Via Nikkan Spots: Ryota Igarashi tossed a shutout inning in relief against Leones del Escogido on 11/15 and earned a save (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 HR, 0 BB, 2 SO).  Igarashi has now appeared in 7 games for the Gigantes del Cibao and is 0-0 with 2 saves (1.17 ERA, 7.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 HR, 3 BB, 9 SO).

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Sponichi reports that Ben Cherington is happy with how Daisuke Matsuzaka is doing with his rehab training and is looking forward to him contributing next year.  He's also hopeful that Junichi Tazawa makes the roster next year since he has experience as both a starter and reliever.

And Yakyubaka reader Carter points out the following two tweets on Matsuzaka's comeback by Peter Abraham (1, 2):

Dice-K has said he'll throw off the mound in the bullpen shortly after New Year's. Way ahead of schedule.

Also heard this, Matsuzaka has been at Fort Myers since the end of the season, not going back to Japan until later this month.

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Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci has posted an article about Japanese pitchers in the Majors.  A snip:

Said Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine, "The anecdotal assessment suggests starting pitchers have a two-year window of success followed by a rapid decline, followed thereafter by disappearance. Even a lot of the relievers have had success quickly, reaching a hot peak followed by a rapid decline."

It has been 16 years since Hideo Nomo debuted in the major leagues, touching off the first generation of players who wanted to leave Nippon Pro Baseball for the majors. Forty-three players have followed Nomo's route. Only three have been named to more than one All-Star team (Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui and Kaz Sasaski) and only 11 are active big leaguers, including Minnesota Twins infielder Tsuyoshi Nishioka, a .226 hitter with no home runs who became the latest of several players to struggle with the transition.

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