Hiroshima Carps: Bring back the Glory

This is still Spirits, right?

Yeah, I brought a dvd scratch remover from radioshack to fix the game and brought a new memory card. So I'm ready to go once again.

speaking of which...carps just lost 21-2 today to hanshin...

Ouch! It must really be tough to be a Carps fan.


Anyway, so far I have done great but haven't moved much in the standings. After the win with Takahashi with the Lions, Kawauchi really bombed that game really quick by giving 4HRs. He gave up 2HRs to Nakajima, 1HR to Cabrera, and 1HR to Fernandez. My bullpen only put more gasoline to the fire and lost the game 13-3. After that lost I had to trade somebody for pitching. I traded pinch hitter Asai and Hasegawa to the Marines for starter Kobayashi and traded Okagami to the Hawks for reliever Hoshino. Those trade really helped me in the next series with the hawks because I swept them and swept the buffaloes. My bullpen is decent right now but still need improving and I still need 1 more starter and a shortstop.


Starting rotation:

Kuroda 2-4 3.65 ERA
Bale 5-2 3.58
Takahashi 2-1 2.79
Kobayashi 2-3 6.59 (his ERA was higher when I got him so he still can improve)
Ohtake 2-3 6.15


The reason I got Kobayashi was because he have great control (Which all my pitchers lack except Kuroda and Bale) with his fastball and breaking ball. Hoshino did great coming out of the pen giving 0 runs and 0 hits.

My Bullpen:
Sasaoka
Nagakawa
Sawazaki
Amano
Romano
Hoshino

Sawazaki is my setup man and Nagakawa is my closer. Romano is doing good in the pen right now.


Stats:
Ishihara .284 3HR 14RBI
Arai .296 8HR 19RBI
Larocaa .308 12HR 27RBI
Shima .407 8HR 25RBI
Maeda .250 8HR 20RBI
Kimura .308 0HR 6RBI 4SB
Ogata .290 5HR 16RBI


Arai is having a fantastic start in May. His power numbers are beginning to rise. I was expecting more from Shima with his power numbers but his average is really doing great. Larocca is tied for the league in HR with 12.



Standing:

Baystars 26-10
Dragons 25-12
Tigers 18-18
Carps 16-18
Giants 19-21
Swallows 19-21


Those Baystars won't lose. I won 6 straight and still I'm 9.0 games back. Next up is the Marines.

Started the first game against the Marines and lost
5-3. Kuroda went 6 innings giving up 3 runs but I tied it back in the 7th. I brought in the newly aquired Hoshino aftre that it it was going smooth. In the 9th inning, I gambled to keep Hoshino for one more inning since he was doing great in the past two. Big mistake. After getting Nishioka and Hori out, Hoshino walked Fuukura and gave up a two run homer to Benny. This lost is really my fault because I got lazy. I'm still 9 games out since the baystars also lost but I need to start gaining more ground. I'm three games under .500

Won a incredible game today. Takahashi started out good for me in the first 3 innings then fell apart in the 4th. I gave up a grand slam to Benny by trying to make him chase a high fastball but he went with it and hit it out. In the 5th, I gave up another two run shot to make it 8-1. I took Takahashi out and put Sasoka to cool things off. He held the Marines to one hit while I was coming back with line shots after line shots to make it 6-8 in the bottom of the 8th. The Marines took their starter out and put in Takagi. Huge mistake. I singled with Nomura and Ishihara. I then pinch hit for Sasoka with Kurihara since Takagi is a lefty and Kurihara bats left. Takagi was hitting the corners back to back for strike two. Then he left a big juicy fastball down and in and I drilled it to left field for the lead. I brought in Nagakawa for the finish but he let Hori and Fuukura get on base with nobody out. Next up was Benny, before I was going to walk him but I couldn't walk him with two on and nobody out, so I threw a forkball and bang! double play. Then Pascucci was next and I struck him out with a curveball low and away. The series is tied 1-1.

Best game so far.

Played a lot since I was sick yesterday. I'm currently in June and I did some major changes. I traded relief pitcher Oshima for lefty Yamamoto from the Swallows. I needed a decent lefty in the pen and I think he fitted in. I also traded relief pitcher Hayashi and a young 3rd baseman for Marines Kosaka. Since the Marines are not playing him that much with Nishioka, I grabbed him up quick.

I took Kosaka because I've made Yoshinori Ogata my starting shortstop but he makes a lot of errors. Kosaka is my defensive shortstop in the late innings since my closer is not a strikeout pitcher and get hit. Kosaka is not starting because his ratings are bad for contact and power with both rating E, but he'll start when Ogata becomes tired. He's also a great base stealer so I got two in one.

