Baseball is not what this is about per se, though. No, this post is here to deliver some important news about baseball-watching.

First of all: Boycott Mini-Stop. In their wisdom, the management of the Mini-Stop next to JR Shinanomachi Station, right in our own ‘hood, have decided to shrink their section of Swallows merchandise to one shelf – a shelf it shares with a few Yokohama items and a few Hanshin items – whilst filling the three shelves beneath it with Hanshin Tigers crap.

Yes, that’s right, our local Mini-Stop thinks the coin it gets from hawking plastic tat to visiting tat-fiends is the main consideration. Therefore we say not one yen for any Mini-Stop anywhere. We’ll grant a dispensation if the only konbini where you live happens to be a Mini-Stop, but if you set foot in the Shinanomachi branch, we’re not your friends anymore – go be a Yomiuri fan if you care mostly about what’s easy. There’s a Newdays in the station, where you can get drinks and snacks.

We will not be awkward guests in our own home.

On the plus side, throwing slobbery plastic trash on the field at Jingu continues to be banned (no jet fusen.) If you get off on this obnoxious practice and you’re a Carp fan, so be it. If you’re supporting any other team, just knock it off already. Hiroshimans suffer enough between their muggy summers and their lackluster team – let them keep their own traditions.

Almost as big a plus is the raft of renovations made to the outfield concourse at Jingu. From the pedestrian bridge over Gaien-Higashi-dori (in front of Shinanomachi Station) to the ramp leading up the bleachers, you’ll see new slip-resistant floor coverings. The ramp has also been slightly elongated – presumably in order to make rainy evenings less slippery. At the base of that ramp, you’ll find a new Baskin-Robbins outlet, a concession stand twice as wide as it used to be (shorter lines, one hopes), better stadium maps showing what tasty tidbits are available where, and completely redone toilets. Not only are there more urinals and more sinks, they’re laid out better, making the bathroom 437 times better than it was last year. Why 437? When you’ve been to as many stadium toilets as I have, or have been the outfield men’s room at Jingu as often as I have, you just know. Some of you might say I’m exaggerating, that the toilets are merely 396 times better. I can see that argument.)

The new food items taste about the way you’d expect them to. We continue to recommend waiting until the fifth inning to purchase most edible items, as that is when they are most likely to be hot and less-nasty.

On the potable front, not only has our good friend, the Beer Prince, moved on to better pastures (he graduated from college and got a real job), beer prices have gone up 50 yen across the board, making it now 750 for a draft and 500 for a can or bottle. All the more reason to stop by Newdays (not Mini-Stop!) and BYOB – just keep it hidden.

Of course, everything looks newer and cleaner and is better-marked. The only downside is that the concourse is narrower.There are now some “Eat-in# stalls across from some of the concession stands, but if anyone decides to lay out tarps on the concourse to entertain little kids or get out of the rain, as people have always done, the concourse may well become impassible. My fear, of course, is that these renovations may yet turn out to be another in the long list of examples of Jingu spending a fair bit of money to make things better without bothering to observe the behaviors and patterns of the fans, much less asking what fans would like to see.

Any Tokyo Yakult Swallows decor showing that, in fact, the Swallows have been, for almost 47 years, the stadium’s main tenant? Don’t be silly. Have the old infield fences, with their wide view-obstructing posts, been replaced with more modern ones that protect people’s unsuspecting faces from line-drive fouls while also allowing people to see things without dead spots in their field of vision? Of course not. As I said, Jingu updates things, but refuses to talk to its patrons. Shas it always been, so shall it long be.

All of this said, turnout at preseason games has been better than in previous years, the scoreboard at Jingu says the first two home series of the regular season are already sold out, and you’ll probably be able to relieve yourself and make it back into the stands within an inning, so all is well with the world.

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?

As Dave recently noted, Ishii has been out of action for several years and will hopefully be enacting a comeback in the not-too-distant future. But the four new stitches in his toe are going to put a damper on his ambitions to make the opening day roster.

But there’s a little good news as well. Masato Nakazawa, Tokyo’s first round draft pick, had a solid outing against the Hanwha Eagles (KBO) yesterday. The 25-year-old lefty gave up one run (homer) off of three hits in four innings of work.

Tempering the excitement slightly is the fact that he issued three walks, but that doesn’t sound quite so bad when you acknowledge that he also struck out six batters.

