I don't know anything about this video, or who is in it, but it looks to be a high school age Japanese kid that tops out at about 5'10" and weighs about 150 pounds (just slightly smaller than Tim Lincecum -- 5'11", 170 lbs). From the mearsurements that pop up on the screen, it looks like his breaking stuff is coming in at around 75 mph (120 km/h) and his fastball is hitting 89 mph (143 km/h). His slider moves so much it looks like he's throwing a wiffle ball. As far as I can tell he also throws a fastball with some kind of cutter variation, as well as a decent curve, but my favorite is definitely the slider. Fun stuff. Thanks YouTube.
Sunday, March 15, 2009
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6 comments:
I lived in Japan when I was growing up (6-12) and I remember I literally would sit in front of the TV for the whole day and just watch the high school tournaments. I thought pitching 150 pitches were normal back in those days (in highschool) :P
I actually wrote a research paper about that in college but my Intro to Japanese Culture did not appreciate my passion for baseball :(
That's awesome James. Those Japanese kids are like little baseball machines. Their training approach reminds me of the way the baseball camps in the Latin American countries are run. Baseball, all day long, all the time.
If you want, and if you still have it, feel free to e-mail me your paper and I'll post it here for you.
Haha After 3 drafts and editing by the professor, the paper end up being something totally different from what I started off. I wanted to write up the "sweat and blood," "no pain, no gain... literally," and the respect for the game... She wanted me to compare it to a concept called Bushido... a way of living followed by samurai... in the result it had very little to do w/ baseball :(
I just remember Japanese pitchers had the oddest delivery in the world! They look fluid but their body seems to be almost defying gravity! They remind me of old school American pitchers tho...
BTW I'm loving/appreciating the amt of updates you've been posting. You should remind people at FCB :)
I saw a tv show comparing Japanese players to samurais once. Kind of interesting.
I'm hoping that with the success of guys like Lincecum more kids will start throwing in more of an old school style and use their bodies more. Takes some of the pressure off of the elbow and shoulder.
I've thought about posting something at FCB, but I'm a bit undecided right now. Feel free to put up links there if you'd like. I'm working on a post about scouting reports, so maybe when it's posted I'll put a link up at FCB for anyone interested.
Adam-
This kid's got some great stuff! Nice find! Also, I'm going to tomorrow's Mets Braves game. Anyone you want me to get some photos/videos of? Thanks man-
Jeremy
Hey Jeremy, if you get a chance, I'd really like a clip of any of the Braves young pitchers. I'm not sure who's left in camp, but Hanson, Medlen, Rohrbough, Ortegano, Locke, etc. would be great. Freeman and Heyward, Schafer, etc. would be nice.
I'm also interested in seeing Francoeur's new swing.
As for the Mets, F-Mart and Wilmer Flores would be great (if they're still around), but I really want to see Brad Holt.
Please, don't feel pressured to go crazy trying to get clips of all these guys. If you get a chance to get even 1 or 2 of them, I'd be ecstatic. Thanks for offering your services! Enjoy Spring Training!
-Adam
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