The Mench Endgame

Kevin Mench has been deregistered with effect from 18th. Brought back to the top team for the Yakult series he showed no improvement and had no hits. Tigers are already searching for replacements though swine flu is hampering this search. It is unlikely that Mench will be with Tigers for the rest of the season and will certainly be gone by the end of the season. Unfortunately, he could not adjust to Japanese conditions at all. He played in 15 games with 54 at bats. From these he generated 8 hits (seven to left and one to centre) and 2 runs with no home runs. His batting average was .148 and Tigers management no longer have any patience with foreign players who don't deliver.

Kojima was also dropped which is unfortunate as he pitched quite well. However, this is to make room for Kubota and Iwata who are being brought into the top team for the koryu-sen. He has done enough to be given more of a run.

Good bye Mench! Too bad though. I liked his "theme song" What is it with Hanshin and imports? So it cost Hanshin 1.8-oku to get this guy. The little I saw of him play, he seemed disillusioned. Been terrible to put it mildly. Both fielding and batting. Plus he also had some health issues on top of that. Weird how some people are able to readjust just fine yet others completely fail and the ones in Hanshin almost always seem to fail. The last solid foreign import directly from the States I think was O'Malley?

Yes it was O'Malley. After him they have had a long succession of failures and OK players and their successes have come from the players imported from other teams.

Not sad to see Mench go down again, but Kojima was a surprise after pitching decently in his one start. Wasn't Chen sent down as well?

Sayonara Menchi. Iwata and Kubota are welcome additions. What do you think of Kubota being made a starter?

As I mentioned before Kubota did pitch one game as a starter and was quite proficient. But to be honest I would prefer to see other younger starters being developed. I want to see more effort made with Cheng and with Kojima. Both these pitchers are too talented to be left in ni-gun.

Any word on when Brazelle is officially joining the Tigers?

No there's nothing yet.