After 13 years studying Japanese baseball as a hitter and outfielder, Alex Ramirez is taking a similar approach to his new job as the rookie manager of the Yokohama BayStars.
The Venezuelan, the first foreign-born player with 2,000 hits in Nippon Professional Baseball, is judiciously applying what he learned in his career, absorbing whatever he can to inform his managing, setting straight-forward goals and sticking to them.
Ramirez's pregame press briefings occasionally provide surprises, such as Sunday's in Yokohama, when the skipper said southpaw sensation Shota Imanaga was being sent to the farm team, not because he was hurt, but because it's part of the plan.