unclesox

@yakyucosmo Climax Series era 3rd place teams that finished with a sub .500 record (none advanced to the Japan Series): 7x Central League (2009, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022) 0x Pacific League

NPB has officially altered its postseason format. If the 1-seed wins the pennant by 10 or more games, they will receive 2 ghost wins instead of 1 in the Climax Series Final Stage. If a sub-.500 team qualifies, the pennant winner also gets 2 ghost wins. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/88aa1…

@yakyucosmo Climax Series era League champions that finished at least 10 games ahead of second place: 7x Central League (2009, 2012, 2013, 2016, *2017, 2023, 2025) 6x Pacific League (2011, 2015, 2017, 2020 , 2023, 2024) *Did NOT advance to the Japan Series

@yakyucosmo This simply places more importance on the 143-game marathon regular season over the 2-week post season. i.e. the Japan Series is (hopefully) contested between the two best teams from each league. Merit matters. I have no problem with that.

@yakyucosmo 2/2 2006, 2009 Ichiro Suzuki Michihiro Ogasawara Shunsuke Watanabe Kosuke Fukudome Akinori Iwamura Kyuji Fujikawa Daisuke Matsuzaka Toshiya Sugiuchi Munenori Kawasaki Takahiro Mahara Norichika Aoki 2009, 2023 Yu Darvish

Japan 🇯🇵 has only failed to win the #WorldBaseballClassic in 2013, 2017, and 2026. In each of those years except 2013, the team that beat them went on to become champions.

@yakyucosmo Alex Bregman (USA, 2017) misses out on joining those who have won the WBC twice. 1/2

@GaijinBaseball Ah! The World Cup stars! I love it!

And now there are 4

@yakyucosmo @WorldBaseball_ If he 's interested how about Yu Darvish as pitching coach in 2030? Also, I take it the Premier12 will be held in Tokyo again (?)

The Hirokazu Ibata Era Ends — What’s Next for Samurai Japan? 🇯🇵⚾️ Breaking down the good and the bad from the Ibata years as Japan regroups following its loss to Venezuela 🇻🇪 in the #WorldBaseballClassic. My latest for @WorldBaseball_ worldbaseball.com/the-hirokazu-i…

@yakyucosmo Tsuyoshi Shinjo He’s turned a losing Fighters team into contenders who are exciting to watch. Knows how to get the best out of his players. I especially love his risk taking when it comes to running the bases, like those 2-RBI bunts.

Who will be the next manager of Samurai Japan 🇯🇵 after Hirokazu Ibata's departure? Here are some of the top candidates being floated so far. Kimiyasu Kudo (62): Nobody is beating Kudo's resume. He was an 11x Japan Series champion as a player and a 5x Japan Series champion as a manager. He's the most decorated man in Japanese baseball and played a major role in the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks' 2010s dynasty (though many other skippers could have also succeeded with teams of that caliber). However, he hasn't been heavily involved in NPB since stepping down in 2021, dedicating his life to farming and agriculture, with occasional appearances on baseball programs. "Kudo Japan" would be a statement hiring, but the expectations and pressure that come with it could be unreasonably high. Satoshi Nakajima (56): While with the Hokkaido Nipponham Fighters front office, Nakajima was dispatched to the San Diego Padres and gained coaching experience in the minor leagues. He then took over as manager of the Orix Buffaloes and led them to 3 consecutive Japan Series appearances from 2021 to 2023, including 1 title. He surprisingly resigned following a disappointing 2024 season, believing that the players had become too complacent under his leadership and that his time was over. During his tenure, he was viewed as one of the more forward-thinking and progressive managers in NPB. Tadahito Iguchi (51): Iguchi is a notorious winner, having captured Japan Series titles with 2 different teams, as well as a World Series title. He managed the Chiba Lotte Marines from 2018 to 2022, leading the team to 2 postseason appearances. He is highly respected, especially within the Hawks, Marines, and White Sox organizations. Iguchi has a particularly close connection to Roki Sasaki, having won the lottery for his negotiation rights at the 2019 NPB Draft, and entrusting pitching coach Masato Yoshii to lead his development. Hideki Kuriyama (64): Kuriyama was special. Unlike Oh, Hara, Inaba, Kokubo, Ibata, and others, he wasn't hired for being a great player and instead earned the job through merit thanks to his accomplishments with the Fighters, his unique style, and his close relationship with Shohei Ohtani. He officially retired after leading Japan to the 2023 WBC and was recently inducted into the Hall of Fame for his efforts. Returning to the helm would potentially tarnish what feels like a fairy-tale legacy, but fans would welcome him with open arms. Atsuya Furuta (60): Having led the 2004 strike by the Japanese players' union, Furuta isn't the most popular figure in the NPB establishment. But few people are more respected than Furuta, who was not only one of the best offensive and defensive catchers of all-time but also one of the greatest minds. He was a player-manager with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows from 2006 to 2007 and has recently served as a spring training guest coach for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He regularly provides commentary and analysis on baseball programs and has over 1 million YouTube subscribers, interviewing both NPB and MLB players. He seemingly values a balance between the old-school "gut feel" approach to the game and the new-school analytics, which could make him a popular manager among fans across generations. Hideki Matsui (51) and Ichiro Suzuki (52): These 2 fall into a similar bucket as living legends of the game. They have no managerial experience but have maintained very close ties to both Japan and the United States, making many appearances over the years via guest coaching, leading youth clinics, delivering commentary, playing in old-timers’ games, etc. Godzilla was also with Samurai Japan in camp before this WBC, and seems poised to become the Yomiuri Giants manager someday, given his status within the franchise and close relationship with the late Shigeo Nagashima. As for Ichiro, it’s difficult to picture him ever managing in this capacity, as he’s bigger than baseball and has a strong personality off the field. Other names include Yoshinobu Takahashi, Masato Yoshii, Koji Akiyama, and Tatsunori Hara (again).

