Yakyu: A Gaijin Takes Over A Japanese Team

[texasrangers13]

OOC: Just for reference, this will not be the most wordy/verbose dynasty report, but rather it will be styled in "dispatches" from the desk of the GM. My world currently has the full MLB and MiLB (with real players) and the NPB (and Ni-Gun) with fictional players, as well as the Atlantic League (Independent League), so that some free agents will appear on independent league or japanese teams. Roster limits are 4 foreigners in Japan.

January 15th, 2008

The Daily Yomiuri (Japan's English Newspaper)

ORIX continues bizarre moves, fires general manager Katsuhiro Nakamura. Name AMERICAN!?! new General Manager.

The Orix Buffaloes today named 31-year Kevin Walsh the new General Manager of the franchise, Walsh becomes the first Gaijin took become a General Manager of a Japanese team. He was previously an assistant to the General Manager with both the Colorado Rockies, and most recently the Pittsburgh Pirates of the MLB.

Kevin has agreed to keep us updated on his progress, and feelings about Japanese baseball as the season progresses...stay tuned.


I closed the paper, smiled, sat back, and thought "wow, what have I got myself into." I speak zero Japanese, though I will have an interpreter. To make things even weirder, I don't have a clue why the ownership group wanted me, but they claim that they want to bring an American spark to Japanese baseball. Eitherway, it will be a tough challenge, but I am up for it, and its bound to be interesting. Plus, Osaka is a pretty cool city.

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March 15, 2008

Wow, my first "dispatch" I am finally settled into my office high above the Kyocera dome, and I have to admit, I like it. I like feeling completely out of place, like no one understands me, its bizarrely awesome. The season starts in two weeks, and the team currently has no American's or Foreigners (gaijins) on the roster, mark my words, that will change shortly, MLB teams are beginning to release players, and they will become available to us over here. Until then, stick around!

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March 27, 2008

Finally an American has been added to the roster, Dan O'Dowd (Rockies GM and my former employer) called me late last week and told me he was releasing a pitcher named Zach McClellan, and that he felt Zach would enjoy the challenge of pitching in Japan. A couple days later Zach had agreed to join the club for around $400,000 for the season. He will work initially as the set-up man, but ultimately we would love to see him dominating these hitters. Also we announced the Opening Day Roster for the upcoming series with Seibu...Here it is...

OPENING DAY ROSTER

SP

13 Tadayoshi Kimura
08 Kuniaki Kiyomizu
20 Hirohisa Mochizuki
07 Mabuchi Narita
06 Shinsaku Okabe
22 Kyushichi Sato

RP
03 Tsutomu Hirose
15 Yushiro Kimura
51 Zach McClellan
14 Rikyu Oda
28 Ichizo Wada
11 Kohei Yamada
18 Rikyu Matsumoto

CA
16 Takuma Maruyama
23 Yakumo Suzuki

INF
24 Tadayoshi Yamaguchi
37 Iwane Kitakawa
29 Yoshihide Umaba
10 Hikaru Shimizu
90 Hyobe Takahashi
12 Osamu Samurakami

OF
25 Manobu Nakamura
27 Kyoji Tsuchiya
19 Ryoma Abe

Most Known Players
Okabe
Sato
Abe
Gato

Oldest Player
Abe 37
Youngest
Kitakawa, Oda 23

Foreigners
McClellan (Colorado Rockies 2007)

Wish us luck, the season is about to begin!

[CRTsports.com]

guddorakku

[Left-handed Badger]

Dont Japanese team get allowed 2 players (or 3?) from foreign lands?

[Carplos]

They're allowed four now.

[Mel Ott]

Interesting setup.

[texasrangers13]

Thanks guys, i'll get those first games up ASAP, they are allowed four now, with a maximum being 3 pitchers or 3 hitters. My team currently has two, one is a 19-year old out of the Dominican, but he is in the Ni-Gun at the moment, and may never see the NPB. I am going to keep this as realistic as possible. I've decided to list some of the big name signings by the other teams, and the Independent League (still debating if I should add the Frontier League as a Single-A level league).

March 28th, 2008

Today I received the list of other Gaijin's in the NPB for opening day.

Seibu
Hiram Bocachica
Wilson Valdez
Julio Franco
Steve Finley

Yakult
Dustin Mohr
Fernando Cruz
Russ Ortiz
Hector Rosario

Nippon Ham
Lew Ford

Hiroshima
Woody Williams

Chunichi
David Wells

That said I still expect many more to be coming, especially with the MLB's spring training ending in a day. In a little bit of sad news for you slugging fans, Sammy Sosa opted to not sign with us, we made a strong play, but he ultimately accepted an opportunity to join the Los Angeles Dodgers, can't say I blame him. Though he would have been a megastar here.

