Tigers season - why they were fourth.

With a new manager it is always difficult for Tigers to perform well in the first year but previous choices have managed to turn this around in their second year. So how has the much reviled Mayumi performed? This is actually not an easy question to answer and it relies on how he has handled the management task rather than his actual game handling. Taking the various aspects of the game one can see examples of short-sightedness which do not bode well for the future.

Pitching
Once again Tigers failed to develop their young pitchers and relied instead on old stagers. This proved to be a serious mistake with one or two bright spots. One of the bright spots was Nohmi - finally he showed his potential and pitched very well at times. At first he was his old nervous self but the coaches stuck with him and he began to blossom. Some of his pitching was pure brilliance and by the end of the season he was a confident starter with a winning record. Another bright spot was Kubo who came in a trade for Hashimoto from the fools at Lotte. How anyone can give up a pitcher of his quality for Hashimoto is one of the great unanswered questions of the year and after initial difficulties he started winning. Normally, Pacific League pitchers take a year to adjust to Central League conditions so his adjustment was excellent. Now the less bright spots - Andoh who had a decent year in 2008 but was over-pitched also returned as a starter. He wasn't so good this year and whilst he was with Kanoh performed OK but then went downhill when paired with Yano. The inability to get rid of superannuated and fading players would be a big problem for the Tigers. Shimoyanagi was clearly over the hill and even though Kanoh did well in guiding him he also deteriorated when paired with Yano. He did not figure in the final stages of the season and it would be too much to ask him back. Fukuhara was just terrible and one has to ask whether a role can be found for him. Iwata had a quiet year but is still one of the best pitchers Tigers have - most of the time he was sidelined by injury.
Mayumi's tactic was to ask the starting pitchers to go deep and not to rely so much on the relief. However, here he exhibited his greatest failing in a complete under-valuation of the relief. The way he and Kido treated their bullpen almost bordered on contempt and they were repaid by poor performances. Kubota, Watanabe and Abe ended up being unuseable and these three fine relief pitchers would have been very valuable. Egusa and Atchison were over-pitched and Egusa in particular showed signs of fatigue in the later stages of the season. The signing of Cheng was wasted as the coaches demonstrated a complete inability to use this potent pitcher at all. It was incompetence of the highest order. Tsutsui blossomed into a nice relief pitcher but even he fell prey to one of the more stupid experiments of the Mayumi regime - that of converting relief pitchers to starters. This had been tried in 2008 with ex-MLB pitchers (Atchison and Resop) and hadn't worked then. But we saw Abe, Tsutsui and Kubota tried as starters. None of them prospered, Kubota lasted one game and was clearly out of his depth and then disappeared for the rest of the season. Both Abe and Tsutsui lasted two games and whilst the latter bounced back, the former was shattered and also dropped down to the second team. Though this was also to hide the coaches embarrassment and trying such a stupid scheme. The thing was Tigers have a batch of young pitchers who should be in the first team, Ishikawa, Uezono and Kojima. They all appeared in one game and should have had more chances - it is better to give them experience than to destroy the bullpen. Another sign of the inability of the coaching team was their handling of Cheng. One of the most talented pitchers in Taiwan and the subject of much interest from MLB, Cheng signed to Tigers before the start of the season. Straight away the coaching team couldn't decide how to use him. He started three games and pitched very well but he was also used as a relief. In fact he would have made a fine starter and given that the lamentable Fukuhara was given many starts one can only shake ones head in wonder at the short sightedness and stupidity of the coaches. A lot of reliance was also placed on Williams who unfortunately continued his decline of the previous season. He eventually left for surgery in America mid-season though it is doubtful that this has happened and one must think that his playing days for Tigers are over. This creates a huge gap in Tigers relief and through the coaches messing up of the bullpen it is unlikely to be filled. Of course we saw the obligatory start for Sugiyama and whilst Tigers managed to dump some of their ineffective pitchers they retained him. He was as useless as ever. Kanemura converted to a relief pitcher and proved very effective - one can see him being a very useful addition to the bullpen as long as the coaches don't mess up. To be honest Tigers pitching choices were affected too much by prejudice. Kubo and Kido don't really know much about the pitchers they have and if they can persevere with Nohmi they can do so with others. Instead they went with old tired options and missed the chance to build one of the most exciting pitching lineups in Japan. Still one must say that this task is beyond them.