Starting Lineup


Ogata Y. (shortstop) .272 3HR 14RBI 8SB
Ogata K. (center) .319 6HR 28RBI
Shima (left) .388 13HR 48RBI
Larocca (2nd) .355 21HR 48RBI
Arai (3rd) .269 16HR 38RBI
Maeda (right) .274 12HR 31RBI
Kurihara (1st) .266 6HR 24RBI
Ishihara (Catcher) .296 4HR 23RBI


Arai had a wonderful May but cooled off in June. Larocca exploded in the middle of June and is just now starting to cool off by striking out more.



Pitching have been okay. Kuroda,Bale,and Kobayashi have improved since May. Takahashi and Otake are my weakest points in the starting rotation. I'm still looking for a starter.

Kuroda 5-4 2.90ERA
Bale 7-3 3.68
Kobayashi 6-4 5.26
Takahashi 2-2 4.18
Otake 3-5 6.15

Bullpen

Sasaoka
Amano
Hoshino
Yamamoto
Romano
Sawazaki
Nagakawa

I've improved my bullpen so far. I think I'll keep it like this for now and wait till the next season. I might put Romano back if Otake or Takahashi don;t step it up.


Record

Carps 33-28 8 game back from the dragons

beat the swallows 5-3 to go 7.5 games back from the dragons. Next up is the Dragons, hopefully I can get more ground in this series.

Is anyone reading this?

I am ...

Sorry for the late update but I've been playing KOC 2 for a while.


Anyway, before playing KOC 2 I was on a roll. July was my best month so far and I gained a lot of ground in that month. After interleague play, I went 24-12 with 2 rained out games. I really beat down on the Swallows and Giants. While I was going uphill, the Dragons were fallen going 14-19 since June 20th and the Baystars have taken first place while I'm in third in August 10.


Standings:

Baystars 59-40
Dragons 58-40
Carps 56-41
Giants 51-49
Tigers 45-52
Swallows 41-55


Kosaka .277 0HR 12RBI 12SB
Ogata K. .325 16HR 55RBI
Shima .314 23HR 72RBI
Larocca .302 29HR 69RBI
Arai .273 25HR 63RBI
Maeda .297 18HR 45RBI
Kurihara .284 10HR 27RBI
Ishihara .265 7HR 43RBI

Larocca just got injured yesterday while diving for a ball and will miss some days. So I brought up Ogata Yoshinori to take 2nd base. Koichi Ogata have been on fire lately hitting 2HR against the Swallows, bringing up his power numbers. Maeda is still lacking RBI's since Arai is strikeing out more and not getting on base. Hopefully he will get some as I Arai up a spot since Larcoca is injured.


My pitching have been wonderful (remarkable after what I had to start with) Kobayashi have been a huge factor since I have a chance to win everytime he start unlike the others I had before. Bale, Kuroda, and Kobayashi are my 1,2,3, punchout combination.


Pitching stats:

Bale 11-3 3.80ERA
Kuroda 10-4 2.05 (leads the league)
Kobayshi 10-7 5.05
Takahashi 3-4 4.57
Otaki 5-6 6.10


Kobayashi ERA is still high but he still gets the win. My problem with him is the slider. Everytime I throw it low it goes over the plate and gets hit. However, my offense give him the most run support out of the bunch. Takahashi was injured for a while that's why his win-loss ratio is so small, I had to use Romano for the time being. Otaki is just horrible right now, but thank god for the improved bullpen.

Hoshino is great as my 7th man, Sawazaki as my 8th, and Nagakawa as my closer. Yamamoto is my lefty specialist and have done terrific with left-handed batters. Sasoka is my longman if Otaki or Takahashi can't make it through the 5th.


I'm 1.0 game out so far. Lets go CARPS!!!!!

Oops! I mean 2.0 games out.

THE CARPS ARE BACK ON TOP!!!!!


ah! its nice to be #1

Anyway, the central league is looking a lot like the MLB american league playoff race. Right now, I'm tied with the dragons and the baystars for number 1 in late august.

My pitching hit a blocking point when Bale got injured and I had to use Romano and Otaki. Romano was slipping and giving up more runs lately and my offense was lacking because of Larocca absence. But as soon as Larocca came back, my offense became alive again. First I took two from the Drgaons, then the Swallows and Giants both came back and took 2 from me, and later I swept the Tigers to still be in the mix. Luckily, both the Baystars and the Dragons have really lost some vital games to break away. Last night I beat the Dragons 6-2 to tie with both of them for first place.

Now to hold on and keep it up.

Larocca really have been fantastic since coming off the DL. he homered in two back to back games to give him 31 HRs and Shima is starting to get his RBI numbers back with 80 in late august. He'll definitely get 100 at the end of the season.

The Season is over and I lost my chance to clinch the central league. I finished the season 4.5 games behind the Baystars (who played really well in the stretch) and finished 3rd in the standings. I say it was a good season since I did improve the bullpen and got a good starter in Kobayashi.

I've decided not to continue into 2006 with the Carps and I'm now starting new with the Nippon Fighters in the pacific league.