bunts given that the first one was laid down by Muranaka. The Swallows actually scored following two of them which is definitely rare.
• That Balentien homer was the biggest hit I’ve seen in Japan since that time David Ortiz smacked one off the very top of the  back wall in Tokyo Dome during a Japan-America All-Star game a few years back.
• The birds still look a little rocky on defense, but it doesn’t appear to be anything to really worry about at this point. Tanaka had another error today, which is very unlike him, and he now leads the Central League with three. Whitesell is right behind him with two of his own.
• Tanaka also leads the league in Tak-bunts with four.
• Perhaps more worrying than the defense is the lack of offense. We’re not hitting the ball particularly well as a team right now.
• This game actually ended after nine innings due to the new power-saving rules that are in place to keep games from going too long.

The 2010 NPB draft will be held on October 28 at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa in Tokyo. For those of you who are used to draft systems used in North American sports, the NPB draft has a number of wrinkles that you may not be familiar with. This post will walk you through the minutia of the draft.

Eligibility: Broadly speaking, the draft applies to, any Japanese citizen, or foreigner educated at a Japanese educational institution, who has never signed with an NPB team. Although there are a number of other restrictions that limit the pool considerably.

For students currently enrolled in school, they must be on track to graduate in the March proceeding the draft. Furthermore, university students must be in their fourth year of study or above. Students who drop out from their school after April 1st on the year of the draft are not eligible to be drafted that year. Finally, students must submit letters of intent to their respective governing organizations to be eligible for the draft. High school students must submit their letter to the Japan High School Baseball Federation, while university students must submit their letter to the Japan University Baseball Federation.

The draft eligibility of players playing in leagues associated with the Japan Amateur Baseball Association, commonly referred to as the industrial leagues, depend on time served with their current club. Players that joined industrial league teams straight out of middle or high school, are not eligible to be drafted until they play 3 years with that club. All other players, like journeymen industrial leaguers, cannot be drafted until they play 2 years with their current club. Players from teams that fold or go on hiatus are exempted from these rules.

All other players, like those playing in independent leagues, are eligible to be drafted as long as they fit into the broad eligibilty rules outlined in the beginning of this section.

Selections: The first round of the draft is based on a simultaneous bid system. All 12 teams declare the player they wish to select with their first selection. The negotiation rights to players that are named by only 1 team, go to the team that selected them. The rights to players that are named by multiple teams are decided by random draw. Teams that lose out on the draw must name another available player, and the process repeats itself until all 12 teams have selected a player. Hideo Nomo and Hideo Koike share the record for being named by the most teams with their the first selection, with 8 teams vying for their services.

All subsequent rounds carry on through a snaking draft order. In other words, the draft order alternates between regular and reverse order. The draft order for the first such round starts with the last place team from one of the leagues, followed by the last place team from the other league, followed by the fifth place team from the first league, etc. The league which selects first is determined through on the results of that year’s All Star game. This year, the Central league team will select first in the second round.

Teams do not have a set number of draft picks, and may stop picking once they determine that they do not want any other available player. The draft ends when all teams have stopped making selections, or when 120 total players have been selected, whichever happens first.

Negotiation Rights: Once teams have selected players, they have until the end of March of the next year to sign them to a pro contract. Industrial team players only have until the end of January to sign a contract. Players that fail to sign with a team will be eligible to be drafted in the future, provided they meet the eligibility requirements.

That wraps up our quick and dry look at the draft process here in Japan! Stay tuned for some of the big names that will be on everyone’s radar come Thursday.

Chunichi Dragons 1

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Streak: Won 2   Last 5: LLLWW

(Meiji Jingu)

The Swallows keep their slim playoff hopes alive behind the bend-but-don’t break pitching of  Tateyama.

The Lineup

1. Aoki CF
2. Miyamoto 3B
3. Hatakeyama LF
4. Whitesell 1B
5. Iihara RF
6. Aikawa C
7. Kawabata SS
8. Tanaka 2B
9. Tateyama P

The Dragons struck first in the top of the second inning, when Blanco lead off the inning with a homerun to right. 1-0 Dragons

Thw Swallows faced a major scare in the bottom of the third when Masa Yamamoto, the Dragons’ oyaji pitcher, drilled Aoki in the right kneecap. Aoki was slow to get up and was visibly hobbled for the rest of the night. No word yet on Aoki’s prognosis.

The Swallows tied the game in the next inning when Yamamoto surrendered a walk, dead ball, and a wild pitch to put Hatakeyama and Whitesell on third and second. Iihara managed to cash in Hatake with a sac fly to right. Aikawa followed with a single but was caught trying to get to second, killing the Swallows momentum. Kawabata ended the inning by flying out to left, stranding Whitesell on third. 1-1 All

The Swallows finally took the lead in the fifth. Yamamoto got two quick outs from Tanaka and Tateyama, but even with a bum knee Aoki managed to keep the inning alive with an infield single to first base. Miyamoto doubled to left to put Aoki on third. Aoki was clearly not comfortable running the bases. Hatakeyama managed to cash in the runners on a controversial triple to right. Hatake looked hit a foul ball into shallow right field, but when Fujii attempted a diving catch he booted the ball further into foul territory. The umpire ruled that the ball was going fair, and Hatake made it to third as Fujii thought the ball was foul. Ochiai came out argue the call and was calmly ejected from the game for his troubles. 3-1 Swallows

After the inning, Fukuchi came out to replace Aoki in center. Throughout all the game Tateyama kept allowing base runners in each inning, but beyond his one mistake to Blanco, he kept the Dragons from touching home.

The Swallows kept the scoring going in the six. Iihara lead off the inning with a single. Aikawa caught the defense napping by pushing a bunt past Yamamoto on the first base-side into no-man’s land to get a safety bunt. After Aikawa’s display of effective bunting, Kawabata showed the crowd how it shouldn’t be done. Kawabata began the at bat showing bunt, and dropped the ball hard into left allowing Yamamoto to throw Iihara out at third. At this point the Dragons pulled Yamamoto in favor of Suzuki. Tanaka effectively did Kawabata’s job one at bat too late, by grounding out to second, allowing the runners to advance. With 2 out and the pitcher’s spot up in the order, the Swallows decide to bat Yuichi in place of Tateyama. Suzuki plunked Yuichi on the right foot with his first pitch to load the bases. Fukuchi managed to do his best Aoki impression and drilled a single into center field, allowing Aikawa to score. Unfortunately Kawabata was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second. Although for the shots I saw I wasn’t sure if Kawabata was actually tagged, nor was I sure if Kawabata actually touched home plate. 4-1 Swallows

Oshimoto came in to replace Tateyama and managed the first 1-2-3 inning, for either team. After a harmless bottom of the seventh, the Swallows opened the top of the eighth with Lee on the mound. After getting the first two batters out, Lee handed the ball to Matsuoka who struck out Wada to end the inning.

The Swallows put an exclamation point on their win in the bottom of the eighth. Aikawa started things off by singling to left. Kawabata bunted him to second. The bunt was made moot when Tanaka )hopefully) broke out his slump by hitting a triple into deep center. Tateyama closed the scoring by hitting a single into left, cashing in Tanaka. 6-1 Swallows

Matsuoka finished the game without his cardiac arrest inducing antics, getting the Dragons to go down in order.