An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
Something to read while remembering to keep your hands in your pockets. Swallows of the Week Week 3 Last week’s vote saw the strong performances by Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B), Lastings Milledge (LF), Katsuki Akagawa (P), and Kyohei Muranaka (P). 28 people cast their vote this week, and here’s what they decided: Congratulations to Beavis, a [...]
Something for you to read while fielding offers for a more appropriate gig. Swallows of the Week Week 2 Ishikawa was the week one MVP, but he tanked after that. Hopefully the same fate does not await the winner of the week two polling. 31 people voted this time around, and they had five choices: Shingo [...]
Tokyo News Today’s home opener versus the Hanshin Tigers was obliterated by very unfriendly weather, so the clocks of the Tokyo faithful have been reset to 6PM Wednesday evening. We’ll see you there. Miyamoto took a pitch in the upper calf (just below the back of the knee) during Sunday’s game, and he’s apparently still [...]
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 [...]
Team News No idea whether this is for real or not, but Ogawa has said that he likes having Yuhei around because he can be used in the outfield or as a pitcher (LHP). Yuhei was a top pitching prospect that never panned out for the Swallows. He started working on converting to the outfield [...]
Tokyo Swallows Wladimir Balentien is having some right elbow issues and hasn’t been able to practice at 100%. It seems like Ogawa is starting to get a little impatient (link in Japanese). Balentien didn’t play in Tokyo’s pre-season game against Hanshin on Saturday. Tokyo beat Hokkaido 3-0 in a practice game on Thursday February 23rd. [...]
Chunichi Dragons Kenshin Kawakami, Chunichi’s u-turn starter, apparently married an American citizen while working in the US. Victor Diaz signed a one-year deal. Yomiuri Giants The Giants put a clown suit on KBO’s Hanwha Eagles beating them 14-0 on Thursday. Hanshin Tigers Matt Murton joined spring camp on February 8th. His delayed return to Japan [...]
Tsubamegun got one hell of a shout out from fellow Japanese baseball watcher, NPB Tracker. Thanks, Patrick! Tokyo batting coach, Takao Ise, has been selected as one of the six coaches representing the nation as part of this year’s Samurai Japan team. One coach was selected from each of the top three teams in the Central [...]
The first two installments of Tsubamegun’s trivia column were a bit on the nasty side, so we have one here for you that’s a bit more pedestrian. There are five players currently on the roster that have stolen at least 10 bases and collected at least 10 doubles in the same season. Can you name [...]
Top team players have the day off today, and the following is a small selection of some of the news coming out of Urasoe (Okinawa) since our last roundup on February 1st: Atsushi Fujimoto suffered a calf strain during practice on the 6th and will be taking it easy for the next few weeks. Hitoshi Yamamoto [...]
