Kanoh to the outfield?

Yes this is one of the options that is apparently being discussed after the unnecessary signing of Johjima. Mayumi wants to use his hitting and stealing ability regularly and has come up with this scheme to do so. Given that the outfield is already packed one wonders about the wisdom of this idea. Unfortunately, Tigers management just saw the name Johjima and MLB and jumped without truely considering the implications. Now they don't really know what to do and are floundering around - signing Johjima has actually unbalanced the team. One hopes that Mayumi doesn't intend to retain Yano but to be honest that also is looking highly likely. Tigers weakness was with pitching and with batting. For the former this was due to coaching and management issues not a lack of talent. The latter was due to aging players and poor batting coaching. Catching actually wasn't a problem as Kanoh had proven himself to be quite brilliant. When will Tigers managment have the sense to trust their young players? We have not heard anything of the retirement of Yano or Shimoyanagi though both of them are at the end of their careers. But it is likely they will both be starting next season - it beggars belief.

So who is in the outfield? From right to left. Sakurai, Akahoshi, Kanemoto? Reserves Lin? If anything I think second base is where Hanshin is the weakest. Maybe converting a catcher to 2b is difficult? If you look at Giants now, the reason why they are so strong is because they have a healthy mix of home grown players and imports. Now, Hanshin seems to lean too much towards imports. Giants did this too. Bought a bunch of sluggers on the FA market and did very badly, now with Hara they are doing better because they also have good solid home grown talent. Hanshin reminds me a bit of Manchester City this season who used outrageous amount of money but they will probably end somewhere in the middle of the table.

Add in Asai, Katsuragi and Hirano as well, as all of these can and do play in the outfield. Second base is well covered by Sekimoto, Yamato and Hirano again.

They could use him as a back up at 3rd. I think third could be a great place. with Arai being injury every so often.

Potentially more players in an already crowded outfield means Lin might get shafted again. Now that he's healthy, I'd like to see him finally get a full year of playing time. If he doesn't perform, I'll shut up about it.