Please be better than Yoshinori. Please be better than Masubuchi. Please be better than…

Tokyo beat the Hanwha Eagles 5-3.

After looking at  the big earners in part one, and the upwardly mobile in part two, in this final part of our annual monetary review, we’ll be looking at those whose salary will be a little more petite this coming season.

The Losers

Ryo Kawashima - The first of quite a number of pitchers who will see their salary fall this year. Ryo had a pretty poor 2009 (5-6/4.81 in 14 appearances), yet again failing to show any consistency as he continues to be one of the most infuriating starters on the Tokyo books.  He will see his salary fall by 5M to 43M yen for the year.

People have questioned his application and thirst for the game, but here’s hoping Kawashima can find a bit of something to make this year a successful one. Boy, could we do with the “good” Ryo in the rotation on a regular basis.

Kyohei Muranaka - The youngster was another starter to have a 2009 he’d probably rather forget, posting a shocking 7.12ERA to go with his 1 and 6 record in his 9 starts.

Yet again he entered the beginning of a season in the starting rotation, and yet again he left the rotation mid-season after sucking royally. Always looking like a rabbit caught in the headlights of the world’s largest truck when on the mound, he really needs to work on his confidence and self belief as he has the tools to make the grade.

Alarmingly, Takada has been talking about Kyohei having a shot at making the mound to start on opening day, so either our “manager” is just flexing his motivational muscles to try and gee up his pitcher during spring camp, or Takada is even more mentally challenged than we thought.

Whichever it is, Muranaka will take home 18M yen in 2010, down 4M.

Yasuhiro Ichiba - Aquired in a trade with Rakuten (that saw utility man Miyade head the other way), the Swallows coaching team has so far failed to find a way to realize the potential buried within the pitcher. The same potential that had caused him to be so highly coveted as an amateur.

The change of team made little difference as he posted a 1-5/7.88 record in his 9 appearances in the Swallows uniform. This year he will be another of the guys on the pitching staff vying to clamber their way out of the barrel marked “really must do better”.

He will see his salary shrink by 3.5M to 19.5M yen.

Tatsuyoshi Masubuchi - Drafted from High School in 2007, the chunky pitcher found his chances limited in 2009 by way of a batted baseball taken on the chin during practice in April.

After working his way back from that rather painful setback, and a decent few starts on the farm team, Masubuchi stunk out Koshien in his only appearance of the year for the top team in a key September game against the Tigers.

Well, he’s shaved his head in preparation for a successful 2010, and with this year’s rotation still being far far from settled he’s in with as good a shot as anyone else of being in it.

He’ll see his salary fall by 4M to 12M yen for this season.

Hirotoshi Ishii - A man who could once lay claim to being one of Japan’s (if not THE) premier closers (37 saves and 1.95ERA in 2005), a shoulder injury has pretty much destroyed his career and kept him out for what now seems like aeons.

With Igarashi now in New York, the timing is right as Ishii looks to make a comeback in 2010. Tokyo are hoping he will be able to slip into the set-up role vacated by Ryota, and I for one would be overjoyed to see him back on the mound. But I won’t believe it until I see it.

His salary will be 28M yen this year, down 12M. And as an indicator of just how far he has fallen, his salary for 2006 (the year in which he ended up having surgery on his left shoulder): 150M.

Kazuhiro Hatakeyama - After his breakout year in 2008, the chunky infielder struggled to replicate the performance in 2009, batting .236 in the 85 games in which he featured.

With the newcomer from Hanshin Fujimoto, and the re-signing of first baseman D’Antona, the chunky-one may well see his chances limited this coming season, meaning he’ll really need to produce when called upon to stand any chance of holding down a spot in the starting nine.

Hatake’s salary will be 28M this season, down 4M.

Yasushi Iihara - One of Tsubamegun’s favourite players, Yasushi will see his coffers shrink by 5M to 45M in 2010.

The talented speedster hit a respectable .250 last season, but saw his starting chances limited by not having a natural role in the field (he’s been tried in the infield and stunk). Plus the 2009 resurgence of Guiel meant that there was one less hole for him to occupy in the outfield (he’s not going to replace Aoki now is he?), which leaves him vying with Fukuchi for the spot in left.

Hopefully we’ll see more of  Iihara in 2010, but I’ve got the feeling that Takada just doesn’t fancy him. Which is a shame.

