It is no secret 2011 is the year of the pitcher in Japanese baseball. Batting averages, home runs and RBI totals are down, and the Hanshin Tigers fans especially must be getting tired of looking at the scoreboard in the seventh or eighth inning of their team's games and seeing a 1-0 or 1-1 score.

Through games of Wednesday, we still had only one .300 hitter in the Central League; Yomiuri Giants outfielder Hisayoshi Chono, batting .315. There were only four guys over the .300 mark in the Pacific League and a total of seven starting pitchers in both leagues who have ERAs under 2.00.

There are four factors which have been suggested as helping the guys on the mound get an advantage over those swinging the lumber at the plate as the season has moved along: The new NPB ball to which the hitters have not fully adjusted, the supposedly darkened stadiums where power has been cut by 20 percent in accordance with Japan's setsuden or energy-saving campaign, an apparent slight expansion of the strike zone by umpires to speed up the games a bit -and one more I have noticed in watching games this year.