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.

Ueda had another great year at ni-gun.

Before spending a good deal of time on the top team toward the end of the 2011 season, Tsuyoshi Ueda had himself a very strong season on the farm team. Number 50, who turned 23 in October and grew up in Okayama Prefecture, stole 55 bases this year to easily win the Eastern League crown.

He also hit .281/.373/.355 in 349 official at-bats while collecting 98 hits and 37 RBI.

In addition to winning the stolen bases crown, Tokyo’s utility outfielder was selected as one of the two best players in the minors this season. The award in question is the “Doryokushou” which can loosely be compared to a MVP award for players that weren’t good enough (or liked enough) to break into the top team for any extended period of time.

The other recipient of the Doryokushou was Hanshin’s RHP, Kai-wen Chen. Hanshin plays in the Western League in the minors.

For the record, Ueda was able to steal a few bases during his limited time playing on the top team. He only featured in 12 games, but he stole six bases and hit .267/.333/.300 in his 30 at-bats.

Ueda told reporters at the awards ceremony today in Tokyo that he worked hard on his lower body during the off-season and that made a big difference in terms of his explosiveness this season. Ueda figures to be a front-runner for the opening-day job in center if Aoki is posted successfully to MLB during the off-season.

For complete details on the farm team awards handed out today, check this post over at Yakyu Baka.

We need to officially change the name of this column, since it’s not Monday and I don’t want to be limited by the title. It’s something we’ll have to work on in the offseason. In the meantime, I’ll be giving you some news updates and roster analysis to mull over before the start of the Climax Series next Saturday.

Senryokugai Players: Earlier this month the Swallows announced that 8 players will be cut by the team at the end of the season. The players are LHP Masaru Sato, RHP Shun Takaichi, RHP Hiromitsu Takagi, RHP Masahiro Yoshikawa, LHP Naoya Okamoto, C Atsushi Kinugawa, INF Ryo Yoshimoto, and OF Toshihiro Nakao. Of the listed players, Kinugawa will be given a front office position with the team, and many of the other players were undecided as to what they wanted to do in the future. No major surprises here, and we wish all these players the best in their future endeavors.

Potential Roster Moves: The Swallows have been going crazy with roster moves since the last Monday Review, and we won’t be going over them all. Instead, we’ll be examining where certain players are now and how our post-season roster is shaping up. As of today the Swallows only have 23 players out of a possible 28 on their active roster. Any player removed from the active roster on or before the 19th would be eligible to return in time for Game 1 of the Climax series on the 29th. Among the players not on the active roster who may get recalled in the playoffs are Ishikawa, Kawabata, Whitesell, Kyuko, Barnette, Muranaka, Yoshinori, Shichijo, and Iihara. I’ll give a quick update on the status of each player.

• Ishikawa was removed from the active roster on the 19th, and he should be expected to return on the 29th. Many outlets are now reporting that Ishikawa will be the Swallows’ game 1 starter, and that he may throw in a Phoenix League (fall league) game as warm up. The chances of Ishikawa NOT getting recalled seems slim to none at this point.
• Kawabata was removed from active roster at the same time as Ishikawa. Apparently he had been feeling pain in his left wrist since a game against Hiroshima in September, and was taken off the active roster for that reason. The pains may have been what contributed to his 5-for-45 batting in October. He’s said he’ll be aiming to return in time for the CS, but the status of his health is concerning.
• Whitesell was taken off the roster with right flank pains on the 9th. But there have been no other reports as to his status since. Obviously having Whitesell’s bat on the bench would be a big help to a team struggling to get its offense going.
• Kyuko returned to the team on the 11th, but had a couple of rocky outings (2.1 IP, 5 ER, in 3 appearances) and was taken of the active roster on the 20th. No word as to whether Kyuko is injured and whether he can be expected back for the playoffs. Since Kyuko was taken off the active roster on the 20th, he would only be eligible to return for Game 2 of the first round.
• Barnette’s case is even more mysterious than Kyuko’s case. Barnette was recalled to the active roster at the same time as Kyuko but was taken off the roster 3 days later without ever getting into a game. Barnette has not pitched in a first team game since September 3, and hasn’t pitched in ni-gun games as far as I can see. No details have been released as to Barnette’s condition. Like Kyuko, we’d love to have a prime Barnette back for the playoffs, but it would be a concern if he takes the mound for the first time in the CS.
• Muranaka was taken off the active roster on the 15th after pitching ineffectively on the 14th. Muranaka is healthy as far as we know, so I’d expect him back on the roster for the playoffs.
• The current word on Yoshinori is that he could potentially return if the team makes it to the Nippon Series, but not any sooner.
• Shichijo was demoted from the team after a series of rough outings in late September, but would be available to the team unless he has a hidden injury. He was not on the initial Phoenix League roster so he may be rusty if he were to join the team.
• Finally Iihara would be available to the team if he is needed.

