Keep an Eye On Matsusaka

Well, he did it. Going 2 for 4 in the final game of open-sen, Kenta Matsusaka has won the opportunity to start in left field on opening day for Seibu. He looks like he's turned into a fine ballplayer, so it'll be interesting to see how he progresses this year.

I'm totally not a Seibu fan, but I was actually pulling for Matsusaka, too, ever since I saw him on TV one night and he was like "Hi, I'm Seibu's Matsusaka! Yeah... same kanji... no... not a pitcher..."

(Kind of like how I want the Carp's pitcher Yuki Saitoh to succeed on general principle, y'know?)

In the game I saw him in last week, Matsusaka was also 2-for-4 and scored a run, although he also got caught stealing second. But overall, in open-sen Matsusaka batted .310 with an .800 OPS, 6 out of his 13 hits were doubles, and he did swipe two bases.

(Oddly, the man leading the open-sen batting board right now is none other than former Fighter Keizo Kawashima, gone to Yakult in the Fujii trade, who has also been on fire, batting .417 in 12 games so far with a couple scattered walks as well for a .488 OBP. I was really sad about the trade, but I'll be happy to see Keizo get a spot in the Yakult outfield - and maybe a tryout as lead off batter as well?)

Kawashima has been fantastic. They tried him out at third, but I think he's going to be an outfielder. Hopefully he can keep it up and get that regular outfield spot.

You know what you're going to get with Fukuchi, so I want to see what Kawashima has to offer.

Kawashima is fantastic. I almost thought of adding a post to this yesterday about "And he even hit a home run tonight!!!" but didn't want to digress the thread too far from Kenta Matsusaka.

He was an outfielder for the Fighters, but switched to be an infielder when he got traded. I think it makes more sense to keep him in the outfield, but his problem has been, basically, the lack of power in his bat. I'd expect a .600 OPS out of him in the normal season, which would have made him an average Fighters batter, but doesn't fly so well on other teams, I think. Hopefully he can use his speed and use Jingu to turn more hits into doubles this year.

Bleh, I also wonder if/where Miyade will fit into the Swallows this year. I swear he's cursed or something.

He is not so good so far, though he hit 3 in the game last Sunday.