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.

They're multiplying as you read this.

Happy Coming-of-Age Day to all of the 20-year-olds out there who are celebrating today. Be sure to post a photo of yourself in the comments all decked out in your old-enough-to-vote garb. And don’t drink too much tonight.

This website has been very preoccupied with Norichika Aoki news as of late, and Lastings Milledge has been getting plenty of attention as well. But there hasn’t been a whole lot Swallows news, even as we’ve tried to keep everyone updated on what’s happening Around the Central League.

Of course, that’s not always the easiest thing to do as there isn’t exactly a ton of Tokyo news coming out of the NPB paparazzi.

But here’s a few tidbits from the past week or so:

• The team announced today that farm team outfielder Jun Matsui (24) filed marriage papers with a woman named Kayoko (25) on December 27, 2011.
• Miyamoto doesn’t seem to think that the Swallows did enough during the off-season to improve the team. This Japanese-language report doesn’t contain anything more than a one line quote, and I mostly agree with him (I would love to see a bold multi-player trade to bring in a decent starting pitcher), but you have to wonder if Miyamoto has heard anything about new import Lastings Milledge other than the fact that he last played AAA ball for the White Sox. Milledge has spent even more time in the big leagues than Matt Murton had before he signed with Hanshin two years ago. And Murton was a legit big leaguer with the Cubs. I’m not saying that Milledge will deal with the culture shock he experiences as well as Murton did, but he’s definitely a solid all-around player and better than all of the players we platooned in left last year combined.
• Speaking about Miyamoto, it sounds like he’s more than willing to step out of the way once he’s reached the 2,000 hit milestone. Seeing as how he only has 25 hits to go, it’s likely that he’ll reach his desired tally some time in May as long as he doesn’t slump as hard as he did during the playoffs last year. As I said in this post, I wouldn’t mind seeing some other folks getting time at third base, but if Miyamoto has another regular season like 2011, then I’d prefer that he keep his spot in the lineup. Even if he is 150 years old.
• New recruit, Yuji Nakane, will miss the 2011 season after having ACL surgery on his right knee.
• It’s not a great improvement, but the top team will add one more trainer/physio to its staff for the upcoming season, bringing the total to four. Hopefully another gets added for the 2013 season.
• Sounds like the team might have signed another non-Japanese pitcher who could compete for a starting role. However, if reliever Tony Barnette has another good season, then look for Orlando Roman to spend the majority of 2012 up in Toda on the farm team.
• The number of cheerleaders at Swallows home games is expected to double because Tokyo’s squad was the smallest in the league, and the young ladies will apparently be wearing ‘sexier’ outfits. Draw your own conclusions on that one.

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 a brief recap of the playoffs and Japan Series, David and Christopher run through some of the off-season player moves and what might be in store for 2012.

They hit on Norichika Aoki’s upcoming move to Milwaukee, Yomiuri’s free-spending consumption of the best free agent’s from both leagues, and soap that smells like bacon.

Happy holidays to everyone out there who keep checking and listening in. All the best to you and yours!

Miyamoto (R) on TV with Uehara

Tokyo’s corner infielders, Shinya Miyamoto (3B) and Kazuhiro Hatakeyama (1B), will be on Fuji TV’s “Suporuto!” TV program next Tuesday.

That’s Tuesday night actually. From 11:55 PM until 12:35 AM on Wednesday morning.

For those of you who live in Japan, tune in to watch these two Tokyo veterans embarrass themselves on the airwaves.

Miyamoto is the oldest player to ever earn a Best 9 selection.

Tokyo third baseman, Shinya Miyamoto, and center fielder, Norichika Aoki, were voted into the Central League’s best nine today.

Miyamoto earned the award for the first time in his 17-year career while it was the seventh time that Aoki has been voted in during his eight seasons as a pro.

This comes just after both players won Central League Golden Gloves for their exceptional defense in 2011.

Miyamoto easily beat Hanshin’s Takahiro Arai by a tally of 184 to 57 in voting for the league’s best third baseman.

Aoki collected 156 votes and was third in outfield voting behind Yomiuri’s Hisayoshi Chono (238) and Hanshin’s Matt Murton (226).

Balentien and Hatakeyama were fourth and fifth, respectively, in balloting for outfielders, so it was a very strong showing for Tokyo’s fence-minders this year.

