Farm System
- Are there certain restrictions on time you have to stay at the farm team or is it pretty open like MLB?
I'm not sure of the actual rules, but Hanshin's manager, Hoshino-kantoku, said words to the effect of, "He'll be there for a while. He may not even make it back before the All Star break."
- Hope Lou finds his form and can redeem himself if given the opportunity to get back with the "first team."
He certainly looked good in his first couple of outings. I'm sure his poor form in his last few top-team appearances wasn't typical. I wonder if it's just a confidence thing... Either way, hope to see him take the bus ride from Naruohama (farm team ground) to Koshien (1-gun stadium) soon.
When one sends a player down, it must be for a minimum of 10 days. This is supposed to prevent the "extended bench" use to a degree.
I've heard that Lotte is playing with this to use all of their foreign players more. They would have Minchey throw a 5 day rotation twice, then send him down and bring another foreigner up. 10 days later, Minchey rotates back up, pitches two (or three) times, then rotates back down. I haven't been paying that much attention to say if they're doing this for sure, but it was recently pointed out that Lotte was doing this to me by somebody. And I did noticed that Minchey was sent down a couple of days ago.
I believe that Pote has been down on the farm longer than 10 days, though, hasn't he? So he should be able to come up any time management thinks he's ready.
Oh, but there is another factor that must be taken into account with Pote. How many foreign players are on the ichi-gun team? There can be as many as four.
"I'm getting better bit by bit" said Pote. "I'm just hoping to get called back to Koshien as soon as possible."
Pote opened the pitching against Hiroshima in a Western League game on May 4, giving up 3 runs off 8 hits over 5 innings. Farm team pitching coach Minoru Kasai said of Pote's next start, "Well, there aren't many games in May, so I'm not sure when he'll get his next chance."
Lou Pote worked his arm over yesterday at ni-gun batting practice.
"I've tweaked my form a little, and things are improving. It's great that the team's doing so well, but I really have other things to concentrate on at the moment."
Regarding Hanshin's moves to acquire another right-handed pitcher from overseas, Pote said "Well, they can hardly be blamed, can they? I'll be a starter or whatever they tell me to."
Pote is scheduled to pitch in the farm team's upcoming trip to Nagoya.
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Hope Lou finds his form and can redeem himself if given the opportunity to get back with the "first team."