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Hey guys I am here in Seibu getting ready for the game, the lineups have been posted, and I am excited to see what the team has in store for this season...so without further adieu I present the 2008 Orix Buffaloes

Opening Day Lineup
Ryoma Abe (CF)
Manobu Nakamura (RF)
Shinocu Gato (DH)
Tadayoshi Yamaguci (1B)
Kyoji Tsuchiya (LF)
Osamu Samurakami (SS)
Hikaru Shimizu (3B)
Hyobe Takahashi (2B)
Takuma Maruyama (CA)

Shinsaku Okabe (SP)

--------------------------

Whew, first game of the year in the books, and I am more than happy to report a Buffs win. We pulled ahead in the 5th and never looked back winning 5-3. Some of the notable stats from the game, Okabe went 6 strong innings, before Sato and Matsumoto shut the Lions down for the final 3 innings. Seibu's starter Uenohara went 8.2 IP with 11 K's, but he allowed 5 earned runs, and took the loss. Seibu's Steve Finley went 1-2 but left the game with an injury. For us Abe went 1-3 with the a HR and 2 RBI. More later, looking forward to hearing from y'all!

[texasrangers13]

UPDATE March 30th-April 4th

Received some news about Steve Finley through the wires, his attempt at a comeback is over after 5 innings, he ruptured a disc in his back, and is done.
_________

The man who got me really encouraged me to come to Japan Bobby Valentine and his Chiba Lotte Marines are in town for the home opener, we are opening with the following lineup..

Yamaguchi (1B)
Umaba (2B)
Gato (RF)
Abe (CF)
Tsuchiya (LF)
Samurakami (SS)
Takahashi (3B)
Maruyama (CA)
Shimzu (DH)

Narita (SP)

Hmm 45 minutes later the top of the first is over, and we are down 9-0...ok, time to rethink the rotation.

Well the humiliation is over, 13-2...but would you believe they only outhit us 9-8???! Wow, Narita's line was 1 IP, 5 H 9 ER/R 3 BB 1 HR, 1 HBP, 1 WP, 1 Balk, -2 Game score. Mochizuki mopped up nicely throwing 6.1 IP outta the pen sitting down 7 via K, he did allow 3 hits, problem was all were home runs. Team is 1-2 now after splitting with Seibu.

After the game I did receive a little bit of good news, we've added a new gaijin, 40-year old lefty Mike Stanton has agreed to join the club and I think it'll be of great help to the organization. Around the league Byung-Hyun Kim joined Chiba, as did Jeff Weaver (as I said when MLB teams hit there regular season they will release players, leaving them available to us over here).

Speaking of Kim, he is on the hill tonight against us, we managed to hit him around real nice, 10 hits in just over 3 innings, 7 runs, and in the end we cruised 8-3. Zach McClellan got into the game, and pitched well throwing 16 pitches 10 for strikes, cannot complain about that. Abe's Home Run streak ended at 3 games, oh well, he went 3-4 anyhow and is hitting .400 early on the season. Tomorrow we face Jeff Weaver in the series finale, hope we can hit him around just as hard. We activated Mike Stanton today, he will wear #57 and will profile nicely as a lefty out of the pen. In order to make room for him we deactivated Hirohisa Mochizuki just because I knew he would be unavailable to make an appearance for the remainder of the week after throwing 6 and a third out of the bullpen.

We also shipped Takeo Hara (a disgruntled 3B who failed to make the team, and in turn refused assignment to the Ni-Gun team) we acquired 23-year old reliever Takaaki Sanu from the Yakult Swallows, Sanu is a power-arm who profiles as a future closer, but Yakult is desperate for an infielder and Hara fills that need. Sanu will join the bullpen, but will likely also spend some time with the Ni-Gun club.

To make room for Sanu we parted ways with Yushiro Kimura (who was on the opening day roster as a reliever but had yet to appear and had inquired about moving on).

Sanu will wear #32.

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I'm also happy to pass along a little bit of news for all you Met fans, Armando Benitez will be pitching for the Long Island Ducks this season!

Thiller tonight guys, just a quick report, we won 3-2 in 12 innings, Okabe pitched again on short rest and looked stellar. Mike Stanton threw 1 1/3 in his debut, and Takaaki Sanu got the win throwing 1 inning to end the game.

We've reached April 4th, and the Central League is now joining us in opening there season. We are 3-2 at this point and we begin a series against Nippon Ham...until next time, enjoy the game!

[texasrangers13]

April 4th-10th

NPH= Nippon Ham Fighters
FUK= Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

4th NPH L 5-6 in 10. Abe was injured in the first inning, hopefully its not that serious. McClellan is making Dan O'Dowd look good so far, he pitched 2 1/3 today and only threw 24 pitches, 18 of which were strikes. I love a guy who can pound the strike zone. Today we also added a little bit more America to the organization. Cisco Zamora has joined the team and will manage the Ni-Gun entry. He is well known for his roles in developing hitters, and this is his first managing job.

5th NPH L 1-0 Not much to say about today, we got shut down and lost a pitchers duel. Kimura falls to (0-2) with the lose but threw a really nice complete game tonight. Tomorrow night we are sending Narita to the mound and hoping he can turn things around, he got SHELLED his first time out!

6th NPH W 7-4 Good news, we got Narita 4 runs of run support in the top of the first, he is heading out to the bump right now for the start of the bottom of the 1st. 1-2-3 inning and we are off to a good start. Second inning was a bit rough 4 hits, 2 runs but we still lead 4-2. Through 4 Narita has allowed 9 hits, and was not helped by an error that led to an unearned run, we still lead though 5-4 after 4, there is activity in the bullpen however. Narita has been removed after 5 and 2/3 of an inning, he leaves with two men on, but has a 7 to 4 lead. He did allow 12 hits however, and didn't look that sharp overall. In the ninth its still 7-4 and Rikyu Oda has given way to the closer Rikyu Matsumoto. Matsumoto closes it out (2 SV) and the victory is secured. Fukuoka is in town tomorrow for a three game series.

