Saitoh News Update?

If nobody else is going to say it, I will.

This isn't a translation service. If you want to have Kazumi Saitoh's blog translated, you'll have to find some other way to do it, because you're clogging up the message board.

I wouldn't have put it quite so bluntly, but yes, you do need to learn to read if you're really interested in following Saitoh.

You're clearly smart enough to recognize Saitoh's articles on the Hawks' site. Here are some other things to look for:

６月30日 - June 30th. Previous messages said that he would be pitching on that date. You should be able to deduce that this article is about Saitoh performing on his scheduled June 30th outing.

７回 - 7 innings (or 7th inning). It was translated before that Saitoh would start on the 30th and throw 5 innings. This says that he pitched beyond that scheduled number of innings and threw 7. That's a sign that he went beyond what was expected of him. That's good.

75球 - 75 pitches. This was his work load.

These are the things that you can best deduce based on numbers and a couple of characters. As the number of characters you recognize grows, so will your understanding.

You should also be combing the Pro Yakyu News forum for what the mainstream media and various other blogs are saying. In particular, Garland-san at Japan Baseball Daily even wrote about Saitoh's minor league outing today.

(I just noticed that I put all of the Japanese articles in the English forum. I'll fix that tomorrow.)

Thanks so much Mr. Westbaystars.

I'm so sorry if I'm clogging up the space. I just thought that it is OK to ask you guys about the latest news about Saitoh. I know that this isn't a translation service. I'm so sorry. I am trying to study how to read Nihongo. I just started a few months ago and I'm trying to learn it all by myself.

Thanks for your time.

I, too, am trying to learn the language, but while you're learning, there are also free translator services all over the Internet. I use one, and while it's far from perfect, I can usually pick up the gist of an article with it (especially if there's an accompanying photo).

You can search Google or even use Google's free translation tab within your browser.

We are glad you are a fan of Saitoh-toshu and have joined our community, but the previous poster is right when he explains that Westbay-san is busy and can't be translating things that can be found in many places.

Also, you might try Deanna's blog or one of Mike Plugh's player specific blogs (in addition to the aforementioned places) for English-only NPB news and info. I can forward those links to you if you have trouble finding them.

Take care.

Thank you Mr. Ken D.

Yes, please. The links you will give me would really help me a lot. Mr. Westbay also gave me links on how to read baseball stats. I am now trying to study them.

Thank you again!

Well, er, Kazumi Saitoh is pitching. Right now. In a game against Rakuten (with Tanaka starting). He's struck out 5 in 3 innings already.

Grrreat to see him back on the hill. Just saw the highlights on TV and he looked pretty good. He took the loss, but cruised through those first two innings and never looked too bad. I didn't see what velocity he was hitting, which I guess is the primary concern after that kind of fatigue/dead arm problem, but the 7-1 K/BB ratio is encouraging.

Eagerly awaiting the reports in the next few days of how his arm holds up after this start.

He was constantly hitting around 143-145 km/h that day, and topped at 148 a few times (fastball blowing past hitters for strike outs), and also hitting 147 at times as well.

Velocity-wise still a little off from what he was hitting in '06, but it's just his first game back, so hopefully his arm and shoulder are fine after throwing this 100 pitch performance and then he goes on from there.

Currently, though, the Hawks are struggling badly, and will need all the help they can get.

At the end though, he got out-dueled by Maa-kun Tanaka Masahiro.

But he actually pitched fairly well if you ask me, even though he's not 100%, just back from a few months of injury. You can see he's got shadows of his '06 form in him. He was blowing fastballs by some of the hitters, and his breaking pitches were dropping and moving around.

I give credit to the Eagles' lineup for working up that pitch count, as they were fighting off some of the good pitches, and also capitalized on their chances when they had RISP.

His next start will be after the All Star break. Let's see if he can get back to full condition by then.

It's kinda difficult for me to watch Saitoh lose a game 'cause I used to have this idea about him to be the "super pitcher" of Japanese baseball. I really hope he gets back on track.

I hope that his shoulder injury will not do much damage on his upcoming games.

He's pretty hard on himself huh? First start back after about 10 weeks, it certainly wasn't disastrous, and in his blog he walks through each run he gave up and how much of a let down it was to him and his team and moushiwakenai ("there can be no forgiveness").

I checked out the blog hoping to see if there was any update on how his shoulder was actually feeling after the start, but nothing in there yet. Has anyone seen any reports from any other source about how he's doing?