NPB Bullet Points: Kiyohara Makes an Appearance, Hanshin Looks to Korea
Japanese:
- Kazuhiro Kiyohara made his first appearance in a Seibu uniform in a while, swinging through the ceremonial first pitch on August 22.I’m not sure what Kiyohara’s been up to since retiring, but it looks like it involves getting a tan.
- Hanshin is scouting Korea, reportedly looking at Kim Tae-Gyun of Hanwha and Lee Taek-Keun of the Heroes as potential acquisition targets for this offseason. Lee Bum-Ho and Kim Dong-Ju are also drawing interest from NPB teams. Someone who knows better should check my Romanization of these names.
- Yakult’s Norichika Aoki, in the midst of his worst season as a pro, had his first four-hit game of the year, bringing his average up to .278. Yakult lost the game 7-3 to the Giants.
- Draft Reports has a list of the hardest-throwing pitchers in this year’s Koshien Tournament.Yusei Kikuchi, Takumi Akiyama, and Kenta Imamiya.
English:
- We tweeted the news that Yu Darvish will skip his next start.
- Matt visited Starfin Stadium in Hokkaido recently.
- Deanna went to an Island League game, and sends pictures.
- Gen gives us a look at Japan’s entry in to this year’s Asia AAA Tournament.
- Jim Allen finds out what makes Takuro Ishii tick.
- Non-baseball item du jour: researchers at Tokyo University have developed tangible holograms. Graphics are the area of computer science that I find the most challenging so I’m quite impressed by this.