Yuichi Matsumoto - Utility man will see a 18M yen salary this year (down 3M).  Now in his late 20s, I think it’s time to face the fact that Yuichi is simply nothing more than a bench-warmer, and he certainly shouldn’t be keeping the likes of Ihara off any teamsheet.

And finally, to bring all this unsavoury talk of money to a close, here are the new faces for 2010 and what they’ll be costing:

Atsushi Fujimoto - 36M

Tony Barnette - 37.2M

Eulogio De La Cruz - 15M

Plus last, and quite possibly least:

David Watkins/Christopher Pellegrini/Garrett DeOrio – A big fat zero (at least from the Swallows anyway). We’re currently waiting for our salary negotiations  to begin. A wait that may well last a lifetime (which will likely be a drastically shortened one, thanks to the team we’ve chosen to follow).

Igarashi in his NY garb.

Former Swallows reliever Ryota Igarashi is in Port St. Lucie with the Mets, where he was interviewed for a piece about him in the New York Daily News yesterday.

Among the article’s gems:

Part 1 can be found here.

Other winners

Aaron Guiel - After an injury blighted sub-par 2008 season, many fans thought they’d seen the last of our blonde Canadian in a Tokyo uniform. But they (fortunately) hadn’t as he was re-signed with a mammoth 76M paycut in 2009. Keen to prove his worth, Aaron had his best and most consistent season yet for the Swallows, hitting .267AV/.367OBP/.533SLG/27HR while bringing home 80RBIs for good measure. The consummate professional both on and off  the field, Aaron could have easily walked away from the team/Japan when things were not going well in 2008. He didn’t, and proved himself in 2009, earning a new two year deal worth 90M in the first year with incentives.

A good bit of business for the birds there and I for one will be delighted to see Guiel back in a Tokyo uniform this year.

Jamie D’Antona - Jamie’s first year in Tokyo was, after a slow start, a great success.  Hitting .276AVG/.327OBP/.486SLG, D’Antona’s main strength was his clutch hitting, bringing home 83RBIs to go with his 21HR, as he found a knack for coming up with the big hits (as did Guiel, a most welcome improvement he brought to his game last year).

These figures were all the more impressive given the fact that he was in and out of the team for the first month or so of the season as he found his feet, was sidelined for a month in August due to injury, and found his playing time limited down the stretch due to our esteemed manager (allegedly)  trying to prove a point.

Well, thankfully Takada came to his senses (or the pro-D’Antona members of the front office won out) and Jamie will be back in 2010. He signed a new deal worth 73M plus incentives (up from 47.5M) with the club holding an option for the second year.

Another fine bit of business for the Swallows. especially given that stats have shown that the foreign pairing of Guiel and D’Antona came up with over 35% of the teams “big hits” in 2009, the highest for any team’s foreign contingent in the Central League.

Kazuki Fukuchi - Entering his third year at Tokyo since his move from Seibu, Kazuki has successfully made the transition from Lions’ bench-warmer to Swallows’ key man. And more power to him. Blisteringly fast on the base paths, Fukuchi led the CL in steals in 2009 with 42 stolen bags. A very respectable average of .270 shows he’s not just a fast pair of legs and decent fielding ability in the outfield have also furthered his standing at Yakult.

All of which means his coffers will swell by an extra 10M yen in 2010 as he takes home 90M.

Yoshinori Sato - Despite having the “softest hands in yakyu” which hindered the little man’s appearences last season, Yoshinori still posted a respectable 3.50ERA for the year. Let’s just not dwell on his 5-10 record shall we?

With those blisters and control issues still holding him back, 2010 will be a big year for our baby-faced starter, as he will look to make good on his undoubted potential and cement himself as a key man the rotation for good.

He will have an extra 9M yen to help him do just that as he’ll be taking home 26M in 2010.

Yuki Tanaka - One of the undoubted success stories of 2009, former Orix man came to Tokyo on a developmental player contract after being discarded by his former team after a shoulder operation. He impressed on the farm team so much early on that he was signed to a top-team contract, and ended up playing a key role in stabilising a rotation whose only constants were the big two of Ishikawa and Tateyama.

