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WBC Asia Pool

Frayed Knot Mar 03 2006 10:20 AM

Korea shuts out Taipei 2-0 with JW Seo getting the win. Japan then thumps mainland China 18-2 in a game halted after 8 on the mercy rule

Rotblatt Mar 03 2006 11:00 PM

South Korea is getting in on the fun, and is beating up China, 5-0 in the top of the sixth. China just looks overmatched--they've only had 1 hit so far. #3 hitter Seung-Yeop Lee, formerly of Japan Series Champions Chiba Lotte Marines (recently signed away to the evil Giants), is putting cleanup man Hee-Seop Choi to shame, knocking a no-doubt 2-run homer in the third inning. Choi has a single, but has also struck out twice, looking really bad the second time. Park for South Korea has a sweet fastball--the announcers said it gets up to 95, but ESPN doesn't show a gun. All I know is, China's only managed to touch the fastball once in two innings, and that was a foul ball. For some reason, though, he keeps throwing a weak-ass curve and hardly breaks at all. The announcers think he's having problems with the resin bag & the ball--apparently, the resin is different and the ball is made of cow hide instead of horse hide. He thew one of what I assume is a splitter--it broke hard low in the zone and he got a good swing and a miss on it. Anyway, through 2, he's struck out 3 and walked 2. Byung Koo Lee just dropped a magnificant drag bunt down the third base line to put runners on the corners with 2 out. S-Y Lee is up at the plate now.

Rotblatt Mar 03 2006 11:06 PM

And Lee (who's the DH) stays on a tailing off-speed pitch, lining it up the middle to make it 6-0 South Korea. Lee looks solid--he's clearly one of the best hitters out there--I'd probably take him over Choi. Choi gets jammed by a fastball but powers it into shallow left for a single. 7-0 South Korea. Big strike zone by the home plate umpire tonight. He's calling a lot of high strikes, but is looking pretty consistent about it.

Rotblatt Mar 03 2006 11:37 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 03 2006 11:57 PM

Post-mortum on the Japan-China series--starting with the Chiba Lotte Marines. I didn't see the game, but I'm checking out the box scores: Naoyuki Shimzu pitched a perfect 3 innings to close out the game, striking out 5 while throwing only 32 pitches. Which means if he used three pitches on each of the 5 batters, the other Chinese batters averaged only 4.25 pitches while facing him. Amazing. During the regular season, Shimzu basically sucked. His stats, as translated to MLB by Davenport, 6.41 PERA, 1.55 WHIP, 4.1 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 & 2.2 HR/9. That's just terrible. The starter, Koji Uehara, went 5 innings, allowing 7 hits, 2 ER & K'ing 6. His translated line: 4.84 ERA. 1.13 WHIP, 4.6 K/9, 1.3 BB/9, 1.5 HR/9. They're clearly saving their best starters, Toshiya Sugiuchi, Daisuke Miura, and Daisuke Matzaka for the stronger Chinese Tapei & South Korea match-ups. Other Marines Catcher Satozaki went 1-4. Davenport translates his 2005 Japan League stats the following MLB equivalents:.291 AVG/.348 OBP/.438 SLG/.786 OPS 2B Tsuyoshi Nishioka went 3-5 with a HR and a SF. Translated stats: .259 AVG/.311 OBP/.379 SLG/.690 OPS, 43 SB, 9 CS 3B Toshiaki Imae had a pinch hit, 2-run single. .310 AVG/.347 OBP/.456 SLG/.803 OPS Fukuoka Hawks slugger Nobuhiko Matsunaka DH'ed and went 2-3 with 2 doubles and 2 walks. Translated: .286 AVG/.361 OBP/.525 SLG/.886 OPS with 29 HR It's gonna be fun watching South Korea & Japan square up--even more fun when they face the US. Meanwhile back at the bat cave . . . South Korea now leads 9-0 in the top of the 8th, just one more run away from forcing the mercy rule. They've still only allowed the one hit. Did I mention that it's gonna be fun watching South Korea & Japan match up? Oh, and now China hits a home run--it's the first run allowed by South Korea in the tournament! Shu-Oy Yung for China! edited for struggles with basic math

Rotblatt Mar 03 2006 11:44 PM

Some translated South Korea stats: Sun-Yeop Lee: .244 AVG/.303 OBP/.454 SLG/.757 OPS Min-Han Son: 4.24 PERA, 1.22 WHIP, 4.5 K, 2.4 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9 Myung-Hwan Park: 4.29 PERA, 1.45 WHIP, 7.2 K/9, 5.7 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9 Dude could use 5 minutes with Ricky P. Seung-Hwan Oh, a relief pitcher who hasn't appeared yet, was their rookie of the year. His translated stats: 3.14 PERA, 0.88 WHIP, 8.5 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 0.7 HR/9 In general, their pitching looks about equal to Japan's but they're behind in the hitting department.

Rotblatt Mar 03 2006 11:51 PM

Sun Yeon Lee with another long blast to deep, deep, deep right field. 10-1 South Korea. This is fun.

