"Tohoku High School is a prestigious private, co-educational high school in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, established in 1894. It is highly renowned throughout the Tohoku region for its prominent athletic programs, having notably served as the real-life inspiration for Shiratorizawa Academy in the hit volleyball anime series Haikyuu."

Mount Hood Community College?

University of Oregon coaching staff?

White Sox minor league coaches?

Venable not familiar yet?

Rikuu Nishida himself?

Born in Japan, Nishida was an ordinary baseball-loving boy. During his third year at Tohoku High School, he reached the Miyagi Prefecture finals of the National High School Baseball Championship, famously known as Koshien. After failing to advance to Koshien, he chose to study in the U.S. Nishida enrolled at Mount Hood Community College to pursue a business career after high school, balancing studies and baseball. After transferring to the University of Oregon in 2023, he played 63 games with a .312 batting average, 5 home runs, 25 stolen bases, and an OPS of 0.837. This performance caught the attention of White Sox scouts, leading to his draft selection. He played in Double-A until last month, then was promoted to Triple-A, and achieved a rapid rise to the big leagues within about a month.

chosun.com

Edited Wednesday at 03:05 AM4 days by caulfield12

You.

1 minute ago, WestEddy said:

You.

Sure, I should have stopped by to tutor him when I was in Osaka...everyone in Japan's lunch has now officially been ruined by the last thirty minutes of White Sox baseball, lol.

Can we get Iguchi back on the coaching staff to teach bunting/the art of advancing runners?

Edited Wednesday at 03:09 AM4 days by caulfield12

He's been a solid bunter in the minors. Shouldn't have tried on 2 strikes, don't know who's call that was.

Probably full of nerves after his big OF assist and having his first MLB AB with real "expectations"

Why does he have to be a good bunter just because he’s Japanese, @caulfield12?

I assume that’s what you are inferring with your bolded text?

Edited Wednesday at 03:14 AM4 days by WhiteSox2023

1 minute ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

He's been a solid bunter in the minors. Shouldn't have tried on 2 strikes, don't know who's call that was.

Probably full of nerves after his big OF assist and having his first MLB AB with real "expectations"

I was worried because Taylor is so unorthodox...bunting 95-100 straight is much much easier to pull off.

Although some coaches certainly argue breaking ball pitchers are easier to track/follow with one's hand eye coordination slowed down, higher margin for error.

Guess Tristan Peters is going to have to run a Camp Cora for everyone. But even he still hasn't mastered drag bunting either.

fwiw Juan Uribe was really good at this skill

Edited Wednesday at 03:15 AM4 days by caulfield12

1 minute ago, caulfield12 said:

I was worried because Taylor is so unorthodox...bunting 95-100 straight is much much easier to pull off.

Although some coaches certainly argue breaking ball pitchers are easier to track/follow with one's hand eye coordination slowed down, higher margin for error.

Guess Tristan Peters is going to have to run a Camp Cora for everyone.

But even he still hasn't mastered drag bunting either.

Juan Uribe was really good.

Bring back Pablo Ozuna...King of the walk off bunt.

Hahahahaha

4 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Why does he have to be a good hunter just because he’s Japanese? I assume that’s what you are inferring by your bold text?

Because every single teenager in Korea and Japan learns this skill in elementary and middle school that plays baseball.

If you can't hit homers you absolutely have to possess this skill to get a starting position anywhere in the Pacific Rim as a middle infielder.

Sacrificing an out to help the team win is like a badge of honor, more heavily applauded than a GW walk off homer.

Is it racist to say Asian and Estonian, and Finnish students are better on average than American students at math?

Well by SAT scores 44% of Harvard Yale Princeton would be Asian based on almost perfect SAT math scores. Below 720/800 would be a source of family embarrassment and the result would be universal mocking from classmates.

Edited Wednesday at 03:23 AM4 days by caulfield12

12 minutes ago, Autumn Dreamin said:

He's been a solid bunter in the minors. Shouldn't have tried on 2 strikes, don't know who's call that was.

Probably full of nerves after his big OF assist and having his first MLB AB with real "expectations"

Who was the Sox manager who'd get mad at a player missing two bunt opportunities, and just leaving the bunt sign on for two strikes? Was that Ozzie?

2 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Who was the Sox manager who'd get mad at a player missing two bunt opportunities, and just leaving the bunt sign on for two strikes? Was that Ozzie?

Sounds exactly like him.

Venezuelan SS's were traditionally prolific bunters, just like Aparicio and Chico Carrasquel. Omar Vizquel too.

4 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

Who was the Sox manager who'd get mad at a player missing two bunt opportunities, and just leaving the bunt sign on for two strikes? Was that Ozzie?

