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03/16/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Little Matsui, Matsuzaka Awesome; M's Acquire ex-Carp Aoki"
Four Run Kintetsu Fourth Tops Yomiuri 4-3
Yomiuri Giants starter Koji Uehara was perfect for three innings Saturday at Osaka Dome against the Kintetsu Buffaloes, but then fell apart, as the Buffs rose up for four runs in the fourth to ultimately take it 4-3. Jeremy Powell, who kept his breaking stuff consistently down in the zone, started for the Osaka side and was superb again, going five shutout innings on just 49 pitches and allowing four hits while striking out one and walking none.
The Giants' best shot against the ex-Dodger was in the second, when they got a leadoff single to center from centerfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi, who is back from injury, and a two out single to right by the slumping catcher Shinnosuke Abe, but first baseman Daisuke Motoki grounded to short to put the kabosh on that chance. Nobody even reached third against the righthander, who has put a lethal chokehold on the opening day starting assignment.
Uehara's idyll ended rather abruptly in the bottom of the fourth, when Kintetsu centerfielder Naoyuki Omura took a hack at an 83mph get me over fastball and launched it into the rightfield seats to make it 1-0 Buffs. Second baseman Eiji Mizuguchi then bashed an Uehara offering off the base of the centerfield wall for a double. One out later, third baseman Norihiro Nakamura singled to left to bring Mizuguchi in. Nakamura was forced at second on a subsequent ground ball from rightfielder Koichi Isobe, but DH Yuji Yoshioka singled to left, as did first baseman Kenshi Kawaguchi and it was 3-0. Osamu Hoshino cracked a knock to right to usher in Yoshioka for a 4-0 Kintetsu advantage.
Hideo Koike replaced Powell for the sixth and that was good news for the Tokyo squad. Leftfielder Takayuki Shimizu singled to center and went to second on a one out groundout. Takahashi then zipped one back up the middle and Shimizu motored in to make it 4-1 Buffs.
Kimiyasu Kudoh then made his spring debut and fashioned two shutout frames on two hits and a walk, but afterward he was very unhappy with the quality of his command. Nevertheless, the Giants had to be very encouraged to see the great lefthander back in action.
Koichi Misawa romped in from the bullpen for the Buffs to begin the seventh and promptly issued a walk to Akira Etoh. Abe stepped up and cranked his first dinger of the spring into the rightcenterfield seats to close it within 4-3. One out later, pinch hitter Koji Goto looped a double into centerfield. Following another out, Misawa then free passed both second baseman Toshihisa Nishi and shortstop Tomohiro Nioka to load the bases with two away. But Takahashi, with a chance to at least tie it, flew out to right to end the rally.
Akira Okamoto was dispatched to the mound by Buffs boss Masataka Nashida and he struckout the first two men he saw, rightfielder Roberto Petagine and backup shortstop Masahiro Nagata, and then induced a lazy flyball out of Abe for a perfect inning.
In an unusual development, Hisashi Iwakuma, normally a starter, was asked to close and he did it very well, fanning two and luring a batter into a groundout in a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the shiroboshi.
In the set positon, Uehara's fastball was tailing back over the plate and his forkball wasn't doing anything all game long. He will start against the Oakland A's on the 22nd
For Yomiuri, Petagine was 0-4 with two strikeouts and is at .200.
For Kintetsu, leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes was 0-3 with two strikeouts and is at .263.
