Kataoka Retires

It's a shame that his final season was so bad. It hurt to see him go up to pinch hit and just not have the bat speed to keep up with the pitches. I think Tatsunami may be joining him, too.

Hot corner defense - solid! Fantastic year in 2003, but drove in only 14 runs over the next 2 years. He's been a passenger since then. Clearly he jumped before he was pushed. I wish him the best, and although he's never set the baseball world on fire, here's to a job well done!

As a long time Tigers fan I watched him play for the Ham for 10 or 11 years, so it's difficult for me to accept he was some sort of "Tigers legend/fan favorite" as the OP suggested.

Hey on that point! I was bantering with a Tigers fan about his salary during spring training and it was absolutely staggering what he was getting for a bench warmer! Can anyone provide an exact figure? Anyway his departure will be a great salary dump and keep the Tigers competitive in the off-season free agency market.

- Can anyone provide an exact figure?

His official salary this year is 1.8-oku (180,000,000), the same as for Akahoshi, and well above more productive players such as Toritani (3,800-man), Sekimoto (3,000-man), Fujimoto (4,650-man) and Hamanaka (4,200-man). The combined salaries of fellow bench blankets Hiyama (10,500-man) and Spencer (7,350-man) don't reach Kataoka's hundreds of millions.

Yeah, agree that it's too bad that he's going out on such a low note, but that's baseball and aging. I remember being quite excited when he joined the Tigers, but unfortunately he seemed a little over the hill from the beginning. Now maybe Hiyama will take the hint and follow him?

Thanks for that mijow. Man, that is diabolical!

Hanshin will certainly free up some dosh with Kataoka and Spencer out of the picture for 2007, but I'd say pay rises for the aforementioned Sekmoto, Fujimoto, and numerous others will eat up around 1-oku. Let's just hope the other oku-or-so that remains from dumping Kataoka and Spencer is put towards picking up Kuroda or some other useful players - not this guy.

Kataoka was always very popular with the fans, and in fact it was partially fan pressure which persuaded him to join the Tigers. Most I have spoken to rate him a far better third baseman than Imaoka (who didn't try hard enough).

Since he was injured in 2004, he doesn't seem to have the same ability to hit as 2003 (though his defense was as excellent as ever). However, given the persistence with Hamanaka, I suppose they hoped he would recover, and having those defensive skills in reserve was a very sound insurance policy.

I'm hearing you torakichi! Bring on Kuroda! How good is a pitcher that is currently 13-6 with a bad team and has an ERA of 1.86, considering he pitches half of his games in the batter friendly Hiroshima stadium where so many outfield fly balls just seem to drift into the bleachers for what would normally be a regulation out on the track?