Archived Weblog Entry - 01/12/2004: "Japanese Baseball News: Sasaki Hammers Steinbrenner; Rhodes Hitting Seventh?"

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01/12/2004 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Sasaki Hammers Steinbrenner; Rhodes Hitting Seventh?"

Team Reports

Hanshin Number one draft choice Takashi Toritani joined other rookies across Japanese baseball by moving into his team's dormitory Sunday. Toritani didn't bring a television or radio, saying that it will force him to go out with his teammates rather than just zoning in front of the tube to find entertainment or to pass the time. He hopes that will help allow him to blend in with his fellow players. Then on Monday, with about a hundred reporters and observers looking on, this year's phenom worked out for 90 minutes, doing calisthenics and some hitting into a net. He then headed off to an indoor practice facility and took about 200 swings off of a tee. Manager Akinobu Okada said he was impressed by the quick way Toritani gets rid of the ball when he watched him taking ground balls.

Chunichi Pitcher Kenshin Kawakami, during his offseason workouts, told a reporter for Chunichi Sports that he will focus on getting Yakult leftfielder Alex Ramirez out this coming season. Over the past tso campaigns, A-Ram is 14-25 against Kawakami , a .660 clip. in 2002 alone, Ramirez took Kawakami deep four times in 19 at bats and then rapped four knocks in six confrontations before Kawakami's season was ended by injury last year.

Yomiuri Ace Koji Uehara and Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki were in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture Monday for a "sports talk" event. After Uehara gave credit to Dodgers pitcher Hideo Nomo for paving the way for Japanese players to do their thing in MLB, one of the more than 1000 fans asked him which big league club he would want to play for. Uehara replied that he would play for any team that was interested in him. That should gladden the hearts of the Atlanta Braves, who have been extensively scouting the Giants moundsman. However, Uehara will have to wait until 2008 before he becomes a free agent. In addition, Uehara credited Sasaki with giving him some training advice that has helped him attain the numbers he did the last two seasons....Lefty Masanori Hayashi, who turns 20 this year, the legal age of majority in Japan, attended a Coming of Age Day event Monday in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture and told the more than 6,000 other folks in attendance that he felt he relied too much on his teammates and catchers last season and got in their way. So now that he is an adult, he says that his theme now is "self-consciousness" and "independence"....Another young Yomiuri arm, number two draft choice Kentaro Nishimura, has become the first injury casualty of the year for the team, as he pulled a hamstring. After last year's string of maladies that swarmed the club, this is hardly a positive development before spring training has even got started....How often do you have a 50 homer guy batting seventh? That may happen if a Sankei Sports report is correct. The paper claims that new skipper Tsuneo Horiuchi tentative lineup will have rightfielder Yoshinobu Takahashi in the four hole, either Roberto Petagine or Kazuhiro Kiyohara in the five slot while playing first base, third baseman Hiroki Kokubo batting sixth and leftfielder Tuffy Rhodes, who racked up his second career 50 jack campaign in 2003, penciled into the seventh position. Furthermore, Horiuchi denied any plans to put Petagine in left and Rhodes in center. Horiuchi also indicated that he will expect backup outfielder Chris Latham to contribute significantly to compensate for shortstop Tomohiro Nioka's participation in the olympics. In any event, if Kiyohara loses the battle with Petagine for the starting first base job, he could be shipped off to Seibu for some pitching, depending on the big slugger's injury situation.

Yakult Shortstop Shinya Miyamoto, who was recently reupped for five years by the Swallows, tore into Chunichi Dragons rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome and Hanshin centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi after the two said that they are afraid of their respective team's pennant chances being hurt if they participate in the Athens Olympics. Miyamoto, who will captain the Japan side, reacted by proposing that amatuers be used to replace Fukudome and Akahoshi's spots on the roster if pro players are hesitant about representing their country this coming summer. However, it is unlikely that Miyamoto's idea will come to fruition. It is also probably equally unlikley, due to social pressure, that Fukudome will actually sit the games out. Akahoshi's situation is a little more fluid.

Yokohama Daimajin back in a Bay Stars uni? It may happen. At the same event alluded to in the Yomiuri item, Sasaki was queried by a fan as to which team he wants to pitch for if he played again in Japan. "For me, there is probably just the Bay Stars," the second all time Japan saves leader revealed. "The reason I'm here today is thanks to the Bay Stars," Sasaki started. I've worked with {now Yokohama manager Daisuke] Yamashita and I would like to see him win a pennant." Sasaki also disclosed that he had been a Yomiuri fan growing up, but that the Giants were the only team to not show any interest in him when he was in college. "It was very disappointing," he said. Sasaki then leveled some criticisms at the Yankees, calling them "weird" and positing that "they were acquiring too many players. I mean, couldn't they just get by with [Bernie] Williams and [Derek] Jeter? What they have now is not going to work." He then went on to state that "because they are such a strong team, I get pumped up whenver I face them"....Yokohama's couting department had a meeting Monday and came up with a list of 200 college, high school, and industrial league players they will be keeping an eye on this year. But the biggest effort, it appears, will be signing Meiji University pitcher Yasuhiro Ichiba, who is also highsly sought after by Hanshin. Also on Yokohama's shortlist is Tokhoku High School's Yu Darvish, who will be bumrushed by just about every team, including some from MLB.

