| 12/31/2015 | ||||||
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 | Big Bat Pays Off, Sugiyama Player of the Week Monday, September 28th, 2015 No single hit brought Shusaku Sugiyama Player of the Week honors -- the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles catcher corralled the award with a consistent approach in every at-bat. "Hitting is all about discipline," said Sugiyama. "When you lose focus, start to lunge at the ball and swing too agressively... swinging at a lot of bad pitches... that's when your average starts to drop and you wind up fighting for playing time. You're most successful when you concentrate on the ball and make 'em throw strikes." Concentrate he did. Sugiyama stroked 5 hits in 12 at-bats while cranking out 4 home runs, 9 RBIs and 5 runs scored. In his season totals Sugiyama has 30 home runs and a .314 batting average. |   |
