The Bill James of Japanese baseball

[charlieoscar]

Interesting article on the introduction of sabermetrics to Japanese baseball and Yosuke Okada, the man who almost single-handedly brought it in.

https://theringer.com/yusuke-okada-japanese-bill-james-sabermetrics-nippon-professional-baseball-e8e42fe874d9

 

[snowmanny]

Okada, in speaking with teams, “would have to be very polite about presenting material which suggests one of the outfielders on the bench should be playing more than the starter, because that would imply somebody who outranks him is incorrect about something.” According to Guttridge, NPB teams still eschew infield shifts not because they aren’t aware that the tactic exists, but because shifting would imply that previous managers who didn’t shift were wrong not to have done so.

Fighting an uphill battle.

 

[charlieoscar]

There is always seppuku.