Catching
Here Tigers were lucky - Noguchi left to join the BayStars and Yano was injured so they had to rely on Kanoh. This was a stroke of luck as Kanoh was brilliant and imaginative. A real find his refreshing and varied approach saved many games for Tigers. His batting was reasonable though it does need to improve. More worrying was his understudy, Okazaki who proved to be one dimensional and not equipped for top team work. Initially, his pairing with Kubo prevented the latter from getting his first win. Shimizu would have been the better choice. Yano returned later in the season and wasn't improved. He pitched with the older pitchers and poor Andoh who rapidly built up a losing record with Yano (Kanoh/Andoh 6-6, Yano/Andoh 2-6). Kanoh though is the face of the future but Tigers need to bring Shimizu into the equation as well.

Batting
With Wada as batting coach Tigers under-performed. An inability to hit with runners on and over-conservative base running (something Mayumi was supposed to have cured) saw lots of opportunities wasted. The bombardment of Kawamoto (Swallows catcher) in the game of October 3rd showed what aggressive base running could accomplish but this was too rare. Tigers start wasn't good and in fact the coaches rapidly lost control and incurred the opposition of players. Kido was the main culprit here and Mayumi was too weak to resist him. Various disciplinary measures were tried such as benching Toritani and shifting Arai around but eventually higher management intervened and the coaching team had to work out a modus vivendi with the team. This led to a better performance after the All-Star break. I should stress that this breakdown was serious and one of the options canvassed by Sakai-owner was a mid-season replacement of Mayumi and his team. It was very close to being adopted.
The bright spots of the batting were Brazell and Asai. The former was signed mid-season to replace Kevin Mench. He was Tigers latest foreign signing to fail and fail miserably he did. He couldn't cope at all and in desperation Tigers turned to Brazell who had been dropped by Seibu the year before. This was a great move as Brazell hit and hit and ended up with 49 RBIs. Injury prevented him from getting more but he was a good signing. One wonders why Tigers did not sign him at the beginning of the season. Asai was also a bright spot. Originally he was a catcher and converted to an outfielder. At first a lightweight batter, he did have the distinction of being the first Tigers batter to drive in runs off Kroon he was a revalation this season. Hitting with power and confidence he changed the course of games and was a good leadoff. A pulled muscle brought an early end to the season for him and indicated that over-training was a problem for Tigers (other players also got injured like this).
Tigers clean up was disappointing, Kanemoto after an incredible start went into a three month slump and both Toritani and Arai revolted against the coaching team by not performing. Attempts to discipline them failed and only after the All-Star break did they perform as they should. Of the other potential clean up members, Katsuragi did not live up to his potential, Imaoka failed again and this must be his last season with the Tigers. Takahashi settled into the pinch hit role nicely.

Coaching
Mayumi failed as a kantoku - whilst harsh this judgement is appropriate. He needed to show foresight, understanding of the situation and a knowledge of his resources. He showed none of these. Several times his decisions smacked of panic and his reliance on Kido opened up a rift between him and the team. He failed to replace non-performing pitchers and despite his avowed intention to use young talent followed Kubo's prejudices. His experiments also failed, Fujimoto did not have the ability to become a regular and kept the more talented Hirano out of the side too long. Kido's management style put a lot of the team against him. Only when he was reigned in were Tigers able to play better and really he needs to be sacked. To be honest Mayumi needs to go now as his decision making shows that he hasn't learned from his mistakes. Tigers need new management to realise their potential and to bring on the young pitchers. More imagination and tactical knowledge is also required particularly in game direction.

Excellent summary Christopher, and excellent reporting all season as well. Let's hope the owners see sense and get rid of Mayumi- though in the crazy world of Japan and Japanese baseball, this seems unlikely.

