Go figure

Things have been interesting in Tigersland recently. Talk by the management indicated that they weren't totally impressed by Haraguchi's skills behind the plate but liked his bat. As a result they were thinking of switching him to third. Fair enough you might say but then Tigers management have been screwing up their catching ever since they signed Fujii. If Haraguchi can't cut it then Tigers have Tsuruoka, Komiyama and Shimizu. Instead they went with Sakamoto who proceeded to deliver a seven game losing streak and has generally looked worse. Admittedly one of these games did have Haraguchi behind the plate but it was a 1-0 loss.

So we have the perseverance with Sakamoto against all evidence that he is not ready. I do believe that Tigers would have been in third if Sakamoto had not been used so liberally. Gomez also has not had enough playing time and he is leading in RBIs by a long way. Runs do win games and prolific run scorers are important. Tigers have too frequently lacked this, this season. Too often Fukudome has been used as clean up and whilst he is definitely one of Tigers bright spots he is not on the level of Gomez for driving in runs. One feels that there has been too much theory and not enough practicality.