DeNA Showroom

Thanks to the kind people/person at the NPB Reddit page I'm enjoying today's game along with a bunch of digital DeNA fans via the Baystars Showroom page.  I don't know too much about Showroom, but it's a good stream and free for the time being.  According to the NPB Reddit page it shows all of the DeNA home games and will be free until the end of May.  The Dragons and Baystars will go at it again tomorrow at 1PM Japan Time.

A First Look at Raul Valdes and Amaury Rivas

New foreign players Raul Valdes and Amaury Rivas made their first appearances for the Dragons in yesterday's practice game against the Marines.  A replay of the game can be seen on UStream. 

Valdes is a 37-year old Cuban lefthander with some experience as a reliever in the Major Leagues, but was mainly a starter in the minors.  I don't know which role Chunichi plans on using him, but he did start this game.  His severely short-armed delivery looks more like a reliever's to me, but it looks like he has a variety of off-speed pitches so he has a chance to be successful as a starter.  He pitched three shutout innings yesterday and his fastball was topping out around 140 km.

Rivas is a 29-year old righty from the Dominican.  He looks more like a traditional power pitcher with a big windup and a mid-140's fastball.  Rivas was tagged for a couple solo home runs yesterday, one on a breaking ball and the other looked like a first-pitch fastball.  He did have a nice strike out on a changeup.

Overall, I had a good first impression of both pitchers.  You can't take too much from the results of a preseason game, especially a first game, but based on their stuff I think both of these guys could be useful this year.

Upcoming Dragons Preseason Games on UStream

Baseball season is just around the corner.  Chunichi is already training in Okinawa and UStream has a lot of the footage.  I saw a little bit of Kaz Yoshimi's throwing session, good to see him on a mound and hopefully will be ready to go.

Here is a list of some upcoming preseason/practice games that will be shown on UStream.
UStream conveniently converted the times to Pacific Time, so PT is also included.

February 14: Dragons vs Samsung Lions 1 PM (2/13 8 PM PT)
February 15: Dragons vs DeNA Baystars 1 PM (2/14 8 PM PT)
February 21: Dragons vs Chiba Lotte Marines 1 PM (2/20 8 PM PT)
February 22: Dragons vs Hanshin Tigers 1 PM (2/21 8 PM PT)
February 24: Dragons vs LG Twins 1 PM (2/23 8 PM PT)

Justin.tv Says Goodbye

Justin.tv has unfortunately been shut down.
It's been a great resource and allowed me to enjoy Japanese baseball in a way I would never have guessed years ago when my in-laws were still sending/bringing us VHS and DVD recordings of games.
It has also been the best, easiest place to find recorded playoff games the last few years.
But now it's gone and there are alternatives out there, Reddit NPB is a good resource for finding games.

Update: Where the heck am I going to watch college football games?  Go Dawgs!

Hector Luna of Las Aguilas Cibaenas

The Dragons' Hector Luna is currently playing for the Aguilas (Eagles) in the Domincan Winter League has been doing pretty well so far.  You can see his stats here.  Luna is coming off of a knee injury that ended his 2013 season prematurely.  He appears to be healthy now and hopefully can do some damage for the Dragons in 2014.  ESPN3 has a replay of the Aguilas vs. the Leones from December 12th here, Luna is in the starting lineup hitting in the middle of the order.

Daisuke Yamai No-Hits the Baystars!

On Friday night Daisuke Yamai recorded his first career no-hitter in a 9-0 Chunichi win over Yokohama.  The Dragons jumped out to a 7-run lead in the first prior to Yamai even taking the mound.  Yamai then proceeded to mow down Yokohama's hitters, the first nine in order until a 4th inning walk toTakehiro Ishikawa.  Yamai finished the game with 4 walks and 3 strikeouts, the Dragons defense commited no errors and no Yokohama runner got any farther than first base.  Yamai cruised through the first six innings without giving up any hard hit balls (at least that I recall).  He wasn't striking out many guys but his breaking ball was producing a lot of weak grounders including two double-plays.  After the sixth Yokohama began to hit the ball more squarely and Yamai dodged a few bullets along the way.  Takagi brought Morino and Fujii  in early as defensive replacements to help preserve the no-hitter.  Both players made major contributions as Morino made a nice diving stop on a grounder in the 7th and Fujii overcame a stumble to snag a well hit ball in the 8th, Fujii as well as Ohshima covered a lot of outfield ground in the late innings tracking down deep balls hit by Blanco, Shirasaki and Ramirez.  With two outs in the 9th Yamai fielded a bounding groundball headed towards first base and underhanded to Morino at the bag to record the final out, just getting the speedy Kensuke Uchimura and making himself the 77th NPB pitcher to record a no-hitter.

