Yakyu Baka » NPB

Marc Kroon gets his left hamstring checked out

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 15:13:03 +0000

Marc Kroon got his left hamstring checked out at a hospital on Thursday and his tests came back negative. Still, he did tell reporters that he felt some tightness and pain in the area. To that end, Kroon was not available to pitch Thursday night -- the Giants will likely spend the next couple of days observing how his hamstring is doing.

Yoshinori Sato tops out at 158km/h

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:49:25 +0000

Yoshinori Sato topped out at 158km/h tonight (twice) and tied the Japanese player speed gun record. He also became the youngest Japanese pitcher to hit the mark.

Yoshinori hit 158km/h in the first and third innings; Jun Hirose was in the batter's box both times.

Yoshinori also finished the night with his first complete game of his career.

Koshiro Yamamuro joins the regular roster

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:33:34 +0000

The Marines announced today that they upgraded Ikusei player Koshiro Yamamuro's contract. Yamamuro gets a contract worth 3M yen and a signing bonus of 4.4M yen. He was also assigned the number 57 (from the number 121).

Shinji Takahashi wasn’t in tonight’s starting line-up

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:28:38 +0000

The game between the Nippon Ham Fighters and Orix Buffaloes was canceled due to rain tonight, but not before the two teams were able to play partway through the first inning.

The starting line-up for the Fighters did not include Shinji Takahashi. Takahashi batted a ball off his left foot last night. He took part in pre-game batting practice today, but the team wanted to play it safe and gave him the night off.

Kikuchi was the target of Okubo’s abuse

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:39:10 +0000

The newest reports reveal that Yusei Kikuchi was indeed the target of Hiromoto Okubo's abuse. While Kikuchi was not named in the report that the Lions made public earlier today, someone with the club (perhaps a leak) made it known to the press.

It also seems that earlier reports of Okubo getting upset that a player snitched on his methods of punishing for tardiness were true: someone reported to the Lions' player's association that Okubo was handing out big fines to to tardy players. The player's union then approached Okubo and ask him to stop. Okubo assumed that it was Kikuchi that reported him and apparently became violent with him. Exactly what he did was not released to the public.

Lions officially dismiss Hiromoto Okubo

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:59:35 +0000

The Lions held a press conference earlier today to announce that their internal investigations revealed that Ni-gun batting coach Hiromoto Okubo resorted to violence in his coaching methods and that they were officially dismissing him from the team for that reason.

Tigers have a spot open in front office for Yabu

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:47:23 +0000

The Chiba Lotte Marines announced yesterday that they were not going to sign Keiichi Yabu after giving him a 2-day tryout. Seems there was some concern about being able to use him on back-to-back days after his velocity went from 146km/h on his first day to 136km/h on his second day.

But that might spell good news for the Hanshin Tigers -- they also have interest in Yabu, but not as a player. It seems the Tigers might be ready to offer Yabu a position in the front office should he decide to call it quits. The Tigers like the experience Yabu has racked up over the years, both as a player in the Majors and in the NPB, and feel he has the ability to help the club out from the front office.

Koshien Stadium Museum tops 100,000 mark in visitors

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:17:46 +0000

The Museum of Hanshin Koshien Stadium announced earlier today that they hit the 100,000 mark in visitors after just 4 and a half months of being in operation.

Incidentally, the 100,000th visitor was a 9 year old kid from Kobe who was visiting the museum with his family and some friends. For being the 100,000th visitor, the museum awarded the kid with tickets to a Hanshin game in September and a photo opp with Tiger mascot To-Lucky.

NPB: Roster Changes for 7/29/2010

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:06:05 +0000

Central League Roster Updates

Added to the Active Roster

Yakult Swallows

- Sato, Yoshinori P

Hanshin Tigers

- Kubo, Yasutomo P

Hiroshima Carp

- Stults, Eric P

Removed from the Active Roster

Yakult Swallows

- Morioka, Ryosuke INF

Hiroshima Carp

- Imai, Keisuke P

Pacific League Roster Updates

Added to the Active Roster

Nippon Ham Fighters

- Darvish, Yu P

Softbank Hawks

- Otonari, Kenji P

Seibu Lions

- Onuma, Koji P
- Asamura, Hideto INF

Orix Buffaloes

- Yamamoto, Shogo P
- Nishi, Yuki P
- Akada, Shogo OF

Removed from the Active Roster

Softbank Hawks

- Akashi, Kenji INF

Seibu Lions

- Abe, Masahiro INF

Orix Buffaloes

- Seguignol, Fernando INF
- Yoshida, Shintaro OF

Tigers offense connects for 8 straight hits

Gen — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 02:45:02 +0000

The Tigers offense connected for 8 straight hits in the 7th inning last night (there were also two sac bunts sandwiched in between) against the Yokohama Bay Stars.

Murton hits a single to center; Arai hits a single to center, runners on first and third; Arai steals second, Brazell clears the bases with a 2-run single to right; Uemoto replaces Brazell as a pinch-runner; Kanemoto hits a single to right, runners on first and third; Jojima hits an RBI single to right, runners on first and second; S. Fujikawa replaces Kanemoto as a pinch-runner; Asai hits a sac bunt, runners on second and third; Sekimoto, pinch-hitting for Nishimura, clears the bases with a 2-run single to center and advances to second on the throw; Toritani hits an RBI single to right, runner on first; Hirano hits a sac bunt, runner on second; Murton hits an infield single, runners on first and third; and Arai fouls out to right.

Matt Murton also broke a string of 17 straight plate appearances without a hit with that single to lead-off the 7th.

In other team related news:

Kentaro Sekimoto picked up another hit last night in a pinch-hit at bat and is now 9-for-16 with 2 homers and 8 RBI this season.