Hatakeyama also finished second in voting for first basemen. He was outpaced by Hiroshima’s Kurihara by a count of 157 to 78.

Aikawa (C), Tanaka (2B) and Kawabata (SS) all finished third in voting for their respective positions.

Central League

Position	Player	Team	Times
P	Kazuki Yoshimi	Chunichi	1
C	Shinnosuke Abe	Yomiuri	6
1B	Kenta Kurihara	Hiroshima	1
2B	Keiichi Hirano	Hanshin	2
3B	Shinya Miyamoto	Tokyo	1
SS	Takashi Toritani	Hanshin	3
OF	Hisayoshi Chono	Yomiuri	1
OF	Matt Murton	Hanshin	2
OF	Norichika	Tokyo	7

Pacific League

Position	Player	Team	Times	Notes
P	Masahiro Tanaka	Tohoku	1
C	Toru Hosokawa	Fukuoka	2	1st Best Nine was with Seibu in 2008
1B	Hiroki Kokubo	Fukuoka	1	3rd time overall Won award at 2B in 1995, 1997
2B	Yuichi Honda	Fukuoka	1
3B	Takeya Nakamura	Saitama	3
SS	Hiroyuki Nakajima	Saitama	3
OF	Yoshio Itoi	Hokkaido	2
OF	Seiichi Uchikawa	Fukuoka	1	3rd time overall (twice with Yokohama) Won award in outfield in 2008 and at 1B in 2009
OF	Takumi Kuriyama	Saitama	3
DH	Jose Fernandez	Saitama	1	2nd time overall (once with Tohoku) Won award at 3B in 2006

It's the third year in a row that they've shared the podium together.

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 short.

By the way, Golden Gloves is not referring to boxing in this case. It’s the Japanese version of the Gold Glove awards in MLB.

Norichika Aoki, the team’s center fielder, won his sixth straight Golden Glove this season.

Aoki was second in outfielder voting behind Yomiuri’s Chono. Chono had his name checked by 192 of the 243 voters while Aoki received 179 votes. The third and final outfielder awarded a Golden Glove was Chunichi’s Ohshima (84 votes).

Balentien was tied with Yomiuri’s Suzuki for 11th place with six votes each.

Aikawa (C) and Tanaka (2B) both finished second in voting for their respective positions while Hatakeyama was third in the voting for first base, and Kawabata was fourth at short.

Tateyama and Ishikawa finished sixth and seventh, respectively, in voting for pitchers.

Below are the nine players selected for both the Central and Pacific Leagues.

Central League

Position	Name	Team	Times	Notes
P	Takuya Asao	Chunichi	1
C	Motonobu Tanishige	Chunichi	5	1998, 2006-07, 2009, 2011
1B	Kenta Kurihara	Hiroshima	3	2008-09, 2011
2B	Keiichi Hirano	Hanshin	2	2010-11
3B	Shinya Miyamoto	Tokyo	3 (9 total)	3B = 2009-11 SS = 1997, 1999-2003
SS	Takashi Toritani	Hanshin	1
OF	Hisayoshi Chono	Yomiuri	1
OF	Norichika Aoki	Tokyo	6	2006-11
OF	Yohei	Ohshima	1

Pacific League

Position	Name	Team	Times	Notes
P	Masahiro Tanaka	Tohoku (Rakuten)	1
C	Toru Hosokawa	Fukuoka (Softbank)	2	2008 (Saitama), 2011
1B	Hiroki Kokubo	Fukuoka	2	3B = 2010-11 2B = 1995 (Daiei)
2B	Yuichi Honda	Fukuoka	1
3B	Nobuhiro Matsuda	Fukuoka	1
SS	Hiroyuki Nakajima	Saitama (Seibu)	2	2008, 2011
OF	Yoshifumi Okada	Chiba (Lotte)	1
OF	Yoshio Itoi	Hokkaido (Nippon Ham)	3	2009-11
OF	Tomotaka Sakaguchi	Orix	4	2008-11

Click here to view the page in Japanese on NPB’s website.

Yomiuri Giants 2

Tokyo Swallows  3

Series: Swallows Lead 1-0

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Yomiuri	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	2	8	1
Tokyo	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	X	3	8	0
W: Muranaka L: Takagi S: Lim

Tokyo came from behind to down their beloved neighbours off the back of a Tateyama-Muranaka starter’s relay and, thank the lord of your choice, some timely hitting.

