After a couple of weeks of feeling like there wasn’t much to write about, we’re back with another Monday review! This week we’ll cover the major roster moves made this week, well as go over all the retirement announcements made recently, and we’ll also spend a lot of time going over the stretch run from multiple view points.

Looking Back

Roster Moves: Due to injury and ineffectiveness our roster has been in flux recently. Muranaka was taken off the active roster on September 28 citing tightness in his throwing shoulder after a string of ineffective starts. Shichijo took his place on the roster, but lost it a day later after an ineffective start against the Tigers. Meanwhile Ishikawa and Kyuko both reportedly had fevers. Kyuko was taken off the active roster with Shichijo to get some rest, while Ishikawa missed his scheduled start but remained on the active roster. LHP Okamoto was brought up with the Kyuko/Shichijo demotion, but lost his top team spot on the 2nd in a major roster shake up. Okamoto, Tetsuya Yamamoto, Takeuchi, and Miwa lost their spot on the active roster in favor of Hitoshi Yamamoto, Kato, Hashimoto, Fukuchi, and Yuichi. One day later, Keizo Kawashima was taken off the active roster. The Swallows’ active roster currently stands at 26 men, which means that 2 spots are open for a call up. Kyuko and Muranaka would be eligible to return this upcoming weekend. Yoshinori was rumored to be coming back during the Swallows’ 9 game stretch in September, but subsequent rumors have mentioned that he would not be able to return during the regular season. Tony Barnette was supposed to be shut down for 3 weeks at the beginning of September, so he may be coming back soon, but there is no news on Tony’s present condition.

While the moves on the offensive side are mostly cosmetic since our starting core has been fairly established, the moves on the pitching side point to a team in flux. We’re starting to run out of quality starters and we’ll have to hand the ball to a group of younger unproven relievers if the starters can’t go deep. The absence of Kyuko and Barnette also puts a lot of pressure on the shoulders of Matsuoka and Oshimoto late in the game in key situations. Our current rotation is Tateyama, Masubuchi, Akagawa, Hitoshi Yamamoto (?), and Ishikawa (assuming he returns tomorrow). Not quite the rotation that got us here.

Retirement News: We’ve already covered the retirement announcement of Aaron Guiel, but two more Swallows announced their intention to retire after the season. Hirotoshi Ishii and Osamu Hamanaka will be retiring after the season.

Hirotoshi Ishii

Hirotoshi Ishii is a life-long Swallow that was drafted in the 4th round of the 1995 draft. Starting in 1999, Ishii started getting regular playing time as a lefty arm out of the bullpen. He had a breakout season in 2002 in which he appeared in a league high 69 games, and posted a 1.51 ERA with a 0.84 WHIP, on his way to be named Most Valuable Reliever. Ishii and Ryota Igarashi made up the duo ‘Rocket Boys’ as the top lefty/righty pair out of the bullpen after the departure of Shingo Takatsu in 2004. Beyond his play with the Swallows, Ishii has played for Japan in the 2004 Olympics and the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. Ishii had always expressed a strong desire to play in the Majors, but the team would not post him. The team initially promised to post him after the 2004 season, but reneged on the promise after the team changed managers in the off-season. The team finally promised to post Ishii after the 2006 season if he pitched one more full season. Unfortunately, Ishii injured his shoulder during that season and would not pitch at the top level again. Ishii has been rehabbing his shoulder ever since and has appeared in a handful of ni-gun games over the years. Ishii announced his decision to retire on the 29th and thanked the club for giving him the opportunity to try to return to baseball.

Osamu Hamanaka joined the Swallows prior to this season as a potential right handed bat off the bench. After a hot spring, Hamanaka was the team’s opening day stater in left field but lost the job to Hatakeyama after only 3 games. Hamanaka was drafted in 1996 by the Tigers and spent 11 years with the club before moving to the Orix Buffaloes in 2008. Since 2003, Hamanaka has been bothered by a right shoulder injury which has kept him out of the line up on and off for years. Hamanaka cited the injury and his inability to give it his all on the field as reasons for retiring after the season.

