Catcher Atsushi Kinugawa (no. 38) was called up before yesterday’s game to join the Swallows top team. This is the first call-up of the season for the 28-year-old. With Yoneno recently sent down to the farm, the team was briefly playing with only two catchers on the 28-man roster (which is acceptable in my view), but now they’re back up to the customary three.
Kinugawa’s first year with the Swallows was 2007 when he spent the entire season on the farm and hit .274 in 53 games. Last season he saw some playing time on the first team as Takada played musical catchers for all of 2008. He had 11 hits and eight rbi’s in his 42 at-bats last year.
Kinugawa has had some injury problems over the last year with the most recent issue being a left hand injury in May of this year. On the farm so far this season, Kinugawa is batting only .212 in 46 games.
Deactivated from the first team roster was closer Chang-yong Lim who is apparently having fatigue issues with the lumbar region of his back.
Here’s the current state of the 28-man roster:
Pitchers: Yoshinori, Tateyama, Ishikawa, Yuuki, Matsui, Takagi, Lee, Yoshikawa, Oshimoto, Masubuchi, Kamada
Catchers: Aikawa, Kawamoto, Kinugawa
Infielders: Kawashima, Miyamoto, Yoshimoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Noguchi, D’Antona
Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki, Yuichi
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