Yakult
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March 1998
March 31, 1998:
Hold on to your caps everyone, 'cause the
1998 pennant race is gonna be a wild one. In the Pacific League,
it looks like the Buffaloes, BlueWave and Lions are going to be
slugging it out until the final weekend of the season. But in the
Central loop, the flag is up for grabs.
Fired-up Dragons: Check
out Chunichi! Their 7-6-4 record (as of March 24) may not be too
inspiring, but look closer at the team's background stats: 18
homers (first in Japan), 88 runs scored (third), .278 batting
average (fourth), and 26 steals (first).
This is the same team that took one look
at the big Nagoya Dome fence last year and keeled over. Home runs
were way down and the Dragons had no speed on the base paths (55
thefts -- ranked ninth of twelve teams).
With the acquisition of Jeong Bum
"the Korean Ichiro" Lee, Koichi Sekikawa, and Teruyoshi
Kuji, Chunichi now has the speed to steal 120 or more bases.
Because most of their homers in the pre-season came in small
rural ballparks, look for the Dragons to adopt a hit-n-run
strategy in Nagoya.
But don't expect Chunichi to grab a
pennant just yet. Their pitching woes continue with little sign
of relief. Last year's Sawamura Award runner-up Masahiro Yamamoto
and Korean closer Dong Yol Sun can't do all the heavy lifting by
themselves.
Former ace Shinji Imanaka hasn't recovered
from arm problems while lanky Ken Kadokura is trying to remember
how he ever managed to go 7-3 with a 3.11 ERA in 1996. Newcomer
Kevin Jarvis may help out, but with only six strikeouts and seven
walks in 17 pre-season innings, he sure doesn't look
overpowering. The rest of the mound staff is too busy scurrying
from hot-headed manager Senichi Hoshino's fist to concentrate on
mechanics.
Arm trouble: Two foreign pitchers
have already been tagged by the angel of death. Yomiuri lefty
Eric Hillman, who missed all but six innings last season with a
mysterious arm ailment, complained in early March of more pain.
He later said he would eventually pitch in the regular season,
but he's yet to be seen anywhere near a mound.
Nippon Ham workhorse Kip Gross will
apparently miss opening day because a bone spur in his pitching
elbow needs to be removed. He should be ready to pitch again by
late April.
A slap on the wrist: Hillman and
Gross may be sidelined because of elbow and shoulder problems,
but almost two dozen Japanese players are out of action because
of a slap on the wrist.
In a widespread tax evasion conspiracy,
twenty players received suspensions ranging from three to eight
weeks (prosecutors had been demanding jail time). Most of the
offenders are of little consequence to their teams, but there are
at least five big names on that list: Daiei shortstop Hiroki
Kokubo (suspended eight weeks), Yokohama outfielder Toshio Haru
(seven), Yakult shortstop Shinya Miyamoto (seven), Chunichi
shortstop Yusuke Torigoe (seven) and Hanshin hurler Tetsuro
Kawajiri (half the season by his team).
Since the Hawks acquired two-time CL RBI
king Luis Lopez, the BayStars inked foreign outfielder Jose
Malave, the Tigers hired pitcher Ben Rivera, and the Dragons
purchased Korean superstar shortstop Lee, only Yakult is still
scrambling to fill the vacancy.
Swallows in free-fall: As if
Miyamoto's two-month suspension weren't enough, the 1997 Japan
Series champs also lost ace Masato Yoshii to the New York Mets,
released 1996 CL ERA king Terry Bross and productive first
baseman Jim Tatum, and sent versatile right-fielder Atsunori
Inaba under the scalpel. Inaba, who slugged 23 roundtrippers last
year and batted .315 in 1996, probably won't rejoin the team
until May.
No wonder Yakult has lost eleven of their
first fifteen pre-season games.
With the exception of former Chicago White
Sox DH Lyle Mouton (batting over.400 for most of March), Yakult's
foreign players aren't yet up to full speed. After two horrendous
outings, career minor leaguer Travis Driskill finally got his
forkball working and struck out five of six batters he faced on
March 22. Mark Acre has been successful in his last few save
attempts, but he too got off to a shaky start. 1997 CL home run
king Dwayne Hosey has been repeating his first underwhelming
pre-season experience.
The Swallows have made up for the loss of
Yoshii and Bross by promoting minor leaguer Ryuji Miyade (1-0
with eleven strikeouts and a 1.80 ERA in 15 pre-season innings)
to the varsity team while converting closer Tomohito Ito (7-2, 19
saves, 1.51 ERA in 1997) to a starting role. The Swallows
middle-relief staff is still one of the most reliable in the
league.
Offense is where the returning Japan
Series champs will live or die. During the pre-season, the
Swallows have compiled a team .207 batting average (twelfth of
twelve), stole nine bases (tenth), hit six home runs (twelfth)
and scored only 38 runs (twelfth by a large margin). Team leader
and 1997 MVP catcher Atsuya Furuta has hit only .150. And as
Furuta goes, up or down, so do the Swallows.
If Yakult skipper Katsuya Nomura is trying
to lower expectations, he's doing an excellent job.
High expectations: While no one is
expecting much from Yakult this year, Yomiuri "super
rookie" Yoshinobu Takahashi will have to put up MVP numbers
to live up to his advance billing. Just out of college, the
talented 23-year old is playing like a veteran (.308, one homer),
but he's going to be under a lot of pressure to keep it up all
season.
Already, some are quietly speculating that
Takahashi may end up emulating Daiei infielder Tadahito Iguchi,
the high profile star of Japan's 1996 Olympic team who flopped in
his first season with the Hawks (.203 with eight roundtrippers).
Imported talent: Though foreign
players often inspire high expectations, the large number of
imports this year helps reduce the pressure on everyone. Instead
of three gaijin in the hot seat, there are now four since the
leagues now allow each team to employ two foreign pitchers.
Yomiuri third baseman Mariano Duncan, a
first-rate player for the Blue Jays and Yankees, is expected to
do well. And Julio Franco, who batted .305 for Lotte in 1995, was
elected team captain before he even arrive in Japan. Still, no
one expected much from Dwayne Hosey and Domingo Martinez when
they arrived in 1997, and they turned out to be two of the best
players in their leagues.
This year, look for several new players to
earn their place in the spotlight.
Nippon Ham's Eric Schullstrom looks like a
tough closer while Kintetsu's Phil Leftwich, Hiroshima's Nate
Minchey and Lotte's Joe Crawford could become their teams' top
starters. Brian Raabe appears to have the stuff to fill Seibu's
second base void. Yokohama's Jose Malave and Yakult's Lyle Mouton
could become the league's top sluggers.
The extra foreign players, most unknown
prior to arriving in Japan, will indeed make 1998 a wild and
unpredictable year.