Quo Vadimus

The Schedule Up Ahead: The Swallows are about to start a stretch in which they will play 12 games in 12 days. Things will kick off at the Kyocera Dome tomorrow with a 3 game series against the Tigers, followed by a 3 game weekend series at Jingu. Then, the Swallows will travel to Nagoya for a critical 4 game series against the Dragons which may decide the pennant race. The marathon will cap off with a rain make up game against the Tigers at Jingu, followed by another make up game at Yokohama. After that insane stretch, the Swallows will get 2 days off before visiting Koshien for a game, and a game at Nagoya the next day. The Swallows will have 5 days rest before finally wrapping up their regular season with a home game at home.

Win Percentage Table: The final standing are calculated by winning percentage in which ties do not count, formula is W%=W/(144-T).. Therefore a team with 14 ties will have their winning percentage calculated out of 130 games, rather than 144 games.  Thus, with the season winding down, you can make a table of what the team’s win percentage will be depending on their record in the remaining games. Using the table you can see how you compare with other teams depending on their records. Thus we present the win percentage tables as of October 3rd for the top 4 teams in the Central League.

The first thing you may notice is that the Swallows have already guaranteed themselves a winning season. The table also illustrates the gulf that exists between the Swallows and the Tigers, meaning the Swallows’ place in the Climax series is quite safe. You can also use the table to figure out the minimum number of wins the team will need depending on how they do in a head to head. So if the Swallows take 4 out of 5 games from the Dragons, the Dragons would finish with a .5735 winning percentage if they win all their other games. Thus, the Swallows would need to go 5-5 in their other games to finish above the Dragons. Obviously, as games get played you can eliminate possible records and narrow the list of scenarios. If any teams tie the table will need to be reworked to lower the denominator.

Retirement Ceremony Scenarios: The team has traditionally used the last home game of the year to recall the retiring players to the top team to give them one last chance to play at Jingu and give the fans a chance to say goodbye. While imports have typically not received this kind of treatment, the team has hinted that they would try to work something out with Guiel in response to the outpouring of support by the fans. However, this year, depending on where we end up in the standings the team may not be able to afford removing an active player from the roster lest we lose their services for the beginning of the playoffs. Because players removed from the active roster cannot be re-added for 10 days, the team will have to know their playoff situation at least 10 days prior to their first Climax Series game (Oct. 29 for round 1, Nov. 2 for round 2).

Hoping for some more fun times!

Tokyo Swallows 4

Yokohama BayStars 3

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: WWLLW

(Yokohama Stadium)

After watching its young pitchers get knocked about the park for the past two days, Tokyo looked to salvage a bit of pride against the recently very feisty BayStars.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Tokyo	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	4	12	1
Yokohama	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	3	10	0
W: Hidaka (2-0) L: Takasaki (5-14) S: Lim (30)

	Tokyo		Yokohama
1	Aoki CF	1	Shimozono LF
2	Fukuchi LF	2	Watanabe SS
3	Kawabata SS	3	Tsutsugoh 1B
4	Hatakeyama 1B	4	Murata 3B
5	Balentien RF	5	Naito RF
6	Miyamoto 3B	6	Matsumoto CF
7	Tanaka 2B	7	Fujita 2B
8	Aikawa C	8	Hosoyamada C
9	Yamamoto P	9	Takasaki P

Tokyo opened the scoring on a solo Hatakeyama effort into the very top of the bleachers in left in the top of the fourth. His 23rd homer of the year made it 1-0 Tokyo.

But Yokohama answered in the bottom of the inning in the form of a Murata bomb into the visitor’s section. 1-1.

Straight pudding.

Then it was Tokyo’s turn. Aikawa’s second single in as many at-bats was followed by a Yamamoto sac bunt and an Aoki RBI double to put the Swallows back in front. 2-1 Tokyo.

But the home side replied once again. Watanabe’s two out infield single was later rewarded with an Aikawa throwing error when Watanabe was in the process of swiping second. Tsutsugoh then lofted one high off the wall in left for a double and the satisfaction of again leveling the score. 2-2.

