Godzilla point of view from an 'ex-pat'

17 years in Japan and he can't spell Irabu? Hmmm.

Let's take the observations one at a time:

1. What part of the strike zone does most (over 90%) of his home runs come from? He's strictly a low-ball hitter.

I've seen a number of high pitches hit a long way by Matsui. He isn't "stricly" low-ball.

2. What's the pitch count when he hits a home run? When he's behind in the count, forget about him hitting one out of the park.

I'm afraid that my data is rather old, but according to Egawa Taku's Scouting Report '99 (ISBN4-915977-84-6), in 1998 Matsui hit:

Strikes /Balls	0	1	2
0 1 2 3	.488 20/41(6) .268 11/41(7) .500 9/18(1) .000 0/2(0)	.364 8/22(1) .309 17/55(2) .200 8/40(4) .333 4/12(2)	.167 3/18(0) .224 13/58(3) .262 27/103(5) .286 22/77(3)

With two strikes on him, Matsui did hit worse than usual. Who doesn't? But not that bad through all of the two strike counts.

3. Do pitchers intimidate him? I have NEVER seen him hit by a pitch or brushed back. There is an unspoken rule in Japanese baseball: you do not damage star players.

He's been hit by 39 pitches over 10 years. Matsui's weak spot is not the inside pitch. He'll turn on it and pull it into the right field seats. Team mate Kiyohara gets hit by pitches in the double digits often enough. He's a "star player." The difference is that that's his weak spot. The above statement is a Pro Yakyu myth.

4. Does he hussle on field or give that extra effort? In his 10-year career I never remember him being injured -- I have never seen him make a diving catch as an outfielder.

Diving catches? I can't think of an instance, either. And I've had my own critiques of his defense as well. But Matsui isn't a slacker.

Furthermore, Matsui has been injurred, but like Ripkin Jr., has been played to preserve his continuous full innings played streak (not just continuous games).

I'm not sure why an "ex-pat" in Japan for 17 years would write such things about Matsui. Very anti-Giants? Maybe that's it. Or maybe he's just a kid with too much time on his hands and is sick of hearing the hype about Matsui.

Not to mention that in MLB, at least, left-handed hitters are generally considered to be low-ball hitters. There are exceptions, like Bonds, of course.

As for the pitch count when he hits a home run, Matsui isn't stupid. When he gets behind on the count he's looking to put wood on the ball. This is not a bad thing.

The whole hit-by-pitch thing was brought up with Ichiro, too. Pointless, really. The argument of someone just looking for criticisms.

As for hustle, is this poster a complete moron? Matsui had a chance to hit for the cycle if he just got a single. He hit a ball into the gap, rounded first and went straight on into second. The man's played everyday; he was leading all active players in consecutive games played. If he doesn't dive for balls on turf, that's fine. It doesn't mean he doesn't hustle. Besides, diving does not appear to be encouraged in Japanese outfields; in general it's considered best to play it safe on the hop than dive and possibly let it go by you. Look at Ichiro; even he never dives for a ball. He slides as if coming into a base.

Matsui will do fine in MLB.

Matsui will do fine in MLB.

And he'll be quite a bargin if he ends up signing for 4 years/$24 million. (Psst ... Somebody tell the Cubs to trade Alou to the SF Giants and sign him.)

Okay you stat heads, you asked for it:

His OBP has improved almost every year. His OBP for 2001 was .463. His 2002 SLG, .692, was a career best.

The last couple of seasons, he has been working more on going the opposite way and focusing on hitting the ball back up through the middle. He has exhibited an increasing amount of patience at the plate and thus he has walked over 100 times four out of the last five seasons. His career strikeout rate is pretty decent for a power guy, less than 20% based on plate appearances (16.7% this season). Put him in that Yankees lineup in the three hole where he can wait people out to get on for Giambi, et al, could see him compile a nice OBP.


He watches lots of videotape and constantly works on refining his stroke. He's a big Barry Bonds fan and has tried to incorporate some of Barry's approaches into his hitting style. He tinkers with his mechanics a lot. However, unlike a lot of lefty hitters (especially Thome and Griffey), he doesn't really have a pronounced uppercut swing, so a lot of his homers are like cruise missiles rather than towering, majestic shots. He's a little Garret Anderson like, except with a lot more bat
speed, to make a somewhat facile comparison. Garrett is better at inside outing the ball down and away, though.

Matsui can kill the pitch up if the pitcher doesn't get it in enough. Generally, pitchers will try to use the classic approach of pounding him up and in and then throw him sliders away or finish him off with forkballs. This guy is deadly mistake hitter, though.

Breakdown by pitch (2001 season):

Fastballs: AB 244 H 86 HR 22 RBI 56 BB 72 K 46 AVG. 352
Curves: AB 19 H 10 HR 2 RBI 4 BB 2 K 3 AVG. 526
Shuuto AB 24 H 7 HR 1 RBI 6 BB 7 K 1 AVG .292
Slider: AB 74 H 25 HR 7 RBI 21 BB 26 K 10 AVG. .338
Forkball AB 71 H 18 HR 4 RBI 14 BB 8 K 22 AVG. .254
Sinker AB 16 H 7 HR 0 RBI 1 BB 2 K 3 AVG. 438
Change: AB 26 H 6 HR 0 RBI 2 BB 4 K 8 AVG. .231
Others: AB 7 H 1 HR 0 RBI 0 BB 2 K 3 AVG. .143
Total: AB 481 H 160 HR 36 RBI 104 BB 123 K 96 AVG. 333

Strike Counts (2001 season):

No Strikes: AB 178 H 49 HR 8 RBI 17 BB 39 K 36 AVG. .275
One Strike: AB 156 H 58 HR 13 RBI 43 BB 28 K 24 AVG. .372
Two Strikes: AB 147 H 53 HR 15 RBI 44 BB 56 K 36 .AVG .361

Note: Matsui's tendency is to take the first pitch. The Yomiuri batting coaches have tried to get him to be more aggressive in this respect since by percentage, he gets more first pitch strikes. The strike rate then falls the further into the count he gets.

