Semi-official injury count for the month of February at the Tokyo Swallows spring camp: 11 players missed all or part of at least one day of practice. In detail, that works out to six pitchers, four catchers, and one infielder. Go, go Swallows!
While the six injured pitchers may set off the loudest alarm for some readers, our visibly diminishing corps of backstops is probably a bigger concern at this point.
Tokyo is now down to three at the top team level. Kawamoto, Yoneno, and Fukukawa are all on the mend, and that leaves us with Aikawa, the young and capable Nakamura, and Kinugawa. If the team loses one more, a distinct possibility given Aikawa’s history and the fact that Nakamura lightly sprained his ankle stealing second in Monday’s LG Twins game, then we could be in big trouble.
The team, for its part, has decided that the best course of action is to exorcise the farm team dormitory up in Toda.
Things are dire enough that D’Antona has offered to catch if necessary (he made 31 appearances as a catcher in the minors). Hopefully that doesn’t happen. At any rate, what are the chances that the team stocks catching gear big enough to fit him?
In slightly less nerve-wracking news, it looks like competition is heating up for jobs as a starting pitcher.
According to Sanspo, Takada is looking to field a six-man rotation. The first four pitchers have already been decided: Ishikawa, Tateyama, Muranaka, and Yoshinori. Guys in the mix for the final two slots include Lee, Barnette, Nakazawa, and Kawashima.
Of course, it should be observed that Tateyama has stated publicly that he is not 100% sure that he’ll be ready in time to make his first scheduled start at the beginning of the regular season. So there could be three slots available at this point.
Hopefully someone else will throw their hat into the ring to keep things interesting.
So, who else out there is a little bit nervous about the way things have been going thus far?
About Christopher Pellegrini
