Nippon Baseball Q&A with Mike Plugh

Major League Baseball has been seeing a major influx of Japanese players recently, as U.S. teams have started to speak with their pocketbooks in an attempt to pry talent away from the Nippon Leagues. For all of the attention lavished on a Daisuke Matsuzaka, there is an Akinori Iwamura who signs for much less but provides immediate impact. I became aware of Mike Plugh, a baseball writer living in Japan, when he commented on Digital Headbutt a while back. He is the creator of Matsuzaka Watch and other blogs focusing on Nippon baseball, and he writes for Baseball Prospectus as well. In an effort to peek behind the curtain of international baseball, I asked him a few questions about the similarities and differences that define the sport in Japan and the U.S.

Here are my questions (in bold) along with his generous and precise replies:

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[Full Article: http://extrapolater.wordpress.com/2007/05/09/nippon-baseball-qa-with-mike-plugh/]