Anyway thanks for your hard work- お疲れ様でした！

Stevesayskanpai

The Tigers seem to bounce back after bad years, so let's hope next year is the same. Obviously there are some issues to address, though. As you mentioned, I thought the key this year would be whether our young pitchers developed. Unfortunately, they weren't given the chance. We lost out on Miura last offseason, so hopefully we can make an addition this year. Is someone like Lewis from the Carp available?
It's hard to know what to expect from the hitting. We have a lot of capable hitters, but we were just dreadful in clutch situations. With Kanemoto losing his power, someone needs to pick up the slack. Hopefully Arai will finally live up to his potential. A healthy Akahoshi can also trigger the offense. Brazelle is definitely being invited back, right?
Well, I'll stop thinking about baseball for a while, as it looks like one of those horrible years where the Giants and Yankees might both be champions. Oh the humanity!

Lewis has indicated a wish to stay in Japan but with the Carp. If he isn't offered another contract it may be a possibility for the Tigers to sign him but I would like to see the development of the younger pitchers prioritized. Nohmi shows what can be done. As for clutch hitting the desire is to get Kataoka as batting coach. He has refused twice before so there is no guarantee he will join.

What's the news on Imaoka? I saw a headline with something about a "tryout," but didn't get to read the whole article.

Imaoka wants to continue playing baseball and particularly for Tigers and so is not going to retire. If Tigers don't offer him a contract he will take free agency and tryout with other teams.

Thanks for the the hard work this season Christopher. Without this blog I would not have had anywhere as much insight towards the Tigers. Writing reports from every Hanshin game is alot of work and I think you have done an oustanding job.

Better luck next season!!

Many thanks for you kind comments

In other words, I imagine Imaoka will be looking for work. Our infield is pretty set, with Toritani and Arai finishing strong and Brazelle coming back. Of course always good to have reserves, but I don't see Imaoka ever getting back to form. We should have traded him before and at least gotten something in return. To be fair, he has been given pretty limited chances to get back in form, so anything is possible.

Here I would disagree slightly. I would say that Imaoka has been given ample chance to get back into form. Somehow in 2005 someone managed to unlock the secret of Imaoka and made him into the super batter he was. No one else has managed to repeat this - Nomura when he was kantoku of Tigers used to say Imaoka was from Mars, it was impossible to ascertain what was going on in his mind. I agree that the trade should have happened earlier and I think that he should have gone to Nippon Ham in return for Micheal.

What ever happened to Resop? Why did he not get a chance to play at the top level? He was not thrown into games in the minors either. Guess he is not wanting to come back next season.

Resop returned to the US on August 7th suffering from pain in his right elbow. There were no plans to bring him back and at the moment one must consider him a victim of saving face for the coaches. I cannot recall him making an appearance in the first team at all this season.

christopher,

My thanks as well for your consistent effort to get the tigers news out to all of us, although this year it was more painful than usual. I am glad you came around to see how mayumi-san was a horrible hire. Lets hope the tiger management acts on this fact. We shall see.

The whole team needs to be revamped and many non-working parts need to go. As you mention pitching is first to be reset. Next hitting with Kanemoto, I hope, to retire. He will probably stay on and be a drag on the team next year. Imaoka? Goodbye. He is done.

Regarding the gaijin selection whoever is doing that needs to be fired and then shot. How can the dragons make such a spectacular find in Blanco and the tigers year and year only get misfits and misfires? Craig B. was a nice catch after the Mench failure but he is not a long term solution for the Tigers.

Since the YGs are now slotted to win it all, I am going to tune out NPB until next Spring. Maybe Ochiai will once again outfox Hara and his boatload of money players but its not likely this year.

> one of the options canvassed by Sakai-owner was a
> mid-season replacement of Mayumi and his team. It was
> very close to being adopted.

Too bad it wasn't.../._.\

Well, better luck next time, as they say...let's hope!

Meanwhile, huge THANKS for all your reports, man! You totally ROCK! ^___-

Just for the sake of superstition, I'll be optimistic. I say this because in recent years Hanshin has bounced back strong after poor years. This time, however, we have an aging team and an even stronger Giants team, so bouncing back could be tougher.