	Yomiuri		Tokyo
1	SS Sakamoto	1	LF Ueda
2	2B Terauchi	2	2B Tanaka
3	CF Chono	3	CF Aoki
4	C Abe	4	1B Hatakeyama
5	LF Ramirez	5	3B Miyamoto
6	1B Ogasawara	6	RF Balentien
7	RF Takahashi	7	SS Morioka
8	3B Furuki	8	C Aikawa
9	P Sawamura	9	P Tateyama

In a packed and buzzing Jingu it was Tateyama, not Ishikawa as expected, who took the mound to start the key game one of this best of three series. And he was made to work from the off as the pesky (no make that the completely f*cking annoying) Sakamoto battled eleven pitches before Tateyama got him to ground out to third. After striking out Terauchi for out number two, a single for Chono and a walk for Abe followed, but Swallows old-boy turned gurning Giants entertainer Ramirez grounded out to the pitcher to strand the two runners.

Sawamura on the other hand, had far less trouble sitting down Swallows batters early on, and it wasn’t until the third inning before they mustered a hit, via a single for Morioka.

And it was the Giants who got on the board first in the top of the 4th. With one out, Ramirez hit a pacey grounder to first, which the diving Hatake couldn’t quite come up with, meaning everyone’s favourite Venezuelan was safe at first. Ogasawara then singled to right, with Ramirez somehow managing to waddle his way to third, with him then somewhat questionably being called safe. Another single along the rightfield foul line followed for Takahashi, and it was 1-0 Yomiuri. With men again on the corners, Tateyama struck out Furuki to strand another pair of orange runners.

Miyamoto - key man

But Tokyo would tie things up in the bottom of the 5th. Back to back two-out singles for Morioka and Aikawa put two men on, and Jingu got a touch more anxious as Tateyama was sacrificed for Fujimoto. But, just as he did in the regular season closer against Hiroshima, he came up with the goods as he hit one back up the middle for a 1-1 scoreline.

With Tatayama now seated, it was Muranaka who got the call to try to pitch out the game, and he was in a word, immense. After giving up a single to get the 6th inning underway, he then sat down eleven men in order.

And he got himself a lead in the bottom of the 6th. Despite having thrown only 73 pitches, Sawamura was switched for Takagi. Which was good news for the Swallows, as if it was going to come down to a battle of the bullpens, then I’d put good money on ours vs their’s everytime. And my optimism was proved well-founded as Takagi allowed a one out single for Tanaka, and then Aoki got on board courtesy of a comical Ogasawara error at first. Takagi made way for the ultimate fugly, Nishimura, and he continued the theme by walking Hatake to load the bases.

Up stepped Miyamoto, and he hit a sacfly to centre, which was good enough to score Tanaka to give the Swallows a 2-1 lead. But Tokyo weren’t done yet, as with men on the corners Balentien hit a blooper, which just evaded Terauchi at second and made it 3-1 Tokyo.

And with Muranaka dominating on the mound, that lead never really looked threatened. And indeed, Kyohei came within one out of closing out the came, but a rather lucky swing for the pinch hitting Ohmura saw the ball just sneaking over the fence to the left of the scoreboard, and it was 3-2.

In came Lim to get Sakamoto to fly out to second, and that was good enough for a 3-2 Tokyo Final.

So then, a fairly comfortable win in the end for the Swallows, with the pitching of Tatayama (5IP/98P/6H/7K/2BB/1ER), and Muranaka (3.2IP/49P/2H/3K/0BB/1ER) giving the Swallows bats a platform to win. Which they did with some very uncharacteristic (for the month of October at least) timely hitting.

Muranaka and Miyamoto were selected for the post-game hero interviews, but by that point most of the Swallows supporting half of the stadium were likely too sozzled to listen to anything they had to say. Or perhaps it was just me.

Sunday’s game 2 starters are more than likely going to be Ishikawa for the Swallows, vs all around bitch-boy Utsumi for Yomiuri. Let’s hope we can make Utsumi cry like the bitch he is on the bench for the umpteenth time in his career.

Job done

The hits just keep on coming.

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 in Sunday’s podcast, but Araki has company at the hospital right now. The 24 year old, who was just brought up from the farm team on the 14th, is the latest in a string of injuries and illnesses to sting the left side of the Tokyo infield. Kawabata is out with a wrist injury, and it was announced last week that Keizo Kawashima had season-ending (and 2012 season-killing) elbow surgery.

