Milestones in play for many in 2020 season
With the NPB season set to begin on March 21, it won't be long before players are back in uniform and training with their teams in preparation for 2020. In addition to getting ready for the new campaign, a handful of NPB stars will also ...
Ryosuke Kikuchi joins list of players to hit wall in posting system
Musing about whether or not certain players will get posted is fairly commonplace in discussions about the top NPB players these days. So much so it's easy to forget being posted is only the first hurdle players under contract have to clear on the way ...
Handful of players from 'Matsuzaka Generation' still holding on
Daisuke Matsuzaka returned home on Wednesday, solidifying a deal to spend his 20th season in pro baseball with the Saitama Seibu Lions, the club he spent Year 1 with back in 1999. While the reunion angle is nice and all, Matsuzaka's signing is also a ...
Tatsunori Hara has shot at top 10 for most wins by a manager
Tatsunori Hara moved into rarefied air when his Yomiuri Giants beat the Hiroshima Carp on Tuesday night, becoming the 13th NPB manager to reach 1,000 career victories. It's easy to look back and see how he got there. Hara has managed a number of strong ...
Chihiro Kaneko draws attention from Yu Darvish, others, because of change-up
Chihiro Kaneko, as a 35-year-old veteran of 13 seasons, probably possesses a fair amount of wisdom he can impart on the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters pitchers younger than him. Even those who have already moved on. Former Fighters ace and current Chicago Cubs pitcher Yu Darvish ...
Eagles announce plans to make Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi world's first cashless stadium
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles want you to leave your cash at home. The Pacific League club late last week unveiled a plan to make its home stadium, Rakuten Seimei Park Miyagi, completely cashless in 2019. The Eagles say it will be the world's first ...
Slugger Guerrero remains in limbo on Yomiuri's farm team
Sometimes the fake grass isn't always greener in the other dome. The Yomiuri Giants' Alex Guerrero can probably attest to that. It's been over a month since the Kyojin sent him to the farm team and just over a week since reports surfaced saying he ...
Warren Cromartie featured in new series on YouTube
Warren Cromartie was a star for the Montreal Expos and a league MVP and Japan Series champion (both in 1989) with the Yomiuri Giants. Now the NPB great is adding something else to his resume: YouTuber for the History Channel. The History Channel Japan earlier this ...
Kiyomiya shows off power on farm
After a slow start to his first season as a professional, Kotaro Kiyomiya provided fans with a small glimpse of what made him the most sought-after player in last fall's NPB draft. The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters rookie hit his first two pro home runs ...
NPB stars look to build momentum in spring
While most baseball fans know spring numbers should be taken with a grain of salt, some players make it hard to remember at times. Because however meaningless the actual numbers are during this time of year, the process is still fun to watch. One of ...
Now or never for Dragons hurler Daisuke Matsuzaka
Daisuke Matsuzaka stepped into the bullpen for the first time during camp on Friday and threw 32 pitches in his still unfamiliar white No. 99 Chunichi Dragons uniform. "I'm getting better, I was able to throw more than planned," Matsuzaka was quoted as saying to ...
Japan's Hall of Fame players deserve own moment in sun
For all the ideas Japanese baseball has lifted from its MLB counterpart in North America, it's surprising a proper Hall of Fame ceremony hasn't been one of them. This year's Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame class was a doozy, including among others, former Hanshin Tigers ...
