2 New Managers Win First Games
Indeed. Furuki's my pick for CL Rookie of the Year if he's still eligible. (Anybody know?)
I do remember seeing an article in Nikkan Sports recently that stated that Mac Suzuki is not eligable for RoY since he has Major League experience. The fact that he was drafted rather than directly signed (as other "foreigners") doesn't make any difference.
So he may be eligible, but we won't find out this season.
Rookie of the Year
Up to the previous year, players with at most 60 at bats or 30 innings pitched at ichi-gun are eligable for the award. Furthermore, it must be within the first 5 years after entering a team. If there is no qualified player, then the award is not given.
A loose translation, but I think you get the point. Furuki is 40 at bats over to be qualified. I now remember that Daiei's Johjima was similary not qualified his first full season, being 10 at bats over the limit. In fact, I think that Oh-kantoku was critisized for giving Johjima the extra ichi-gun playing experience of three games, killing Johjima's chances for Rookie of the Year.
Saturday's game was the first one (BayStars' game) I was able to catch on TV for a while. The new FieldTurf is striped. It has a dark stripe about the width of home plate and the two batters' boxes around it going straight up the middle, being interrupted by the pitcher's mound and second base. Then it alternates light and dark stripes running parellel right and left of it. The stripes are a little wider than I'd have liked, and I was kind of hoping for a checker pattern instead, but overall, it does look nice.
Back to Furuki. While his six home runs are impressive (second to Chunichi's Cruz), his four errors so far are rather worrisome. He committed five in 34 games last season, and his defense has most likely been the leading factor for his long stay at ni-gun (the farm team for you newbies). I still recall the 1998 championship 'Stars with their all Golden-Glove infield, and really liked that.
On the plus side, Fukumoto came in to play second part way through the game and made a couple of excellent plays. He's got great range! And if my data on him is up to date, a chance at Rookie of the Year. OK. I'm probably getting too excited from just seeing him in the one game and Taneda or Ogawa will end up with the regular second base position. But I'd really like to see Fukumoto get a chance. (He also hit a home run on Saturday.)
Woods, though in a slump right now, also impressed me. Even though he went 0 for 2 on Saturday, his cuts looked good. The leaders' board in Nikkan Sports says he's batting .375 with runners in scoring position (batting average is currently .264), and he seems to have come through in the clutch every time I've seen him.
Finally, seeing it was nice to see Denny in a BayStars' uniform again. And he struck out three of the four Chunichi batters he faced. Yokohama's pitching has been on and off quite a bit this pre-season, too. I hope that Denny can prove to be a stablizing force in the bullpen.
Rose, Haru, and Tanishige are all missed. I hope that some of these new (and returning) faces can make the team exciting once again.
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In Yamashita-kantoku's debut with the BayStars, we saw a re-emergence of the "Machine Gun Offense" in the first inning against the Yakult Swallows. Ishii, Kinjyoh, and T. Suzuki hit back to back to back singles for the first run of the game in the top of the first. But it didn't stop there. New #4 batting Furuki, who came up with power at the end of last season, drove in another run with a double to right to make it four hits in a row. New gaikokujin Woods followed that with a sacrifice fly, and the 'Stars had a quick 3-0 lead. This looks like the BayStars of old! (I.e. pre-Mori-kantoku.)
Woods came through again with a two-out RBI double to drive in Furuki in the third. Then catcher Aikawa hit the first home run of open-sen to left in the 4th, a 2-run shot off of last season's Rookie of the Year, Ishikawa - who is expected to be Yakult's opening day pitcher from all early reports.
Yakult answered with a single run in the bottom of the 6th.
But Yokohama's new #4 batter Furuki took replied to that with a two-out 2-run home run in the top of the 7th. For the day, Furuki went 3 for 4 with a home run, double, 3 RBIs, and 2 runs scored. And impressive cleanup debut.
Yakult's shinjin (rookie) Kubota, coming in defensively mid-game, hit the longest home run of the day just fair over the right field fense in the bottom of the 8th against Fukumori. But it was too little, too late as Yokohama took the game 8-3.
Meanwhile, Pacific League shinjin kantoku Hillman also got 8 runs' support in his Japanese managerial debut against the Chunichi Dragons.
With just a single hit in the bottom of the 2nd, Hillman's Ham struck first taking advantage of an error by Cruz at first to score two. (Cruz made up for one of those runs with a solo home run in the 6th.)
The Fighers then showed both patience at the plate and clutch hitting in a 5-run fifth inning. Furuki ("Old Castle," not "Old Tree" like Yokohama's Furuki) and Ogasawara led off the bottom half of the inning with back to back doubles to put the Ham up 3-0. After a 1-out walk to Cromer, former Tiger Tsuboi drives in a run to left. Another walk, two base hits, and a wild pitch combines for another three runs, and Hillman-kanto has a 7-0 lead after five innings.
But then things started getting rough. Chunichi welcomed Sekine to the mound with solo home runs by Kuramoto and Cruz. M. Takahashi and Watanabe led off the 7th against Sekimoto with back to back singles, setting things up for Morino to hit a 3-run home run, making it a 5-7 ball game.
But Hillman wasn't put out by that. With agressive base running by K. Tanaka who drew a 1-out walk and went to third on Ishimoto's single to right, Hillman called on Furuki to squeeze. With Tanaka coming up the line, Furuki was hit by the pitch. It wasn't exactly what Hillman had in mind, but he was happy with it. He still got the run when Hayashi grounded out to third with bases loaded.
Sakurai and Date came in to work 1 inning apeice on the mound, not allowing a single Dragon to reach base. Hillman's Ham get their first victory, 8-5.
Both new managers have gotten off to a great start. But one of them will have their "winning streak" broken today as the two, Yamashita and Hillman, face each other this afternoon.