Pitching Lines:
Yomiuri:
Uehara (L, 0-1) IP 5.0 BF 21 PC 75 H 7 HR 1 K 4 BB 0 R 4 ER 4 ERA 7.62
Kudoh IP 2.0 BF 9 PC 30 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
J. Kawahara IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 13 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Kintetsu:
Powell (W, 1-0) IP 5.0 BF 18 PC 49 H 4 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.25
H. Koike IP 1.0 BF 5 PC 19 H 2 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 4.50
Misawa IP 1.0 BF 8 PC 35 H 2 HR 1 K 0 BB 3 R 2 ER 2 ERA 3.86
A. Okamoto IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 17 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Iwakuma (S, 1) IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 16 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 7.20
E: Mizuguchi
SB: Nishi
2B: Mizuguchi, K. Goto
HR: N. Omura (2), S. Abe (1)
RBI: Y. Takahashi, S. Abe 2, N. Omura, N. Nakamura, K. Kawaguchi, Hoshino
GIDP: Petagine
LOB: Yomiuri 7, Kintetsu 6
Season Series: Yomiuri 1, Kintetsu 1
Game Time: 2:37
Attendance: 38,000
Umpires: Kodera (HP), Yoshimoto (1B), Sato (2B), Suginaga (3B)
Arakaki Gets Thumped in Daiei Loss to Hiroshima
Nagisa Arakaki has been dominant in his rookie spring campaign, striking out 14 in his last nine innings of work, but he got his comeuppance on 46 degree day Saturday at Onomichi, Hiroshima Prefecture, as he was extremely bothered by Hiroshima Carp baserunners, who racked up a total of five steals on the afternoon against him, and thus got rocked for six runs, five earned, on five hits in a 7-5 Daiei Hawks loss.
Ken Takahashi made the start for the fish and what he was serving proved to be nutritious for the Hawks' order, as he was drilled for four runs, three earned, on five hits in four innings to receive a no decision. Instead, the win went to veteran Shinji Sasaoka, who put together two innings of one walk shutout baseball for his first victory of the spring.
Takahashi got an indication that this wasn't going to be a good outing for him when Hawks second baseman Tadahito Iguchi leaned into one of his deliveries with two gone in the first and bombed it into the centerfield bleachers for a quick 1-0 Daiei lead.
The Fukuoka crew then notched another pair in the second, when third baseman Bryant Nelson singled to left, first baseman Takahiro Arai booted leftfielder Pedro Valdez' groundball and first baseman Ryo Yoshimoto thumped one right on the screws to the leftfield wall, Valdez and Nelson hustling all the way around on the double to open a 3-0 advantage. Shortstop Yusuke Torigoe singled to left. But any further home invasions were snuffed out when Arihito Muramatsu grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
Arakaki was working on a perfecto for three innings, but went to pieces from the fourth on. Second baseman Akihiro Higashide hit a little ground ball between the mound and first base. Arakaki got to it and attempted to shovel the ball to Yoshimoto using his glove, but the flip went wide of the bag and Higashide reached. Now with a man on, Arakaki started to overthrow. Higashide stole second while shortstop Andy Sheets struckout. Centerfielder Koichi Ogata singled to right to hail Higashide in to make it 4-1 Hawks. Arai singled to right. But Tomonori Maeda flied out to center and Jimmy Hurst did so to right and Arakaki escaped cheap.
That wouldn't be the case in the fifth, though. With one down, backup shortstop Takuya Kimura singled to right and stole second. DH Itsuki Asaki walked, as did Higashide to pack the sacks. Arakaki plunked leftfielder Kazuki Fukuchi to force Kimura in. Toyo Asayama singled to center to send Asai and Higashide to the plate and knot it at 4-4. Fukuchi and Asayama both took off and successfully completed the double steal. Arai struckout. Reserve centerfielder Shigeru Morikasa, however, torched one up the leftcenter gap and all the way to the wall for a two RBI triple and it was 6-4 Carp. Arakaki, who was clocked at 92mph, settled down and retired the next four men he faced in his six innings on a strikeout and three groundouts, but the damage was fatal.
Takayuki Shinohara came on to toil for the Hawks in the seventh and he left a little bruised, too. Higashide and Fukuchi singled to center and to left respectively, Higashide hustling for third. One out later, Arai grounded to short and Higashide reported for a 7-4 Hiroshima advantage.
Yasuhiro Oyamada endeavored to close this one down and he got the first two men on a groundout and a lineout. Backup catcher Masanori Taguchi, who has been rather handy since coming over from Nippon Ham last season, clobbered one into the leftfield seats and it was 7-5 Hiroshima. Torigoe, though, flied out harmlessly to right and it was over.
For Daiei,Valdez was 0-4 and is ta .154.
For Hiroshima, Hurst was 0-2 and is at .136. Sheets was 0-2 and is at .333.
