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Regular Season Report Card: #7 Yamasaki

Photo © www.rakuteneagles.jp

With a few days break before the beginning of the playoffs, let's focus on some people that will play a key role in the success or demise of the Eagles.  Today we're looking at Rakuten's designated hitter, Takeshi Yamasaki.

2009 Regular Season Statistics:

The numbers taken as a whole don't appear to be so bad.  Great OPS and slugging percentage, second in the Pacific League in home runs and runs batted in, decent runs scored and walks.  However, the whole picture doesn't tell us the whole story.

To see where the 41-year old currently is, we need to break down the final four months of the regular season:

After having an excellent July and a productive August, Yamasaki began to fade in September, and by October was in a complete free fall.  It gets even worse if you toss out a few outlier games that skew that stats:

Looking at the stats, and watching most of the games, three questions come to mind.

1. Why?  Yamasaki at 41 is no spring chicken by any stretch of the imagination, but it isn't as though fatigue could be an excuse for this.  He doesn't play in the field, he doesn't leg out any ground balls... I've even seen him yawning while he's at the plate!  Eventually every athlete loses what makes them special, but to see his production completely fall off a cliff like this... it's shocking.
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2. Another "why" question, but this time not for Takeshi.  Why hasn't Nomura dropped Yamasaki in the batting order?  Does he not want to embarrass his DH by moving him out of the cleanup position?  Nomura should have moved him down to the 6 or 7 spot weeks ago to take some of the pressure off of him.  Even making up some sort of fake injury and benching him for a few games might have helped.
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3. Can he get "it" back?  All things considered his overall performance was probably better than expected, especially the home run and RBI totals.  But as the Eagles enter their first ever playoff series, will Yamasaki be able to turn things around and contribute to the team or continue to be the anchor that's slowly sinking the ship?

Photo © Yahoo! Japan

Strengths

Power - Yamasaki was 2nd in the Pacific League in home runs and runs batted in.  And while they say that power is the last thing to go in an athlete, his 39 home runs this year was a welcomed surprise after hitting only 26 out of the park last season.

Zero and One Strike Counts - When faced with one or no strikes (and any amount of balls) Yamasaki is a dangerous hitter, with a batting average well over .300 and 32 home runs.

Weaknesses

Away Games - The only Pacific League stadium he's performed above average at is the Hawks' Yahoo! Dome.  At the four other PL stadiums he combined to bat .208 (35 for 168).

Two Strike Counts - With two strikes (and any amount of balls) Yamasaki has a measly .144 batting average (35 for 243).

Baserunning / Intensity - The 23-year veteran looks genuinely bored in the batters box sometimes.  He's slow and doesn't even appear to try to pressure the throw to first by running hard.

Prone to Slumps - I think I've covered this enough already.

Positional Hitting - Even though he's been in this terrible slump for 6 weeks he hasn't shown the ability to at least drive the ball into the outfield when there are runners in scoring position.  Instead we've been witness to a myriad of pop-ups either in the infield or in foul territory.  He's gotta drive the ball, or learn how to bunt.  Neither of these scenarios seem likely.

Current Grade: C+

Despite wallowing in this horrible slump, one must look at the entire season when applying a grade.  The offensive totals cannot be ignored.  I can only imagine the numbers he would've put up had he not completely forgotten how to swing a bat.