Here is The New York times' take on Japan's Olympic Baseball Team. they feel the team is stacked to win. Well, so far, theyre' good, but it's not like they start with a 4-run leg up, and the proof of any pudding is in the eating.
The player with perhaps the most appeal to major league teams is catcher Kenji Jojima. He was batting .343 with 33 homers for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, and he homered in the fourth inning on Tuesday. Norihiro Nakamura, the third baseman who nearly signed with the Mets two years ago, followed with another homer.
"They're very patient at the plate," McNamara said. "They would all work under the 'Moneyball' theory - they work the count, they don't swing at bad pitches. They all have different ways of doing things, but they're fundamentally sound."
The Padres' general manager, Kevin Towers, said in a telephone interview that he wanted McNamara to concentrate on the teams from Asia. The Padres found a bargain last winter in the Japanese reliever Akinori Otsuka.
"I think the Asian players are impacting our game a heck of a lot more than the Cuban players," Towers said. The Japanese players at the Olympics are generally well known, because teams regularly scout the Japanese major leagues. The Yankees did not feel the need to send a scout here.
"We see all those teams in other tournaments," said Mark Newman, the Yankees' senior vice president for baseball operations. "Actually, some of the other tournaments are better than the Olympics."
But there is a cachet to the Olympics that no other tournament can match. It is why Japan stacked its national team, and why two scouts will watch it closely.
I have Otsuka on my fantasy team; he's been awesome. And Hideki Matsui turned out to be the better signing in 2002-2003 for the Yankees than Cuban fireballer Jose Contreras. 'Mr. Zero' Shingo Takatsu is doing wonders for the ChiSox; and there's Ichiro. Okay Kazuo Matsui hasn't exactly set things alight, but it is his first year and converting results across the Pacific hasn't exactly been easy for any of the hitters.
Well, at least somebody from the MLB is watching, and quite evidently reading 'Moneyball'! :)
- Art Neuro
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