If someone reading has any influence in Rakuten land, perhaps they can suggest Ginjiro Sumitani stop swinging at first-pitches unless he’s sitting on a pitch right down the pipe, because whatever he’s trying it isn’t working.
Through Saturday, July 16, Sumitani was tied for the least productive first-pitch swings among the 100 players with 150 or more plate appearances with Jose Osuna of the Yakult Swallows. But unlike Osuna, who takes first pitches 75 percent of the time, Sumitani takes just 50.3 percent of the first pitches he sees.
In this past week’s newsletter, which you’ll get if you sign up for a free or paid subscription, I alluded to a disagreement John E. Gibson and I had on the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast. As with our biggest clashes over the years, it had to do with player valuation.
I was happy to leave it at that until one of our collaborators raised the issue on Twitter, causing us to explain our side of the argument.
