Furuta the Moneyballer?
Discussion in the Open Talk forum
About
This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
Copyright (c) 1995-2024 JapaneseBaseball.com.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Some rights reserved.
Riggs is hitting second and he hasn't bunted yet this season. In a recent TV interview Furuta said that his reasoning for this is because as a catcher he always appreciated bunts by the opposition because it brings the end of the inning closer and makes big innings less likely. Which is similar to strategies employed by major league teams like the BoSox, A's, and Jays. Of course, having four cleanup class hitters in Riggs, Iwamura, Ramirez, and LaRocca helps. The happy side effect of this is that Aoki's running free (not having to wait for bunts, etc.) gaining bases and putting pressure on defense.
Anyways, I thought the way Furuta values outs is very interesting and different from the rest of NPB. If only the Swallows can get some solid pitching now, they can certainly score enough runs to win games consistently.