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02/22/2008 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball Season Preview 2008: Yomiuri Giants"

Japanese Baseball Team Preview 2008: Yomiuri Giants
Glenn Davies, Tokyo Japan

YOMIURI GIANTS TEAM PREVIEW 2008 SEASON

Manager Tatsunori Hara returns for his third year as Giants manager (In his 2nd stint with the team) and 2008 will be a case of looking to complete unfinished business. Hara  led them to their 1st Central league crown in 5 years but was unable to reach the Japan Series after loosing in the newly introduced playoff format for the CL.  The chances of the Giants repeating as CL champs looks strong after they loaded up on Free agent talent from rival CL teams this off season, picking up one of the best foreign sluggers in Alex Ramirez, a solid starter in Seth Greisinger and the best closer in Japan in Marc Kroon. 

PREDICTION: 1st in Central League

Swing away looks to be the grand plan for 2008. The Giants lineup has at least 7 players capable of hitting .300 30 and 100. This could be the most powerful lineup ever seen in Japan or the biggest failure...it may depend on the 35 year olds- Tani, Ogasawara and Ramirez and how they hold up and the knees of Abe who has spent some time at first already..   Experience seems to be the missing ingredient on the bench with the exception of Shimizu who loses his spot to Ramirez. Speed is also lacking in he proposed starting lineup, so late inning or tactical replacements from the bench with speed should be the order of the day.  Tani is a bit suspect at the top of the order with a career type year in 07 that he's unlikely to repeat. 

A formidable rotation with the addition of Greisinger. All 5 starters could be again top 10-15 wins a piece and put the Giants in pole position to repeat as CL champs. Uehara returns to the starting lineup after the addition of Kroon and welcomed the return. Uehara is keen to prove he is the ace of the staff. That said he hasn't won over 10 games since 2004 (13) so the pressure will be on.  Utsumi's 3rd year as a starter brought him a career high in wins and his 2nd straight season of 12+ wins, the ceiling looks high for him. Takahashi had the breakthrough season in 07 after abortive starter/closer roles and poor results over the last 5 years. Greisinger has 30 wins in the last 2 seasons (14 in Korea in 2006) and looks like the Giants first savvy foreign pitching
addition in quite some time. Giant pitching over the last 10 years has been infamous for 8th/9th inning implosions and having fireballer Kroon on the mound in the 9th will certainly lower the confidence of opposition batters. A fierce lineup should they all stay healthy.