7th FUK W 4-3 Not that much to report, Okabe pitched amazingly again and won (2-0), McClellan really struggled today, getting only two outs surrendering 3 run, but in the end a win is a win, nothing to complain about. Matsumoto locked down save number 3. We did make a roster move today, designating Narita for assignment, and in turn re-called Hirohisa Mochizuki. Mochizuki will take Narita's spot in the rotation. Mabuchi Narita leaves the big club after throwing 6 2/3 innings over two starts allowing 17 hits and 3 walks to go along with 13/12 (R/ER) and a 16.20 ERA. He walked 3 and struck out only 2.

8th FUK L 8-5 Tonight was just one of those night, we got close to the lead but never took the lead, and then in the ninth Mike Stanton allowed 2 insurance runs to plate and we couldn't mount the comeback.

9th FUK L 4-3 We are counting on Kyushichi Sato tonight, he struck out 11 in 8 innings in his season debut and we are hoping for a little more of the same. He did his job but left after 7+ trailing 4-3, added 9 more strike outs today giving him 20 on the year in only 15 innings. Heading into the bottom of the ninth down 4-3 and the 7-8-9 hitter due up, this will be a challenge, especially against Tohaku Kono SoftBank's hard-throwing closer. Two outs, Abe up, Kitakawa (Pinch Running for the catcher Suzuki) standing on second. The pitch, swung on and lifted to center, easily caught ending the game and the hope.

10th Today got off to a rousing start, I arrived in the office at 740 AM, and found that I already had a memo on my desk. The Yokohama Baystars have claimed Mabuchi Narita, and we will allow him to go, quite frankly, Narita is not worth that much to us, especially after his start to the season, I wish him well though. No games today, but that won't keep me from expressing my frustration in losing 4 games this past week. It wasn't that we didn't play well, it was that we lost 4 games by a total of 6 runs. 3 games were 1 run games. We are 5-6 to start the year, 2 Games Back. Here's to prosperity.

[texasrangers13]

April 11th-17th

TOH= Tohoku
CHI= Chiba

11th TOH W 6-4 We will be facing Jason Simontacchi tonight, the former big leaguer is 1-1 so far in his first stint here in Japan. We are resting slugger Shinobu Gato tonight, he has had a terrible start to the year going 5 for 37. Hopefully the day off will get him back on track. After starting off in a 3-0 hole we bit and clawed our way back into the game and tied it at 4 in the 8th. Then with two on the Catcher Maruyama delievered a huge two-out bases clearing double. 1-2-3 Matsumoto shuts them down (4th save) and the win is in the books. Mike Stanton picks up the lucky dog win (1-0) and pitched well in his one inning of work.

12th TOH L 9-1 Okabe makes his fourth start of the year tonight, and Sanu (who is listed as the sixth starter) will be available out of the pen. Okabe struggled a little, and picked up his first loss of the year (2-1), McClellan however could not find the strike zone for the life of him, and when he did he got pounded. He recorded two outs, allowed 2 hits, 2 inherited runners to score, 2 additional earned runs and walked 3. His ERA has skyrocketed to 9.64, and worst of all, after pounding the strike zone in his first three appearances he threw just 50% of his pitches for strikes today.

13th TOH W 4-3, Boy oh boy what a difference a day makes, Shinobu Gato jacked a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth, and Mochizuki threw his second consecutive complete game since being re-called (1-1). Counting his one Ni-Gun appearance all 3 of his starts have been complete games, and his one bullpen appearance was an excellent 6 and 2/3 inning outing. We are heading to Chiba for a 3-game series, both of the teams are 7-7 and we are hoping to change that. The upcoming pitching matchups are below (we are listed first)

Sato (0-1 3.60 ERA) vs. Ota (2-1 1.67 ERA)
Kiyomizu (1-1 4.30 ERA) vs. Ishihara (1-1 3.86 ERA)
Kimura (0-2 4.05 ERA) vs. Sele (1-2 5.64 ERA)...yes Aaron Sele.

14th CHI W 5-4, Down 2-0 against the ace of staff Ota we never panicked and Shinobu Gato drove 4 runs home, once in possesion of the lead, we squandered the initial lead we took before plating two in the 8th. Matsumoto threw another perfect 9th to record save number 5.

15th CHI L 10-1 We are facing 19-year old Tokuma Ishihara tonight, he has been pitching quite well and beat us in the first meeting. Then again he had a 9 run lead after one inning...onward to this game, he had 3-runs of support after one tonight, jeez this kid gets all the breaks. We really struggled overall tonight and it showed, Oda out of the pen allowed 4 runs in 2 innings (3 HR's). We surrender 5 homers in the game, ouch.