I can't think of a more deserving pitcher than Yamai to get a no-hitter.  Looking back at Yamai's start in Game 5 of the 2007 Japan Series, in which Daisuke had a perfect game going through 8 innings but was then pulled in favor of closer Hitoki Iwase in what turned out to be the clinching game for Chunichi.  I still agree with then-manager Ochiai's decision, but it was still an unfortunate circumstance for Yamai who came so close to the record books and was left to wonder what would have happened had he come out for the 9th inning.  Now, thanks to his performance Friday night, he and everyone else who follows Japanese baseball knows that he has what takes to finish off a no-hitter.  

Sunday Night's Game vs. Softbank to be Broadcasted on UStream

Chunichi vs. Softbank May 19th, 6PM JST will be shown on Chunichi's Official UStream.

And here's the rest of the upcoming schedule for UStream Games as shown on their page:

May 25 6PM JST vs. Lions
May 28 6PM JST vs. Marines
June 8 6PM JST vs. Hawks
June 12 6PM JST vs. Lions
May 16 1PM JST vs. Marines (9PM PST, I'll likely be watching this one)
August 20 6PM JST vs. Carp
September 17 6PM JST vs. Giants

Saturday's Game to be Broadcasted on UStream

Saturday's game, Chunichi vs. Yokohama, will be shown on the Dragons' Official UStream.
Gametime is 2 PM Japan Time or 10 PM PST.

Spring Training on USTREAM

The Dragons official USTREAM page (see link on the right) has been showing a ton of video from Chunichi's spring practices in Okinawa.  They are also broadcasting the preseason games!  I watched a portion of yesterday's game against Hanshin.  Chunichi lost 15-11, in a game where none of their regulars played.  Shuhei Takahashi and Ryosuke Hirata were the big names in the lineup and the Dragons' young pitchers were hit hard.  The Dragons fought back late to make what was a 13-4 game 13-11 going into the 9th, but Hanshin was able to get two more in the top of the 9th and closed out the Dragons in the bottom of the inning.  Yakyubaka has some more notes on the game.

Here's a portion of the schedule for preseason games:

2/16 vs. Hanshin (Replay is available on USTREAM)
2/17 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/22 13:00 (JST) vs Kia
2/23 13:00 (JST) vs. Lotte
2/24 13:00 (JST) vs. Orix
The rest of the schedule is here on the Dragons website.

They aren't currently listing which games will be broadcasted, but I imagine at least the games at their home stadium will be.

Dragons Official USTREAM

I just added a new link in the "Where to Watch NPB Games" section to the right.  The Dragons have their own USTREAM page, you can find it here.  USTREAM looks to be an equivalent to Justin.tv, a place where anyone can show live video or keep stored, previously recorded videos.  The Dragons' page contains a significant amount of highlights and also shows a few games live.  The next live game they will be showing is this week, June 26th, against the Hanshin Tigers.  That appears to be the last live game they will show for a while, but it's still a good place to check out game highlights.

More on "Where to Watch NPB Games"

Here are some details about the links I have on the right of the screen regarding watching games.

Justin.tv is a site I read about on other blogs, mainly npbtracker.com, and the first place I was able to watch a NPB game online.  It was my go-to last year for the NPB playoffs and the Japan Series.  Justin.tv is a site that allows people to post live video feeds.  Often people who put on the live video also save these videos so that they can be accessed later.  Games can be watched as full-screen on this site and generally have good picture quality.

Keyhole TV requires you to download a viewer.  Once you have done the download, it allows you to watch live Japanese TV or listen to live Japanese radio.  I believe the channels, like Justin.tv, are provided by individuals.  But instead of showing whatever the individual wants to show, Keyhole TV shows the same channel or station 24/7, so you can watch NHK or Fuji TV for example anytime you want to.  The main negative of Keyhole TV (as you could guess from the name) is that the screen is only about 4" x 4" in size and the picture quality in often not that good.  Another negative is that it shows the main network broadcasts of games, which are normally scheduled over a two hour window, starting in the second or third inning and ending somewhere between the seventh and the end of the game depending on the speed of play.  It's nice to know that Keyhole TV is there if you just want to tune in for a couple innings on a random weekend, but Justin.TV is a better option for playoff games that you know someone will be showing on there.

Last year on TBS's (the Japanese TV station that at that time owned the BayStars) website they had a page that had recordings of BayStar home games.  It is a great page that allows you to watch a recording of any game from their season by top or bottom of each inning.  You can either hide the score and be in suspense or turn the scores on and watch only the scoring innings.  The quality is good and any game is on demand, the only negative is that every game features the last-place BayStars  It provided a good place to see the Dragons when they went to Yokohama and I could watch on my terms the day after.  The site is still active in spite of the BayStars' ownership change.  It would be great if they were to continue this site for 2012, but that seems very unlikely. 

There are many other places out there I'm sure and I hope to find some more for the upcoming year.  Yahoo.jp shows Pacific League games for a fee, but I don't know that it can be viewed outside of Japan.  If anyone out there knows of some other good places to watch, please don't be afraid to share.