There were two preseason games on Friday, an afternoon Tigers-Eagles game and an evening Hawks-Marines game.
Second-year Tigers outfielder Teruaki Sato has looked very good so far. From about the middle of last season he began striking out twice a game, something analyst Kenichi Yazawa said was due to excessive motion of his head, causing him to lose command of the strike zone.
Continue reading Camp Fires March 4, 2021Unlike the U.S. majors being operated by MLB, Japan’s two major leagues are preparing for their 2022 season.
I haven’t been writing much about camp and preseason games because of the Olympics and some other things on my plate. But then Rob Manfred comes out and says, “The concerns of our fans are at the very top of our consideration list,” when obviously the concerns of the fans fall well below maximizing future ROI and crushing the union.
And one hears that nonsense, one is happily reminded that elsewhere baseball is going on. In Sapporo, the Fighters, whose new manager has said he knows the secret of how to score runs without hits, got six innings without a hit to execute his top secret plans to no avail
Continue reading Camp Fires March 2, 2021