Dead Ball (JPN Baseball Thread)

[sublight]

Let me get this straight, Kanemura's blasting the FG coach for focusing on the team's goals rather than his own personal record-padding?

Man, we've come a long way since Mr. Baseball.

[canman]

Prized pitcher Matsuzaka given OK to pitch in MLB
This was the headline from the ESPN report.
Here is the link to the story. What team do you think he will end up with. As I mentioned before I heard the Yankees really wanted him, but who knows.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2619621

[Greji]

Prized pitcher Matsuzaka given OK to pitch in MLB
This was the headline from the ESPN report.
Here is the link to the story. What team do you think he will end up with. As I mentioned before I heard the Yankees really wanted him, but who knows.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2619621

The Yankees need pitching and I think they would like to take him, but given his age, known arm problems, and condition, I wouldn't think they would not go too high for him if it became a bidding contest. They got burnt on Irabu that way and probably aren't anxious.

I do know San Diego's head scout was in town all last week, but don't know if that has anything to do with it or not.

It will be interesting to watch develop. Obviously, the J-sports media are going to make this the second biggest event in the history of baseball, the first being Matsu's defection, so it will be fun to see happening.

[Captain Japan]

New skipper Collins determined to turn Buffaloes into winners
Japan Times

OSAKA -- An intense student of baseball, Terry Collins wears his heart on his sleeve. His expectations are emblazoned on his shirt.

The Orix Buffaloes introduced Collins as their new manager Thursday in Osaka, the former major league skipper decked out in a Buffaloes uniform. He was wearing No. 1.

"I've come a long way, and I didn't come this far to lose," Collins said. "I didn't leave what I feel is the best organization in baseball to come here and lose. I came to win."...more...

[Captain Japan]

Allegedly, the Red Sox bid $42 million for Matsuzaka...
Sources: Red Sox bid high of $42M for Matsuzaka
ESPN

The Red Sox bid $42 million for the right to negotiate with prized Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, sources told ESPN's Peter Gammons. Boston's bid far exceeded any other team's offer.

Matsuzaka will learn Tuesday whether the Seibu Lions have accepted a bid for him by a major league team.

Major League Baseball and the Japanese commissioner's office will make simultaneous announcements at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday (10 a.m. Tokyo time Wednesday), MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said Monday at the big league general managers' meetings.

The amount of the highest bid was forwarded by the major league commissioner's office to the Japanese commissioner's office last Wednesday, and the Lions have until Tuesday to accept. Only if the offer is accepted will the identity of the winning team be revealed....more...

That news conference is supposed to be underway right now to announce if Seibu took the offer. I wonder if the Sox just bid ridiculously high so they'd get the rights with no intention of signing him - thereby keeping the Yankees from doing so.

[GuyJean]

Allegedly, the Red Sox bid $42 million for Matsuzaka...
Sources: Red Sox bid high of $42M for Matsuzaka

So what do you think? Will his 'gyroball' stump the US hitters?

What the Heck Is a Gyroball?
http://www.slate.com/id/2153373/

A breaking pitch that's similar to a slider or a cut fastball. (Click herefor a slow-motion video.) What gives the pitch its mystique is how it came to be: The gyroball was devised by Japanese scientist Ryutaro Himeno, who described the results in his 2001 book Makyuu no Shoutai, which translates roughly to The Secrets of the Miracle Pitch. Himeno had been modeling the movement of different pitches on a supercomputer, then decided to use his equipment to come up with something new.

The pitch he invented gets its name from its spin, which is like that of a football spiral. (Himeno calls it "gyro spin.") Most pitches in baseball either have topspin or backspin, but the gyroball spins sideways, like a thrown football or a bullet fired from a rifle...

GJ

[AssKissinger]

So what do you think? Will his 'gyroball' stump the US hitters?

Yes.

He was MVP at the World Baseball Classic.

Speculation has centered on the Boston Red Sox. The New York Yankees, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers also were thought to be among the bidders. An announcement was scheduled for 8 p.m. EST Tuesday (10 a.m. Wednesday Tokyo time), and if the bid was accepted, the winning team would have 30 days to negotiate a contract with Matsuzaka's agent, Scott Boras.

I wonder if the Sox just bid ridiculously high so they'd get the rights with no intention of signing him - thereby keeping the Yankees from doing so.

Can they do that without being out 42 M? How the Hell does this 'bidding' work?

[Captain Japan]

Can they do that without being out 42 M? How the Hell does this 'bidding' work?

If they can't come to an agreement then the 42 mill is off and Matsuzaka stays in Japan. I have a feeling that the Sox way over-bid for the rights to negotiate, which makes me wonder if it all wasn't a ruse to just merely keep him away from the Yankees. If yes, then I think this posting system has a few bugs to work out.

[AssKissinger]

[Captain Japan]

Here's a vid of the gyroball. To me, it looks like something between a curve and slider.

[Papa-Lazarou]

Can someone tell me exactly how much soccer's increase in popularity has impacted on baseball in Japan?

