Swallows' hot-hitting lineup firing on all cylinders
Anyone who watched the Tokyo Yakult Swallows play this past week probably still has the Tokyo Ondo stuck in their head. When they close their eyes, they might still see a sea of small, mostly green umbrellas bobbing up and down in rhythm to ...
Fighters' experiments with openers not going well early
The ironic thing about the Seibu Lions blowing up the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters' "opener" strategy — in such a magnificent explosion of hits and runs on Saturday it might close the book on the opener — is that Fighters starter Takayuki Kato, the ...
Eagles' Takahiro Norimoto leads NPB group chasing Giants ace Tomoyuki Sugano
Tomoyuki Sugano is the best pitcher in Japanese baseball. The Yomiuri Giants ace has won the past two Sawamura Awards, hasn't posted an ERA higher 2.14 (or an fielding independent pitching over 2.80) since 2015 and is 32-13 over the past two seasons. There's no real ...
Time has come for Japan to consider burden placed on young arms
Kosei Yoshida threw more pitches in six games during last summer's National High School Baseball Championship than NPB hurlers did in any one month last season. Yoshida threw 881 pitches during Summer Koshien for Kanaashi Nogyo (Akita) High School, which made a Cinderella run to ...
Lions need Imai to step up with Kikuchi gone
Yusei Kikuchi, as Japanese fans can easily see on news reports every night and also on the internet and in newspapers, is doing just fine so far in his first MLB spring training with the Seattle Mariners. But while everyone watches Kikuchi move on from ...
DH talk brings back memories of reverse experiment
One thing the current conversation about a possible universal DH in MLB is showing is that a lot of people have great disdain for the concept of pitchers hitting. Like, a lot. So it's sort of amusing to recall the time NPB flipped the DH rule ...
Giants go on offseason flurry in effort to revive glory days
The Yomiuri Giants are often referred to as Japan's answer to the New York Yankees — the "Evil Empire" version of the Bronx Bombers anyway — and the offseason they've had makes it easy to see why. After finishing a fourth straight season without winning ...
Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame showing little respect for former NPB great Tuffy Rhodes
It's one thing for another year to pass with Tuffy Rhodes not yet even within shouting distance of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. But there has to be something in the voters' water for the American slugger to be left in the dust ...
Yusei Kikuchi's move shows revised posting system not great for NPB clubs
Why would an NPB team post its best players now? If the going rate for someone like Yusei Kikuchi, one of the best pitchers in Japan, is only just over $10 million, how long before NPB clubs see the value in just keeping their top ...
Stars switching numbers, changing names becoming staple of NPB offseasons
Offseasons in NPB are about change, just not exactly the type that immediately springs to mind. Japanese baseball has seen some big-name players change teams this winter. Two-time reigning Central League MVP Yoshihiro Maru is suiting up for the Yomiuri Giants next season and All-Star ...
Giants experience downside of NPB free agency as Tetsuya Utsumi departs
The images late last week of lefty pitcher Tetsuya Utsumi posing for photos wearing a white Seibu Lions uniform over his dress shirt — he wore a blue tie for effect — might've been a bit jarring for Yomiuri Giants fans. Other fanbases, like those ...
Hawks' excellence in execution results in trip to Japan Series
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks scripted a masterpiece in the final stage of the Pacific League Climax Series. The Seibu Lions entered the series having dethroned the Hawks as Pacific League champions and with an offense that had run roughshod to the tune 792 runs during ...
