Semi-official injury count for the month of February at the Tokyo Swallows spring camp: 11 players missed all or part of at least one day of practice. In detail, that works out to six pitchers, four catchers, and one infielder. Go, go Swallows!
While the six injured pitchers may set off the loudest alarm for some [...]
Our beloved Hirotoshi Ishii, who many hope will experience a resurgence this season, hit a major stumbling block when he cut the hell out of the big toe on his right foot while working out in the pool.
As Dave recently noted, Ishii has been out of action for several years and will hopefully be enacting [...]
It’s the first day of spring camp, and the birds have flown south to Okinawa to open a couple weeks of “no pain, no gain” training sessions.
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 [...]
Things finally got worked out behind the scenes, and thankfully D’Antona will be swinging the bat for the birds again in 2010.
He reportedly signed a two-year deal that will see him taking home 73 million yen this year (plus incentives).
The deal includes a club option for the second year.
Phew! Glad that’s settled.
Welcome back, Jamie!
Tsubamegun wishes [...]
The Tokyo Swallows reported that they have signed 26-year-old Tony Barnette, formerly of the Arizona Diamondbacks organization, to a one year deal worth four hundred thousand dollars plus incentives (just shy of forty million yen).
Barnette, a right-handed pitcher who will be wearing number 64, spent all of 2009 with Arizona’s triple-A outfit, the Reno Aces. [...]
Rumored to be able to throw 160 kph (100 mph), Eulogio De La Cruz was released by the San Diego Padres in the middle of last week, and has now signed for 15 million yen (plus incentives) with the Tokyo Swallows.
The 25-year-old RHP hails from the Dominican Republic and made his last major league appearance [...]
It was reported that Ryota Igarashi, long-time set-up and closer out of the Tokyo bullpen, will be spending the winter training in the United States as he works through the process of signing with a team there.
A couple of teams have apparently
The birds made a few new acquisitions back on the 29th of October, and at least one of those picks (a left-handed pitcher out of the industrial leagues) looks like he could make an immediate contribution to the team.
The Swallows were part of that huge scrum looking to snap up Yusei Kikuchi, but they lost [...]
Aoki’s surgery was successfully completed yesterday at a hospital in Tokyo. Aoki had surgery on both of his ankles to remove small pieces of bone.
It was reported that he should be able to leave the hospital within a week.
October 19th, 2009
Tokyo Swallows 4
Chunichi Dragons 7
Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
Chunichi was definitely the better team today, but they should never forget that they had the flu and a little bit of Takada on their side. Either way, the season came to an end for the Swallows while the Dragons now inherit the unenviable task [...]
