The kotatsu league: Dynamo Martin re-ups with Marines

Leonys Martin, who joined the Pacific League’s Lotte Marines just before last summer’s July 31 roster addition deadline, will be back for another season in Chiba. The Marines announced Monday that the 31-year-old Cuban right fielder. No terms were announced.

Here is Martin’s NPB English page.

Here is just a split of the effect Martin had in right field and not any kind of exhaustive study. The following percentages are the average runs scored and outs recorded on singles and doubles to right field against the Marines before and after Martin made his debut on July 26:

The cannon

DateRuns per S9Outs per S9
Before July 26, 2019.280.015
From July 26, 2019.223.042
DateRuns per D9Outs per D9
Before July 26, 2019.486.081
From July 26, 2019.296.037

The strike zone

Martin struggled a bit with the pitching and umpiring styles, but still drew walks and hit 14 home runs in half a season. Not all, but many hitters show an improved approach to their new circumstances in their second season.

and the fun

Of course, one of the perks of playing in Japan is that it can be a lot of fun. Here’s a clip of Marines fans singing Martin’s chant acapella at Tokyo Dome.

Ichiro laces them up again in Kobe

Unlike Tsuyoshi Shinjo, Ichiro Suzuki is still retired, but on Sunday, he laced up his spikes at Hotto Motto Field Kobe to take the field with the grass-roots amateur team he founded, Kobe Chiben.

At the same park where he became “ICHIRO” in his third season with the Pacific League’s Orix BlueWave, Suzuki’s team of former players from high school powerhouse Chiben Wakayama High School took on a team of teachers from the school and beat them 14-0.

Kyodo News’ story in English is HERE.

Here’s a link to the Kyodo News Japanese story — as published by Nikkei Shimbun.

Suzuki, managed, pitched and batted ninth. At the plate he had three hits, including a triple and home run. With a no-windup motion, the former high school pitcher struck out 16 without issuing a walk, while allowing six hits in a 131-pitch outing.

The Japanese expression for this level of baseball, is “kusa yakyu” — literally “baseball in the weeds.” It’s a staple of the peoples’ game in Japan, where company employees and students spend weekends and evenings year round playing baseball nation wide.

In his Japanese language retirement press conference in the early hours of March 22 in Tokyo, hinted that if he did return to the game it would be through involvement with the amateur side of the game.

writing & research on Japanese baseball

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