Taxes are done; woo-hoo! I owe the government money; woo-hoo! Anyway, you know the routine…
- Gary Garland of Japan Baseball Daily provides some interesting comments on the Hideki Irabu piece from the other day, among which are this gem:
By the way, here is a little scoop for you Padres fans: they will be scouting Softbank Hawks catcher Kenji Johjima, Japan’s Gary Carter, this season with an eye to perhaps bidding for him when he becomes a free agent at season’s end. However, they also don’t want to layout big bucks for him. Johjima currently makes about $5 million a year.
I don’t know how well his stats will translate to MLB, but this looks like a potentially appealing option should the Pads and Ramon Hernandez not get something done. Thanks, Gary, for the heads-up!
- Reader Derek mentions that Google News considers Ducksnorts a news source. This is flattering but also a little problematic.
- Frequent commenter Richard has a new Padres blog up, Friar Faithful. He’s got a cool little graph that shows the Pads’ and their opponents’ OPS by batting order. It’s early, but the differences at #3, #6, and #7 are staggering. Hopefully Richard will revisit this periodically throughout the season. Jamul represent!
- My buddy Jeff over at Syntax of Things has posted links to Google satellite photos of all 30 MLB stadia. And he likes the Padres to win the NL West.
- Dex at Gaslamp Ball shares his thoughts on Dodgers fans. I like Dex, but I wish he wouldn’t hold back so much.
That’s all for now; more as it happens.
I got a chance to see Johjima(or for the Olympics he didn’t have the “H” in his name…) and he raked. Had a couple HR’s in the games I saw including a big one against Cuba to bust the game open. While Olympic baseball was dissapointing for the most part, the Japan/Cuba game was great. Back to Jojima, I don’t remember him defensively but I remember him making a lot of very solid contact and his swing wasn’t nearly as video game like as other Japanese players. No exaagerated leg kick or hands waaay away from his body like a lot of other players. If he came on the cheap I’d be excited to see him in a Padres uni.
If you want a Japanese player to really look out for, Daisuke Matsuzaka. I saw him pitch twice and he has great stuff. 93-95 fastball and a great slider. He was written up on ESPN.com already this offseason so he’s not under the radar but he was the player that stood out the most in Athens with Jojima being the hitter that stood out.
Thanks, Ed, for the report. Gary did mention Matsuzaka but said that he’s basically going to end up with the Yankees.
Interesting (to me, at least) about the “h” in Jo(h)jima’s name. I remember Aki’s last name being listed as “Ohtsuka” at some point. Lost in transliteration?
I guess so. I read the thing you mentioned about Matsuzaka going to the Yanks right after I posted. That is unfortunate. I really liked his stuff. Although, the Yanks might want to be concerned about the guy despite his great stuff because of this. I’ll paste this from my Olympic Notes.
• First made name as high school pitcher at the Koshien (pronounced ko-shen) High School Tournament in August of 1998. Pitching for Yokohama High School in the Quarterfinals, he threw and incredible 250 pitches in a 17 inning complete game extra-inning win. He then played left field the next day in the Semi-finals, then, on only a days rest, threw a no-hitter in the tournament Finals as Yokohama won the tournament and Matsuzaka won national acclaim.
• Signed with Seibu Lions right out of High School, and in a highly anticipated 1st meeting against Ichiro in April of 1999, Matsuzaka struck him out Ichiro’s first 3 times up.
Geoff, did you know Dusty Baker was managing a Japanese high school team in 1998? I had no idea…