Yakult is Officially Insane

I don't think they'll let Ramirez go, remember the two sides went through the same thing the last time he was up for a new contract. Yakult eventually won out by offering a ni-gun contract to his son. We'll see how this new "drama" plays out, but I don't think Yakult is that insane.

I was kind of shocked when the club released Takatsu, but then again you look at his contract versus what he did, icon status or not. In my opinion, they should've let Kida go. I swear, every time he was in a game that I was listening to or watching, he'd blow it.

Don't feel sorry for us though. I think us Yakult fans know we're not going to win every year. We had our limelight in the 1990s, with a last spurt in 2001. Now I think it's time to just enjoy the cheap bleacher seats, drinking away the agony of defeat, until the next championship round comes along, which will give us bleacher bums a new excuse to drink some more.

Best reply ever! Makes me want to buy you a drink.

I always enjoyed the crappy Mariners seasons a lot more than the good ones. It was so nice not worrying whether a game would sell out, or dealing with navigating through huge crowds in the stadium, waiting in line for things, going through traffic jams later, etc. I mean, it's nice to see the home team win sometimes, too, sure, but baseball is baseball and bleachers are bleachers and beer is beer.

I hope Rami stays with the Swallows, anyway, though I think it'll also be exciting to maybe see Katoh and Satoh next year (man, that's kind of a funny pair now that I think about it).

Haha, I was born and raised in Seattle, and I also remember Seattle's losing era all too well. But that just made the 1995 Angels and Yankees games all that much better. Maybe Yakult should bring back Edgar Martinez.

The one thing that I enjoy about Jingu is that you can almost always get a seat. There's only been one time I couldn't get a ticket, and that was when Hanshin was in first back in 2003. I went to Bun-bun-maru Ikeyama's last game, and even though that place was packed, they were still letting fans in, and I remember what a blast it was in the right field bleacher seats.

I guess growing up watching the Mariners before Nintendo came along has kind of dulled the shock of "insane" player moves. As long as the team is still there, and they win every now and then, I'll still be a fan. Yeah, I'll get angry at stupid managerial calls. Yeah, I'll get bummed at yet another losing season. But in the end, I'm just happy the team is still there.

Of course, we haven't had it as bad as Boston did, but us Mariner fans are on the way there.

Well I retract the insane statement and throw it at Seibu for doubling Kaz Ishii's contract and signing him up for two years. No wonder he was entertaining the Seibu offer for so long. I'm glad Yakult didn't try and match it.

I think Ramirez is indeed gone. He will likely end up at SoftBank, I'm guessing, who just officially released Hyzdu and Buchanan.

Takatsu and Ishii, imho, are both done. The misstep with Takatsu was the public relations aspect when they didn't give him a chance to say goodbye to the fans. There was talk in the Japanese press that he may take another shot at MLB, but who would want him?

The Yakult rotation, as it stands right now, looks like:

Greisinger
Shugo Fujii
Tatsuyoshi Masubuchi
Yoshinori Sato
Kenichi Matsuoka or Masanori Ishikawa
Ryo Kawashima

The POTENTIAL (in large letters) is that this could be a surprisingly good staff even without Greisinger.

The pen is very weak and we Swallows fans will have to hope that Ryota Igarashi will be well enough to contribute. I would love to see them spend the Ramirez money on Mark Kroon since they don't have a bonafide closer right now. We also need a huge year out of Brian Sikorski. Kosuke Matsui I'm not so hot on. Dicky Gonzalez, like Igarashi, will be a question mark coming off of major surgery.

Offensively, this is going to be a bad team. Guiel becomes the only other real power threat, and after you also get past Aoki and Tanaka, there is little else to celebrate unless a Takeuchi or Iihara really blossom.

They have to get another big left field bat from MLB, but who would that be? No names I have seen yet. I expect very little out of Adam Riggs, who should have been released.

This is a fourth place team at best because they will lose a lot of close games due to the weak pen and the wan batting order. Thank God Hiroshima is so bad. That will probably keep us out of last. It had better.

Ramirez will command a huge salary, something Yakult won't be able to pay. I'd personally love to see Ramirez end up with SoftBank, when you consider how bad Matsunaka was last season. From what I've heard, Yakult is really counting on Iihara to have a breakout season at third since Aoki, Tanaka, and Guiel are the only punch the Swallows have. Maybe they could pick up Lee Seung-Yeop off the scrapheap?

