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11/01/2003 Archived Entry: "2003 Japanese Baseball Season Wrap Up"
Pitching and Injuries Determined 2003 Season Finishes
For all the fireworks that the Daiei Hawks with their historic Japanese baseball first "100 RBI Quartet," the fact is that it was a healthy Kazumi Saito, obtaining two excellent starting pitchers in the 2002 November draft and Toshiya Sugiuchi in the 2001 pick 'em, plus another from overseas in Brandon Knight that stabilized what had been a dire rotation and allowed them to take advantage of the failures of the arms at Seibu to walk off with the PL crown.
There was a similar story over at Hanshin. They obtained Tsuyoshi Shimoyanagi and Hideki Irabu, who, while not spectacular by any means, were solid enough to help inject some predictability into the pitching fortunes of a team that had been Kei Igawa and four days of rain while its offense saw second baseman and eventual batting champion Makoto Imaoka, shortstop Atsushi Fujimoto, centerfielder Norihiro Akahoshi and first baseman George Arias all have career years. In addition, when Trey Moore and Keiichi Yabu went down due to injuries, Tomoyuki Kubota, a fourth round draft choice, stepped in to give suprisingly strong performances.
Hanshin's bullpen, which was a punchline to a really bad joke in previous seasons, was drastically reworked with the additions of Jerrod Riggan and Jeff Williams, the latter emerging as the Central League's most dominant closer during the campaign, and the installing of Yuya Ando, who was indifferent as a starter in 2002, into a setup role, where he performed ably indeed. Unfortunately, Takehito Kanazawa bites and they need to do something about that.
Last season's PL pennant winners, Seibu, on the other hand, saw its pitching staff tank, as both Fumiya Nishiguchi and Takashi Ishii surrendered runs by the bucketful in the early going before being demoted and number one draft choice Shuichiro Osada was hammered in relief after a great spring. The result was that the Lions were permitting more than a run game over what they did last season and, even with Daisuke Matsuzaka truly maturing now, they couldn't generate enough offense to overcome the decline on the hill. It is no mistake that Daiei, then, were able to terminate a more than two decades long season series losing streak to the Tokorozawa contingent. Both club's bullpens were mediocre, but the difference in starting pitching was decisive here.
Back over to the CL, Yomiuri's rotation was destroyed by injury and bad performances, exacerbating an almost comical series of maladies by the position players and a horrendous bullpen to effectively make it all over before August 1st.
Sure, Koji Uehara was a rock after the all star break, but he had some trouble getting his footing in the early part of the schedule and the team's best pitcher then became number one selection Hiroshi Kisanuki at that time. Kisanuki tired the last two months of the year and thus, even with Uehara's magic, they couldn't see the Hanshin Tigers with the Hubble telescope.
2003 also raised the question as to the viability of Masumi Kuwata and Kimiyasu Kudoh's careers. Kuwata was Cinderella last year after an unsuccessful, to put it mildly, 2001 in the pen, but he was a pumpkin this time around and, along with Hisanori Takahashi's inability to get his act together, undermined any real shot the Tokyo nine had at the flag. Kudoh's body is betraying him and he is looking like an old man now.
Things across town were even worse for Yakult. Shugo Fujii blew his elbow out during his first start and Yataro Sakamoto went to pot. But the biggest cave in was on the broad shoulders of Kevin Hodges, who was tattooed after leading the circuit in wins in 2002 and he received his walking papers. Jason Beverlin was a savior for a while, but he then went down for the remainder with an arm problem as well. Masanori Ishikawa was just barely little more than a .500 pitcher and by the time the fine Swallows pen entered the fray, they were usually behind. Shingo Takatsu did, though, eclipse Kazuhiro Sasaki's saves record in the only real highlight at the center of the diamond for the birds.
The pitching conundrums assured that even with Ken Suzuki's startling improvement at first, Atsuya Furuta contributing while fighting bad knees and Alex Ramirez' near Triple Crown season, this just wasn't going to work. And third baseman Akinori Iwamura's wrist ligament injury and Atsunori Inaba's injuries and not clicking at the plate put a monkey wrench into the works and assured that Yakult's offense wasn't going to be consistent enough to compete. Indeed, toward the end of the campaign, Ryuji Miyade, who began the season in the minors and who was converted from a pitcher, was seeing a lot of playing time.
The Chunichi Dragons finished a surprising third with a strong rush at the end of the season due, in part, to Masafumi Hirai, a reclamation project from Orix, who lead the team in wins. Masahiro Yamamoto also experienced a nice post-all star surge, though he petered out the last three weeks.
But the Dragons are still a mess. They don't have a real offense except for rightfielder Kosuke Fukudome and new manager Hiromitsu Ochiai's refusal to seek foreign help to plug into a weak leftfield and first base slots is shortsighted. Centerfielder Alex Ochoa hit only about .180 with runners in scoring position through the end of August, but he put the boot in during September and his production will thus be a key to the Nagoya denizens 2004 hopes. Rotsa ruck!