With regards to pitching, it's hard to say how next year looks. As Christopher and I complained about all year, the problem is we didn't give enough chances to our young pitchers. Having a bad year this year, it would have been good to test them more. The lone bright spot might have been Nohmi. I'll admit again I had wondered why they gave him another chance, but he proved many of us wrong. He was definitely our ace down the stretch. Other than that, it doesn't look good. Andoh was tired and ineffective down the stretch. We have to stop thinking of him as our ace and move him down to the middle or back of the rotation. Shimo-chan of course could be done. With his style of pitching (finesse over power) and his desire to play, he could still have some gas left in the tank. When Iwata came back from his injury, other teams had batting practice against him. After settling back in, however, he had some really strong starts. If he's healthy, he should be a solid starter next year. I think Kubo tired from a lack of run support and an adjustment to the CL. He could be a solid starter next year. After that, we again have a slew of young pitchers with potential. No need to go into detail about who they are. One final statement on pitching: if Fukuhara starts even one game next year, I vow to root for the Giants for the rest of the year!

Our bullpen had an up and down year. It's definitely not as strong as in the past, but still should be solid. Fujikawa isn't as invincible as he once was, but he's still a great closer. Atchison had a great year and can hopefully continue. The rest is a bit murky. Egusa had a decent year until some really bad pitching at the end. He always scares me with runners on base, but is usually good for a solid inning or two.

Our hitting is a mystery. We can hit, but we just can't hit when we need to. Things like that tend to change from year to year. Timely hitting is contagious. I'm not calling for Kanemoto to retire like some others are, but I think he needs to put his full inning streak to a rest. Just like at the end of Ripken's streak, it's actually hurting the team. Ball players over 40 need a day off now and then. He was still our home run king, but there's no reason why we need to keep him batting clean up. He didn't bat clean-up in Hoshino's first year, so it might be time for him to swallow his pride and move lower in the line-up. Arai finished strong this year, so hopefully he can finally have a full solid year as a Tiger. Toritani had a solid finish as well and can hopefully keep it up. Like most Tigers, however, he's a very streaky hitter. Akahoshi's health is important, as the Tigers tend to do well when he bats lead-off well. Sakurai finally impressed, so he should share right field platoon duties with Lin, not Katsuragi.

Anyway, enough rambling. I won't make any predictions, but just don't think we can do any worse than this year. I don't see us winning the pennant, but we should at least make the Climax Series, with or without Mayumi.

Just a clarification - Kanemoto didn't join Tigers until 2003, Hoshino's second year. He was part of the clean up (remember in Japan this is 3, 4, 5) batting third. Fourth is the 'position of honour' and he received this in 2004 when Okada took over at the helm. However, the point about moving him out of the clean up is well made.

People are being discrespectful to Aniki- he's a Tigers legend! I think he can pull himself out of this slump and give us another year, albeit maybe not in the number 4 slot. He's a walking, living legend and while Mayumi's been telling Sakai owner that the whole team needs revamping, if you ask me we have some fairly good hitters in there. Part of the reason they didn't perform last season is the coaching staff- the blame is shared, but Arai, Toritani, and Aniki are fundamentally good ball players.

this year kanemoto started strong and then faded, last year he started weak, got strong, and then faded. What is the common factor, the fade at the end. Granted he is a legend now and the heart of the team in many respects but he is getting too old to play daily. Smoking as he does not help either. I hope he has the good sense to see he is dragging the team down and either retire or take a more limited role on the team.

Here are Kanemoto's RBIs for 2008 and 2009 broken down into monthly amounts

              2008     2009
March           5        -
April          16       30
May            18       13
June           20        7
July           11       12
August         21        8
September      12       21
October         5        -
Totals        108       91

2008 shows a gradual increase until the slump in July but this only lasts a month and August is quite a good month. As zman notes he fades in September and October (though October was a short month). 2009 shows a prolonged slump after the spectacular start in April and this lasts 4 months. Kanemoto does revive in September with a nice month but then doesn't do anything in the October games. I would say this shows a fading player who is unable to maintain consistency over the season. He is not really in control of when he hits and thus misses the important chances. He can still make a big contribution but not as part of the clean up.

thanks christopher for the data to back up my recollection of this year and last for Kanemoto-san.

I think only he can decide to take a reduced role, the new coach (!) will not be able to bench him for fear of revolt from the fans. So if he can show true character and admit to himself that he is nearing the end of a terrific career, he can help the team immeasurably. If not, then he will go the route of so many former stars that simply embarrass themselves as they play beyond their productivity. The perfect example of this of course recently was Kiyohara, what a joke that turned out to be for him at Orix.