Tokyo up again in the top of the sixth. After two outs from Hatakeyama and Balentien, Miyamoto, Tanaka and Aikawa showered left field with a double, a single and another double to plate two more runs and put the Swallows back in the lead. 4-2 Tokyo.

Yokohama didn’t answer for a while, but things got hairy in the bottom of the ninth with Lim on the mound trying to protecting the two run lead. After getting the first out on a pop fly to short, pinch-hitter, Aranami, fouled off most of what he saw and finally poked a grounder through the gap between short and third.

That was promptly followed by a soft Ide grounder to short that was a little too slow to be picked up and turned into an out. Shimozono then hit a fielder’s choice to short that very nearly became a game-ending 6-4-3 double play, but the throw to first didn’t make it in time, and the result was runners on the corners with two outs. Very unlucky for Lim, and bad news for Tokyo.

Watanabe then came to the plate representing the winning run. The 3-1 pitch is when he finally came through for the home team with a tricky one-hopper to Kawabata’s left. He got a glove on it, but couldn’t keep it in front of him, and Aranami scored from third. 3-2 Tokyo.

Runners on first and second, and Tsutsugoh at the plate. Tsutsugoh, who had already doubled twice off the wall in left, took a heavy swipe at the first high fastball he saw, and he  swung again at the next heater which was low and away. Both were fouled off behind him to temporarily put Lim in the driver’s seat.

But it wasn’t until Tsutsugoh had worked the count to 2-2 that Lim finally got a batter to swing at something in the dirt. This time it was a forkball, and the win was preserved. 3-2 Final.

Yamamoto (1-6; 3.96 ERA) didn’t figure in the final scoreline after throwing 90 pitches through four and two-thirds innings. He gave up two earned runs off of five hits and mixed in two strikeouts, four walks and a single wild pitch.

Instead, Hidaka got the win for his third of an inning and six pitches of work. It was his second win of the season, and his ERA budged slightly to 7.04.

Oshimoto (2.83 ERA) just barely held things together in the sixth before pitching a much more confident seventh, and Matsuoka (2.56) came through with a 1-2-3 inning in the eighth.

Lim recorded his 30th save of the 2011 season, and the one earned run pushed his ERA up to 2.25 through 59 appearances.

Tanaka, who was batting seventh for the first time in a long time, was selected as the hero of the game for his three hits and one RBI (the go-ahead run in the sixth). Aikawa had a similar day at the plate going 3-4 with an RBI of his own. Aoki and Kawabata also had multi-hit games with the former adding an RBI in the top of the fifth.

Tokyo have the day off tomorrow and will take on the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien from Tuesday to Thursday. They’ll be back at Jingu on Friday through Sunday for a three game series against the fifth place Hiroshima Carp.

Notes:

Thankfully the Swallows didn’t face pitching of the caliber that they saw on Friday. Yokohama’s Miura was his old self during that game. In this afternoon’s game, however, Tokyo faced friendlier pitching and outhit Yokohama 12-10.

Hatakeyama leads the league in RBIs (82) and walks (69).

Lim has reached the 30 save mark for the third time since joining Tokyo for the 2008 season.

Tanaka can be a good hitter when he doesn't have to bunt all the time.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/10/02/10211-yokohama-away/feed/ 0 http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/10/01/10111-yokohama-away/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=10111-yokohama-away http://tokyoswallows.com/2011/10/01/10111-yokohama-away/#comments Sat, 01 Oct 2011 14:05:52 +0000 Kozo http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=10787 October 1st, 2011

Tokyo Swallows 3

Yokohama BayStars 10

Streak: Lost 2   Last 5: WWWLL

(Yokohama Stadium)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	3	10	0
BayStars	0	0	0	1	2	3	1	3	X	10	14	0
WP: S. Ohara (4-1) LP: T. Yamamoto (0-1)

Things were not pretty as the Swallows’ young bullpen arms were exposed to the BayStars’ bats.

