The player stats page for Willians Astudillo in eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2022

New former MLB players in eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu’s 2023 roster update

 March 30, 2023  Posted in Uncategorized 418 Views

The 2023 roster update for eBaseball Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2022 launched on Wednesday. These Konami games are built to last for multiple years these days, so these are free roster updates for all the offseason moves. My favorite thing is to look at all the ex-MLB guys heading over and see how they’re estimated to perform in the NPB.

First a quick note on a couple guys who are missing. Trevor Bauer signed with the Yokohama BayStars but is not in the game yet. This will be purely because he signed so recently, I assume. You might be tempted to think they’re worried about his reputation, but I highly doubt it. I looked through Japanese Twitter and some news articles after Bauer signed, and so far the reaction to his signing has been excitement with the slightest tinge of awareness that he’s a problem child with maybe some emotional issues. There doesn’t seem to be the slightest taboo attached to him in that country, far as I can tell online.

Marwin Gonzalez would have to be the second-most famous ex-MLB player heading over this offseason. He signed with the Orix Buffaloes back in December, but is also missing from the in-game rosters at this time. I have no clue why, honestly. Seems like some sort of legal timing thing somehow, similar to how Masataka Yoshida isn’t on the Red Sox roster in MLB The Show 23 just yet.

Here’s a quick and dirty translation guide for the attributes you’ll see in the screenshots below:

Position players:
The letter grades on the left are:
Trajectory (arrow, with 1 being a pure groundball hitter and 4 being Joey Gallo-ish power swing monsters)
Contact
Power
Running speed
Arm strength
Fielding ability
Error resistance

The blue and red abilities on the right are special abilities, similar to Quirks in The Show but more meaningful. There’s a helpful spreadsheet here for translating them all.

Pitchers:
Along the left are:
Top fastball velocity in km/h
Control
Stamina

And then a chart of each pitch, with more bars meaning a better pitch that breaks further, basically. Then the same special abilities on the right-hand side which you can translate with this spreadsheet.

Aristides Aquino

Aquino’s got huge power and a breathtaking arm, but with contact issues and sub-standard fielding.

Gregory Polanco

Feels like a good encapsulation of Polanco to me: A pretty good player with a bunch of red traits. Bad in the clutch, bad at recovering from injury, bad throwing, and a strikeout problem.

Lewis Brinson

Not sure if you’ve noticed, but the guys who leave MLB for Japan tend to be big-power corner guys with big contact flaws. Brinson is another one, though the A speed could make him a decent center fielder.

Willians Astudillo

I’m a little disappointed by the likeness on fan favorite Willians Astudillo, and I wish there were some ability listed to acknowledge his tremendous ability to avoid strikeouts. In a way, the “double play” and “bad ball hitter” abilities do that, but not in a way that helps him much.

Frank Schwindel

I think Schwindel’s the best player of the MLB guys heading over? And I wouldn’t be surprised if that ends up being true in real life as well. His special abilities here make him good against fastballs and he’s more likely to homer again after hitting one homer in a game.

Matt Davidson

Another all-power guy with strikeout issues. Passable third base defense give him a leg up on some other guys.

Hirokazu Sawamura

Sawamura heading back to Japan, and they nailed his eyes and eyebrows. Awesome splitter.

Kohei Arihara

I don’t like playing with these guys with hardly any breaking ball movement, but otherwise Arihara’s not too bad.

Tyler Beede

The fastball effectiveness F and walk trait kind of spoil an otherwise decent set of abilities here for Beede.

Jharel Cotton

Only has strong aptitude for the middle relief role, but that five-bar circle change makes him my kinda pitcher for a Pennant mode.

Luis Perdomo

Fastball life at G makes Perdomo a no-go for me unfortunately. And 155 is fast but not fast enough to overcome that big malus.

Gosuke Katoh

Long-time minor leaguer Gosuke Katoh was born in the U.S. to Japanese parents. As a Japanese citizen due to this heritage, he had the odd experience of being subject to the NPB draft as a 28-year-old import from the U.S. He was selected in the third round by the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. He looks like a decently useful utility man.

Shohei Ohtani

Some subtle, interesting changes to Ohtani, who’s in the game as an OB (Old Boy, former player):

Here are Ohtani’s hitter abilities. Drag the arrows left and right to compare his stats before and after the update. Ohtani gained some contact, lost some power, gained in his recovery ability, and earned the “Bases Loaded Man” special trait.
Here are Ohtani’s pitching abilities. Ohtani’s stamina is up, he’s scrapped the cutter for a new sinker, and he’s gained a new strikeout special ability.

UPDATE: I woke up last night with an aching feeling in my kidneys and thick, warm sweat filling my hair. Something was wrong. Something I had done recently. It… I couldn’t… Could it be, I had missed two ex-MLB players added in the 2023 update?

Maikel Franco

A pull hitter with good power, good against the first pitch, and good against fastballs. The red ability is prone to hitting into double plays. Pretty decent abililties.

Sheldon Neuse

The green ability here is “extreme condition,” basically meaning he’s a streaky player. Neuse is an opposite field hitter who’s good against the first pitch and good with the bases loaded. The C power isn’t too exciting here for me but the throwing arm is good at third base.