Hitting by Count (2001 season):

0-0 AB 46 H 12 HR 2 RBI 13 BB 3 K 0 AVG. .261
1-0 AB 45 H 25 HR 7 RBI 18 BB 0 K 0 AVG. 556
2-0 AB 13 H 6 HR 2 RBI 3 BB 0 K 0 AVG. 462
3-0 AB 1 H 1 HR 0 RBI 0 BB 40 K 0 AVG. 1.000
0-1 AB 25 H 11 HR 4 RBI 8 BB 0 K 0 AVG .440
1-1 AB 51 H 20 HR 8 RBI 18 BB 0 K 0 AVG. .392
2-1 AB 39 H 14 HR 3 RBI 10 BB 0 K 0 AVG .359
3-1 AB 13 H 6 HR 0 RBI 1 BB 42 K 0 AVG. 462
0-2 AB 11 H 2 HR 1 RBI 2 BB 0 K 8 AVG. 182
1-2 AB 99 H 21 HR 1 RBI 5 BB 0 K 41 AVG. 212
2-2 AB 81 H 29 HR 6 RBI 18 BB 0 K 27 AVG. 358
3-2 AB 57 H 13 HR 2 RBI 7 BB 38 K 19 AVG. 228

Breakdown by month (2001 season):

March: AB 8 H 4 HR 0 RBI 1 BB 2 K 0 AVG. 500
April: AB 80 H 26 HR 6 RBI 17 BB 26 K 18 AVG. .325
May AB 91 H 30 HR 7 RBI 18 BB 23 K 13 AVG. .330
June: AB 77 H 26 H 2 RBI 16 BB 19 K 13 AVG. 338
July: AB 67 H 23 HR 4 RBI 10 BB 11 K 16 AVG. 343
August: AB 86 H 24 HR 6 RBI 21 BB 20 K 19 AVG. .279
September: AB 68 H 26 HR 11 RBI 21 BB 22 K 16 .382
October: AB 4 H 1 HR 0 RBI 0 BB 0 K 1 AVG. .250

Up through 2001, he averaged one homer every 14.4 at bats. His career OBP up through 2001 is .407 while his career slugging through 2001 is .569.

Note: This September, Matsui hit only about .250, which cost him the batting title.

Home runs by age:

19 (11)
20 (20)
21 (22)
22 (38) note: tied Sadaharu Oh's record for youngest to that number in a season.
23 (37)
24 (34)
25 (42)
26 (42)
27 (36)
28 (50) note: Former Nankai Hawks catcher Katsuya Nomura holds record for most homers at that age at 52.

Holds record for homering off the most different pitchers in a season (33 in 2000).
Once homered in five straight games (1999).
His personal longest hitting streak is 18 games (1996).
Most consecutive games with at least one RBI: 8 (1995).
Has one three homer game (September 27, 2001).
Has had two streaks of six consecutive at bats with hits (1998, 1999).
Holds Central League record for most consecutive games getting on base (65).
Is second all time in consecutive games played with 1250.

Japan Series record up through 2001:
G 17 AB 65 R 10 H 18 2B 7 3B 0 HR 4 RBI 10 TB 37 SB 0 CS 0 SF 0 BB 9 HBP 1 K 18 GIDP 0 AVG. 277

Note: Was Japan Series MVP in 2000.

Batting Average against up through the end of 2001:

Yakult: .283
Chunichi .314
Yokohama .301
Hiroshima .306
Hanshin .298

Most homers against: 66 (Yokohama)
Most RBIs against: 190 (Hiroshima)
Fewest homers against: 43 (Hanshin)
Fewest RBIs against: 138 (Yakult)

Homers by ballpark through 2001:

Tokyo Dome: 125 HR /1789 AB
Meiji Jingu Stadium: 29/407
Yokohama Stadium: 34/430
Nagoya DomeL 25/250
Hiroshima Municipal Stadium: 29/433
Koshien Stadium: 20/421
Fukuoka Dome: 7/85
Osaka Dome 1/18
Kurashiki Muskat Stadium 1/2
Sapporo Dome: 0/11
Nagoya Stadium: 11/176
Sapporo Maruyama Stadium 0/50

First homer: May 2, 1993 against Yakult off of closer Shingo Takatsu, who is now second all time in saves in Japanese history.

Homers against MLB pitchers:

Takashi Saito (13): note: Saito may be coming to MLB. Matsui hit .320 against him lifetime AB 122 H 39 HR 13 2B 5 3B 0 RBI 18 BB 11 K 26. He has been Matsui's favorite longball target. Nobody else is really even close.

Tetsuro Kawajiri (4) note: There is interest in Kawajiri by various MLB teams.

Darryl May: (2): note: this was during May's one season with Hanshin.

Robinson Checo (1)
Masato Yoshii (2)
Kazuhisa Ishii (5)
Pat Mahomes (1)
Doug Creek (1)
Sang-hoon Lee (2)
Jason Jacome (1)
Satoru Komiyama (2)
Melvin Bunch (2)
Trey Moore (3)
Chris Holt (1)

- Tetsuro Kawajiri (4) note: There is interest in Kawajiri by various MLB teams.

And he was trying very hard to persuade Hanshin to let him go last off-season. They refused, and he was apparently livid. Interestingly, though, last week he agreed to stay on with Hanshin next season with the first pay offer they gave him.