Tag Archives: DeNA BayStars

Command is not everything

After laboring through Daisuke Matsuzaka’s practice game start on Sunday, I caught some of Michael Peoples‘ effort for the DeNA BayStars at Tokyo Dome against the Yomiuri Giants.

Peoples was getting a chance to show his stuff after he impressed the week before. On March 15, the 28-year-old Peoples, who spent eight seasons in the Cleveland Indians, held the Nippon Ham Fighters to two hits over five scoreless innings. On Sunday, he started against the defending Central League champion Yomiuri Giants.

After watching Matsuzaka struggle to locate for five innings, Peoples was a treat, hitting his spots pitch after pitch. His fastball sat at 87 mph, so this is a guy who needs to locate and make the ball move. Despite the lack of velocity, his fastball often jumped and missed bats, but that was less consistent than his command.

He threw some curves and appeared to cut his fastball and throw a two-seamer, but other than some of those underpowered-but beautiful fastballs, any pitch that missed and many that didn’t found barrels. The Giants hitters were able to foul off pitches and work walks and wait for an occasional straight fastball to hammer.

Peoples allowed five runs in three innings, and website Baseball King wrote off his chances of making the BayStars’ rotation.

Teams can keep four imported players on the active first-team roster, and the BayStars added outfielder Tyler Austin to two-time home run king Neftali Soto and veteran first baseman Jose Lopez, with two veteran relievers in the bullpen, right-hander Spencer Patton and lefty Edwin Encarcion, Peoples’ prospects look slim at the moment.

Having said that, being able to control your pitches as well as Peoples can is a valuable skill, provided he becomes accustomed to the hitters here and finds ways to get them out. This is a guy who because of his command, should be able to force a lot of Japanese hitters to come to him by expanding the strike zone. If he can improve one of his secondary pitches with the help of the Japanese coaches, he could have a real future here.

Ironically, after reading that assessment of his outing, I was surprised to find that Matsuzaka got solid reviews for his effort against the Fighters on Sunday. The team Peoples blanked last weekend had the worst offense in Japan last year, but Dice-K was put up on a pedestal for holding them to four runs over five innings. Yomiuri’s offense is not the best in Japan, but it is probably the best in the CL.

The Tokyo Dome special

That’s a term I coined 15 years or so ago to describe high flies to the opposite field that just clear the walls in straight-away left or right at Tokyo Dome, which has the shortest power alleys in Japan.

Typically these home runs come off high-straight fastballs, like the one that Takumi Oshiro hit off Peoples in the third inning on Sunday. But Tyler Austin hit a low pitch that did the same thing, demonstrating why a lot of hitters simply love Tokyo Dome. It’s not the best home run park in Japan — last year the Giants’ team HR adjustment was 1.11, second to the Yakult Swallows’ 1.18 but it’s healthy.

Anyway, Austin has been hitting a lot of home runs this spring, so here’s his Tokyo Dome special from Sunday:

Open and shut: March 7, 2020 – Welcome to Japan, Joe Gunkel

New Hanshin Tigers right-hander Joe Gunkel started Saturday’s preseason game against the Nippon Ham Fighters at Koshien Stadium, and allowed seven runs in four innings. Despite the ugly totals it was anything but an ugly outing for the 28-year-old who pitched in the minors for the Red Sox, Orioles, Dodgers and Marlins.

Gunkel put a couple of floating sliders on a tee, and got a lesson in what left-handed hitters in Japan will do to two-seamers when they are not trying to crush the ball, but by and large it was entertaining.

A lesson in pitching to Japanese left-handed hitters.

From his low 3/4 slot, Gunkel had a lot of horizontal movement on a 91.3 mph two-seamer that he mercilessly jammed right-handed hitters with, and even got one batter looking on a backdoor two-seamer.

His slider was inconsistent in quality and command, as was his four-seamer, but he threw a splitter that really dropped and got him swinging strikes, and he is quick to the plate.

He got burned on ground balls that found holes, a couple of jam shots and a fly to deep center on a mistake pitch that carried out of the unusually windless park. He also struck out six.

Gunkel has a lot to work with, and he has a great catcher in Ryutaro Umeno to help him over a couple of minor rough spots. Hopefully, he’ll learn to use his arsenal quickly enough to keep up with the adjustments opposing hitters will make so that he doesn’t hit a prolonged rough patch. That’s because imported Tigers pitchers who have major rough patches learn more than they want to know about the Western League and get released.

Austin, Soto go back to back

Taylor Austin hit his fourth home run of the spring for the DeNA BayStars on Saturday, while two-time defending Central League home run champion Neftali Soto followed him with his first. Get a look on Austin’s face after Soto’s home run.

When I saw they both came off SoftBank Hawks journeyman Ryoma Matsuda, who gives up a fair number of home runs, I wasn’t too surprised, but compared to some of the really fat pitches Austin crushed earlier in the preseason, it was a straight fastball but not a cookie.

The Hawks opened with Nao Higashihama, who’s been named their Opening Day starter, and he looked ready to go, although he did get away with a hanging curve to Soto up in the zone that the right-handed-hitting slugger pulled foul. Matsuda had less luck with his fat pitch.

Patton’s back

The BayStars got an inning of work from Spencer Patton, who ended a frustrating season by breaking his hand against a refrigerator door. I commented to a colleague that he didn’t pitch well last season, but looking at his sharp performance on Saturday and his numbers from Delta Graphs the past three seasons, nothing really stands out.

The one outlier is his win probability. He gave up an unusual number of hits in the most volatile moments. How much of that is down to bad luck and bad timing, I don’t know. An old fart uninterested in analytics might say he lacked the “will to win,” but I am going to go with really crappy timing and luck.

I am unaware of his contract situation, but a lot of teams would have been cautious about bringing Patton back. The BayStars do a good job with analytics, and I assume they want him around because they see the intrinsic quality and because he’s a good teammate. That stuff matters.