As you can see from the above list our team has been suffering through injury and our roster is somewhat in flux and other players have not been able to fill in the gap. As reported earlier by Chris, Keizo Kawashima will not be able available to the team as he underwent ligament surgery (possibly Tommy John surgery?) on his right elbow and will be out for a whole year.

Left Field: One of the first topics I ever handled on the Monday Review was our left field situation. At the time, the solution was putting Hatake in left, and that worked for a while. However, the big man’s defensive inability in left combined with some cooling off by Whitesell led to a re-opening of the hole in left. The team has tried Iihara, Ueda, and Fukuchi over the last month. While all of them are more than adequate replacements in left field they haven’t been able to make up for the offense lost by having Whitesell come off the bench. It seems the team has settled on Ueda for the stretch run.

Have we settled on a left fielder for the playoffs?

2011 Draft: The 2011 Draft will occur on the 27th. I will be posting a draft preview sometime next week. Let me know if there are any players you’d like me to cover.

Retirement Game: Our last game is on Tuesday, and as predicted in the last Monday Review, the final game will be a retirement game. Hirotoshi Ishii will be given an opportunity to pitch in one last pro game prior to his retirement. There were no comments in regards to Hamanaka and Guiel, but it seems those players will not be coming into the game.

I Want Love: As mentioned by Chris and Dave in their last podcast, I”m in need to love and feedback for this column. Let me know if you like this column and if there’s anything I can do to make it better.

The Swallows were facing Lions’ starter Hsu, and all the scoring in the first 5 innings came by way of the solo homer. Kataoka led off the top of the 1st with a solo shot for 1-0 Saitama before the red-hot Aikawa evened things up in the 2nd (no.3 for the year) for 1-1. And the scores remained tied until the 5th when firstbaseman Hirao joined in the party with a homer of his own to put Seibu ahead 2-1.

The wheels started to fall off for Ishikawa in the 6th, as he gave up a double followed by two singles which put the scores at 3-1. That was it for Masanori as he was replaced by Ryo Kawashima from the bullpen, with men on first and second and no outs on the board. He got Takayama to hit into a double play which left a runner on third, a runner who eventually made it home from a GG Sato single which made it 4-1 Saitama.

Tokyo pulled two back in the 7th, with an Aikawa walk, a Miyamoto single being followed up by a sac bunt from Fujimoto, which set the table for pinch hitter Ueda who hit a two-run double to make it 4-3.

Only a single and a Hosokawa homerun off Oshimoto in the 8th put the lead back at three as the Lions made it 6-3.

The Swallows stranded two in the 8th before a late rally in the 9th. A two-run homer from Aaron Guiel (no.15 for 2010) pulled them back into touching distance of the Lions, but they would come up just short as the game ended 6-5 Saitama Final.

Ishikawa took his first loss since May 4th (since when he’s had a ND, ND, Win) to put his record at 1-7/4.29.

So then, that long overdue series win will have to wait, but the way the Swallows fought right to the last this afternoon perhaps wouldn’t have happened last month. Things are certainly moving in the right direction, and given the kind of season that it’s been so far, that’s a very good thing.

They’ll be facing the Chiba Lotte Marines at Jingu for two games starting tomorrow afternoon.

May 1st, 2010

Yokohama BayStars 3

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Streak: Won 1   Last 5: LLLLW

(Meiji Jingu Stadium)

Bizarre game. Just plain weird.

This was one of those games where Takada made a whole bunch of stupid decisions but things kept working in the team’s favor and he ended up looking like he knew what he was doing.

