Japan and the way of the pitcher
There will be no winner of the Sawamura Award this season in order to "maintain the standards of the award and encourage pitchers and teams" to develop starting pitchers like…
Edwin Escobar said his job is about love, respect and confidence.
Love in his heart and fight on his mind
Edwin Escobar said his job is about love, respect, and confidence. On Monday, I made it out to Yokohama to talk with DeNA BayStars lefty Edwin Escobar. In his third…
NPB managers and pinch-hitters
Having examined what happens when individual batters come off the bench to hit in NPB, and knowing that pinch-hitters, as a whole, are less productive in that role than they…
The open and shut case of Mizuki Hori
Mizuki Hori, Japan's first true opener, opened seven games for about a month starting on July 15. On Aug. 15 -- as if manager Hideki Kuriyama had a month time…
Scapegoat time in Tiger Land?
"When you see a team looking around for a scapegoat, that's a pretty good indication that one will soon be needed."Bill James I'm not certain that Yangervis Solarte is being…
Ramichanalytics Part II
Last week I posted DeNA manager Alex Ramirez's responses to questions about batting his pitchers eighth. Here is my analysis of how that's working out for him. I'll give you…
Ramichanalytics Part I
When it comes to making use of analytics, DeNA BayStars manager Alex Ramirez may not be on the cutting edge, but he does his homework. He may not know lots…
Scoring 1 run for your starter
One thing I love about Orix Buffaloes manager Norifumi Nishimura is his willingness to speak his mind. Of course, as one of Japan's principle advocates of the sacrifice bunt, that…
Sasaki had elbow issue before start
Ofunato High School manager Yohei Kokubo, who was criticized by some in Japan for not throwing his ace pitcher Roki Sasaki two days in a row after he had thrown…
Points of order
A little more than three months after Alex Ramirez told that he would not bat his pitchers eighth this year, as BayStars, he slipped lefty Haruhiro Hamaguchi into the No.…