	Swallows		BayStars
1	CF Aoki	1	LF Shimozono
2	2B Tanaka	2	SS Watanabe
3	SS Kawabata	3	1B Tsutsugo
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	3B Murata
5	RF Balentien	5	RF Ikki
6	3B Miyamoto	6	CF Ide
7	LF Iihara	7	2B Fujita
8	C Aikawa	8	C Kurobane
9	P Akagawa	9	P Kobayashi

Akagawa seemed to have a handle of things in the early going. Even the solo homerun he gave up to Tsutsugo to open the bottom of the fourth didn’t seem too bad, as he followed up with back-to-back strikeouts and a quick fly out to end the inning. 1-0 BayStars What was more worrying was that the Swallows’ offense had been held hitless through 4 innings.

However just one inning later things went crazy for Akagawa. After getting a quick fly out from Fujita, Akagawa allowed a single to Kurobane to put men on base. The BayStars elected to bunt with their pitcher to make it 2 out with a man on second. The nightmare would begin as Akagawa lost a 8 pitch battle with Shimozono and walked the left fielder. Akagawa would then load the bases by plunking Watanabe after only 3 pitches. Akagawa’s day ended 4 pitches later after he walked Tsutsugo to push home a run. 2-0 BayStars Oshimoto came in for Akagawa, and couldn’t do much better than Akagawa, allowing a 5 pitch walk to Murata to bring home another run. 3-0 BayStars Oshimoto did manage to get the final out of the inning, but the damage was done.

The Swallows roared back the next inning with a rally. Aoki stated things off with a hard liner straight at the third baseman, but certainly made Kobayashi seem hittable. Hiroyasu followed with a single over the second baseman’s head. Kawabata dropped a single in front of the left fielder to make it 1 out with men on first and second. Kobayashi battled Hatakeyama for 8 pitches but lost as he walked Hatake to load the bases. After falling behind 2-1 to Balentien, the Curaçaoan punished a low fastball and sent it scorching to left field for a single that scored Tanaka and Kawabata. 3-2 BayStars Thus ended Kobayashi’s night and the BayStars sent Ejiri to the mound. Ejiri managed to jam Miyamoto on 2 pitches, but the veteran’s ball managed to bloop into right for a single to load the bases. Iihara followed with a high chopper to that the shortstop had no choice but to throw to first. Iihara managed to beat the throw despite sliding head-first into the bag. Meanwhile, Hatakeyama scored easily from third. 3-3 All Ejiri struck out Aikawa for out number 2, and the Swallows elected to send out Whitesell to the plate. The BayStars elected to send lefty Shinji Ohara to the plate, and the Swallows responded by replacing Whitesell with Fukukawa. While Whitesell’s .207 average against left-handers is low, Fukukawa did not seem like the ideal replacement. Looking through the available bench players and their lefty/righty split it would seem like left hander Morioka may have been the best choice, if we were intent on replacing Whitesell. Fukukawa struck out looking to end the inning and the threat for the Swallows.

The BayStars responded immediately with a surge of their own as Ide and Fujita opened the bottom of the inning with back-to-back singles against Tetsuya Yamamoto. A Kurobane bunt, and a Nakamura strikeout made it 2 out with men in scoring position for the ever dangerous Shimozono. Shimozono smoked a 1-1 offering down the right field line to score 2, and put himself on second. 5-3 BayStars Watanabe followed with a fly ball over the head of Aoki, who was playing shallow, to score Shimozono. 6-3 BayStars Hidaka came in and got the final out.

The Swallows got multiple runners in the seventh, eighth, and ninth but could not get them around to score. Meanwhile the BayStars got 1 extra run in the seventh off Kosuke Matsui, and 3 extra runs in the eighth off Okamoto and Ichiba. The details are not too relevant, the only thing you should know is that Hidaka’s one batter appearance was the only one of the night which did not allow an earned run or an inherited runner to score. Overall the Swallows pitchers allowed 20 H+BB+HBP, not a sexy night… 10-3 Baystars FINAL

The Dragons won their game against the Tigers to shrink the CL pennant race gap to 2 games. No word on the condition of Ishikawa, but Data Stadium is projecting a Hitoshi Yamamoto start from the Swallows in game 3 of this BayStars series in Yokohama. One can only hope that the pitching will get better or that the Swallows offense will better capitalize on the chances that the BayStars pitchers tend to give up.

Not a great day to be a Swallows' pitcher.