16th CHI W 5-2 If earned runs were all that mattered we tied, 2-2, thankfully for us unearned runs count as well. Kimura threw 8 innings of solid, quality baseball, and Matsumoto (Mr. Perfect) went 1-2-3 yet again for save #6. 5 of his six saves have been perfect "clean" saves. The other he only allowed one baserunner. Not bad at all.

17th Leaguewide day off, and a little bit of news, Matt Clement (who hasn't pitched since 2006) has joined Tohoku, Clement was released by the Cardinals after they activated from the disabled list. Saitama Seibu is up next. The Ni-Gun Surpass team is 9-2

[texasrangers13]

April 18th-24th

SEI= Seibu
FUK= Fukuoka

18th SEI W 4-3 don't ask why but Julio Franco is leading off for Seibu...wow. Perfect no more, though we won 4-3 it was not without a little late drama. Matsumoto (7 saves) allowed back to back hits, before a sac bunt moved both runners into scoring position, but Matsumoto buckled down and recorded the outs to pick up the save. Okabe (3-1) pitched a solid 7 2/3 for the win.
During the game we lost OF Kyoji Tsuchiya to a torn calf muscle he will miss 2 to 3 months. He was batting .246 with 2 HR 12 RBI at the time of the injury. He was placed on the 60-day disabled list. Jun Eida was recalled to fill the void. Eida will likely start in RF, leaving Nakamura as the utility outfielder.

19th SEI W 4-0 Sato threw 7 1/3 allowing only 3 hits and 0 ER along with 9 strike outs, Mike Stanton finished the game out and because he entered when it was 2-0 he recorded a save (1 SV). Jun Eida batting second went 1-4 with 1 RBI in his season debut.

20th SEI W 6-4 Goin for the sweep, success. Mochizuki threw 8 innings (though not a complete game) (2-0), and Matsumoto locked the door in the ninth with his 8th save in as many appearances. The BIZARRE box score line of the belongs to Shinobu Gato who went 0-2, with 3 RBI's (sac fly, and two bases loaded walks.) By the way over in the Central League, David Wells lost again falling to 0-4 on the season.

21st FUK L 6-2 After the sweep we opted to go with Sanu as the starter tonight in order to keep Fukuoka from seeing the same pitchers again, Sanu threw 5 innings, but allowed 9 hits 2 walks and 6 ER and took the loss (1-1). Fukuoka's starter Kato absolutely dominated throwing a complete game striking out 12.

22nd FUK W 4-3 in 10, back and forth ball game was tied through eight, before Shinobu Gato went yard for the second time on the night (2, 3), and Matsumoto shut the door (9 SV) striking out Matt LeCroy with two on to end the game. McClellan gets the win despite being erratic throwing only 4 strikes. Wada allowed 4 baserunners in his inning of work, but worked out of a bases loaded jam to send the game to the ninth tied.

23rd FUK W 7-1 Okabe takes the hill again hoping to improve on his last start, Okabe (4-1) sure did improve on his last start, firing a complete game allowing only 5 hits and one run. The team had 7 extra base hits tonight and really poured it on early dominating Sakei who was previously 3-0 at home. During the game catcher Tukuma Maruyama suffered a strained calf muscle and was placed on the 15-day DL post-game. Katsumoto Fujihara was added to the 40-man roster and his contract was purchased in order to back-up the backstop. Fujihara had just signed a minor league deal last week. He will wear #20.

24th League-wide off day, hoping to catch up on some paperwork.

We sit at 14-9 overall, riding a 7-2 streak as of late, and are in first place in the Pacific League.

[texasrangers13]

April 25th- May 1st

NPH= Nippon Ham
TOH= Tohoku

25th Day off

26th NPH L 6-3 Fujihara is behind the dish tonight, making his NPB debut. Sitting here staring down at the field the scene below looks as follows, its 4-3 Fighters, but a two-out RBI single makes it 6-3, Sato's innings go to waste as he falls to (2-2).

27th NPH W 7-2 Tadayoshi Kimura threw a complete game allowing 7 hits 2 ER striking out 6 and walking 2. Kimura is now 2-2. Suzuki doubled twice and Samurakami jacked a grand slam in the 7th. Post-game I received news that the Yokohama Baystars had made a big-name signing adding Tim Wakefield to the roster. Wakefield was released by Boston earlier this week and said that Japan seemed like a different challenge. In other news Steve Kline, who was signed by the Long Island Ducks blew his arm out and is done for the season. The reason I mention this is that my good friend Jonathan Quick is the general manager there. I'll keep you posted on Long Island's progress throughout the season! Maybe Jon might even write an entry or two. Okabe takes to the hill tomorrow looking for win #5.

28th TOH W 3-2 Okabe (5-1) dominated for 8 innings before yielding to Matsumoto who allowed an unearned run on an error by Abe. Matsumoto did pick up his league leading 10th save. The loss was handed to Jason Simontacchi (2-3).

29th TOH W 9-7 in 10. The game was 6-4 Tohoku in the after 7, but we scored 2 in the 8th and 3 in the 10th to help secure the victory. Yamada was the beneficiary of the extra runs (1-0) and Matsumoto picked up his 11th save, despite allowing a run for the third consecutive outing. He is 11/11 in save opportunities.

