Ups and Downs in Softbank Camp

With the regular season looming on the horizon, the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks seem to be going in two directions at once. In early open-sen games, there has been the good, the bad, and the ugly. Here are a few snippets:

The Good
Left-handed pitchers
Opening Day starter Toshiya Sugiuchi has been lights-out in open-sen. In 14 innings, he has not given up a single run, which is huge news for Softbank. With their two frontline starters out (Kazumi Saitoh, Tsuyoshi Wada), the Hawks need starters to eat innings.

Young lefty Kenji Ohtonari has also been very good in his spring starts. He has given up only 2 runs on 10 hits in 3 starts.

CJ Nitkowski has also been a force himself, not allowing a single run in his seven spring appearances.

Nagisa Arakaki's resurgence?
Arakaki came off a rough 2007 where nagging injuries and control problems led to one of the worst seasons of his career. This spring, he has been good with his control, and he seems to be back to getting his electric stuff over. Only 2 earned runs in 8 innings isn't bad (1 start), but we need to see more starts before the jury has a verdict.

The Bad
Shota Ohba
The Hawks "Golden Rookie" has been, in short, not good this spring. He has had control issues, walking 7 in 8.2 innings (2 starts), and also has a 6.59 ERA. There is a silver lining, though. He has struck out 10 this spring and his stuff is electric when it finds the strike zone.

Rick Guttormson
His one start this spring was a disastarous one against Seibu. Guttormson showed he could do it last year, and it is only spring after all, but you have to be worried with that one bad start he had against Seibu.

The Ugly
Injuries
With both Kazumi Saitoh and Tsuyoshi Wada out, another member joined Softbank's walking wounded: super closer Takahiro Mahara (I don't have any specifics on the injury as of yet). This is a crippling blow to the Softbank bullpen, which now has to find a stopgap until Mahara returns. So who's it gonna be?

Catcher production
Once again, the Hawks seem insistent on trying to develop a young catcher to take the place of Kenji Johjima. It's still not working. Katsuki Yamazaki still can't hit for beans (.176), Hiroaki Takaya has limited AB's, but hasn't gotten a hit, Tetsuya Matoyama shows promise but needs more AB's, and all the other catchers are at ni-gun. That leaves Hidenori Tanoue, who is batting .214 himself this spring. I think it's time for a change of strategy for catching after this season.

Jury's Still Out
Batting production
The Hawks' biggest stars on offense (Kawasaki, Matsunaka, Tamura) have been pretty quiet, although Matsunaka has seen some of his power return (3 HR this spring). Shotaro Ide is showing that he needs regular at-bats to produce, so 2008 may finally be his time. Also, Nobuhiro Matsuda has been seeing the ball well himself, and seems to be ready to platoon with Hiroki Kokubo at 3rd base.