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Marte back for 2020

The Hanshin Tigers provided the real news on Tuesday, by announcing that first baseman Jefry Marte would be back for 2020 after concluding a $1.3 million contract after a debut season in which he posted a .381 on-base percentage and a .444 slugging average.

Marte’s NPB page is HERE.

He was quoted by the team in a press release as vowing to build on his first season by going all out from camp to win the pennant.

Jones in talks with Buffaloes

The Orix Buffaloes have been in talks with veteran big-league outfielder Adam Jones on a multiyear contract according to Ken Rosenthal of FoxSports.com. Although the Buffaloes and their predecessors, the Orix BlueWave and Hankyu Braves have a history of big performances by foreign players, none have ever come with the kind of experience Jones had prior to arriving in Japan.

The Nikkan Sports indicated one obvious advantage to playing in Japan, being able to compete in the 2020 Olympic baseball tournament, which the majors will “support fully” by preventing its top players from participating.

Rodriguez to Rangers

The Texas Rangers added to their reputation as NPB’s biggest trading partner by signing lefty middle reliever Joely Rodriguez to a two-year deal worth 5.5 million, the Dallas Morning News confirmed after an initial report by MLB Network.

Rodriguez’s English language NPB player page is HERE.

The 28-year-old led the CL in holds and hold points (holds plus relief wins) in 2019. He threw his changeup a lot more in Japan and got a higher percentage of swings and misses, which could be a good sign when he returns to MLB.

Chicago’s Fighters

The Chicago Cubs’ 2020 coaching staff for new manager David Ross via Yahoo Sports, includes former Nippon Ham Fighters Andy Green and Terrmel Sledge. The Cubs also have former Fighter Yu Darvish, and Jim Adduci — whose dad played for the Taiyo Whales in 1987.

Here’s Sledge talking about being an MLB coach and playing in Japan.

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 means ascribing all kinds of benefits to the tactic.

Nishimura attributed Orix’s 9-2 loss to the SoftBank Hawks on Sunday to:

His starting pitcher repeatedly throwing pitches that were easy to hit
His No. 2 hitter failing to sacrifice after his leadoff man reached in the 1st inning.

Mind you, his starting pitcher, rookie Daichi Takeyasu had been fairly sharp in his four previous starts. But still, Nishimura is asserting that getting the runner to scoring position with one out could have prevented the ass-whipping that was to follow.

Is it reasonable to assume that a visiting pitcher would do better if he entered the bottom of the first with the one-run lead Nishimura lives to play for?

Here’s a quick study from the available data including recent starting pitchers, and how they performed on the road in those games when they went to the mound in the first inning of games that were either scoreless or 1-0. Included only those in which I have a record of them with a minimum of 50 innings as a starter in games that were 1-0 after the top of the first.

Name	IP 1-0 starts	ERA 1-0 starts	ERA 0-0 starts	Win Pct 0-0 starts	Win Pct 1-0 starts	ERA Diff .
Randy Messenger	66	4.09	3.20	0.500	0.375	0.89
Kenshin Kawakami	54 1/3	4.14	3.70	0.560	0.750	0.44
Takayuki Kishi	107 1/3	2.93	2.54	0.583	0.615	0.39
Kazuhisa Ishii	93 2/3	4.04	3.66	0.367	0.444	0.38
Hideaki Wakui	142 1/3	4.05	3.77	0.495	0.474	0.28
Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi	89 1/3	4.84	4.57	0.404	0.333	0.27
Atsushi Nomi	150	4.14	3.87	0.478	0.450	0.27
Tetsuya Utsumi	151 1/3	3.51	3.54	0.442	0.450	-0.03
Kan Otake	124 2/3	3.54	3.61	0.386	0.625	-0.07
Koji Uehara	122 2/3	3.08	3.19	0.516	0.600	-0.11
Masanori Ishikawa	152 2/3	3.48	3.68	0.388	0.619	-0.20
Shunsuke Watanabe	99 2/3	3.79	4.04	0.426	0.500	-0.25
Kenichi Nakata	104 2/3	3.61	4.03	0.373	0.692	-0.42
Yoshihisa Naruse	118 1/3	3.42	3.91	0.375	0.571	-0.49
Toshiya Sugiuchi	196 2/3	2.61	3.20	0.494	0.684	-0.59
Kenta Maeda	145	2.11	2.71	0.446	0.688	-0.60
Hisashi Iwakuma	74	2.43	3.07	0.592	0.625	-0.64
Fumiya Nishiguchi	105	3.60	4.30	0.426	0.769	-0.70
Daisuke Miura	184	2.84	3.54	0.341	0.647	-0.70
Masahiro Yamamoto	124	3.82	4.67	0.407	0.667	-0.85
Hiroki Kuroda	120	2.33	3.33	0.476	0.786	-1.00
Yasutomo Kubo	95	2.56	4.13	0.451	0.857	-1.57
Tsuyoshi Wada	188 1/3	1.96	3.68	0.514	0.941	-1.72
Naoyuki Shimizu	86 2/3	3.22	5.11	0.403	0.818	-1.89

Pitchers performances in starts as visitors in games started with 1-0 lead or 0-0 lead.

It seems from this data that it might be a good idea to get your pitcher a 1-0 lead in the first inning if you can. Having said that, I think I can see why Randy Messenger‘s teammates have infamously scored so few runs for him: He has done better when they don’t.

So Nishimura’s assertion that one run could have changed everything is probably not as ridiculous as it first sounds. And if your starting pitcher was Tsuyoshi Wada — at least back in the day before he had Tommy John surgery, why the heck wouldn’t you sacrifice in the top of the first if you had a chance?

writing & research on Japanese baseball

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Tag Archives: Orix Buffaloes

The kotatsu league: Kansai buzz

Marte back for 2020

Jones in talks with Buffaloes

Rodriguez to Rangers

Chicago’s Fighters

Scoring 1 run for your starter

writing & research on Japanese baseball