An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
Swallows Present As mentioned in our most recent podcast, Balentien could start the year on the top team. Because he’s starting to show some life at the plate, mixed with Roman’s continued stability on the mound, and abetted by Lim’s tender throwing arm, Tokyo’s well-paid closer could start the year on the farm instead. Yet [...]
Chunichi Dragons Signed reliever Jorge Sosa to a one year deal. Sosa has a 4.72 ERA through 294 big league appearances. Yomiuri Giants NPB Tracker thinks the Giants should be legitimate contenders this year. Hanshin Tigers Kubo and Hirano finally re-signed. The team shaved 40 million yen off of Kubo’s salary and tacked 30 of [...]
Spring camp started for the top team in Okinawa today. Here’s a list of the players that were invited. The Swallows’ Japanese website has a handy schedule that will give you a light peak into what’s ahead for the team. The top team camp has only four officially-scheduled days off, and camp concludes on February 28th. [...]
The Milwaukee Brewers announced that the team signed Norichika Aoki, Tokyo’s star 30-year-old outfielder, to a multi-year deal. Congratulations to both Aoki and the Brewer community! We here at Tsubamegun hope that it truly is a match made in Milwaukee heaven. Details are sketchy at this point, but it seems like the two sides were [...]
Happy New Year, everyone. Here’s another stab at a news roundup for our beloved Central League. Chunichi Dragons Under new management, the Dragons seem to be taking the whole ‘fan experience’ thing very seriously. Both the manager and the head of the team’s player group, starter Kazuki Yoshimi, have a bunch of ideas that range [...]
We’re back! It’s been a while since our last audio edition, but David and Christopher sat down again on a Sunday afternoon to make fun of each other a little bit and talk about everything that has happened since the Central League playoffs kicked off at Meiji Jingu Stadium at the end of October. After [...]
April 29th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Hanshin Tigers 4 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Koshien Stadium) Tokyo’s magnificent run of good form finally came to an end as they ran into a very effective starter in Kubo. This game saw some interesting switches within the lineup as Miyamoto and Aikawa both had [...]
April 16th, 2011 Yokohama BayStars 6 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Streak: Drew 1 Last 5: LLLD (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Technically, we didn’t lose this game. But it sure felt like we did. Swallows lineup: 1. Aoki CF 2. Tanaka 2B 3. Iihara LF 4. Whitesell 1B 5. Aikawa C 6. Balentien RF 7. Miyamoto [...]
With the 2010 NPB Draft fast approaching, Tsubamegun will be presenting a number of articles filling you in on how the draft works and which players the Swallows may be eying. Part 1 of this series will explain the mechanics of the NPB draft. The 2010 NPB draft will be held on October 28 at [...]
September 18th, 2010 Chunichi Dragons 1 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: LLLWW (Meiji Jingu) The Swallows keep their slim playoff hopes alive behind the bend-but-don’t break pitching of Tateyama. The Lineup Aoki CF Miyamoto 3B Hatakeyama LF Whitesell 1B Iihara RF Aikawa C Kawabata SS Tanaka 2B Tateyama P The Dragons struck [...]
