Miyamoto won the vote for who Tsubamegun want to see playing third.

We posted a poll on the 25th asking you some general questions about the state of affairs with the team. Aoki’s gone, and there are some question marks hanging over the team as spring camp gets under way down in Urasoe, Okinawa.

We here at Tsubamegun tend to see these question marks as opportunities, and the majority of respondents to the poll seemed to agree with us. Not a single voter had the team finishing the 2012 season any lower than fourth place in the Central League.

There were 25 complete responses to the poll, and for your perusal we have laid out the numbers in an easily digestible format.

1. Do you approve of Tokyo’s decision to post Aoki at the end of 2011?

Response	Votes	%
Yes	15	60%
No	6	24%
Undecided	4	16%

2. Who do you want to get the most starts at third base for the Tokyo Swallows this season?

Response	Votes	%
Shinya Miyamoto	13	52%
Tetsuto Yamada	3	12%
Shingo Kawabata	3	12%
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama	2	8%
Ryosuke Morioka	1	4%
Takahiro Araki	0	0%
Other	0	0%
Undecided	3	12%

3. Who do you want to get the most starts at center for the Tokyo Swallows this season?

Response	Votes	%
Tsuyoshi Ueda	14	56%
Yasushi Iihara	3	12%
Kazuki Fukuchi	1	4%
Yuichi Matsumoto	1	4%
Other	1	4%
Undecided	5	20%

4. With the players currently under contract, do you believe that Tokyo can make up for the loss of Aoki’s defense and his 2011 slash line of .292/.358/.360?

Response	Votes	%
Yes	9	36%
No	14	56%
Undecided	2	8%

5. Do you think that the front office made enough moves during the off-season to bolster the starting rotation and bullpen?

Response	Votes	%
Yes	7	28%
No	13	52%
Undecided	5	20%

6. What place to you think the Tokyo Swallows will finish the 2012 regular season in?

Response	Votes	%
Central League Champions	7	28%
2nd place	6	24%
3rd place	6	24%
4th place	6	24%
5th place	0	0%
6th place	0	0%

Interesting responses although not entirely unexpected. Even though it’s an exceedingly small sample size, feel free to offer your interpretations in the comments section below.

Aoki signed for next to nothing.

While reading all the off-season and spring training news that can be found about NPB and MLB, I came across some tidbits on former Tokyo center fielder, Norichika Aoki.

• A tracking poll conducted last week over at Brew Crew Ball found that 94% of respondents were in favor of the contract that Aoki signed with Milwaukee. In fact, only three of the 253 voters ticked the ‘nay’ box.
• The guys who do the View From Bernie’s Chalet podcast are very happy with the Norichika Aoki signing, and feel that the Brewers have managed to reel in a good baseball player who, even if he does have a rough time adjusting to MLB, can potentially provide some good bench insurance for the club.
• Here’s a bit more information about how his salary breaks down over the 2012 and 2013 seasons. The contract contains a club option for 2014. Aoki can nearly double his salary based on how many games he plays in and starts according to the ESPN link above.

I feel like someone needs to write a ‘Life After Aoki’ piece. Anyone up for it?

Shrinkage dot com.

• The team reported that it would likely use the US$2.5 million dollars if received from the Milwaukee Brewers to help improve the farm team facilities. It was not reported whether all or part of the posting fee would be put towards stadium improvements. There is also a rumor flying around that Hatakeyama has requested a larger supply of pudding for between-inning consumption.
• The farm team’s stadium in Toda is apparently being sized up for a number of improvements covering everything from the field to the fence to the seats to the toilets.
• Second baseman Hiroyasu Tanaka is reportedly taking ballet lessons.
• RHP Hitoshi Yamamoto spent eight minutes standing under a waterfall of near-freezing water while “meditating.” The water was so cold that he apparently started making odd 2012 proclamations such as “I plan to record double-digit victories.” If he fulfills any of those crazy pledges this year, then Tsubamegun will see to it that he spends twice as much time under the waterfall next year. At any rate, Ogawa was impressed and invited him to first team spring training in Okinawa.
• Lastings Milledge‘s tenure in Japan got off to a slow start when he missed his flight out of Tampa. He arrived in Japan on the 26th, a day later than originally planned. The Japanese press was all over it. They wasted little time in coming to the conclusion that Milledge will be nothing but trouble. The team, for its part, responded calmly and said that it wasn’t too worried at this point in time.
• Masanori Ishikawa appears to be the lone Tokyo Swallow on the Samurai Japan team that will take on the Chinese National team in an earthquake relief charity event on March 10th. Yoshinori had originally been recruited to pitch, but the Swallows wisely rejected the offer seeing as how he’s still recovering from a shoulder injury.

Who do you want to get the bulk of the starts at third this year?

**The poll is now closed. Click here to see the results of the vote.

Here’s a poll to keep your mind off of what you should actually be doing at work.

You will be asked for your opinions on topics such as who should get the most starts at third, and whether or not the front office was right in accepting the posting amount for Norichika Aoki.

This poll will remain open until 5PM (EST) Wednesday February 1st (that’s 7AM on Thursday February 2nd here in Japan). We’ll post the results of the poll shortly thereafter.