Daiei A conditioning coach, after measuring the muscular strength of the team's rookies, concluded that number one draft choice Takahiro Mahara's athletic ability is the same as that of ace Kazumi Saito's. "His joints are as loose as [pitcher Tsuyoshi]
Wada's," he said. "I'm looking forward to see how he will do during the season." And Mahara's parents liked what they saw from him too, as he gave them his more than $900,000 signing bonus, according to the Kyuhu edition of Nikkan Sports. Now that is the epitome of the Confucian value of the dutiful son!

Kintetsu Third baseman Norhiro Nakamura is in the midst of his pre-spring training workouts and enthusiastically indicated that he wanted to be a part of the Japanese baseball dream team that will battle at Athens. Moreover, he asserted that everyone in NPB should really get behind the olympic effort, as a gold medal could, he believes, help boost baseball's prestige among the Japanese public and stem the tide of fan defections to MLB and pro soccer....Kintetsu's rookies worked out Monday together for three hours at Fujiidera Stadium, after which they went to a nearby shrine and at least some wrote "rookie of the year" on wooden prayer plaques called "ema."

Lotte Peter Gammons reports that Turk Wendell may end up in Makuhari at the invitation of manager Bobby Valentine. The eccentric righthander should provide some amusing column inches for the Japanese press at the very least....Submariner Shunsuke Watanabe sold his rookie uniform at a charity auction Monday for a little over $1900. The auction raised over $45,000 for an unspecified cause.

Nippon Ham Rookie pitcher Hideki Sunaga's father Hitoshi owns an izakaya (a type of small bar) in Tokyo's Arakawa Ward. With his son about to ply his trade in Sapporo, the elder Sunaga says that he plans to incorporate Hokkaido-style dishes and ingredients into his menu as a result. Sunaga also had his first pro practice and a coach complimented him on his mechanics....Number one draft choice Yoshio Itoi overslept Monday and was awakened by the dormitory chief ten minutes before practice began.He somehow managed to get dressed and scramble down to the practice field in time and had a good workout. Itoi had been up until 1 a.m. the night before, claiming that he had been tense and unable to get to sleep earlier.

Orix Pitcher Koo Dae-sung told reporters that he wants to bounce back from a knee problem that sabotaged his 2003 season and match the .252 he posted in 2002. When asked about fellow Korean Seung-yeop Lee's joining Lotte, Koo propounded that "he has weak points, but I'm not going to reveal those. He won't hit me."

Miscellaneous According to Fort Worth Star-Telegram scribe T.R. Sullivan, former Hiroshima Carp hurler Ramon Ramirez, obtained by the New York Yankees via the posting system, is now that organization's top pitching prospect. Either the Bronx Bombers' minor league system is short of arms or their player development people have worked a miracle. I guess we'll get to see which during spring training....Vlad Guerrero to the Angels? Holy moly! That was out of leftfield, no?....My take on the Pete Rose situation: I've always had my doubts about the report that stated that the former Cincinnati outfielder had gambled on baseball due to the dishonesty that is rampant in Bud Selig's office. However, Rose admitted on Outside the Lines that he bet on his own team, an unpardonable sin as far as I'm concerned, and basically left those of us who had supported his induction into the Hall of Fame high and dry. Furthermore, there are new revelations that I find really distasteful, the nature of which you can read about in an article below. Sorry Pete, but I just got off your bus. Now go disappear, will ya? Of course, that scumbags such as Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden and Steve Howe remain eligible for selection (not that it will actually happen) is a joke. Seibu invited Howe to spring training for an extended tryout after he was finished in MLB, but the NPB commissioner stepped in and said, "uh, no." Yakult was also looking at former Royal Willie Mays Aikens, but again, a drug conviction put the kabosh on acquiring him. With all the nonsense that goes on in Japanese baseball, at least they got that those calls right. Too bad that George Steinbrenner, a convicted felon himself who owns America's most prominent nine, just doesn't get it. Getting back to Rose, though, aside from the article later in this report I want you to look at, Baseball America had an interesting take Here....Oakland signed former Hanshin reliever Lou Pote.

Bass Finishes Five Votes Short of Hall

See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article

Japanese Woman Details Alleged Harrassment in MLB Office

See story at: Japan Times Article

Did Nagashima Popularize Grapfruit in Japan?

See story at: Miami Herald Article

Brock, Rath Steam Over Enforcement of Balk Rule

See story at: Yomiuri Shimbun Article

Ishii Brings Friends to Workout

See story at: MLB.com Article

Lee Says Nobody Will Top Him

See story at: Dong-A Ilbo Article