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 3

Streak: Lost 2  Last 5: WWTLL

(Nagoya Dome)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	F	H	E
Swallows	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	11	0
Chunichi	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	X	3	5	1
W: Yoshimi (15-3) L: Tateyama (10-3) S: Iwase (31)

The Swallows landed in Nagoya looking to create some distance between them and the second place Dragons. The Dragons, on the other hand, were playing their first game after learning of the impending departure of their strict but super successful manager. Both teams sent their ace to the mound with the Swallows starting Tateyama, and the Dragons starting Yoshimi.

	Swallows		Dragons
1	CF Aoki	1	2B Araki
2	2B Tanaka	2	SS Ibata
3	SS Kawabata	3	3B Morino
4	1B Hatakeyama	4	1B Blanco
5	LF Takeuchi	5	C Tanishige
6	3B Miyamoto	6	LF T. Donoue
7	RF Balentien	7	RF Hirata
8	C Aikawa	8	CF Oshima
9	P Tateyama	9	P Yoshimi

The Swallows started things off with an Aoki single, and a Tanaka bunt over to second. With 52 sac bunts Hiroyasu is slowly, but surely, approaching Miyamoto’s NPB record of 67 sac bunts in a season. Kawabata was walked to bring Hatakeyama up to bat with one out with men on first and second. Hatake did his job by working the count full by fouling off 7 pitches, getting a pitch to hit, and sending that pitch into left field to score Aoki for the go ahead run. 1-0 Swallows Takeuchi DIDN’T do his job grounding out to Yoshimi for a 1-6-3 after battling for 8 pitches.

The Swallows got another chance in the third after Tanaka, Kawabata, and Hatake got consecutive 2 out singles to load the bases. Unfortunately, Takeuchi wasn’t able to deliver the key blow and the Swallows couldn’t extend their lead.

Meanwhile, Tateyama was having an uncharacteristically shaky night on the mound. While the ace had a no hitter going through 5 innings, he had allowed a decidedly un-Tateyama like 3 walks through those innings. Things finally came to a head in the sixth inning. Things started ominously with a lead off walk to Araki on 4 straight pitches. Ibata bunted Araki over to second for the first out. It looked like Tateyama would be able to work his way out of the jam after he got Morino to pop out to Hiroyasu for out number 2. But after falling behind early to Blanco, the Dominican ended Tateyama’s no-hitter with a sharp line drive single to left to score Araki. 1-1 All Tanishige followed with a double off the center field wall to score Blanco and put the Dragons ahead. 2-1 Dragons The Dragons managed to end Tateyama’s night once Donoue followed Tanishige with a RBI single. 3-1 Swallows Oshimoto came in for Tateyama and ended up loading the bases with an infield hit by Hirata and a walk to Oshima, but he managed to get the job done against Yoshimi, inducing a ground out.

The Swallows got hits in both the seventh and eighth but couldn’t take back the lead. Matsuoka and Tetsuya Yamamoto pitched the seventh and eighth, respectively and managed to keep the Dragons off the board despite allowing multiple runners in their respective innings.

It came down to the ninth inning, with the Dragons sending out Iwase to close the game. Miyamoto struck out for out number 1. But Balentien and Aikawa hit back-to-back singles to give hope to the good guys. Keizo Kawashima wasn’t able to follow with a hit, but did manage to move Balentien to third with a fielder’s choice to first. Balentien scored after Aoki singled to center. 3-2 Dragons With two out and men on first and second Hiroyasu sent a 1-0 pitch to straight away center but Oshima was able to track the hit for the final out.

Notes

• The win puts the Dragons within 3.5 games of the Swallows with 3 more games left to play in the series.
• The Swallows outhit the Dragons 11-5, but allowed 8 total walks to the Dragons. The Dragons only allowed 1 walk.
• The Dragons have now won their last 3 games.

Tateyama had a rough night on the mound.

Yokohama BayStars 4

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1  Last 5: WWWTL

(Jingu Stadium)

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A ninth-inning rally wasn’t quite enough to stop the outhit Swallows from losing for the first time since September 4th and closing their longest unbeaten streak in over a year.

