New Year, New Schedule; WBC Speculation
Discussion in the The SoftBank Source forum
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But this is something to talk about: the 2009 schedule for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks has been released, and it all starts at home for the Hawks on April 3rd against the Orix Buffaloes at Yahoo! Dome. Interleague play starts on May 19th against the Hanshin Tigers, also at Yahoo! Dome.
This season is starting later than last year most likely because of the World Baseball Classic. As of right now, I haven't been able to find any info regarding Hawks players on the WBC roster. If it holds true from the 2006 edition, the Hawks would send SS Munenori Kawasaki, SP Tsuyoshi Wada, SP Toshiya Sugiuchi, CL Takahiro Mahara, 1B/DH Nobuhiko Matsunaka, and OF Hitoshi Tamura (although he was with Yokohama in 2006).
Currently, I can't see Mahara on the roster because he suffered form shoulder pain for most of last season. Kawasaki got hurt in the Olympics last year and has been injury-prone the past couple seasons. Matsunaka has not been the same since 2006, although he bounced back nicely last year from an abysmal 2007. Wada battled injuries himself last season, and one never knows when Tamura's next injury will strike.
That leaves one of the best players for Japan in the 2008 Olympics, Toshiya Sugiuchi. Sugiuchi was the Pacific League's strikeout king in 2008, and he was also the undisputed ace of the Hawks pitching staff, not to mention he and Hideaki Wakui were two of the best pitchers for the highly disappointing Olympic team from last year.