It's all coming together for Ramirez

Wow, the Yomiuri editorial staff is really losing it:

"If you're talking about technique, his is is above that of Ichiro and Aoki," lame-duck Yakult player-manager Katsuya Furuta said after Thursday's game.

Katsuya?

[...] He also became the first player to win the monthly MVP award three consecutive times from July to September.

To win monthly MVP award three times?

"He is has a very high skill level," Aoki said. "I think this every year, he has cut down on his number of swings on pitches outside the strike zone, and this year he has done everything well."

He is has?

Ramirez, might also be going for a change of scenery in the offseason. After winning the Japan Series in 2001, the Swallows have flailing.

The Swallows have flailing?

Yeah, I know, usually the articles are fine, but this time "Katsuya Furuta" jumped out at me and then the rest of the errors ran after it.

There are rumors that the Swallows might not re-hire Ramirez next season, though. The sticking point apparently would be his salary.

Yeah, Ramirez is a good player - well, if you only talk about his hitting and not his poor defense or his uninspired base running. His plate discipline has definitely improved since he came here from Pittsburgh. But I don't think anyone in MLB is missing him.

Who else would pay Ramirez 300-400 million yen for next season and probably 2009 as well? I can't see another CL team doing it. Maybe Lotte would be a good destination for him. Get rid of Agbayani's and Watson's contracts, and bring in Ramirez to go along with Zuleta and Ortiz for next season.

Any team signing him would probably have to give his son a few million yen to hang around with their farm team for a year or two more - just as Yakult did 3 years ago.

Yeah, Rami's defense is terrible (I was just astounded at Jingu a few weeks back when I watched him just fail to catch what looked like a completely routine pop fly in left field), but... I think Yakult pretty much has to sign him again next year.

Why?

Because they need some other drawing factor to come to the park besides Norichika Aoki. They need another "face" for the franchise. In the last two years they've lost two of their most recognizable faces, Atsuya Furuta and Akinori Iwamura, and now they're also letting one of their other faces go as well with the release of Shingo Takatsu. (Which I don't blame them for; he was pretty bad this year.) Kazuhisa Ishii is still a drawing card, but he doesn't play every day.

I've only been to a handful of Swallows games this year, so I am by no means an expert on the fan base, but I just can't imagine them embracing another foreigner like Aaron Guiel or Seth Greisinger or such as a fan favorite the same way that everyone seems to love Ramirez. It seems, and again this is just my guess, that if he bats anywhere near as well as he did this year, he'll be worth his salary for the other factors. I mean, are they all going to throw out their Rami jerseys and go buy Miyade jerseys? Or uh, Hiroyasu Tanaka jerseys?

(I'm kidding. I love Miyade. He's so tall.)

Wow, Deanna's right. That copy was brutal.

As for the Yakult fan base, it's getting pretty sad. The usual die hards are always still there with their umbrellas in the right field bleachers, but each time I get back up to a game, it seems like there are fewer and fewer fans there - and I'm not talking about a mid-week 6pm start when there are understandably fewer people there. I'm talking about a late afternoon start on a beautiful July or September day. Zannen. Perhaps Jingu Bleacher Bum could weigh in on the subject?

Ramirez is one of the biggest draws I think. His defense isn't the (sole) reason the team is struggling, and he just set the CL single-season record for hits! He also is the only guy in the whole country that still does that "gettsu!" thing, after each time he goes yard. That cracks my wife and I up every time we see it.

Ramirez, to me, is a lovable lug that (shoddy defense included) still adds a ton of value to that franchise. I would be sad to see him in another uniform next year.

Ok people, his defense isn't great, but I wouldn't describe it as terrible. Deanna, I was at Jingu that night too and it was a terrible error, but it's not like he does that kind of thing every game. He does, after all, have only 2 errors this year (for Yakult's real butterfingers, step forward Mr. Yasushi Ihara). Yes, he's a below average outfielder, but he does make the occasional great play out there in left field.

As for the diminishing Yakult fan base, well, after attending Jingu regularly as usual this year I don't really think it's all that different from past years, and in fact, I believe attendance figures are slightly up on last year, which is pretty good considering the nightmare year they've had. It seems to me that since they stopped estimating attendances, the average gate is around the 18,000 mark, which is not bad. As you say, Yakult has a hardcore fan base, but the overall fan numbers pretty much don't change regardless of how well or badly they perform on the field.

As for most of the other points people have raised about about Rammy-chan's future with the Swallows, I pretty much agree with them all. It was also discussed in this thread, and I pretty much stand by what I said back then, apart from the fact that I'm starting to suspect he won't be back in a Swallows' jersey next year, despite the fact that we most desperately need him, both on and off the field.

- Who else would pay Ramirez 300-400 million yen for next season and probably 2009 as well?

The SoftBank Hawks are the top team I could think of who could afford to fork out that money. And they could use the big bat, with the decline of Nobuhiko Matsunaka and the lack of what is a big middle of the lineup. Also as insurance for Hitoshi Tamura in case of an injury.

That all said though, Yakult has to re-sign Ramirez. Other than Norichika Aoki, who is a big time draw on Yakult now with the retirement of manager Atsuya Furuta? The only other big name player is Kazuhisa Ishii, but he's hardly the pitcher he was before going to Los Angeles.

Second, who will fit the big offensive gap in Yakult's lineup if Ramirez leaves? Riggs had injuries all year and Guiel strikes out way too much and was terrible with RISP (.234). If they're not going to sign Ramirez to a huge deal, it's unlikely they're going to fork out cash to someone to replace him either.

Third, referring back to my first point, Yakult's home attendance will all but fall without Alex Ramirez. Looking at the 2007 attendance thread, Yakult's attendance was up from 2006, though without Ramirez, that all but would be a negative difference.