Pitching Lines:
Daiei:
Arakaki (L, 1-1) IP 6.0 BF 27 PC 92 H 5 HR 0 K 6 BB 2 R 6 ER 5 ERA 3.00
Shinohara IP 1.0 BF 5 PC 14 H 2 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 13.50
Yoshitake IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 13 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 9.95
Hiroshima:
K. Takahashi IP 4.0 BF 17 PC 57 H 5 HR 2 K 3 BB 0 R 4 ER 3 ERA 5.14
Sasaoka (W, 1-0) IP 2.0 BF 7 PC 31 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Sawazaki IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 10 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 9.00
S. Tamaki IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 21 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Oyamada (S, 1) IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 31 H 1 HR 1 K 0 BB 0 R 1 ER 1 ERA 9.00
E: Arakaki, T. Arai
SB: Muramatsu, Higashide, Fukuchi, Asayama, Okagami, T. Kimura
2B: Yoshimoto, Kurihara
3B: Morikasa
HR: Iguchi (1), Matsunaka (1), Taguchi (1)
RBI: Iguchi, Matsunaka, Yoshimoto 2, Taguchi, Fukuchi, Ogata, Asayama 2, T. Arai,
Morikasa 2
HBP: Fukuchi (Arakaki)
PB: Johjima
GIDP: Muramatsu
LOB: Daiei 4, Hiroshima 5
Season Series: Hiroshima 2, Daiei 0
Game Time: 2:37
Attendance: 5000
Umpires: Sasaki (HP), Yamamura (1B), K. Kobayashi (2B), Yoshikawa (3B)
Matsui Homer, Itoh Three RBIs Tarnish Stars 8-3
Bad news for Pacific League hitters. Daisuke Matsuzaka is not only back, he is rounding into a real pitcher plus he has aquired a second cut fastball that has some sink on it in addition to the one that moves horizontally that he successfully employed last season. He used that pitch to carve up the lefties in the Yokohama Bay Stars order for eight strikeouts in a dominant five inning outing of one hit ball while humping it up to the plate at a spring high 93mph in an 8-3 triumph for the lethargic Lions.
Yuji Yoshimi was the starter for Yokohama and he fought himself all day long, needing 118 pitches to get through a five inning stint that saw him permit five runs on eight hits, though he did strikeout eight, to lose it.
The Lions got off on the good foot, but then shot themselves in it in the first, as shortstop Kazuo Matsui commenced the match with a screamer down the leftfield line for a standup double and went to third on a grounder to first by rightfielder Tatsuya Ozeki. Unfortunately, leftfielder Hisashi Takayama then struckout and, following a walk to first baseman Toshiaki Inubushi, third baseman Taketoshi Goto popped out in foul territory to first to keep it scoreless.
Seibu did put themselves in the driver's seat in the second, as catcher Toru Hosokawa walked and went to second on a wild pitch and second baseman Furuya whistled a high fastball that was on the outer half of the plate into rightcenter for a double, Hosokawa sprinting in for a 1-0 lead. Matsui then went to the opposite field and parked one in the rightfield bleachers at Yokohama Stadium to expand the Lions advantage to 3-0.
Yoshimi was buffeted again in the third when Inubushi laced a single off the glove of shortstop Takuro Ishii for an infield hit and Goto singled to right. 40 year old DH Tsutomu Itoh, in his first start of the season, singled to center to push Inubushi across. Centerfielder Shogo Akada then drove a single to centerfield and Goto toed the dish to make it 5-0 Seibu.
It kinda slowed down for a while until Matsuzaka departed and Takashi Ishii, who has been dire this spring to date, entered the fray. With one down, centerfielder Tatsuhiko Kinjo walked. Takuro Ishii grounded to Goto, who whipped over to second attempting to get the force, but Kinjo was in ahead of the ball and everybody was safe. Leftfielder Takanori Suzuki walked to juice the bags. First baseman Takahiro Saeki singled to center to bring Kinjo in and DH Steve Cox swung at a forkball and busted his bat, but the ball fell into center to deliver Takuro Ishii. One out later, third baseman Katsuaki Furuki dribbled one up the leftside and beat it out for an RBI infield hit to shrink the deficit to 5-3. Rookie second baseman Shuichi Murata, though, popped to short and that is where it stayed.