The US press all say that it has had no effect, because soccer sucks anyway while the UK press reckon Baseball is dying and only old people watch it these days.

Has it been in decline, has soccer's inroads into the Japanese market been overstated?

Just out of curiosity


Thanks

[Greji]

Here's a vid of the gyroball. To me, it looks like something between a curve and slider.

You're on him Capt'n! What he is throwing with the wrist back, fingers off the seams, throwing around the ball, is a change up. By throwing that way it will not only be off speed, but will also have a sinking slider motion, which is favored in case the batter can readjust his timing.

I've read most of the stuff on the so called Gyro, to include the inventer's book and found that nobody except Japanese non-playing sports writers and the Western media who picked it up from the Japanese media, seem to know what it is, or how to throw it. I asked people I know with Rakuten, Yakult and Orix (we do a lot of PR with them) and not only do their pitchers not throw it, they don't know what it is either.

The Japanese sports writers are insinuating that it is unique to Japanese baseball (have I head that somewhere before?) because it was invented in Japan.

Maybe Matsuzakachan is gyro-ing up on us all!

[AssKissinger]

Can someone tell me exactly how much soccer's increase in popularity has impacted on baseball in Japan?



Has it been in decline, has soccer's inroads into the Japanese market been overstated?

J-league games just don't attract that many fans no matter how you slice it. According to http://www.j-league.or.jp/eng/results/ the average game attendance was only 18,047 for the last regular season. Whether or not Japan's baseball market is so small that actually makes a cut into it I don't know. In Hiroshima, I saw both The Carp and San Frecce. Both have great atmosphere but mediocre attendance. Just speaking for myself, I don't think having a soccer team around makes me any less likely to go to baseball game or vice versa.

Btw, does anyone know if that beautiful old downtown baseball stadium is still in use for The Carp? That's a kick-ass little baseball stadium with a great history. Last I heard the were planning a replacement.

[GuyJean]

I asked people I know with Rakuten, Yakult and Orix (we do a lot of PR with them) and not only do their pitchers not throw it, they don't know what it is either..

Sound like Matsuzaka doesn't either..

..Whether it has a sharp break or a big dip, some major leaguers and pitching coaches have dismissed the gyro as merely a variation on the cut fastball. The gyro has also been compared to a cricket pitch called the googly, which is also thrown with sidespin.

It's unclear whether Matsuzaka actually throws a gyroball. He's been evasive in interviews, saying that he might have thrown the pitch "sometimes accidentally." Carroll believes he saw Matsuzaka throw a few gyroballs during this year's World Baseball Classic. According to Himeno, at least two other Japanese pitchers use the pitch... - http://www.slate.com/id/2153373/

GJ

[Greji]

[Captain Japan]

Red Sox pay record 6 billion yen to talk to Matsuzaka
Mainichi

The Boston Red Sox will pay a record 6 billion yen for the right to negotiate a contract with Seibu Lions ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese professional baseball club announced Wednesday.

The Major League club has offered to pay about 6 billion yen, or 51.11 million dollars, to acquire Matsuzaka, 26, well above the roughly 1.4 billion yen (13.12 million dollars) that the Seattle Mariners paid in 2000 to the Orix BlueWave to get Ichiro Suzuki, until now the greatest amount paid to negotiate with a Japanese baseball player through the posting system....more...

That's an awful lot of scratch to cough up just for the rights to negotiate with someone.

[Captain Japan]

The Seattle PI has a graphic here showing how to throw the Gyroball, a pitch that allegedly behaves like a late-breaking curve. The graphic shows the rotation of the arm to be that of a screwball, which breaks opposite to that of a curve. I don't see how you can get that perfect "bullet" or football spin (as many articles have described the rotation of a properly thrown gyroball) from that kind of delievery. Check this picture for a screwball:

The sidebar in the PI graphic admits that the delivery is similar to the screwball. So my question: how can a similar delivery create a completely opposite break?
Here's a document produced by Professor Himeno, one of the inventors. In an article in Popular Mechanics he says that the pitch is a variation of a slider:

"As I describe in the attached file," he says, "some sorts of slider or cut [fast]balls are considered as one variation of the gyroball. In that sense, many pitchers are actually pitching it."

The first graphic in Himeno's exhibit is the spin that the PI graphic is supposed to be displaying. But if you'll notice the rotation direction of the ball is reversed! Now, I assume they are both using the right-handed Matsuzaka as the model. What is going on? Himeno's second graphic (the one including "lift"), to me, is showing just how to throw a curve or slider.

[Kuang_Grade]

whoops, a double post of that slate piece GuyJean put on on the previous page

[Captain Japan]

Beware of The Monster
ESPN Magazine

Daisuke Matsuzaka smiles and a host of cameras flash. It's a lightning storm inside the ballroom of the Takanawa Prince Hotel in Tokyo, where some 200 journalists are gathered on Nov. 1 for Matsuzaka's "posting," the official announcement that his negotiating rights are up for bid. The 26-year-old Seibu Lions righthander, the best pitcher in Japan and the biggest star in all of Japanese professional sports, sits behind a flower-draped dais, looking nothing like his nickname, The Monster. Appearance is as important as reality here, and Matsuzaka's navy-blue suit, white shirt and black dotted tie all show respect for tradition. He smiles again, shyly -- not posing or hamming but beaming, each flash of his teeth met with the bright pop of the cameras.