Rotblatt Mar 04 2006 12:03 AM

Oh is in to close out the ninth. Well hit line drive caught by the RF. His fastball looks mid-90's with a little late movement and he's keeping it down in the zone. He's also got a nasty splitter. He tried to throw what appeared to be a curve ball that just didn't break at all and hit a batter on the wrists. Strikes out next batter on a splitter in the dirt. Obvious Guy says: China's going to need some serious work before they're ready to compete against South Korea or Japan. Fielder's choice to the second baseman, who steps on the bag himself to end the game. South Korea advances to Round 2!

Frayed Knot Mar 04 2006 08:25 AM

I tuned in briefly to the Korea-China matchup and at one point the Korean lineup had Lee, followed by Lee, followed by Lee. I think Lee was pretty good.

Rotblatt Mar 04 2006 10:34 AM

Just finished watching the Japan-Chinese Tapei game. Japan crushed them, 14-3, called on mercy rules after the top of the eighth. Matsuzaka, arguabley the best pitcher in Japan, started for Japan and actually looked pretty hittable. He mostly threw in the strike zone and got 2 strikes pretty quickly on just about everyone, but had a tough time putting people away. He struggled with his control at some points, and the first Tapei run scored when the ball slipped out of his hand with a runner at third. He was charged with a balk. Still, he was a beter pitcher than the Chinese Tapei were hitters--4 innings, 3 hits, 1 BB, 1 HBP, 3 K. He's got a nice fastball and a killer splitter. He got it working for an inning or two where he just pounded the bottom left-hand corner of the strike zone against righties--that pitch looks close to unhittable unless you're a Vlad. Nishioka continued his impressive play, going 2-3 with 2 walks and 2 SB--one of which came when Japan was leading by 11 runs. Apparently, that's okay in Japanese baseball . . . He injured his arm during a take-out slide into second, but was able to stay in the game. LF Tamura put Japan on the board in the first with a 2-out, 3-run blast to left. He went on to walk 3 times, scoring 2. Tamura also made a nice, running catch up against the left field wall to end the 5th. DH Matsunaka went 2-4 with a double and a HBP, scoring 3 times. Ichiro went 1-4 with a walk. I don't know what's going on with him, but given how well the rest of the team is hitting, it's something of a shock that he's only hitting .200. It looks like he might be trying for extra base hits instead of his usual slap-and-dash game. Apparently, the front page of the Tokyo paper after his 1-6 performance yesterday was: "What's Wrong With Ichiro?" I hope the Post retaliates in kind after Jeter goes 1-6 in HIS WBC debut. All in all, I was less impressed with Japan than I thought I'd be. They're very aggresive on the bases and I wouldn't be suprised to see them make US fielders look foolish by taking extra bases on them. They exceled at situational hitting--if there was a runner at second or third with less that 2 outs, the ball was hit on the ground to the right side or was a deep fly. CF Fukodome failed to drive in a runner at third with 1 out in maybe the 5th and it was kind of a shock. I think their hitters could drive our pitchers crazy. Most of them are able to make contact and seem pretty good when behind in the count. They definitely have some pop when they need it, but I'm not sure how well it will translate against tougher pitchers. Unless Matsuzaka was having an off night, our hitters will probably do pretty well against Japanese pitching. Now is as good a time as any to draw attention to skipper Sadaharu Oh's historic career--and one man's effort to elect him to Cooperstown. http://baseballguru.com/ctomarkin/analysisctomarkin07.html Here are his career stats: .301 AVG/.445 OBP/.634 SLG/1.079 OPS with 868 HR and 2,786 hits. Here are his stats against various major leaguers (338 AB over 19 years): .260 AVG/.413 OBP/.524 SLG/.937 OPS, 25 HR. And here's what one Mets has to say about Oh: “He sure hit me. He was a superb hitter. He hit consistently, and he hit with power.” - Tom Seaver From the website: ]He is the world’s all-time home run king with 868, achieving international fame as a result. He won 9 MVP Awards, 18 Best Nine awards as the leagues best first baseman, two consecutive Triple Crowns in 1973 and 1974, the first 9 Gold Gloves awarded in the last nine years of his career, and was a 20 time All-Star. He led his team to 14 Japan Series and won it 11 times, nine of them consecutively.

Willets Point Mar 04 2006 10:51 PM

Watching the heated China v. Chinese Taipei battle now (CT up 5-0). The Tokyo Dome is empty for this matchup of winless Group A teams. I guess the Japan v. Korea matchup will be better attended.

Centerfield Mar 05 2006 10:12 AM

In the better-attended half of the doubleheader, Korea edges Japan 3-2 on another HR by Lee. This time, a two run blast in the 8th was the difference. Sign Lee and teach him to play second base NOW!!!!

Frayed Knot Mar 05 2006 10:24 AM

Mr. Koo pitched 2 scoreless for the win. CH Park with the save. Ichiro stuck a rather large foot in his mouth over this game. Seems that a few weeks ago Ichiro not only predicted a Japanese victory but went on to explain how Japan would play in a manner which will show why countries like Taiwan & Korea won't be on their level for at least 30 years. Oops. Both Korea & Japan will advance to the next round so this game didn't have a lot of immediate meaning ... but the Koreans were pretty damn happy over it. Both Chinas (communist & otherwise) are eliminated.

Willets Point Mar 05 2006 06:57 PM

It's a pretty big deal (in WBC terms) for Korea to beat Japan in the Tokyo Dome and sweeping the pool.