The Japanese NT has been impressive in the Asian Games considering the amateur status of their players. The 2 big guns for Japan on offense are Hisayoshi Chono and Yasuyuki Saigo who lead the team in RBI's. Chono and Saigo were also on the Japanese NT that played recently in the Intercontinental Cup in Taiwan. In the 2 games against Taiwan, Chono did not make much of an impression as he DNP in the preliminary matchup and was 0- 2 in the bronze medal game. Saigo on the other hand cracked a HR off of En-Yu Lin in the preliminary game going 2-4 while he was 1-4 in the 3rd place game. As good as these 2 guys have been for Japan, Yung-Chi Chen and Chin-Feng Chen have been even more impressive. Advantage: Taiwan
As for the pitching staff, the 2 biggest names are Satoshi Komatsu and Kentaro Takasaki, both of whom were the prepicks (top picks) of NPB teams (for Orix and Yokohama respectively) in the recent college/industrial league draft. Komatsu and Takasaki both pitched against South Korea on December 2nd and will probably be used against Taiwan. However when you match up these 2 against Hong-Chih Kuo and Chien-Ming Chiang, the pitching advantage has to go to Taiwan.
While star power has a lot to do with who wins the game, it's the little things (fielding, baserunning, etc.) that also help to determine the final outcome. Based on all of these factors, I think Taiwan's chances of winning a gold medal are very good.
4 comments:
lets hope our boys get a W and the GOLD!!....JIAYO!! ooo, I found a pretty interesting vid with some nice plays in the CPBL. it also has some stuff from the Lanew vs Hokkaido game if your interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wI3YujueAdA
do both the 1st and 2nd place teams qualify for the olympics, or is it just the 1st place team?
I believe the Olympic qualifying tournament will be the 2007 Asian Baseball Championships - I don't think the 2006 Asian Games have any bearing on qualifying for Beijing, otherwise Japan would have sent a top level team. Next year, only the first place winner will automatically qualify for Beijing (along with China of course). The #2 and #3 Asian teams will duke it out with 8 other teams from around the world for three available "wild card" spots in Beijing. I believe the only secured spots are #1 Asia qualifier, #1 and #2 America's qualifier, #1 European qualifier, and the host nation.
Edit above^^^
Actually, I meant to write 8 TOTAL teams competing for the 3 "wild card" spots.
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