I was hearing rumblings that Greisinger might be signed by Hanshin, but I also heard that Yakult had already signed him. Whatever it is, the Ramirez money definitely should go to pursuing Kroon, since closer is the biggest role the Swallows need to fill.

Gary,

I agree with pretty much every word. The Yakult rotation has had that potential for a number of years, but just hasn't been able to get it done on a consistent enough basis. Hopefully the new coaching staff will be able to convert some of that potential into the consistency they've been lacking in recent years.

STARTERS:

With Greisinger as the ace, and with Kawashima backing him up (just pray he can stay injury free) that's a pretty strong first and second starter for any rotation. After that though things get a little hazy.

Now I love Shugo Fujii, but his form since 2001 has been so up and down it's not funny. When he's good he's one of the best starters in the league IMO, but when he's bad he's farm team. Again, hopefully the new coaches can help him out there.

Aah, Little Masanori Ishikawa. He used to be Yakult's Mr. Dependable, nothing spectacular but always reliable. Until last year that is when, short of one game at the Seibu Dome when he was masterful in a match up vs. Wakui, he was horrible. (I often joke at Jingu that he's never been the same since he was petrified by SoftBank's Cabrerra a couple of years ago when Cabrerra feigned to storm the mound after being hit by a pitch.) Again, one for the coaches to work on.

Masuoka put in some solid appearances in the latter part of last year so he's a solid alternative if the Ishikawa of old can't be revived.

Masubuchi and Satoh are dripping with potential, and hopefully the time spent in the farm team last year has helped out the former. Satoh is a very exciting prospect indeed.

BULLPEN:

Was uniformly terrible last year, with only Sikorski really doing well after a slow start. As you say, hopefully Igasashi will be fit enough to contribute, and if he is, he is the Igarashi of 2004 and not the 2006 model.

How about Hirotoshi Ishii? If we can get him back that would be our closer right there as when he's on, he's one of the best closers Japan has, and thus we wouldn't need to waste money on getting Kroon. However I've heard nothing about his condition/recovery for some time. Anyone know his current status?

Other than that, there's utility man Tateyama, Matsui who I think is somewhat of a liability, the sawn-off shotgun that is Takai and Yoshikawa. I love Kida (for some reason) but I can't help thinking he's done.

The main thing for me is to get some uniformity in the way the pen is used, other than the seemingly "hey, let's draw a name out of a hat!" way it was used under Furuta.

OFFENSE:

As it stands, who do we have now:

C Kawamoto/Fukukawa/Yoneno
1B Riggs
2B Tanaka
3B Ihara
SS Miyamoto
LF Yuichi/a new foreign bat
CF Aoki
RF Guiel

The key to all this is the quality of player they get in to replace Rami-chan. Those 100+ RBIs a year he generated are going to be hard to replace. The second key for me is if Riggs can stay injury free and recover his form of 2006, which would go some way to filling the void. I have (just a little) more faith in him than you do I feel.

Yuichi also had a superb end to 2007 after he was given a run in the team. I have a lot of faith in Ihara and Tanaka, too, but we really do need some more power in that line-up.

OVERALL:

I am the eternal optimist when it comes to the Swallows, but as you say, we're looking at a fourth place (at best) finish unless thing go well under the new regime and some of that potential is realized. Then we could just scrape a playoff place, but it's not looking likely.

Greisinger was released.

So it appears. That is shocking news.

They are officially insane. To let both Greisinger and Ramirez go is nothing short of suicidal. I'm speechless.

You gotta look at it this way. Either be loyal to a team you've only played a season for or take 500,000 extra dollars and play for a contender. 500,000 dollars is a lot of pocket money. Hehe.

I also think Greisinger is getting interest from Major League teams after his performance this past season, as I'm sure many teams are looking for a quality starter.

- How about Hirotoshi Ishii?

Last I heard, he will be out until sometime during the middle of next year. I doubt Ishii will be anyone the Swallows should be counting on to do much next year.

The money Hanshin is willing to throw at Greisinger after just one season is stupid. You would think he was the second coming or something.

I can't imagine an MLB team matching what he is being offered in NPB, although the pitching market in the States right now is absolutely bozo time. Johan Santana is a great pitcher, but $25 million a year? Even given that, throwing $4-5 million at Greisinger, which is probably what it will take to dislodge him from NPB, would still be bonkers. It's all staggering to me.

On the other hand, he would probably still be at least as effective as the Mariners' $8 million failed experiment, Jeff Weaver. So who knows?