Baseball Discussion Thread

[Totallympics 55]

[Olympian1010 7,488]

 

[phelps 6,914]

Japanese top Pro Baseball League (NPB) has started last Friday...

 

next Saturday it's time for the Korean KBO and the Taiwanese CPBL...

 

and finally, next week (April 7th) it's the MLB to begin their campaign...

 

 

[Grassmarket 2,765]

1 hour ago, phelps said:

Japanese top Pro Baseball League (NPB) has started last Friday...

 

next Saturday it's time for the Korean KBO and the Taiwanese CPBL...

 

and finally, next week (April 7th) it's the MLB to begin their campaign...

 

 

College softball already well underway for some time now, watched a couple of games last weekend.

 

In case you don’t know, the PAC-12 Conference - ie the big West Coast schools - has a great live stream on YT.  Basically the whole week’s sport is a single stream, so you can rewind at any time & watch whatever you like from the last week.

 

 

 

 

[phelps 6,914]

5 hours ago, Grassmarket said:

College softball already well underway for some time now, watched a couple of games last weekend.

 

In case you don’t know, the PAC-12 Conference - ie the big West Coast schools - has a great live stream on YT.  Basically the whole week’s sport is a single stream, so you can rewind at any time & watch whatever you like from the last week.

 

 

 

 

yeah, I know the Pac-12 Network on YT (and all the other pages with "controversial" videos )...

 

and I have an official subscription to ESPN Player (EMEA version, of course)...

 

however, I only watch very little women's softball (and a bit more NCAA men's baseball)...

 

I rather watch the big 3 Pro League (KBO is always live on Naver Sport App -don't even need a VPN- meanwhile at playoffs' time I subscribe to Korean I-Kor TV and Japanese IPTV -it was iSakura Pro until last year, then they closed down and I had to rely on the sloppy Muji TV...this year I've seen that there are 2 new apps for Japanese expats...maybe I'm gonna try Jnext TV through this week )...

for what concerns the MLB...well, I have quite a few options (MLB.tv, but also sky Italia with their new deal for up to 7 games a week)...

 

p.s. Taiwanese CPBL is basically always live for free on Twitch...

[intoronto 4,256]

 

[phelps 6,914]

it's October, which means that all the most important Baseball Pro Leagues around the world are coming close to the Regular Season end and they're ready to start their respective playoffs campaign...

 

this year, the first of the 3 main Pro Leagues around the world to close their RS was the Japanese NPB.

 

the season has been highlighted by Munetaka Murakami (Yakult Swallows) chasing the HR record of that league, with the target set at 60 HRs overall (record held by the Dutch Vlad Balentien) and at 55 for what concerns the best Japanese hitter ever (record held by the legendary Sadaru Oh).

 

Murakami was on pace to destroy all the records entering September, but once he matched Oh's record for a Jpanese player at 55 HRs, he went into an unbelievable slump and he couldn't hit anymore for good 20 days, until the last make-up game of the whole RS (last Monday).

 

luckily, in the last at-bat of that last game of the RS, he could finally hit at least his 56th HR of the season to become the solitary leader of the Japanese all-time HR hitters.

 

unfortunately, the long slump in September cost him the overall record. Hopefully it will happen next year (unless he chooses to travel to the USA to play in the MLB).

 

for what concerns the league, instead, Murakami's Tokyo Yakult Swallows (the reigning Japan Series champions) dominated once again the Central League standings.

 

and the Osaka ORIX Buffaloes also repeated themselves in the Pacific League, even if in this case it was only a cruel tie-breaker to separate them from the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.

 

this is the full final ranking of the 2022 NPB Regular Season (both Central and Pacific League):

 

https://npb.jp/bis/eng/2022/standings/

 

 

Next Saturday, October 8th, the playoffs are going to start with the first round of the Climax Series:

 

in the Central League, the Yokohama DeNA Bay Stars will host the Hanshin Tigers, with the winner of the series going to play on the Yakult Swallow's home field in the CL final series.