The Lions turned their attention to reliever Ryichi Kawahara in the seventh to lock it up. Ozeki singled to center and was sacrificed to second. Both reserve first baseman Taisei Takagi and Goto walked to jam the basepaths. Itoh singled to left to drive in Ozeki and Takagi. Akada rifled a double to right and Goto crossed for an 8-3 Lions lead.
Yokohama only had one hit the rest of the way and Naoki Uchizono retired three of the four men that stood in against him in the ninth to put it in the refrigerator.
Yokohama has now lost five in a row and their hopes for gaining renewed momentum in 2003 in the wake of their 2002 disaster, have all but disappeared because outside of Matt Whiteside, they have no middle relief.
Kazuo Matsui, who did everything but sell udon at the concession stand last seaosn for the Tokorozawa nine, went 2-4 and is now hitting a white hot .477. Will he challenge .400 before going to MLB? He probably strikes out too much to do it, but right now he is looking like the class of the Pacific League.
For Yokohama, Cox was 1-3 with an RBI and is at .167. Rightfielder Tyrone Woods was 0-3 with two strikeouts and is at .282.
For Seibu, they get Alex Cabrera back Tuesday.
Pitching Lines:
Seibu:
Matsuzaka (W, 1-0) IP 5.0 BF 16 PC 67 H 1 HR 0 K 8 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Takashi Ishii IP 2.0 BF 12 PC 54 H 3 HR 0 K 1 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 8.00
Doi IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 19 H 0 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Uchizono IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 8 H 1 HR 0 K 1 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Yokohama:
Yoshimi (L, 1-1) IP 5.0 BF 25 PC 118 H 8 HR 1 K 8 BB 2 R 5 ER 5 ERA 4.24
Fukumori IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 12 H 1 HR 0 K 0 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 2.25
R. Kawahara IP 1.0 BF 8 PC 29 H 3 HR 0 K 0 BB 2 R 3 ER 3 ERA 4.00
Kizuka IP 1.0 BF 3 PC 10 H 0 HR 0 K 2 BB 0 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
Whiteside IP 1.0 BF 4 PC 30 H 0 HR 0 K 0 BB 1 R 0 ER 0 ERA 0.00
E: T. Goto
SB: T. Takagi, Ozeki
2B: K. Matsui, Furuya, Hosokawa, Akada
HR: K. Matsui (2)
RBI: K. Matsui 2, T. Itoh 3, Akada 2, Furuya, Saeki, Cox, Furuki
WP: Yoshimi
HBP: Fukumoto (Doi)
Balk: Whiteside
LOB: Seibu 8, Yokohama 6
Season Series: Seibu 1, Yokohama 1
Game Time: 3:10
Attendance: 18,000
Umpires: Honda (HP), Tsugawa (1B), Kamimoto (2B), Nakamura (3B)
Team Reports
Yakult Nobody has really knocked manager Tsutomu Wakamatsu's socks off as far as handling the leadoff spot, so that honor, for now, will go to shortstop Shinya Miyamoto, who had been the two hole guy in past seasons. Wakamatsu also cited the fact that Miyamoto has a good OBP....The Swallows' front office is reportedly looking at two pitchers from the Indians' system, Jason Phillips and Jason Beverlin.
Chunichi After his scheduled start start was cancelled Saturday due to rain, righthander Kenshin Kawakami went to the team's indoor workout facility and threw 43 pitches just to stay sharp. He will now start against Kintetsu Sunday, weather willing....Manager Hisashi Yamada went out to dinner with Ivan Cruz and Alex Ochoa and urged the pair to try not to hit homers. After blasting his first homer in Japan, Ochoa is zip for his last seven. Yamada just wants them to hit the ball hard and all over the lot, figuring that the homers will come if his two foreign signings don't muscle up....An interpreter for the Chunichi Dragons said he believes that the best way for foreign players to learn Japanese, aside from having a Japanese girlfriend, is to sing karaoke. The interpreter, whose last name is Kunimitsu, said that he used to interpret for Leon Lee when Leon was with Lotte. They would go to a karaoke parlor and Kunimitsu would write out the lyrics of two Japanese songs using the english alphabet. They would do two songs per session and Leon picked up the language. Hey, whatever works.