"It's something I have looked forward to for a long time," he says in Japanese. "My fans, my teammates and everyone, I hope they will understand and support me. I'll be sorry to leave Japan, but this is my dream and this is what I need to do now." It's a neatly scripted speech from Matsuzaka. "There's a routine," says Peter Miller, a 25-year resident of Japan who's here representing the MLB Players Association. "You apologize, you express humility, and at the same time, you say that you're confident about what's to come." Although there are four American writers in the room, this is technically a closed event, for members of the kisha, or local press club. There will be no special interviews for the gaijin (foreigners). But even without a translator, it's easy to read the interplay between the young man on the stage and the reporters on the floor.

Then there's this part...

On a Wednesday evening in early November, Peter Miller stares out at the neon streets of Tokyo from the back of a taxi and shakes his head. "You can't imagine what it was like here when Japan won the WBC," he says. "The dancing. The shouts. I've never seen such a celebration here. Ichiro said it was the greatest experience of his baseball life. So did Sadaharu Oh. Everyone felt Japan was finally on a level playing field with the major leagues. Everyone felt it changed things."

Peter Miller is the Japan rep for MLB so I'm not too surprised by his assessment. But was it really like that after the WBC? Dancing? Shouts? I wasn't here but I'm having a tough time imaging that.
The rest of the story...

[GuyJean]

"You can't imagine what it was like here when Japan won the WBC," he says. "The dancing. The shouts. I've never seen such a celebration here..

Huh? Don't remember any of that shit.. Where was he watching the game? Was he smoking crack?..

Soccer Silliness
http://metropolis.co.jp/tokyo/636/lastword.asp
[quote]Let&#8217] GJ

[Mulboyne]

What did Sadaharu Oh get after winning the WBC? A one-way ticket to Fukuoka. In economy class...

He also won the 2006 Matsutaro Shoriki Award which is given for "the greatest contribution to the game" and usually goes by default to the manager of the Japan Series champion.

[GuyJean]

..usually goes by default to the manager of the Japan Series champion.

Well, since that manager was gaijin, they had to give it to someone Japanese

GJ

[MrUltimateGaijin]

how popular is jbaseball with gaijin? ive never met a gaijin who was at all interested in it

[Captain Japan]

[quote="GuyJean"]Well, since that manager was gaijin, they had to give it to someone Japanese ]
Bobby V won it the year before. So I think finding a reason to give it to Oh over Hillman was needed to keep from there being consecutive gaijin winners.

[Greji]

Bobby V won it the year before. So I think finding a reason to give it to Oh over Hillman was needed to keep from there being consecutive gaijin winners.

Should I remind ya'll that Wanchan is not a J-citizen. Even though he is a half, he wanders around on a Taiwan passport (unless he has changed it in the very immediate past)! He, like even other local bred FGs are considered Japanese for the Professional team gaijin limit, because they are products of the Japanese High school system.

[Captain Japan]

Should I remind ya'll that Wanchan is not a J-citizen. Even though he is a half, he wanders around on a Taiwan passport (unless he has changed it in the very immediate past)! He, like even other local bred FGs are considered Japanese for the Professional team gaijin limit, because they are products of the Japanese High school system.

Come on, Oh is conveniently Japanese when needed. You mean to tell me that the single season Nippon HR record is shared by three FGs?

[Greji]

Come on, Oh is conveniently Japanese when needed. You mean to tell me that the single season Nippon HR record is shared by three FGs?

Yup!

[Captain Japan]

A left-hander going to Yankee Stadium...
Yankees win rights to negotiate with Tigers ace pitcher Igawa
Mainichi

The New York Yankees have agreed to pay 3 billion yen, or about 26 million dollars, for the rights to negotiate with Hanshin Tigers ace pitcher Kei Igawa, the Japanese professional baseball club announced Wednesday.

It was the second highest bid for a Japanese baseball player following the staggering 6 billion yen, or some 51 million dollars, for Seibu Lions hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka.

With its successful bid, the Yankees won the exclusive rights to negotiate with the 27-year-old left-handed pitcher for 30 days. If Igawa agrees to join the Yankees, the Major League club will pay its bidding price to the Central League team.

"It's a traditional club and the media pays close attention to it just like the Tigers. I'd like to pitch for them as a starter," Igawa told a news conference....more...

[Taro Toporific]

I think this is sort of baseball related...I can't really figure out what is intended by this Japanese manga.

[SIZE="3"]It's a hit -- no a kidnap![/SIZE]

[kamome]

A left-hander going to Yankee Stadium...
Yankees win rights to negotiate with Tigers ace pitcher Igawa
Mainichi

Steinbrenner must have asked Cashman to go out and find their own Japanese pitcher to counteract the Sox's acquisition.