Yes, especially when it concerned Ramirez.

1 minute ago, Lip Man 1 said:

Yes, especially when it concerned Ramirez.

He was God awful bad at it, even though his speed before he started homering in 2008 in the US (peds?) would have required it as a utility/leadoff guy.

29 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Sure, I should have stopped by to tutor him when I was in Osaka...everyone in Japan's lunch has now officially been ruined by the last thirty minutes of White Sox baseball, lol.

Can we get Iguchi back on the coaching staff to teach bunting/the art of advancing runners?

I know you're in Wuhan, but is Rikuu a thing? They were mentioning that the Sox were only the third MLB team to have 2 Japanese born players in their starting lineup.

10 minutes ago, WestEddy said:

I know you're in Wuhan, but is Rikuu a thing? They were mentioning that the Sox were only the third MLB team to have 2 Japanese born players in their starting lineup.

Sure, with Yamamoto falling off and Ohtani only looking superhuman as a pitcher....Japanese fans seem a little bored with the Dodgers' Dynasty and nobody considers SD a genuine threat to them.

Roki Sasaki has been a massive disappointment so far as well.

Although Japan will be proud of Imai now too, even with a 6+ era still.

"Kind of a weird play there, where there's a bunch of chaos and the ball didn't bounce our way," Will Venable said of the play that ended the 10th, before affirming he kept the bunt on with Nishida even after two strikes. "Once you get to two strikes against a guy who's really tough against lefties, that at-bat where we're set up to bunt, go ahead and commit through two strikes there. With that being the skill set that [Nishida] does very well, that was the calculus to go ahead and try to get [pinch runner Luisangel Acuña to third], knowing that you've got some guys behind him."

soxmachine Fegan

2 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

"Kind of a weird play there, where there's a bunch of chaos and the ball didn't bounce our way," Will Venable said of the play that ended the 10th, before affirming he kept the bunt on with Nishida even after two strikes. "Once you get to two strikes against a guy who's really tough against lefties, that at-bat where we're set up to bunt, go ahead and commit through two strikes there. With that being the skill set that [Nishida] does very well, that was the calculus to go ahead and try to get [pinch runner Luisangel Acuña to third], knowing that you've got some guys behind him."

soxmachine Fegan

Would be curious to see the odds of Riku getting that down at of 10 more simulations. I’m not digging this one at all… chalking it up to Will being a young manager and also not knowing his player as well as he thinks, perhaps.

“I just came up in the last at-bat, and I had my chances and I couldn’t convert them,” Murakami said. “I could have hit that flyout and scored a run. I just have to keep practicing and contribute as much as possible to the team.”

That is a leader, boys and girls.

Japanese high school/Koshien bunting culture

A whole thread.....

Maybe we should be less concerned with his bunting ability and more about the fact that he was asked to bunt with two strikes.

8 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

"Kind of a weird play there, where there's a bunch of chaos and the ball didn't bounce our way," Will Venable said of the play that ended the 10th, before affirming he kept the bunt on with Nishida even after two strikes. "Once you get to two strikes against a guy who's really tough against lefties, that at-bat where we're set up to bunt, go ahead and commit through two strikes there. With that being the skill set that [Nishida] does very well, that was the calculus to go ahead and try to get [pinch runner Luisangel Acuña to third], knowing that you've got some guys behind him."

soxmachine Fegan

I’m a math guy, so I’m always thinking in terms of probabilities. Once it was 0-2, I turned to my son and said “I’d still let him bunt here. Probably around a 50-60% chance he’ll get the bunt down, and it’s much less likely he will move the runner over if you let him swing”

If it was a different pitcher, sure, let him swing. But I didn’t like the chances of him moving Acuna over once it was 0-2 against that lefty.

3 hours ago, JoshPR said:

A whole thread.....

I present you: Caulfield

32 minutes ago, SoxBlanco said:

I’m a math guy, so I’m always thinking in terms of probabilities. Once it was 0-2, I turned to my son and said “I’d still let him bunt here. Probably around a 50-60% chance he’ll get the bunt down, and it’s much less likely he will move the runner over if you let him swing”

If it was a different pitcher, sure, let him swing. But I didn’t like the chances of him moving Acuna over once it was 0-2 against that lefty.

I would have gambled on him hitting a weak enough ground ball somewhere in the infield to move the guy over. Or gambled on a hit.

1 hour ago, hogan873 said:

Maybe we should be less concerned with his bunting ability and more about the fact that he was asked to bunt with two strikes.

[Ding]

Asking a brand new major leaguer to bunt.

With two strikes.

In extra innings.

In a clutch situation.