1. Ueda 3B
2. Morioka 2B
3. Aoki CF
4. Guiel RF
5. Iihara LF
6. Takeuchi 1B
7. Fujimoto SS
8. Aikawa C
9. Nakazawa P

Wallowing in a five game losing streak, Takada made his first interesting move of the day by not starting Tanaka or Miyamoto. Maybe they needed the day off, but unless there was a health concern involved, it’s pretty hard to justify keeping Tanaka out of the lineup. He’s the second most productive and consistent bat on the team after Aoki, so he’s one of the last people that should be benched when the team is trying to climb out of a rut.

Anyway, the Stars went up by a run in the top of the first care of a Murata single that plated Ishikawa from second. 1-0 visitors.

But Ueda, Miyamoto’s replacement, vindicated Takada by slapping the first pitch he saw into right field. Morioka, Tanaka’s replacement, followed by faithfully and effectively Tak-bunting Ueda into scoring position.

The value of the bunt was then mostly negated when Aoki took a low pitch in the leg, and Guiel moved the runners over to second and third with a ground ball to first, and Iihara made Takada look good by doubling and bringing both runners home in the process. 2-1 Tokyo.

The silly moves continued in the bottom of the second with the birds still up by a run when Aikawa Tak-bunted Fujimoto over to second after the latter had drawn a walk. Some might argue that that’s not the wisest move considering that Nakazawa, our pitcher, was waiting in the on-deck circle.

But Takada was gifted yet another ‘get out of jail free’ card when Nakazawa, who is admittedly not too shabby swinging a club, controlled the strike zone beautifully and drew a walk. But no runs scored of course.

Tokyo added three runs in the third with a little help from the Yokohama defense. Aoki reached first on a fielding error by the pitcher, and both he and Takeuchi were sent home on Fujimoto’s double to the corner in right. Shiroishi (our illustrious third base coach) probably shouldn’t have sent Takeuchi home as the ball arrived at the plate well before Takeuchi did. In fact, Takeuchi was so surprised at how easily he was about to be thrown out that he stopped running halfway between third and home.

And then the catcher forgot to catch the ball. Takeuchi safe at home despite looking like a total ass for a second there. Fujimoto later scored on Aikawa’s double to left. 5-1 Tokyo.

One more Tak-bunt was employed in the fourth even though the team was up by four runs at that point. Ueda again led off with a single, and Morioka dutifully moved him over to second. Aoki followed that with a single before Iihara took yet another HBP to load the bases with two outs.

But then Takada did another silly thing. He replaced the red-hot Takeuchi with the decidedly yawn-worthy Kinugawa to deal with the lefty (Takamiya) on the mound. Perhaps Takeuchi was being punished for not charging hard for home in the last inning, but whatever the reason, Kinugawa flied out to right to strand all three runners.

There was a little bit of excitement in the bottom of the fifth when the birds again threatened to score. Yet another fielding error allowed Fujimoto to reach first, and he was allegedly thrown out at home when he tried to score on Aikawa’s double. Fujimoto disagreed with the call and bounced up off the ground to shove the ump. In the neck. Hard. He got tossed, Takada came out to do his stoic little angry grandpa deal, and Yokohama ultimately escaped from the inning without giving up any more runs.

Nakazawa gave up one more run in the top of the seventh, and D’Antona had his first hit in quite a while pinch-hitting for the pitcher with two outs in the bottom of that frame. 5-2 Tokyo.

And things got really interesting in the top of the ninth with Lim on the mound in his first save situation in what must have felt like months. He walked the first batter he faced before getting the first out on a pop fly to a hard-charging Guiel in right. He then beaned Ishikawa to bring up the always dangerous Uchikawa who had already hit a pair of doubles earlier in the game. He connected again, this time for a single, to load the bases with one out.

Lim got the second out when he struck Murata out swinging, but then Sledge won a very hard-fought duel by drawing a walk and bouncing in a run. 5-3 Tokyo.

And at that point Takada had Matsuoka (he’s been crap recently) start warming up in the bullpen. Great idea, coach.

Anyway, Lim eventually prevailed when he struck out Castillo to end the game and prevent about 100 severe heart attacks in the right field bleachers.