30th TOH W 2-0 Going for the sweep! The Golden Eagles starter Michio Wantanabe has had some extremely bad luck of late he is 1-4 to open the year, with a 1.97 ERA. Tough luck, tonight he will face Kuniaki Kiyomizu. Post-Game Wantanabe's ERA stands at 1.95, and his record? 1-5. Ouch, another tough luck loss for him. For us Kiyomizu picked up the win his second (2-2) throwing 8 1/3 innings of 3 hit baseball before Mike Stanton came in and picked up his second save. Matsumoto was unavailable tonight after pitching in the three of the last four games. April is over, we have a day off to begin May so lets review the world of baseball.

To end the month we sent Jun Eida back to Kobe, and promoted Shojiro Ito who was 22 for 74 (.297) with 4 HR 17 RBI for Kobe. Ito will wear #27 for Orix

WORLD OF BASEBALL REVIEW

Nippon Professional Baseball

JPL Orix leads Nippon Ham by 1 game, and hold an 18-10 record.
The leading hitter is M. Rin of Nippon Ham batting .374. Two Chiba players share the lead with 7 Home Runs. Okabe (Orix) Apodaca (NPH) and Ota (CHI) all share the lead for wins with 5 a piece. Matsumoto (Orix) leads with 11 saves for the month. Ota of Chiba Lotte leads the ERA race with a .98 ERA.

JCL Tokyo Yakult leads Hanshin by 1.5 games, with a 14-8 record thus far.
Yomiuri's Iijima leads all hitters with a .410 batting average, 3 players are tied with 6 homers. Ito (CHU), Kato and Kawano of (YAK) all have 4 wins. 3 pitchers are tied with 4 saves, and Ota (yes its a different Ota) of Hiroshima leads the ERA race in the central with a .43 ERA.

Major League Baseball

AL
Baltimore (.5 up on TB)
Cleveland and Minnesota (Tied)
Los Angeles (6.5 games up on Texas)
5 teams tied for Wild Card
Leaders
AVG Iwamura (TB) .379
HR Morneau (MIN) 9
Wins 3 Tied at 4
Saves Rodriguez (LAA) 12
ERA Colon (BOS) 1.10

NL
Philadelphia (.5 up on Atlanta)
Milwaukee (.5 up on Pittsburgh)
Arizona and San Diego (tied)
Wild Card is also tied between SDP and ARI
AVG Holliday (COL) .385
HR Dunn (CIN) and Uggla (FLO) 10
Wins Hamels (PHI) and Webb (ARI) 5
Saves Lyon (ARI) 10
ERA Nolasco (FLO) 1.11

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

Season begins on May 1st

Minor League Roundup
BEST TEAM Burlington Bees 24-2
WORST TEAM Norfolk Tide 4-23
MiLB HR LEADER: Joe Mather (Quad Cities/St. Louis Low-A) 8 HR

[texasrangers13]

May 2nd-8th

NPH= Nippon Ham
FUK=Fukuoka

2nd NPH L 6-4 Alot of good happened, and alot of bad happened, unfortunately more bad than good happened and we lost. Sato fell to (2-3). Nippon improved to 12-3 at home, and is now sitting one game behind us for the lead. Tomorrow night Okabe takes the hill, hopefully with good results in store as he looks for his league leading 6th win.

3rd NPH L 5-3, We left a runner in scoring position in the ninth with no outs, and left runners in scoring position in 4 innings. Not a way to win a game. Okabe (5-2) struggled more than usual and picked up the loss. The final game of the series will determine first place.

4th NPH L 7-2 After losing the first two games to Nippon Ham, the Fighters will go for a sweep. They sent Devern Hansack out to the mound to face the B's Tadayoshi Kimura. Kimura (2-3) got rocked though and the Buffs suffered there first 3-game losing streak of the season. Kimura went 1 2/3 allowing 7 earned before Sanu relieved him and dominated the next 6 1/3. Shinobu Gato went yard for the 5th time and is now second on the team in hitting, not bad for a guy who was benched after starting 5 for 37. Since then he is 27 for 64.

5th NPB-Wide Day Off, the MLB league office also announced the draft pool today not that it has any bering on us what-so-ever.

6th FUK L 4-0 Well the streak continues, despite a decent outing out of Mochizuki (2-1) we could not even put a run on the board. Oh well I suppose better luck next time.

7th FUK L 6-2 Its a battle of similar names as S. Kato duels K. Sato today. Sato is hoping to end the Buffs 4 game losing streak during which they have fallen 3 out of first place. As is becoming all to frequent we drop another game Sato falls to (2-4).

8th FUK W 2-1 In 17 (yes I know in Japan you tie after 12, but its not an option...oh well) Hoping to avoid back to back sweeps the team has opted to go with Okabe tonight. Pre-game Maruyama (Starting Catcher) was activated from the disabled list and Fujihara was sent back to Kobe. Shojiro Ito entered the game as a defensive replacement in the 13th, won the game in the 17th with a suicide squeeze. Some numbers from this game. 5 runners were caught stealing, 4 were successful. Okabe went 7 innings striking out 6. Fukuoka's pitchers recorded 19 strike outs. Zach McClellan threw 6 innings out of the bullpen allowing just 1 hit and 1 walk striking out 3. Fukuoka's Kono struck out 8 in 5 1/3 out of the pen and took the loss (0-2). Orix's Oda threw 3 innings of 1 hit 2 walk ball and recorded the win (1-0). Maruyama freshly off the DL went 0-5. 3B Takahashi was 1-7 with 4 K's. Fukuoka left 22 on base, Orix left 21 on base...but in the end a win is a win.