@LA28 @USABaseball @TeamUSA @NBCOlympics @Olympics @WBSC Just as they always do in the WBC.

America’s pastime. 🇺🇸 @USABaseball will be taking the field on home soil at the LA28 Olympic Games. #LA28

@yakyucosmo Back in January he basically said that, win or lose, this would likely be his final tournament.

Hirokazu Ibata has announced he will resign as Samurai Japan manager. news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/85b1f…

@yakyucosmo Izuguchi and Nomura would have solved the pure offense/defense situation at SS. How about a 'Tour of the Americas' every so often? We saw how Santo Domingo and San Juan reacted getting to see their national heroes play on home soil. Japan can give them more opportunities.

Another point that I just saw from a Japanese poster is that it doesn’t help Japan to play every WBC pool game with the same exact conditions. 7 o’clock night game at Tokyo Dome versus opponents they’re used to and much better than on paper. Nothing out of their comfort zone. Not much you can really do about it because the finances and ratings of the tournament obviously warrants it but it’s beneficial for NPB players to get a chance to play outside of Japan in front of a more “hostile” crowd.

🇯🇵⚾️ A couple of things Japanese baseball should reflect on in general following the loss to Venezuela to be eliminated from the #WorldBaseballClassic. There were many questionable decisions throughout the tournament and a 1 game sample doesn't reflect talent level. But they looked shaky at times in the pool stage and simply weren't good enough today. - The dead ball era isn't breeding a competitive environment for anybody. Pitchers like Tatsuya Imai are going to MLB, saying NPB is essentially "too easy" because no one can hit a home run off him. Pitchers can scrape by without maximizing their stuff. The majority of hitters are struggling to hit for any power and aren't adjusting well (Pull Air, non-optimal launch angles, etc). - Compared to other countries, including Korea, Japan has struggled to produce dynamic, multi-tooled players. Beyond Ohtani, the lineup had very little in the way of combining power and speed. The fact that they have to choose between pure offense vs. pure defense at multiple spots on the diamond is a problem. - NPB has been late to adopt or even consider changes from MLB/KBO (universal DH, pitch clock, pickoff limits, etc). It isn't necessary to simply copy what other leagues are doing. But going into a tournament with different rules makes it inherently harder. - Hiring managers and coaches (both NPB and national team) based on who was a legendary player does not breed innovation or new ideas. - NPB has not only shown zero willingness to do international outreach but has also actively made it harder for domestic fans to post about their favorite teams and players through archaic social media restrictions. - The posting system obviously needs reform, but in its current state, more and more players will skip NPB to start their careers stateside at the collegiate or minor league level. Even with the eligibility changes to the NPB Draft, more amateurs will be developed outside of NPB. It remains to be seen what comes of players like Rintaro Sasaki, Shotaro Morii, Genei Sato, etc, but, just as in soccer, there will come a time when the "domestic" and "foreign" cores are more isolated than ever. Long-term, we need to better understand the development upsides of each path, whether players can get the best of both worlds, and how Samurai Japan can best integrate both.

@yakyucosmo *sigh* This sucks.

This is officially Samurai Japan’s worst finish ever in the World Baseball Classic. They’ve won 3 times and lost in the semifinals 2 times. This was a close matchup on paper but Venezuela’s firepower was better.

@ph4nt0m161205 @WBCBaseball i thought it was. Italy just proved it's not. lol Unbelievable.

@unclesox @WBCBaseball It's not official

Pool C complete 🔒 Team Japan and Team Korea are headed to Miami for the #WorldBaseballClassic quarterfinals 🔥

Japan are curreently flying directly from Tokyo to Miami.✈️ ETA is 3:08am Wednesday morning. flightradar24.com/JAL8800/3eaee0…

@PLVOLVDAISUKI @JAL_Official_jp Is this the flight for Samurai Japan WBC?

もうそろそろ！ 羽田空港からマイアミへ！ #WBC #侍ジャパン @JAL_Official_jp

@Shawn_Spradling Pacific Time Zone here, been watching Pool C Tokyo and Pool A San Juan. Body clock is all out of whack. Thankfully Tokyo ends after Wednesday so I can get back to normal.

Goodnight. See you fellow WBC sickos in a few hours.

@yakyucosmo Btw, the world feed gave you a shoutout by name! Forgot exactly but I think it was for your in depth stats on Itoh.

🇯🇵🇰🇷 Samurai Japan’s Sluggers Stay Hot in Tight 8-6 Win over Korea at #WorldBaseballClassic worldbaseball.com/2026-world-bas…

@yakyucosmo I thought Itoh would start against Czechia but after going 3 innings today, who gets the call?

@yakyucosmo Wakatsuki likely catching. I agree with your pick of Miyagi as second starter. Genda at short based on the Osaka exhibitions Random: Will they wear home stripes or away blue? And will jerseys of Taira, Ishii and Matsui be displayed in the dugout (?)

2026 WBC Samurai Japan vs. Chinese Taipei Probables Yoshinobu Yamamoto 🇯🇵 Hao-Chun Cheng 🇹🇼