That’s three shortstops down, so who’s left?

It looks like Morioka is the last man standing, so expect to see him starting next to the hobbled (two balky hamstrings) Miyamoto at third.

Oh, and according to the same Chunichi Sports article, no fewer than 16 Tokyo players have gone down with injuries or illnesses in 2011. It was mentioned that Aoki curbed the intensity of his workouts over the weekend due to back tightness. All of this may help Tokyo fans to recall a wave of influenza that washed over the team the only other time they made it to the Climax Series in 2009.

Wonderful.

What does all of this mean? Could rookie inflielder, Tetsuto Yamada, get a call-up and be grudgingly gifted his top team debut?

Well, the left side of the infield is now potentially far more porous than it was has been at any other time this season. Miyamoto can’t really play short with two injured legs (Ogawa has said as much), so you have Morioka, and then…Yamada or Fujimoto as a backup.

Yamada has had the better run of the two this season on the farm team. Yamada logged the most at-bats (409) on Tokyo’s minor league squad and hit .259/.320/.342. Fujimoto, on the other hand, has only had 111 at-bats. His top team experience could come in handy though, even if his defensive lapses at short are well-documented.

Losing Miyamoto for even a short period of time is also a cause for concern although it does seem like we have better cover on the corners. Hatakeyama has occasionally played third, and that could mean that Whitesell would see more time at first which is definitely a good thing.

Noguchi’s stock has also risen it seems, but he’ll likely still be second in line behind Takeuchi for defensive duties at first should it come to that. Here’s a quick question: has anyone ever seen alleged speedster, Noguchi, successfully steal a base? I’m only half being a smartass here.

It will also be interesting to see if Yoshimoto gets called up even though he’s been told that his contract will not be renewed next season.

As of the time of posting, the Yakult Swallows website has not been updated with any further information regarding player movements or other injury concerns. Check back here periodically after tonight’s regular season-ending game against the Hiroshima Carp for information on how the team reshapes itself before Saturday’s game one versus Yomiuri.

Tokyo Swallows 4

Hanshin Tigers 0

Streak: Won 2   Last 5: LLLWW

(Koshien)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	1	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	4	12	1
Hanshin	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
W: Tateyama (11-5/2.05) L: Messenger (12-7/2.88)

After huffing and puffing for a while, the CL’s most boring team finally clinched their second straight pennant in Yokohama with…..a 3-3 tie. How apt. For a while Tokyo’s championship hopes looked like they may live to see another day as the Baystars were leading against the Dragons while the Swallows were always in total control of their game, but a Blanco three run game-tying homer, and some comedy play from Yokohama allowed the team from Nagoya to eek out a draw that was good enough for the title.

But the Swallows win wasn’t in vain, as it secured second place in the CL, and thus a home playoff series against the Giants awaits. But after leading the CL for so long this year, it all feels a little underwhelming.

	Us		Them
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Hirano
2	LF Ueda	2	CF Shibata
3	2B Tanaka	3	SS Toritani
4	3B Hatakeyama	4	3B Arai
5	3B Miyamoto	5	1B Brazell
6	RF Balentien	6	RF Murton
7	SS Morioka	7	LF Shunsuke
8	C Aikawa	8	C Fujii
9	P Tateyama	9	P Messenger

Aikawa does the initial damage

Despite the Swallows recent terrible form against the Tigers, this was a game that in all truth they were expected to win, what with Hanshin now out of the playoff reckoning along with the fact that their current manager is entering his last few games in employment. Nevertheless, a lights-out complete game performance from starter Tateyama and some lively batting meant that Tokyo wrapped up their season series (10W-14L) with the B-class Tigers with aplomb .

Tokyo’s runs all came off Hanshin starter Messenger. In the 2nd, singles from Miyamoto and Balentien, a Morioka sacbunt and a sacfly to centre from Aikawa made it 1-0 Tokyo.

And Aikawa brought home the bacon again in the 4th, bringing home Balentien after Coco had reached second with a two-out double, 2-0 Tokyo.

The Swallows final runs came in the 5th. Two two-out singles for Hatake and Miyamoto put men on the corners for Balentien, and the big man hit his second double (and third hit) of the evening along the leftfield foul line to bring in a run for 3-0. Morioka then smacked one over the infield to right and the evening’s run scoring was complete, 4-0 Tokyo Final.