Current Record 19-15 2 GB

Interleague Play begins next!

May 9th L 5-4 Interleague Play is underway we are taking on the Chunichi Dragons (defending NPB Champions). Kimura is on the hill against former Yankee Jeff Karstens, Also I submitted a bid for a former big name American prospect who was recently released, we shall see how it goes. Yoshioka went yard for the Dragons (his 10th) and that held up as the Dragons and Karstens won 5-4

10th L 6-4 Its official we have signed John Van Benschoten and added him to the active roster (#15). He replaces Sanu who was sent to the Ni-Gun for game experience. He starts tonight. Shunsen Sawada (Kobe SP) was also released today. He had made two starts and failed to get out of the first in either. JVB started off nicely working quickly through 3 innings allowing only a leadoff double, Then the home runs started coming. He allowed 3 in total, and finished with the line of 5 1/3 IP 6 H 6 ER 2 BB 4 K 3 HR. McClellan closed the game out with 3 2/3 of 1 hit 3 k ball.

11th L 2-8 David Wells is 0-7...hope to make that 0-8...well Wells got a win...hard not to when you have an 8-0 lead. Despite the sweep, Shinobu Gato was the Player of the Week, congratulations Shinobu! Yomiuri in the Tokyo Dome is up next.

12th OFF

13th YOM L 3-1 Well we have fallen to .500 (19-19) and are 0-4 in interleague play. We scored one in the first and then couldn't support Okabe after that failing to score again. Despire another solid 7 innings from Okabe (5-3).

14th YOM L 7-4 Kyushichi Sato attempts to keep the team above .500, in this game the pitcher is batting. Sato (2-5) struggled mightly though and the team dropped a 5th straight game. The bullpen pitched pretty well, but when the starter cannot get out of the 4th inning, your in trouble.

15th YOM W 8-1 Tadayoshi Kimura did exactly what we asked of him, he dominated. He went all 9 innings walking 2 allowing 5 hits and striking out 7. He allowed only one earned run,

16th HIR L 6-4 We begin a series with the Hiroshima Carp hoping for a little better luck, we are sending JVB back out to the mound, and we are hoping for a better outing this time out. John looked nice but ran into trouble in the 7th and couldn't get out of it. Mike Stanton then got roughed up and left injured. Overall JVB's start was one of the better starts we could have asked for. The trainer said Stanton has a strained rotator cuff and will be out 7-8 weeks. In need of another pitcher we've made a move for another MLB vet. We will know tomorrow if he will be joining us.

17th HIR L 11-6, Mochizuki (2-2) pitched really well but the bullpen allowed 8 runs (3 earned) over 1 2/3 and the team really struggled overall and all over. The catcher Maruyama made two errors (3, 4) but went 2-3 with 2 RBI (11, 12). We did officially replace Mike Stanton on the active roster with a hard-throwing young RHP Rocky Cherry. Rocky has pitched in 24 games in the MLB, including two this season. He is a fastball, sinker, slider pitcher who will help the team in a latitude of ways. He will wear #38. We also announced a personnel maneuver Taisuke Minami (the former manager has been reassigned to Kobe where he will become the new manager there), Cisco Zamora (the former Ni-Gun manager) has been promoted and is now the new manager. We felt that the change would spark the team especially now that we are 20-22 and clearly in need of a spark. The move came as the team fell to 3.5 games back. Zamora was 16-12 with the Kobe team that was rated the team most likely to take last in the pre-season. At the time of the move the team was batting .258 (8th overall) and the team's ERA was 4.19 (10th overall). We also fired Takeshi Nakashima (the pitching coach), Nakashima was unwilling to take a reassignment and as such was let go.

18th HIR W 6-1 Tonight we send Okabe to the mound, in the first game under Zamora, Okabe dominated throwing a complete game, and taking only 101 pitches to do so. He allowed only 4 hits and 1 earned run.Yamaguchi (1B) went 2-4 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI (7 HR 24 RBI). After the game the team was introduced to the new pitching coach, 38-year old Julio Rosales. Rosales is another American added to the staff, and quite frankly thats the way we wanted it.

19th Day Off

20th YOK L 6-1 We send 2-5 K. Sato with a 5.23 ERA out to the mound to duel against Tim Wakefield who is 3-1 with a 3.81 ERA, a 1-1 game in the 9th became a 6-1 final score. Sato (2-6) allowed three 9th inning home runs, but did strike out 11 in his complete game.

21st YOK W 5-4 in 11. In was 4-0 Yokohama in the 8th before we plated 4 in the bottom half. After that not much to say about it, we win on a sacrifice fly. Rocky Cherry threw 3 innings of great relief. And Wada (1-1) picked up the win.

22nd YOK W 5-3 In the battle of Gaijin's JVB went 6 innings allowing 9 hits and 3 walks, but only 3 earned runs earned him a quality start. Matsumoto earned his 12th save and first save since April 29th (In only his second appearance since then). JVB (1-2) had his best performance of the year at any level.