	Yokohama		Tokyo
1	Aranami (CF)	1	Aoki (CF)
2	Ishikawa (SS)	2	Tanaka (2B)
3	Shimozono (LF)	3	Kawabata (SS)
4	Murata (3B)	4	Hatakeyama (1B)
5	Tsutsugo (1B)	5	Takeuchi (LF)
6	Kinjoh (RF)	6	Miyamoto (3B)
7	Fujita (2B)	7	Balentien (RF)
8	Honyamada (C)	8	Aikawa (C)
9	Takasaki (P)	9	Masubuchi (P)

Lots of Ks, but lots of runs.

Masubuchi started off fairly well. Three strike-outs in the first inning, tempered by a triple. Things continued in that vein until the top of the fourth, when, with one out, he gave up a solo home run to Murata. He remained shaky, but no more runs scored. 1-0 Yokohama.

Things got worse in the fifth. Takasaki, the pitcher, hit a deep single to center, then got nabbed on the way to second, leaving Aranami on first to be moved over by an Ishikawa single. Shimozono was then walked to load the bases.

Would Masubuchi get out of it safely? Of course not. He beaned Murata to bring in a run and keep the bases loaded with one out. Tsutsugo then hit a successful sac fly for another run. Kinjoh followed that with an RBI single. 4-0 Yokohama.

Yamamoto took the mound for Tokyo in the sixth, Matsui then seventh and eighth, and Hidaka the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, a rally. Takasaki was still on the mound for Yokohama, having thrown eight shut-out innings with only two hits. Aikawa got things going with a line drive single. With two outs, Tanaka hit an RBI line drive single himself. Kawabata then walked and Hatake got lucky with a Fujita error and Tanaka made it home, leading to a 4-2 Yokohama, Final.

Revenge and dignity to be sought tomorrow against Yokohama, at Jingu.

The Swallows were part of that huge scrum looking to snap up Yusei Kikuchi, but they lost out (Seibu’s manager, Watanabe, chose the winning envelope) on the chance to negotiate with the high school phenom and were thus forced to make more conservative picks.

In the first round of the amateur draft, which now includes players from high school, college, and the industrial league, the Swallows selected Masato Nakazawa. Nakazawa is a 24-year-old left-handed pitcher from Toyota’s industrial league team that could be a contender for a starting rotation slot next season. He will be 25 when the 2010 campaign kicks off, and he’ll hopefully be flexing his fastball-slider combo on the first team. He apparently has a fastball that tops out in the mid 140′s.

Before signing with Toyota, Nakazawa played at Chuo University, and he is listed on the Yakult website as being 179 cm tall and 80 kg on the scales.

The Swallows used their second round draft pick to select another pitcher out of the industrial league, this time it was right-handed pitcher Tetsuya Yamamoto who plays for Mitsubishi Kobe. Tokyo is hoping that Yamamoto can get into the mix for a spot on the first team bullpen or maybe even some time on the starting rotation. Also 24 years old, Yamamoto is listed as being 179 cm tall and weighing 74 kg.

Tokyo was able to resist drafting a high school player for yet another round when they chose Takahiro Araki (IF) in the third. The 22-year-old right-handed player will be joining the team after he graduates from Kinki University in the spring, and many will be watching to see if he can join the platoon of infielders that are looking to allow Miyamoto to ease into his upcoming managerial career.

The fourth round was when Tokyo finally swooped for a high school pitcher. They chose Ryo Hirai (18 years old) out of Teikyo 5th High School. Hirai is a thin, six-feet-tall right-handed pitcher who can reach 145 kph with his fastball.

21-year-old outfielder, Jun Matsui, was invited to join the Swallows in the fifth round. He played baseball for Nihon University Junior College, and he apparently possesses both speed and power.

Tokyo also snared two players in the ikusei draft:

Maike Magario joins the team straight out of Aomori Yamada High School. The 18-year-old outflielder (R/R) spent his early years in Brazil (much like veteran Yuichi Matsumoto).

The Swallows’ final pick of the draft was Tomofumi Aso, an infielder from Nihon University Junior College (along with Matsui above). The 22-year-old hits and throws righty.