Tateyama won his first game in a month for his superb 9IP/105P/4H/4K0BB/0ER performance. It was his 7th complete game (3rd without a run, 4th without issuing a walk) of the season, and who knows how much better his 11-5 record would be if he’d received better run support/bullpen support throughout the year.

And Shohei’s performance combined with the 12 hit evening for the offence (Miyamoto and Balentien with 3 hits evenings, with Aoki the only starter apart from Tateyama to not register a hit) bodes well for the impending playoffs.

But before we get to those, two more games to go, against the Dragons away tomorrow, and then Hiroshima at home next Tuesday.

Tokyo Swallows 1

Hanshin Tigers 7

Streak: Lost 3    Last 5: LWLLL

(Kyocera Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	5	0
Hanshin	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	4	X	7	15	0
W: Messenger (12-5) L: Masubuchi (7-10)

Let’s not beat around the bush the Swallows lost, and the Dragons won their fifth straight game tonight. Which meant that the Swallows have relinquished their CL lead for the first time since May 30th, the last time the Dragons pulled ahead of the Swallows. The last time the Dragons had the CL lead it lasted 1 day before the Swallows rallied and ran with crown until tonight. So let’s look at the game…

	Swallows		Tigers
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Hirano
2	LF Fukuchi	2	CF Shibata
3	SS Kawabata	3	SS Toritani
4	3B Hatakeyama	4	3B Arai
5	1B Whitesell	5	1B Brazell
6	2B Tanaka	6	RF Murton
7	RF Balentien	7	LF Kanemoto
8	C Aikawa	8	C Fujii
9	P Masubuchi	9	P Messenger

In case you missed the Tweet last night, Miyamoto was held out of the last two games with pneumonia. Miyamoto is the third Swallows after Ishikawa and Kyuko to succumb to pneumonia in the last couple of weeks. Someone needs to go check for mold in the clubhouse. The absence of Miyamoto and offensive power gave Whitesell the start at first base, while Hatake manned third base. Unfortunately the results remained lackluster, to say the least.

Aoki did start things off with a double, and advanced to third on a Fukuchi bunt. But Kawabata and Hatakeyama weren’t able to get Aoki over the plate.

The Tigers on the other hand, got their first run after back-to-back one out singles by Shibata and Toritani put men on the corners in the bottom of the inning. Arai cashed in a run with a sac fly for the Tiger’s first run. 1-0 Tigers

The Tigers got another run in the next inning after Murton and Kanemoto opened the inning with back-to-back singles to put men on first and second. Fujii bunted them over to scoring position, and Messenger grounded out for out number 2. Unfortunately Masubuchi wasn’t able to coax another out from Hirano, who hit a grounder deep to short for an infield single to score Murton. 2-0 Tigers Luckily the Tigers let the Swallows off the hook after Kanemoto got caught in a run down to end the inning without further damage.

The Swallows got their only run in the third after Aoki got a one out triple, and a Fukuchi groundout brought him home. 2-1 Tigers

Masubuchi managed to settle down a little and kept the Tigers off the board for the next 3 innings. The Tigers struck again in the sixth when Brazell launched a solo shot into the left field stands. 3-1 Tigers Masubuchi ended the night with 2 consecutive strikeouts to end the inning, but the damage was already done.

With the Swallows offense failing to string together anything close to a rally, the game rested on the shoulders of the Swallows relievers to keep it close and hope that the offense would get it’s act together. Hidaka managed to get through the seventh inning in three batters, even though Hirano got on base via a two out infield single. The feisty Hirano got caught stealing soon after he reached base to end the seventh.

The Swallows handed the ball to Oshimoto for the eighth and things just went down hill from there. Oshimoto gave up 6 consecutive hits to the Tigers to start the inning, including a Brazell home run. In total 4 runs scored before Oshimoto got a double play and a ground out to end the inning. 7-1 Tigers

The offense never arrived and the Swallows went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game.

Despite giving up a bunch of hits (8 in total) in his 6 innings, Masubuchi looked relatively in control and didn’t give up a single walk. While certainly not the prettiest outting, it should have given a chance to the offense, which has been woefully lacking the last couple of days. The offense managed only 5 hits and drew 2 walks but conceded 3 sac bunts and 2 GIDPs, not pretty.

The Swallows look to begin their epic comeback tomorrow at home against the Carp.

Will the nightmare end? Is there light at the end of the tunnel?