Kenta Maeda from Day 1
C.J. Nitkowski pointed out here that things will change when Maeda has to adapt to a different ball and a shorter rotation in MLB. How well is he going to do? A long-time MLB…
Nomu and Tabuchi
There are two players in Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame who were catchers and deserved to be inducted regardless of other consideration. They are Katsuya Nomura and Atsuya Furuta. On…
Hiroshima’s hot corner
Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times @JCoskrey tweeted today that the Hiroshima Carp were moving to sign former Chunichi Dragon third baseman Hector Luna and commented that it would…
The pitchers, part I
This is the start of a series trying to estimate Nippon Professional Baseball's best players at each position over the past decades, starting with the current 2010-2015. For the players from 1970…
Let’s go back to the future
For lack of a better expression, this is a call to action. If you live in Japan and have even the slightest interest in the history of the game, I would…
Japan’s MVPs over past 25 years
Having finally gotten around to calculating win shares in NPB from 1989 to 2015, I might as well use them to ask the question: How often are Japan's MVP winners…
The Boys of Winter
While there are plenty of news junkies this week in Nashville at the baseball winter meetings, the absolute best part is running into people you've known for a long time…
Winter meetings warming up
The good thing about Opryland is that you don't have to ride the boats to get from one end of the facility to the other, but the sight of the…
Does Japan’s game slow down in 2nd half?
Many years ago, while exploring ways Japanese ball varied from the major league variety, I noticed that in Nippon Professional Baseball, triples declined in the second half of the season, while…
A second look at a first base mystery
While figuring out my ballot for Golden Glove winners, I often resort to Bill James' Win Shares as a not-so-quick-and-dirty guide to fielding value. What? No Ultimate Zone Ratings? Nippon Professional…