23rd YAK L 5-1 GO GO SWALLOWS...we are in Tokyo to take on the Swallows in the beautiful outdoor air. The Swallows are 26-14 on the season and present a huge challenge for us. Okabe takes the hill in a battle of the Aces as he faces off against 8-1 Shinji Kawano. A Takahashi error in the fifth led to 3 unearned, and ultimately the loss (Okabe is 6-4 now). Swallow ace Kawano (9-1) left the game injured.

24th YAK W 4-2 Mochizuki (3-2) out-dueled Russ Ortiz for 7 solid innings and then Yamada and Matsumoto locked the door with a clean save (13th). Abe went yard twice (including the first pitch of the game) (4, 5). Only Russ Ortiz drove in runs for the Swallows.

Prior todays game an assistant brought me a memo with the names of the all-stars from the Ni-Gun all-star game listed. We had a couple players,

1B Noriaki Tanaka (32 Games .295 Avg 6 HR 22 RBI)
SS Hitomaro Shimizu (32 Games .343 Avg 3 HR 13 RBI)
LF Toshinobu Ozaki (32 Games .292 Avg 3 HR 15 RBI)
SP Shihei Kato (7 GP 51 1/3 IP 3-2 4.03 ERA)
SP Masami Uchida (6 GP 47 1/3 IP 2-3 2.85 ERA)
RP Tsutomu Kawano (8 GP 8 1/3 IP 5 SV 4.32 ERA)

Post-Game Performances
Tanaka 1-3
Shimizu 2-4 1R 1K
Ozaki 0-2 1RBI 1 BB 1K
Kato 1IP 1 K
Uchida DNP
Kawano .2IP 0H

25th YAK W 4-2 in 11. With a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the eight and two runners on, and two out the closer Matsumoto was brought in to shut the door, but instead he promptly blew the save allowing a run scoring single to the NPB's best hitter Shuji Takaji. Tsutamu Hirose pitched the final 2 innings perfectly and earned the win (1-0).

26th OFF

27th HAN L 7-0 Kimura (3-5) allowed only 3 hits, problem was he also allowed 2 HR, and 3 ER. Wada was then unable to keep the Tigers from prowling and allowed 4 runs in 2 innings. On the other side Ueda (8-3) allowed 10 hits in 7 innings, the only problem was he also struck out 11.

Post-game we sent Hikaru Shimizu to Kobe for conditioning, and recalled, Hitomaro Shimizu (yes, similar names). The new Shimizu was batting .331 with a .383 OBP 3 HR 14 RBI. The thing we feel he adds to the team the most though is his speed, he was 8 for 10 at stealing. He will fill the backup shortstop/defensive specialist role, and will wear #20. The old Shimizu was sent down with the intention of re-building his confidence in hitting. He was batting .196 AVG, .233 OBP, but the problem was 41 strikeouts in only 163 At Bats. He just was not producing to the teams liking. We hope he returns to the club motivated.

28th HAN W 4-0 Despite putting up only 5 hits, we scored 4 runs, and Okabe did his job, shutting out the Tigers and winning his 7th game, (7-4). In the process he struck out 9. He is now 11 for 13 in getting quality starts.

29th HAN W 2-0 JVB gets his fourth start and has the chance to impress, so far he has made progress in each start. Van Benschoten was down right filthy tonight, he mixed his pitches extremely well and we posted back to back shutouts. JVB allowed only 3 hits, and 3 walks over all 9 innings.

30th YOM W 1-0 Sato got rocked in his first appearance against Yomiuri. but tonight Sato got himself back into fine form. The pitcher walked only 1 and allowed only 2 hits. He got better as the game went on and struck out 8. The win moves him to 3-6 on the season. By the way, we slid back into first with the win, and we are now 28-25. We are 8-3 since the managerial move. And since the pitching coach change we have had 3 shutouts.

31st YOM L 4-0 The quest for four straight shutouts ended in the top of the fourth. The only other problem, we failed to score, that makes it five straight games we have played in that we've failed to score. I really feel that we need an offensive spark. I just don't know where to find one.

END OF MAY 28-26 (FIRST PLACE)

WORLD OF BASEBALL UPDATE

NPB

JPL
Orix 28-26 (1 Game Ahead of Nippon Ham)
JCL
Yakult 31-17 (2.5 games ahead of Yomiuri)

Leaders
JPL
AVG: Rin .338 (Nippon Ham)
HR: Takahashi 16 (Chiba)
RBI: Takahashi 50 (Chiba)
Wins: Ota 8 (Chiba)
Saves: Matsumoto 13 (Orix)
K's: Kato 95 (Fukuoka)
ERA; Ota 1.40 (Chiba)

JCL
AVG: Maruyama .378 (Yakult)
HR: Yoshioka 16 (Chunichi)
RBI: Hara 44 (Yomiuri)
Wins: Kawano 10 (Yakult)
Saves: Ito 11 (Chunichi)
K's: Kawano 106 (Yakult)
ERA: Kawano 1.64 (Yakult)

