Pacific power

Almost a week without a post. Hey, if you haven’t noticed, it’s a busy time of the year.

We’re almost there, really … a couple more group previews, some last-minute adjustments and we’ll be able to play ball at last. In fact, there will be some exhibition games taking place this weekend.

I think it will be well worth the wait, as we will have basically every significant player, at least the ones who qualified for their teams. The Strat-O-Matic Negro leagues set has surpassed even the very high expectations, and so our timing has been most fortuitous.

OK. As Lewis and Clark may have said, on to the Pacific. California is alone at the top here, but Japan is clearly an outstanding team, and certainly one to watch for in the tournament portion. Japan is in here because there aren’t that many Western states, with some combining to form teams, and as we mentioned last time, the international group had no vacancies.

Because of pitching, I think the smaller combo teams here are better than most and this group might not be as one-sided as it appears. I don’t think there’s a ton of upset potential, but the teams at the top of this crew will have to work harder for their wins.

1. California. Can’t wait to play the outfield of Bonds, DiMaggio and Williams. I think if we were playing a full season with the best teams, they’d win. I’m not so sure about the tournament, however.

2. Japan. Not really a sleeper because they won the 2006 and 2009 WBC tournaments. But just to remind everyone, they’re real good.

3. Oregon. The battle for third is going to be interesting. In time, Washington may nudge ahead on their young pitchers. But for now I like the Oregonians.

4. Washington. Probably will get in the tournament anyway, and really it’s a coin flip for third.

5. Yellowstone. Killebrew and some solid pitching could help the Bison sneak up on the previous two in the short-season format.

6. Alaska/Hawaii. Great rotation, but lack of offense will keep the 59ers from being more than a pain-in-the-neck factor in the Pacific.

Next: The South rises again.

Rising sun

Japan today, then the Dominican Republic, and “Play Ball” is just around the corner.

A few words about the cards and ratings that will allow us to play not only the big leaguers from Japan, but also the greats from the Japanese leagues who didn’t make it over here. Fred Bobberts, Len Durrant and others should take a bow (sorry). It’s fantastic to see players like Shigeo Nagashima and Masaichi Kaneda included in our project.

As such, this is going to be a deservedly strong team. If I had only the MLB guys to pick from, it would include a decent lineup, almost no bench, OK starting pitching and a strong bullpen. With the Japanese leagues’ players included, they’re strong almost all the way around except in the depth department. The lineup is much stronger than the backups.

Ichiro is one of my favorites and I could talk about him at length. He visited George Sisler’s grave when he was in St. Louis for the All-Star Game … could you imagine any other player doing something like that? The guy just gets it. And he might even be honored to participate in this thing, who knows.

But I want to turn the clock back to the 1970s and discuss Sadaharu Oh. Hank Aaron had just broken Babe Ruth’s career home run record. But in Japan, Oh was about to pass Aaron. He would finish his career in 1980, with 868 homers.

Not much was known about the Japanese leagues then. Oh’s home run total wasn’t taken very seriously because the ballparks were too small, the competition was like Triple-A, any number of reasons. It was true that guys like Randy Bass were going over to Japan and succeeding where they hadn’t in the States. But Oh certainly could have succeeded in the majors with that Mel Ott type leg kick. No one else was close to him in Japan.

The feeling started to change when Cecil Fielder made a mid-career stop in Japan. He returned, hit 51 homers in Detroit, and Japan was getting baseball attention in the U.S. again.

Next came Nomo. He took the U.S. by storm in 1995 and while his career didn’t sustain at that level, he proved that a Japanese player could succeed.

Ichiro came in 2001 and is still performing at the level he was when he arrived. He seems certain to get 3,000 hits, not even counting all the ones he had in Japan. Hideki “Godzilla” Matsui arrived a couple years later and has done well for the Yankees, and made history with his MVP performance earlier this month in the World Series. There are other guys with big postseason moments here such as So Taguchi, Tadahito Iguchi and Dave Roberts (born in Okinawa).

For the manager, we could go with Oh or Nagashima, but I’ll take Tetsuharu Kawakami, who won nine consecutive Japan Series in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Sort of like UCLA basketball at that time.

If you’re looking for a dark horse candidate to win this thing, look no further. Remember, Japan won the World Baseball Classic in 2006 and 2009. They know how to do it.

JAPAN SAMURAI

CA Shinnosuki Abe
2B Shigeru Chiba
RH Yu Darvish
OF Kusoke Fukudome
OF Isao Harimoto
2B Tadahito Iguchi
RH Kazuhisa Inao
RH Hisashi Iwakuma
2B Akinori Iwamura
CA Kenji Johjima
LH Masaichi Kaneda
RH Hiroki Kuroda
OF Hideki Matsui
SS Kazuo Matsui
RH Daisuke Matsuzaka
LH Masanori Murakami
3B Shuichi Murata
3B Shigeo Nagashima
RH Hideo Nomo
CA Katsuya Nomura
1B Sadaharu Oh
LH Hideki Okajima
OF Dave Roberts
RH Takashi Saito
RH Kazuhiro Sasaki
RH Eiji Sawamura
OF Tsuyoshi Shinjo
OF Ichiro Suzuki
OF So Taguchi

Next: The final team, the Dominican Republic.