Giants Baseball Team Makes Player Changes
The Yomiuri Giants baseball team has announced changes to their game lineup and player roster in Japan's Central League.
According to the team's official announcement on the 23rd, star player Hayato Sakamoto will bat fifth and play third base in the upcoming game.
Kota Hirayama, who has just been promoted back to the top team after about three months away, will bat eighth and play right field.
Meanwhile, a player named Dalbec will begin the game on the bench, meaning he is not part of the starting nine.
The team made a total of four player changes. Soki Sasahara was removed from the roster after failing to record a hit in the previous day's game.
Pitcher Takahiro Norimoto has been added back to the top-team roster. There is a possibility he could appear as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning, according to the report.
These kinds of roster moves are common in Japanese professional baseball, known as NPB, where teams frequently adjust their lineups based on player form and health.
The changes were part of the official Central League public roster announcement made on the 23rd, which lists which players are eligible to play for each team that day.
Vocabulary10 words
- third base
- one of the bases a baseball player defends on the field
- bench
- where players sit when they are not playing at the start of a game
- removed from the roster
- taken off the list of active players on a team
- pinch hitter
- a substitute player who bats in place of another player
- NPB
- the name for Japan's professional baseball league
- public roster announcement
- an official list of players a team can use in a game
- promoted
- moved up to a higher, more important team
- starting nine
- the nine players who begin a baseball game for a team
- form
- how well a player has been playing recently
- Central League
- one of the two main groups of teams in Japanese baseball
Quiz
Answer key
1. Third base, batting fifth 2. He had no hits the previous day 3. True
Fill-in-the-blank listening
Play the audio again and fill in the missing words as you listen.
The Yomiuri Giants baseball team has announced changes to their game lineup and player _____ in Japan's Central League.
According to the team's official announcement on the 23rd, star player Hayato Sakamoto will bat fifth and play third base in the upcoming _____.
Kota Hirayama, who has just been _____ back to the top team after about three months away, will bat eighth and play right field.
Meanwhile, a player named Dalbec will begin the game on the _____, meaning he is not part of the starting nine.
The team made a total of _____ player changes. Soki Sasahara was removed from the roster after failing to record a hit in the previous day's game.
Pitcher Takahiro Norimoto has been added back to the top-team roster. There is a possibility he could appear as a _____ hitter in the sixth inning, according to the report.
These kinds of roster moves are common in Japanese professional baseball, known as _____, where teams frequently adjust their lineups based on player form and health.
The changes were part of the official Central League public roster announcement made on the _____, which lists which players are eligible to play for each team that day.
Discussion questions
- Why do baseball teams often make changes to their lineup and roster during a season?
- How might a player feel returning to the top team after three months away?
- Do you think it's fair for a player to be removed from the roster after just one bad game? Why or why not?
- What other sports have similar systems of moving players between top and lower teams?