Xavier Batista at-bat for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.
Articles

The Diamond on the Carp

Not all foreign players who sign contracts with Nippon Professional Baseball find success. The myth is that NPB is a place where foreigners go to dominate. Those who follow NPB closely, or even those like me who only follow as they can, are able to easily dispell of this myth. Yet, the myth exists and […]

Bobby Witt Jr. at-bat in a High School game.
Articles

The Cattle Has Arrived

Today concludes Major League Baseball’s annual First-Year Player Draft. MLB desperately wants this to be an event, similar to the drafts held in the National Basketball Association and National Football League. To that end, they schedule a bare minimum of games on the first day, when the biggest names are picked, and do their darndest […]

Ketel Marte at-bat for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Articles

Keep the Ketel On

As quietly and unassumingly as possible the Arizona Diamondbacks have managed to not be terrible this year. I know that sounds like I’m damning them with faint praise, but it truly is a feat that they have managed to stay an average team. They find themselves only two games under .500, and just 2.5 games […]

Austin Bibens-Dirkx pitching for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions.
Articles

The Fireman Cometh

When the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions signed Austin Bibens-Dirkx they thought they were getting an ace starter. They needed someone to pair with Ryan Verdugo, Josh Roenicke, and Pan Wei-Lun in what looked to be an impressive rotation. Biben-Dirkx’s signing took on added import with the injury to Verdugo that sidelined him for the first few […]