 

at the same time, in the Pacific League, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks will host the Saitama Seibu Lions, with the winner of this series going to play the PL final series in Osaka against the ORIX Buffaloes.

 

Both first round series are best-of-3 matchups and all the games are played on the home field of the team with the best RS ranking between the 2 contestants.

[phelps 6,914]

and we're down to the last game of the regular season also in the Korean KBO.

 

most things are already decided, but tomorrow (11.30 a.m. CET) KT Wiz is host to the LG Twins and play for the 3rd spot in the final ranking, which would mean for them the chance to step up directly to the 2nd round of playoffs.

 

the KBO in fact has a ladder format for their PO, different from all the other main leagues around the world.

 

It works like this: in round #1, the 5th ranked team hosts the 4th (ranked), the winner advances to the 2nd round, where they're host ot the 3rd ranked team.

 

both series are normally best-of-3, with all the games played on the field of the better ranked team.

 

the winner of round #2 advances to round #3, where they meet the 2nd ranked team of the RS (normally in a best-of-5 series with the better ranked team having the home field advantage).

 

the winner of round #3 finally advances to the Korean Series to meet the best ranked team of the RS (who obviously have the home field advantage) in a best-of-7 series.

 

as I wrote, most things are already known: the defending Korean Series champions, Doosan Bears from Seoul, are surprisingly not only out of the playoff race, but they ended up in 9th place out of 10 teams...

 

the RS was won by the SSG Landers, formerly known as the Wyverns, from Incheon (last season they were at the bottom of the ranking, really another big turnaround), who therefore are already qualified to the 2022 Korean Series.

 

Second are the LG Twins Seoul, which means that they are aready safe in the 3rd round of the playoffs.

 

the only teams still fighting for a better place in the final standing are the KT Wiz Suwon, currently 3rd with half game advantage, and the Kiwoom Heroes Seoul, currently 4th in the standings and with all of their games already played.

Tomorrow, KT Wiz however, still need to win against LG Twins to save their current 3rd spot because the Heroes have the tie-breaker (head-to-head games in RS) in their favor.

A loss tomorrow would revert the standing position between KT Wiz and Kiwoom Heroes and therefore would change the playoffs ladder.

 

the 5th and last team making the post-season are the KIA Tigers Gwangju, which means that they are going to play the 1st playoffs round and they're gonna do it on the road.

 

 

my 2 cents...LG Twins are still the favourites to win it all, but the Korean baseball is always full of upsets and surprises with unpredictable games.

 

 

Results, Standings, Stats and more Infos on this very useful website:

 

https://mykbostats.com/

 

Live (and only live) Games for free on this website (and on the "Now" Korea app for mobile phones and tablets):

 

https://sports.news.naver.com/index.nhn

 

if you want to catch-up with ondemand games (and everything else is on the major Korean TV channels), I suggest the I-Kor app (it works perfectly almost everywhere, especially on Android TV systems and on Amazon Firestick devices):

 

https://streamingtvasia.com/streaming-korean-tv/

[phelps 6,914]

some updates...

 

 KBO

 

despite having basically no interest, LG Twins won the last match of the season against KT Wiz (6-5) earlier today and therefore the team from Suwon was overtaken by the Kiwoom Heroes in the final standing, which means that the 1st round of the 2022 playoffs will feature KT Wiz and the KIA Tigers from Gwangju.

 

the series is a best-of-3, but with the 4th ranked KT Wiz starting with a ghost win already in the count.

and all the games are also played on their home soil.

game #1 is scheduled for Thursday, October 13th @ 6.30 p.m. local time (11.30 a.m. CET).

if necessary (= if KIA win game #1), game #2 will be played the following day (same place, same game time).

 

the winner of the KT Wiz vs KIA Tigers series will face the Kiwoom Heroes in the second round (dates and times TBD).

