This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
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Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
Difficulty: Spirits
Pitch speed: Real
Pitching type: Release(used to be auto, so I'd give up walks, but I'd give up tons of hits on Spirits)
Defensive formations: Auto
Strike zone: On
I use the strike zone, so I can pitch to the weak points. If I didn't use it, I'd probably be hit really hard. On Spirits, there aren't too many Ks. I got 8 with Uehara, 6 with Kisanuki, and 4 with Kudoh.
Kisanuki gave up 3 runs on 5 hits to start out the second game, but calmed down. After that, we gave him a 5-3 lead, only to have Sikorski and Kubo blow the game towards the end.
In batting, I try to swing on first pitches with guys who have first pitch hitting ability. I don't think anyone on the Giants has that ability, though. Other than that, I work the counts. Unless I get a big meatball to hit, I try not to swing freely early in the count. When I get two strikes, I go to contact hitting and try to keep the at bat alive.
To give you an idea how this works, I just beat the Carp 2-1. We had 6 hits and the Carp had only 3 hits. Kudoh made the Carp ground out almost everytime. After that, Nakamura came in for 2 innings, only giving up a single hit. Miceli then got a grounder and two fly outs for the save.
We got the winning run when Nioka hit a lead off double to the right center gap. This was his first hit of the season. After that, we brought in Kapler to pinch hit for the pitcher. He laid down a perfect bunt to move Nioka over to third. Nishi then got his first hit of the year and brought in the winning run.
Our team batting average is .264! Keep in mind that my reflexes are pretty strong with yakyu games now. Real speed may be too fast for others. These settings work perfectly for me, though. The high speed pitches really give you a feeling of desperation when you're at a full count and trying to survive.