The big cull

We know that Kanemoto and Johjima are retiring and that Kyuji Fujikawa and Toritani could jump to MLB and Hirano could switch teams but what of the other players? Craig Brazell (67) and Cheng Kai-wen (40) will not be asked back next year and Tigers have announced 8 more players who will be given a pink slip. These are

Pitchers
19. Ikketsu Sho
41. Hiroyuki Kobayashi
48. Shunsuke Ishikawa
65. Shingo Matsuzaki
68. Ryunosuke Yokoyama
124. Koji Yoshioka

Outfielders
44. Yuhei Kai
94. Yuya Nohara

These are not major losses and no surprises arise from the list. None of them have figured much in the first team and so won't leave any big holes. One hopes there is going to be a cull of first team players as well - certain players (Andoh and Sekimoto for example) do need to be replaced by younger and more active talent.

We also add No. 128 Seiya Hirokama (Ikusei) to the list of players let go.