He ended up making 19 appearances, pitching to a 5-6/3.40 record. Initially thought to be only able to pitch 5 or so innings due to his shoulder, Yuki’s stamina improved dramatically as the season progressed, culminating in a superb complete game victory against Hiroshima. Hopefully his shoulder troubles will remain a thing of the past (though some issues seem to have resurfaced in spring camp….).

And he has been rewarded with a healthy 16M rise in salary, and will be earning 24M in the coming season.

Hiromitsu Takagi - Another of the success stories from last year, Takagi came into the starting rotation during the latter part of the season, as injuries and poor form hit the pitching staff. He ended up playing a key role in the recovery from Tokyo’s summer slump and ultimately successful push for a playoff place, ending up with an ERA of 1.64 to show for his 12 appearances along with 4 wins (his first wins as a pro).

Hiromitsu’s season ended up on a low however as he became one of the legions of players to be struck down with the flu come playoff time, which left the Swallows seriously short of depth just when they needed it the most.

Takagi will earn 17M yen this season, up 9M yen. Hopefully he will consolidate on the promise shown last year and will be given opportunities to contribute once again.

Keizo Kawashima - The perfectly unspectacular KK will see his salary rise by 10M yen this season, up to 35M for the year.

Now I may be being harsh here (well ok, not maybe), but given that the main way he seems to contribute to the organisation is being popular with the ladyfolk (he’s small and cute you see) and thus no doubt contributing handsomely to merchandise takings, the reason that he continues to start so many games and has gotten such a pay jump must be due to one or all of the following:

1. He came from the Fighters, as did our “manager”, a manager who likes to look after his own.
2. He and the “manager” have a “special” relationship (maybe Takada likes ‘em cute……?).
3. (As suggested by  Tsubamegun reader Rob) Takada likes his walk-on music (a cover of Toto’s Aftica) so much he keeps putting him in the lineup so he has something to occupy his mind during games, as it sure as hell is not occupied by baseball.

Of course I’m (kind of) jesting, but i’m not sure why Keizo saw a 40% pay rise while others didn’t. He hit the same .255 in 2009 that he did in 2008 (his first year with the birds), though he did increase his homer tally (by 8 ) to 12 last season.

Whisper it: could we have ourselves another Shiroishi on our hands…….?

Yoshiyuki Noguchi - Speedy back-up infielder who saw more playing time that ever in 2009, and continued to impress as he chalked up a .263 average. Rewarded with a 6M pay hike to 16M yen.

Yuji Onizaki - Came into the team late in 2009 as the infield injury list lengthened, Onizaki was simply a wonderful surprise as he racked up a .356AVG/.408OBP/.533SLG batting line in the 15 games he featured. He saw his 2010 salary rise 3M to 14M yen.

Shinichi Takeuchi - Another backup position player (usually 1B or OF) who more often that not produces the goods when called upon, Takeuchi will see his salary rise 7.5M to 25M yen.

So those are the guys who should be buying us all beers at Jingu this year. In part 3 we’ll be taking  a look at those who’ll probably appreciate us buying their drinks, the losers in the salary sweepstakes.

A choice selection from the article:

Then there was also the fact that every year during spring training, Matsui took the Yankees-beat writers out to dinner, perhaps the only Yankee in the history of the franchise to do such a thing. And at the end of the first such dinner, he handed out gifts to each of the correspondents, including items from his personal collection of adult videos. New York writers can be merciless, especially to newcomers who do not live up to their hype. But when Matsui, hailed as the Babe Ruth from Japan, struggled in the early going, the New York press was less vitriolic than one might have expected. Perhaps it was the porn effect.

Another enjoyable read by Robert Whiting even if he does refer to Yomiuri as the “Tokyo Giants”. Head on over and read the rest.

It’s that time of year again. Spring camp has begun, and the players are all gearing up for another season of sweeping all before them (well, the Giants players are anyway.) The salary negotiations are done and our heroes in the Tokyo uniforms now know how much they will be earning to follow the instructions of a numbnut for another season. And so do we, so let’s take a look at who’s earning what in 2010 and why.

In the first of a three part series, we’ll be covering the big guns on the Tokyo books (aka the 100,000,000 yen club):

All salaries are listed in multiples of  a million Japanese yen (e.g., 5M = 5,000,000 yen) . Also, please note that the stated salaries are merely estimates by Japanese sports media.