Please vote only once.

Poll closed.

Aoki also snagged a TV announcer.

I’ve noticed it before, but lord it’s out of control right now. Reporters, announcers, newscaster, whatever you want to call them, are dropping like flies. For whatever reason they’re marrying baseball players.

Here’s a list of recent developments:

January – Anri Mitsube (NHK newscaster) and Kan Otake (Hiroshima); Saho Narushima (freelance reporter) and Kenta Maeda (Hiroshima)

Undecided – Chiho Nishimori (Sapporo TV reporter) and Kensuke Tanaka (Hokkaido); Maya Kobayashi (freelance reporter) and Handkerchief Prince Yuki Saito (Hokkaido)

That’s just a few that have caught my attention recently. There are surely many other examples. Former Tokyo player, Norichika Aoki, married a TV Tokyo reporter as well.

If you can think of any other examples, recent or distant, please leave a comment below.

The nest has a bunch of new inhabitants this year.

of the major goings-on include:

• Norichika Aoki has joined the Milwaukee Brewers
• Lastings Milledge was snagged as a free agent before signing with another major league club
• Orlando Roman was lured away from the Brother Elephants (Taiwan)

David and Christopher cover all of the players mentioned above, plus a few other issues surrounding the team. Give it a listen and let us know what you think. If you have any observations, or questions, voice them in the comments section below.

Milwaukee's newest prospect and ROY candidate, Norichika Aoki.

let’s first take a moment to check in with the rest of the team.

• At least two Tokyo players have already contracted the flu. Awesome. I’m a bit confused because this is normally what happens to the team in September and October. Are we planning to do this twice in 2012? For the record, however, I have no objection to moving this nonsense to the front-end of the season. Guys, stop sharing cutlery! And wash your hands.
• Ogawa recently told the media friends that 2011 Central League home run champ Wladimir Balentien could start the year on the farm team thanks to how nonexistent he was following the All-Star break last season. We here at Tsubamegun have no problem with that although we’d like to politely remind him that Balentien was far more effective in the playoffs than Hatakeyama and Miyamoto.
• Sorry, can’t resist. While he’s not a Tokyo player anymore, we still love him. Aoki was all over the place with relief upon returning to the motherland. And the Milwaukee folks are well aware of the fact that they’ve landed Aoki’s services at bargain-basement prices.

Aoki is now a Brewer. Makes me proud. I was once a brewer, too. Long live Otter Creek Brewing (Middlebury, VT).

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 able to come to some kind of preliminary agreement.

It’s a two-year deal with a club option for 2014.

Let's get this deal done already.

• The talk of Araki and Ibata switching back to their original positions, 2nd and short, respectively, continues. Not that anyone cares.
• Victor Diaz might be on the team’s radar. Diaz played in Korea in 2009.

Yomiuri Giants

• Hayato Sakamoto, Yomiuri’s prized homegrown shortstop, has been reaping the benefits of Shinya Miyamoto’s guidance this month. Hey, aren’t those trade secrets? You little git, give us those notes!

Hanshin Tigers

• New Hanshin manager, Yutaka Wada, has given in to Takuya Asao lust and is now babbling about having Fujikawa pitch the 7th inning. If…IF!… he has another top notch closer on hand. Which he doesn’t. And by the way, Mr. Wada, Fujikawa will continue to blow it in the playoffs no matter when you plug him into the game. Sorry.

Hiroshima Carp

• Hiroki Kuroda signed with the Yankees (one-year US$11 million deal). No word yet on whether or not Hiroshima plans to keep waiting.

Yokohama Baystars

• GM Shigeru Takada has injected some young blood into his wing of the building by hiring former Bobby Valentine (Chiba era) front office brain, Shun Kakazu. The 30-year-old has some MLB experience under his belt in the form of serving as San Francisco’s point man on talent in Japan. He has no pro playing experience, however, which makes him rare in front office operations as Patrick Newman pointed out.

Around the Pacific League

• The big news on Yu Darvish will be arriving with in the next few days. The deadline for an agreement is 5PM EST on the 18th (7AM Japan Standard Time on Thursday the 19th). That’s precisely 24 hours after the deadline for a decision on the Norichika Aoki situation.

Mr. Knoxville wishes you well.

We’re still waiting on the Aoki decision. And there’s a fearsome mountain of contingencies riding on the outcome,  so we still can’t make any educated guesses about the opening day lineup. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on in Tsubamegun-land.

Here are a few goodies for your perusal while keeping an eye out for scantily-clad convicts.

• Tateyama’s rehab “seems” to be going smoothly. There’s even talk that he’ll be able to handle a bullpen session by the beginning of spring camp.
• Tokyo’s first two exhibition games will be held in Urasoe on February 25th and 26th. Both are slated for 1PM. The game on the 25th will be against the Hanshin Tigers. The opponent on the 26th is reportedly the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
• Lastings Milledge “wasn’t in the White Sox future plans,” according to a brief blurb by Scott Merkin.
• The Milwaukee Brewers have until 4 PM on January 17th (early morning on the 18th in Tokyo) to reach an agreement with Aoki. If they can’t, then he’ll be playing for us again next year.

Enjoy the weekend, folks!