Kintetsu Shortstop Masahiro Abe apparently fractured a rib toward the end of February, but didn't tell anybody he was hurting until earlier this week. He was taken to hospital, where x rays found the break. He will be out at least a month.... According to Hochi Sports, the Buffaloes will acquire a position player from the Dodgers in the next couple of weeks. But the name of the player is unknown at this time....
Nippon Ham Itsuki Shoda made an instructional league start Saturday and went 1.2 innings of one hit ball while striking out three. He was on a pitch count, accounting for the limited IP. He was clocked at a high of 87mph. He is expected to make two more appearances before opening day.
Orix The naming rights sickness has now come to the Japanese pro leagues, as Kobe Green Stadium will now be known by the name of a prominent U.S. based internet portal whose name I'm not going to mention here unless they want to pay us advertising fees. However, since I strongly object to naming ballparks and sports matches after corporate entities, I will continue to refer to the Blue Wave's home park by its previous name. Now you may say, "hey, don't you give the names of coporate outfits all the time in the team names?" True enough. But that is how those clubs have always been known. And the naming rights thing with ballparks is something that irritates me profoundly. Pretty soon, it will be like Korea, where everything, even apartment blocks, have a corporate name attached to them in the name of advertising....Makoto Suzuki worked in the bullpen today on getting his upper and lower body on the same page during his delivery.
Hideki Matsui After seeing Hideki Matsui in three games this spring, Tampa Bay bench coach John McLaren called Godzilla a "pure hitter," according to Sports Nippon. "He'll be able to hit at that big league level like Ichiro did"....Matsui racked up his first MLB assist Saturday, as, with men on first and second, he took a ball off the wall from the Toronto Blue Jays Shannon Stewart and fired a strike to the cutoff man, who then pegged it to the plate to nail a sliding Bruce Aven. At the plate, he grounded to second twice and flew out to left before being replaced after the sixth.
Miscellaneous The industrial league club belonging to the Miki House Corporation is taking on former Cuban National Team members German Mesa and Luis Ulacia, according to the Mainichi Shimbun. In addition, the team also has picked up former Yakult Swallows prospect Rigo Miyamoto....New Indians signing Kazuhito Tadano made his debut against the Astros' 1A club Friday and tossed a hitless inning while walking one and striking out one. This was the first time since last October that he had seen any game action....Tsuyoshi Shinjo had a sac fly and was hit by a pitch Friday for the Mets. Saturday, he went 1-2 against the Dodgers in Mexico and stole a base. He also said that the thinner air in Mexico City made it hard to breathe...So Taguchi wacked a shot off the first baseman's glove that was called an error and then cracked a single to left and stole second, but had to return to first when the hitter was ruled as interfering with the throw to second Friday. Then Saturday, he went 3-5 with an RBI. After looking overwhelmed his rookie year, Taguchi is now boasting an average well over .300. Because Taguchi is a textbook defensive outfielder with a cannon, manager Tony La Russa would like to find an excuse to keep him around. The former Orix veteran has made a good case....Ichiro went 0-3 in a split squad game with the A's Saturday.....Meanwhile, Kazuhiro Sasaki was in the other game, this time the SF Giants, and he struckout two in his one scoreless inning....It will be nice to see my beloved Dodgers out of the hands of the Rupert Murdoch empire, which turned a once proud team into a joke....MLB handed out a 35 page guidebook to the Mariners and A's players for their trip to Japan detailing the history of Japanese baseball, as well as they state of the country's economy and its culture. The FBI is also working with the Japanese National Police to ensure security for the players and the games....Tomokazu Ohka was bulldozed by the Cardinals for eight runs in three innings....If the NCAA likes to call its championship tourney "march madness," the Koshien National High School Baseball Tournament is stark raving psychotic lunacy. It gets underway on the 22nd. Minna ni gambatte hoshii na....NPB officials are making preparations in case the umpires walk out over pay and working conditions. While there are ongoing back channel discussions between the two sides, they are said to still be at loggerheads. Consequently, NPB may resort to not only utilizing its supervising umpires, who aren't part of the union, but may call on "nanshiki" league arbiters to work pro games, which is a complete farce. That would be like using adult league baseball umps to work MLB contests, which is totally unacceptable. As stupid as MLB owners are, they are a bunch of geniuses compared to ones running the Japanese leagues. But then again, I'm sure the laughter is long and loud in Japanese executive suites when Bud Selig refers to the Chicago White Sox as a "small market team."