The win is the first for Tokyo since April 23rd (against the BayStars) when Nakazawa last pitched. Nakazawa (3-0, 1.61) gave up two earned runs off of nine hits while striking out three and walking none. Oshimoto (1-1, 0.79) pitched a scoreless eighth, and Lim (1.13) earned his sixth save of the year.

Aikawa stepped out of character on offense and had a 2-3 day with two doubles and a single RBI.

In the end, this wasn’t a pretty win, but we’ll take it.

Takada Count: 3

Random notes:

Nakazawa gave up five doubles in his seven innings on the mound.

There were nine doubles in this game–Tokyo had four.

Iihara leads the league in HBP with 7.

Nakazawa leads the team with three wins.

]]> http://tokyoswallows.com/2010/05/01/5110-yokohama-home/feed/ 6 http://tokyoswallows.com/2009/08/27/tokyo-roster-update-82709/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=tokyo-roster-update-82709 http://tokyoswallows.com/2009/08/27/tokyo-roster-update-82709/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 04:18:55 +0000 Christopher Pellegrini http://tokyoswallows.com/?p=4671 This post contains player movements from two separate days.

A couple of days ago, Shinya Miyamoto (no. 6), Tokyo’s veteran infielder, was brought back up to the first team after some rehabilitation of his left leg.

Miyamoto played an important role in Tuesday’s series-opening win against the Hiroshima Carp, and his return to the team is a key component of the team’s stability.

Making space on the top team was outfielder Tsuyoshi Ueda (no. 50) who was just added to the top team this past weekend.

Also reappearing on the top team was starting pitcher Ryo Kawashima (no. 17) who was sent down last month as a penalty for his enduring mediocrity.

The readjustment time on the farm team didn’t help very much–Ryo got destroyed in last night’s game. Come to think of it, his numbers on the farm team weren’t exactly indicative of success. In five appearances since his demotion on July 18th, he went 0-3 with a 4.09 ERA.

Departing for the minors was infielder Yusuke Kajimoto (no. 39) who went 1-6 in his six games with the top club.

Here’s what the first team roster looks like as of yesterday’s game:

Pitchers: Yoshinori, Lim, Tateyama, Ishikawa, Matsuoka, Yuuki, Ryo Kawashima, Kida, Matsui, Takagi, Lee, Igarashi, Oshimoto

Catchers: Aikawa, Yoneno, Kawamoto

Infielders: Keizo Kawashima, Miyamoto, Yoshimoto, Tanaka, Hatakeyama, Noguchi

Outfielders: Fukuchi, Guiel, Takeuchi, Iihara, Aoki, Shida

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Chunichi Dragons 3

Streak: Won 1 Last 5: W
(Chatan)

The NPB pre-season games kicked off today, and not a moment too soon for many of us! Tokyo’s first game of the pre-season schedule, which stretches until March 29th, was against the Chunichi Dragons.

As is often the case in pre-season games, a lot of players made an appearance today. With the bat, Aaron Guiel, Yasushi Iihara and Ryuji Miyade had multi-hit games. Iihara and Miyade both had three hits each while notching one and two rbi’s, respectively (Miyade had rbi singles in both the 2nd and 6th innings). Both Tsuyoshi Ueda and Yuuichi Matsumoto hit home runs.

On the mound, Shouhei Tateyama started and was credited with the win on two innings of work.

He was followed by Shun Takaichi who pitched four innings (three strikeouts). Chunichi scored one run in the sixth, but Takaichi was not tagged with that run.

Chang-yong Lim came on for the first two outs of the seventh, and Takashi Maruyama was brought on for the last out of that frame.

Takehiko Oshimoto gave up a two run homer during his 17-pitch eighth inning.

Kenichi Matsuoka pitched, and closed out, the ninth without allowing any more runs to score. He was credited with a save.

Bright spots for Chunichi included Fujii who had three singles and played all three positions in the outfield. Also, Nishikawa had a pinch hit two-run homer off of Oshimoto in the eighth. Chunichi starter, Kawai, gave up one run in five innings of work while taking the loss.

Tokyo’s next pre-season game is tomorrow versus Yokohama down on one of this archipelago’s warmer islands.