An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
After agreeing to basic terms with three new players the day before, the Swallows announced on Friday that they had added another pitcher to the mix in the form of 23 year-old RHP, Tatsuo Kinoshita. He actually turns 24 tomorrow (Nov. 28th). Originally from Aichi Prefecture, Kinoshita was selected in the 2005 high school draft by [...]
Yakyu Baka reported back at the beginning of October, and Kozo Ota relayed the same information here, that eight players are not having their contracts extended for the 2012 season. Well, the Swallows reported on Thursday that they’ve basically filled three of those slots with a pair of out-of-contract players and another from the independent [...]
Tokyo’s Japanese language website announced next year’s coaching staff yesterday. The top team is the same cast of characters as last year. Top Team The farm team has seen a few changes though. Farm Team
Shinya Miyamoto, Tokyo’s veteran infielder and now 41 years of age, was voted the best defensive third baseman in the Central League this season. It was the third time that he has won the honor in as many seasons. That is, of course, in addition to the six Golden Gloves he had previously won at [...]
Tokyo’s Japanese-language website reported that catcher Ryouhei Kawamoto had successful surgery to repair ligament damage in his right ankle on the 17th of this month. It is projected that he will require up to two months to heal completely. Rookie pitcher, Kentaro Kyuko, also had surgery recently. On Monday November 21st, Kyuko had surgery on [...]
30 year old RHP and 2004 Central League Rookie-of-the-Year Ryo Kawashima has been traded to the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles for an undisclosed amount according to the team’s Japanese-language website. After an outstanding rookie season in 2004 in which Kawashima tallied an impressive 10-4 record and 3.17 ERA, Kawashima put together another strong year in [...]
It seems like Norichika Aoki has formally requested to be posted to the majors during the upcoming off-season. Several teams are apparently interested. Whether or not the team will actually post him is questionable, especially since he’s not going to earn his international free agency until the 2013 season. That fact alone could indicate that [...]
There’s been plenty of action recently in terms of players being added to, and wiped from, the top team roster. The following players have recently gone up or down. October 29th (First Stage Game 1) Murakawa, Ishikawa and Miwa were activated. Yuichi was deactivated. October 31st (First Stage Game 3) Iihara was activated. Hidaka was [...]
As posted on the team’s official website, Hirotoshi Ishii was removed from the active roster after his retirement game on the 25th. Therefore, the 26 guys that are currently on the top team are as follows: Pitchers Lim, Matsuoka, Masubuchi, Tateyama, Barnette, Matsui, Hidaka, Akagawa, Watanabe, Oshimoto Catchers Aikawa, Kawamoto, Fukukawa Infielders Miyamoto, Tanaka, Takeuchi, [...]
As if things weren’t already bad enough on the injury front, Tokyo has at least one new headache to deal with. It was reported in the Chunichi Sports online paper that second year infielder, Takahiro Araki, sustained a fractured left ankle during practice. He will miss all future 2011 games. We covered this a bit [...]
