Happy New Year to you all. I hope you have had a restful and joyful time during the past few weeks. We are back to report to you the latest baseball news from Japan, plus fill you in on some of the best places you can find NPB information in English online on a day-to-day basis.
If you missed (or forgot) our last update of import player signings, go here. These are the latest acquisitions that have been made.
Orix Buffaloes: Anderson Espinoza, RHP (Padres)
Chiba Lotte Marines: James Dykstra, RHP (Indy League)
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles: Nik Turley, LHP (Carp), Cody Ponce, RHP (Fighters)
Saitama Seibu Lions: Jesus Aguilar, 1B (Athletics)
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters: Franmil Reyes, OF (Royals)
Yokohama DeNA Baystars: Miguel Sano, 1B (Twins) *not yet official
Yomiuri Giants: Kyle Keller, RHP (Hanshin Tigers) *not yet official
Chunichi Dragons: Alex Dickerson, OF (Braves)
NPB is in a bit of a news lull, as players spend their personal time in January working out in preparation for spring training. Once February comes around and camps are running, there will be plenty more news to report. But, should you feel a need to get more NPB news on a more regular basis, I recommend these sources:
X (Twitter)
Jason Coskrey (Japan Times)
Jim Allen (Kyodo News)
NPB on Reddit (Daily scores, standings, stat updates, news)
Yakyu Cosmopolitan (Also has a great YouTube channel!)
Japanese Baseball Discord (Also has a YouTube channel)
Sports Look (independent Japanese sports media)
Graveyard Baseball (Seibu Lions)
English NPB Blogs/Podcasts
Japanese Baseball Weekly Podcast
Graveyard Baseball (Seibu Lions)
We hope your January is bearable – you’re allowed to shift your focus to football for this month (and I suppose until the Super Bowl is played) but then it’s back to baseball!