 

 

 NPB

 

in Japan, the 1st round of the Climax Series (equivalent of the MLB Wild Card series) was completed on Monday, when the Hanshin Tigers won in dramatic fashion the series decider (game #3) on the ground of the DeNA Bay Stars Yokohama with the score of 3-2, coming back from a 0-2 hole and saving a 0 out, bases loaded situation in the bottom of the 9th inning.

the 2 teams shared the first 2 games after amazing pitching duels (2-0 for Hanshin in game #1, 1-0 under the rain for Yokohama in game #2), before the dramatic end in game #3.

the Hanshin Tigers are now going to face the reigning Japan Series champions, Tokyo Yakult Swallows (Murakami's team), in the Central League Climax Series finals (the equivalent of the LCS in the MLB).

as always at this stage, it's a best-of-7 series, but with the best ranked team in the RS (Yakult Swallows) starting already with a 1-0 advantage in the series count.

and all the games will be played on the Swallows' home turf.

 

in the Pacific League, instead, it took only 2 games to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to sweep the Saitama Seibu Lions.

and both games weren't that close nor attractive, to be honest.

game #1 ended with an illusive 5-3 score (but the Hawks were already 4-0 ahead after 3 innings), game #2 was an 8-2 blowout in favour of the team from the extreme South of Japan.

Now the Hawks are going to face the Osaka ORIX Buffaloes (last year's losing side in the Japan Series) in the Pacific League Finals.

the same rules of the C.L. apply, which means that the Buffaloes start the series 1-0 ahead thanks to the (infamous) ghost win and will play all the games at home.

 

game #1s of both the Central and the Pacific League Finals are scheduled for Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 12th at 6 p.m. local time, 11 a.m. CET.

[phelps 6,914]

more updates...

 

 

 KBO

 

KT Wiz Suwon won the only game played against KIA Tigers Gwangju in the 1st round of playoffs by a score of 6-2 and therefore, thanks also to the ghost win rule, take the series 2-0 and advance to the 2nd playoffs round.

 

Now they're facing the 3rd ranked from the RS, the Seoul Kiwoom Heroes in a "pure" best-of-5 series.

 

Game # 1 was played yesterday on the Heroes's field and was won by the home team 8-4.

 

Game #2 is scheduled for Today (6.30 p.m. local time, 11.30 a.m. CET), always in Seoul.

 

Games #3 & #4 (this one, if necessary) will be played in Suwon, the eventual decider (if necessary) will be played back in Seoul.

 

the winner of this series advance to the 3rd playoffs round against LG Twins Seoul to determine the second team playing the 2022 Korean Series (against the SSG Landers Incheon, RS winners).

 

 

 NPB

 

in Japan, the Climax Series (League Championship series) already came to an end las Saturday.

 

in the Central League Final series, the reigning Japan Series champions, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows won all the games played against the Hanshin Tigers (7-1, 5-3 and 6-3) and took the series by a score of 4-0 (thanks to damn ghost win rule).

Munetaka Murakami didn't hit any HR, though.

 

in the Pacific League final series, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks avoided being swept by the ORIX Buffaloes from Osaka thanks to the win in game #4 supported by their best pitcher, but still last year's losing side of the Japan Series took the series by a score of 4-1 (5-0, 4-3, 0-3, 3-2 plus the infamous ghost win).

 

so, in the final showdown we have a repeat of last year's Japan Series between the Tokyo Yakult Swallows and the ORIX Buffaloes Osaka.

 

the Japan Series are played as a "pure" best-of-7 series, the Yakult Swallows have the home field advantage thanks to a better RS record.

 

game #1 is scheduled for next Saturday, October 22nd, in Tokyo @ 6.30 p.m. local time (11.30 a.m. CET).

 

game #2 will be on the following day (same place, same game time); games #3 through #5 (this one, if necessary) will be played in Osaka (always at the same game time) from Tuesday, October 25th through Thursday, October 27th; finally, if needed, games #6 & #7 will be back to Tokyo (always at 6.30 p.m. local time, but take care of the DST change between Sat & Sun in the rest of the world) on Saturday, October 29th and Sunday, October 30th.