Round one goes to the Central League and, of all teams, the Chunichi Dragons. Interleague play kicked off across NPB last week, and the Dragons, who were i
Ex-Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka turns in another uneven start in Japan
Posted May 10, 2021
Former New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is 2-2 with a 3.00 ERA for the Rakuten Golden Eagles in the Nippon Professional Baseball League.
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This one is for New York Yankees fans wondering about what could’ve been.
Former Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka picked up his second loss of the season Saturday in Japan, with the Rakuten Golden Eagles falling, 4-1, to the Nippon Ham Fighters.
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MLB Trade Rumors
The Rays have signed left-hander
Adam Conley to a minor league deal, Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle reports. Conley had previously agreed to join NPB’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, but opted out of joining the team earlier this week.
According to a statement from the Eagles (hat tip to reporter Jim Allen), Conley decided against playing in Japan due to concerns over the country’s COVID-19 situation. Due to entry restrictions from the Japanese government, Conley had been unable to even arrive in Japan until late March, and those same restrictions prevented Conley’s family from joining him abroad.
Originally posted on MLB Trade Rumors | By Mark Polishuk | Last updated 5/10/21
The Rays have signed left-hander Adam Conley to a minor-league deal, Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle reports. Conley had previously agreed to join NPB’s Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, but opted out of joining the team earlier this week.
According to a statement from the Eagles (hat tip to reporter Jim Allen), Conley decided against playing in Japan due to concerns over the country’s COVID-19 situation. Due to entry restrictions from the Japanese government, Conley had been unable to even arrive in Japan until late March, and those same restrictions prevented Conley’s family from joining him abroad.
May 9, 2021
Brandon Woodruff has quietly been one of the better pitchers in the National League since the start of the 2019 season. In 42 starts comprising 237 innings, the Milwaukee Brewers right-hander has 285 strikeouts to go with a 3.11 ERA and a 2.93 FIP. The last of those numbers is equal to Shane Bieber’s mark over the same period.
A big reason for Woodruff’s success is a repertoire adjustment he made midway through the 2018 season. As he explained in an article that ran here at FanGraphs last April, he began throwing both two- and four-seam fastballs. Neither is anything to write home about movement-wise, but paired together and sequenced well they’re a formidable combo. As Woodruff told me at the time, “It’s hard for the hitter to distinguish which one is going to be coming.”