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03/10/2008 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball Team Preview 2008: Hiroshima Carp"

Japanese Baseball Team Preview 2008: Hiroshima Carp
Glenn Davies, Tokyo Japan



CHUNICHI DRAGONS                                                                                          2008 SEASON TEAM PREVIEW

HIROSHIMA CARP TEAM PREVIEW 2008 SEASON 

Marty Brown returns for his third year in charge of the Carp, and possibly his last.There have been a few whispers that fan favourite Kenjiro Nomura is interested in trying his hand at management. Brown wont be helped by the bleak outlook for the Carp in '08 after the off season saw them lose their pitching ace to the Dodgers and their key hitter to the Hanshin Tigers. That said, the lineup looks respectable and HRs will likely continue to fly out of their smaller home park and if a few players can comeback from sub-par seasons they could rise to the heady heights of 5th. The rotation is the major concern, they have pinned all their hopes on the development of young pitchers and foreign pitching additions to compete. Overall the Carp look set for another cellar dwelling season.

PREDICTION: 6th in Central League

PROBABLE LINEUP                                                                         

Avg

HR

RBI

SS

Soyogi

.260

18

56

2B

Higashide

.269

0

15

3B

Seabol

.300

32

105

1B

Kurihara

.310

25

92

LF

Maeda

.285

15

71

CF

Ochoa

.300

7

31

RF

Shima

.228

14

48

C

Ishihara

.281

3

15

PH

Morikasa

.271

2

20

The Carp lost their best hitter when Arai signed with the Tigers in the off season and took his 30HRs and 100RBIs a year to their CL rivals. The Carp may feel that Kurihara can pick up the slack after setting career highs in HRs and RBIS in 2007. To compete however, the Carp will need fan favourites Shima and Higashide to play to their abilities, Shima set career lows in '07 in all offensive categories (Since being discovered in the minor league system 4 years ago). Hiroshima picked up Scott Seabol from the Florida Marlins AAA team where he showed great power, much will be expected of him. Ochoa joined the Carp mid-way through last season and didn't miss a beat, he looks likely to remain consistent to his .290-20-70 averages in Japan. The Carp have a good mix of veteran hitters (Ogata and Morikasa)and upcoming young talent to provide a strong bench in 2008. 

PITCHING

 

 

W

L

ERA

SV

SP

Otake

9

10

3.77

 

SP

Hasegawa

5

5

2.95

 

SP

Lewis

0

2

6.45

SP

Aoki

5

11

4.77

SP


Kozlowski

5

7

3.00

 

CL

Mizuguchi

4

7

3.06

31

The loss of Kuroda to the Los Angeles Dodgers have left the Carp with little to base their rotation on in 2008. Otake will become the ace through time served but questions abound as he's gone 25-35 in the past 3 years as a starter and has never shown consistency or dominated. Hasegawa offers little in the 2nd slot, he
won 5 in 2007 and its startling to see that that was a 5 year high after years of 2-10 type seasons. Lewis and Kozlowski are the hired guns that Carp hopes are pinned on, neither have proven form and only Lewis has experience in the majors (07 with the Athletics). Aoki had a strong rookie season going 5-11 in 29 starts, he could be the surprise package of 2008 if he can build up his stamina to go deeper into games than in 07. Mizuguchi was the highlight of 2007 and has established himself as the Carp closer after 2 years of good performances, his SOs per inning were well up and look for more in 2008.

 

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