The Big Boys

Norichika Aoki – Despite a slow start to 2009 Aoki still came up with the goods last season. While that slow start kept his average down at just above .300, he still racked up over 160 hits and registered a team high OBP of .400.

He is without doubt the main man in Tokyo, so much so that the Swallows changed his uniform number from 23 to 1 in a not so subtle attempt to push the outfielder as the new “Mr.Swallows”.

Our new No.1 saw a 20M yen raise this year as he will pull in a team-high 280M in 2010. And every yen of it is fully deserved. Let’s just try not to think about his inevitable posting to the MLB that will come sooner rather than later.

Shinya Miyamoto – Like fine wine, Shinya just gets better with age. Last season saw him not only remain a key man with both the bat and the glove, but also saw him put in a super-human performance down the stretch, as he contributed despite a hand injury that would have benched lesser men.

In short, my respect for this gentleman can swell no further, and if I had my way he’d see a huge raise in 2010. As it is, he’ll have to make do with the same 22oM yen he saw last year, due to (I would imagine) a multi-year agreement struck in 2009.

Shohei Tateyama -After arguably his best season yet in 2009 (16-6/3.39), Shohei was rewarded with a (mere) 10M raise to take his earnings to 110M yen.  In the opinion of this fan the man deserves way more money than that. Plus the decision to make Tateyama the captain of the pitching staff for this season does beg the question of why he couldn’t be given a tad more cash, especially given the fact that. . .

Masanori Ishikawa - received a 25M raise, the highest (yen raise) on the team. He will be taking home 180M yen this coming year. His performance last season wasn’t quite up to the level of Tateyama (13-7/3.54) but it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve the spoils of his labour. Without both him and Tateyama, god knows where this team would be.

Chang-Yong Lim - Entering the final year of a three year contract (with the team taking their option for the third year) Tokyo’s star closer saw his salary finally rise to something approaching his true worth. After taking home a mere 55M in 2009, a season which saw him make a whopping (and team-high) 57 appearances (to the tune of a 5-4-28/2.08 record), the Korean will take home a more respectable 146M in what will most likely be his final season as a bird. If it is to be his last year, hopefully he’ll go out on a high and won’t be worked quite so needlessly hard this season (Takada, I’m looking at you.)

Ryoji Aikawa – Rounding out the 100M club is 2009 free-agent signing Aikawa, the man who finally restored a bit of quality to the Swallows post-Furuta catching position. He had a decent first year with the club, and will look to consolidate on that this season. He will be earning the same 100M salary that he took home last year, as he enters the second year of the three-year deal that brought him to Tokyo.

So that’s the top six earners out of the way, and in part 2 we’ll take a look at the other players who came out ahead in the salary negotiation stakes.

Robert Whiting, author of the irreplaceable You Gotta Have Wa, interviews players and personnel both in and outside the organization to present a rounded account of what went on behind the scenes.

All four articles can be found on the Japan Times website:

Chapter 1: Clandestine campaign led to Valentine’s demise

Chapter 2: Valentine’s philosophy brought Marines glory, money

Chapter 3: Resentment of Valentine’s power factored in downfall

Chapter 4: History, tradition helped to undermine Valentine

We’d love to hear what you think, so don’t be afraid to chime in below with a comment or two!

After last year’s very lucky appearance in the postseason, the first ever for the Swallows I might add, all of the usual suspects are back for another go at it. Yup, D’Antona, Lim, and Guiel re-signed, and Aoki hasn’t been posted yet, so another half-decent season could be in the making if everyone can stay healthy.

Wait. Scratch that. We did lose Igarashi to the New York Mets, so not everyone will be back.

Anyway, I figured that it’s about time to conjure up and collect some of the wishful thinking that may be lurking out there as spring camp gets underway.

But first, let’s take a look at my wishful thinking points from last year. Apparently I asked for a bit too much. The only wish that was granted to my full satisfaction was number two: Aikawa hits better than .220 (he hit .247 in 2009). Otherwise, I was at least partially stymied on my other four wishes.

Oh well.

Here’s what I’m crossing my fingers for this year:

1. The Swallows finish the year with a record above .500

2. Barnette wins 10 games

3. Yoshinori stops using Oil of Olay on his hands every night before going to bed

4. Lim makes fewer than 50 appearances (regular season)

5. We start the 2011 campaign with a manager who isn’t old enough to collect pension benefits

Your turn.