Mariners Sign Former Hiroshima Carp Aoki
The Seattle Mariners have signed former Hiroshima Carp Tomoshi Aoki, a 23 year old righthanded hitting outfielder, according to Sports Nippon.
A native of Manazuru-machi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Aoki got his first exposure to pro ball when his father, who runs an english language cram school, took him to see a game at Yokohama Stadium against Hanshin while he was in first grade, sitting in the centerfield bleachers. Randy Bass went yard in that faceoff for the Tigers, the ball landing just a few rows away from Aoki. "From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to play at Yokohama Stadium myself someday," Aoki said.
But he didn't start participate in any organized ball until signing up to play softball as a sixth grader. He then joined the Manazuru Junior High baseball squad as a seventh grader. He also ran track and posted an 11.8 time in the 100 meters. He did a homestay in Australia as an eighth grader. By that time, Aoki had grown into a big, strong, and fast kid and had interest expressed in him from several high schools, but he chose Odawara High upon the recommendation of dad. Aoki smacked 29 homers in his three years at Odawara and batted nearly .500.
After graduation, he had planned to move on to Aoyama Gakuin University, but was drafted on the sixth round by the Carp. He hit .148 in 72 games down on the farm during his rookie season of 1998 with no homers and three RBIs, striking out about 20% of the time. The following season, he improved to .207-0-8 in 87 at bats. In 2000, he hit .180 (9-50) with no homers and five RBIs in 50 at bats in Western League action. Hindering his progress was the fact that he also endured two knee surgeries in his three years in the Hiroshima organization.
Unfortunately, the Carp outfield was stacked with three all stars, leftfielder Tomoaki Kanemoto, centerfielder Koichi Ogata and rightfielder Tomonori Maeda, and Aoki, who never even got so much as a cup of tea at the big club level, was released in September, 2000.
Aoki went to their Dominican Academy. From there, and despite opposition from his family, he took part in 18 tryouts for Japanese, MLB and independent teams, even apparently being invited to participate in San Diego's spring camp in 2001. He then saved up money from working in a hotel in Hakone and set off for Australia last October. The Mariners saw him playing winter ball there and liked what they saw and asked him to tryout. He did so on March 2nd and passed and was signed. He played in an
intrasquad game in left Friday with the M's and went 0-4 with a walk and a stolen base, but he said he enjoyed each at bat.
A Carp scout was quoted as saying that Aoki has tremendous physical gifts, but needs to refine his hitting. Aoki himself regards his speed as being the strongest part of his game.
He is listed in Japan as being 6'2" 195 pounds and reportedly facially resembles Daiei Hawks second baseman Tadahito Iguchi. His hobbies are playing the piano (he is able to perform in both the classical and pop idioms) and studying english. He states that he wants to be the first Japanese to play in the big leagues. who only saw time at the minor league level of the Japanese league.
He won't earn a dime with Seattle until the regular season begins, so, for now, he is subsisting on a $65 a week meal stipend the minor league players receive.
For those of you who can read Japanese, there is a site that has a game by game breakdown of Aoki's minor league career in Japan Here
Today's Pictures
Tomoshi Aoki in His First Action as a Mariner
Osamu Hamanaka Works on Keeping His Stroke Sharp
Jeremy Powell Throwing a Breaking Ball
Yoshinobu Takahashi Wrists One into Center
Rockies Sign Japanese Pitcher
See story at: Rocky Mountain News Article
Japanese MLB Players Having Good Spring
Steinbrenner Pleased With Matsui
See story at: Japan Times Article
Ex-Brewer Nomura Joins Nippon Ham
What a joke. See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article
Sinon Crushes Agan in Taiwan Pro Action 10-0
See story at: Taipei Times Article
Replies: 1 Comment
Where can we see baseball in Japan? We were scheduled to see the Seattle Mariners play the Oakland A's in the Tokyo Dome on March 25-26...but those games have been cancelled. Any suggestions for other games to see? We'll be in Japan March 23-30.
Posted by Dale from Portland @ 03/18/2003 10:13 PM EST