Kintetsu proved once again that they didn't have enough pitching to entertain any realistic pennant aspirations. They had Jeremy Powell, who was merely okay, and Hisashi Iwakuma, who had a hot hand the first half but then couldn't buy a win if they were selling them on EBay in the second and that, when placed alongside Norihiro Nakamura's knee injury that subverted his production, they just wouldn't have the horses to put them ahead at crunch time. Next season, we get to find out if Kenta Abe has the right stuff, but it still isn't going to be enough, especially if they lose Tuffy Rhodes.
And do we really need to bury Nippon Ham and Orix some more? PL. hitters had a pretty good time doing up their pitching staffs and they should again in 2004. Lotte needs Tomohiro Kuroki back bigtime to compliment Nate Minchey and Naoyuki Shimizu and hopefully overcome their craptacular offense. The Hiroyuki Kobayashi into the rotation idea was a mixed bag. Fortunately, Bobby Valentine has already seen the pit of hell as the Mets manager, so it shouldn't eat him up too bad when he seizes the reigns in Makuhari.
Yokohama actually has some promising players on the offensive side of the ball, though the most commonly heard words at Yokohama Stadium this season were "strike three!" Man, can these guys whiff. And when you have no pitching after Daisuke Miura, it's only a matter of whether you prefer margarine or butter on that toast.
As for Hiroshima, they're just bad. I wouldn't be surprised, provided that Yokohama finds more pitching overseas, to see them in last next year. Really, they would just do better shooting their bullpen except for Katsuhiro Nagakawa and Kanei Kobayashi and inserting the Koryo High School pitching staff in it. They sure couldn't do much worse. Yet, despite all that, nobody is talking of firing manager Koji Yamamoto nor have I heard of him being on the bubble if he doesn't produce like Stars boss Daisuke Yamashita is. What is up with that?
So let's go to the Japan Series and boy, was Sugiuchi a stud or what? And Tsuyoshi Wada wasn't far behind. As is often true in championship series, you often have guys at the back of the bus in terms of name recognition grabbing the trophies and if somebody told me during spring training that Sugiuchi, who was stumbling like Irabu attempting to field a bunt in his first year, would be the Japan Series MVP, I would have referred you to the nearest mental hospital. So once again, young pitching told the tale and the Hawks are Japan champions. If the Mahara kid they're drafting is as good as advertised and shores up that pen, Daiei will be headed back to the series, too.
Unfortunately, owners and front office officials, who should remain in the background, marred things by their utter stupidity. As is usual, the number one culpirt is Yomiuri owner Tsuneo Watanabe, who setoff a firestorm of bad feeling toward the Japanese game and his team with his manipulation of manager Tatsunori Hara's coaching staff, which eventually engendered Hara proferring his resignation.
And Watanabe made noises about compromising an agreement between MLB and NPB by saying that he would "give" Waseda University shortstop Takashi Toritani to the New York Yankees "for something in return" without posting him, igniting another firestorm that elucidated angry words from a stunned Senichi Hoshino as well as other ballclubs' brass and the Japanese public. Hoshino would, in an ironic twist of fate, end up with Toritani's signature on a Tigers contract, and Watanabe was tasting shoe leather again.
Aside form the Hara atrocity, the firing of Haruki Ihara at Seibu was the most mind boggling executive decision of the year. That was an internal political struggle that ultimately saw catcher Tsutomu Itoh retiring and replacing Ihara, who then moved on to Orix despite a pennant and a second place in his two years in charge in Saitama.
Leon Lee took over at Orix after Hiromichi Ishige was given the heave ho there and St. Francis would have hung himself after what Lee endured. Orix will need to develop young players because the veteran ones, with the exception of Yoshitomo Tani and Kazuhiko Shiotani, were pretty hopeless. Yet, Orix management fires a development guy. In Orix' defense, Ihara has a reputation for helping players refine their skills and getting the most out of them he can, but it was ultimately a CYA maneuver by the club's front office.
Koji Yamamoto also drew everything he could out of the ragtag bunch at Lotte and didn't deserve his fate, either. Hisashi Yamada apparently had communication problems at Chunichi and is known as a pretty hard charging guy, so he may have lost his underlings respect and in top down Japan, that just wasn't going to fly. On the other hand, it was Yamada who brought Hirai over and made him a frontline pitcher. No doubt, though, that Hiromitsu Ochiai, who succeeds Yamada, will be the most intriguing story going into the 2004 schedule.
So what will we see next season? I will tell you that sometime in March. Until then, keep up with all the latest Japanese baseball news here at Baseball Guru.com.
Replies: 2 comments
Hubby plays for the FIghters, we are looking for a 2004 season schedule in English, team does not have any! :) Thanks!
AM MIRABAL
Posted by Anne Marie Mirabal @ 11/29/2003 03:10 PM EST
Gary, Thanks for another great season of daily NPB reporting and analysis!
Posted by Mike Todd @ 11/01/2003 06:40 PM EST