MLB
AL East: Baltimore 31-25
AL Central: Cleveland 31-25
AL West: LAA 36-21
Wild Card: Boston 31-27, Tampa 30-27
AVG: Vidro .373 (SEA)
HR: Morneau (MIN)/Ortiz (BOS) 16
RBI: Ortiz (BOS) 48
Wins: Wang (NYY) 8
Saves: Rodriguez (LAA) 18
ERA: Carmona (CLE) 2.91

NL East: Braves 35-22/Phillies 35-22
NL Central: Brewers 33-23/Pirates 33-23
NL West: Padres 40-17
Wild Card: Braves/Phillies 35-22, D-Backs 34-22
AVG: Utley (PHI) .362
HR: Howard (PHI) 24
RBI: Howard (PHI) 52
Wins: Hamels (PHI) 10
Saves: Lyon (ARI)/Riske (MIL) 18
ERA: Nolasco (OAK) 1.29 WAS TRADED TO OAKLAND, active NL Peavy (SDP) 1.95

Atlantic League Of Professional Baseball
Patriot League
Long Island/Newark 16-13
AVG; Salazar (LI) .390
HR: Liao (LI) 13
RBI: Liao (LI)
Wins: Pacheco (LI)/Watson (NEW) 5
Saves: Miller (NEW) 8
ERA: Pacheco (LI) 1.76

Freedom Division
Lancaster/Southern Maryland 19-10
York is the overall worst team 4-25
AVG: Mills .423 (SMD)
HR: Pryor 14 (LAN)
RBI: Pryor 31 (LAN)
Wins: Warren (SMD) 5
Saves: Mirza (CAM) 8
ERA: Bowers (SMD) 2.30

Overall Best In the Minors
Record: Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Low-A) 49-7
Worst Record: Omaha Royals (KCR AAA) 11-46
Most HR: Argenis Reyes (Savannah NYM Low-A)/Joe Mather (Quad Cities STL Low-A) 14

June 1st

Many Roster Moves to Announce today. First and foremost we purchased the contract of Jason Hirsh (SP) from the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League. This will be Hirsh's fourth stop of the season. He started the year in the MLB with the Rockies. There he threw a 1-hitter over 8 innings, and picked up the win. Later he was sent to AAA Colorado Springs where he continued to dominate, in 3 starts, 24 1/3 innings he allowed only 9 hits, and 1 earned run (0.37 ERA). In the end however the Rockies felt that they had no room for him under there new plan of attack and released him. He was signed that day by the Bluefish. With the Bluefish Hirsh struggled to find his rhythm going 0-2 with a 6.62 ERA. He had expressed an interest in moving his career to Japan and we are pleased to have him joining the roster. With the acquisition though we will have 4 ACTIVE American Pitchers, which is illegal, as such another move was made to quell this issue.

For now Hirsh will begin with Kobe, this avoids the roster issue. That said we have no intentions of allowing Hirsh to stay in Kobe for that long, I suspect you will see him on the main roster by weeks end.

1st YOM L 6-0 The shutout streak continues. Kimura struggled with his location leaving way to many pitches over the middle of the plate. Allowing 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings is not a good way to do it. Jason Hirsh made his first appearance for Kobe, allowing a first inning run before settling into a groove. He picked up the loss, but the team failed to score. He went 7 strong innings, allowing only 2 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 5.

2nd DAY OFF

3rd Yakult L 6-3 Abe (6th) led the game off with a homer, but we didn't score again til there were two outs in the ninth, as we dropped the first game of series. Okabe (7-5) left the game after the 3rd with Back Spasms, and Wada pitched the next 5 innings.

4th YAK W 4-1 Sato threw 8 innings of solid baseball and picked up his 4th win (4-6). Matsumoto closed the door with another "clean" save his 14th. Shinobu Gato went 2-3 with a double, and homer (9) and 2 RBI. Of his 15 save opportunities 8 are clean save where the inning went perfectly.

5th YAK L 3-2 Rocky Cherry surrendered a run in the ninth, and we stranded a man on 3rd with one out as Yakult snuck in and stole the win. Cherry falls to (0-1). JVB struck out 11 in 6 2/3.

6th HIR L 8-2 A 6-run Hiroshima sixth did us in as the Carp won while beating up on starter Kimura (3-7). Umaba had an eventful game going 3-5 with an rbi and had an error in the field that led to two unearned runs.
Post-game we announced that we have signed former MLB OF Mitch Maier, Mitch had been playing for the Royals AAA team. He has been assigned to Kobe where he will convert to pitching. The plan is currently to have spend a month developing in Kobe before considering him for promotion.

7th HIR L 2-0 Mochizuki (3-4) Tossed 7 2/3 of solid baseball, but it wasn't solid enough as the two earned runs was enough to cause the fourth loss in five games. Hiroshima's Nakano pitched a complete game shutout allowing only 3 hits.

8th HIR L 2-0 back to back losses where we have a quality start, but not a win. Kiyomizu making his first start in almost a month pitched six extremely quality innings but fell to (2-4).

9th DAY OFF

10th HAN W 5-4 in 11, we plated 3 in the bottom the ninth to tie game, and then Ryoma Abe delivered a walk-off RBI single. We set down 15 Tigers via strike out. Rocky Cherry threw 4 innings striking out 5 before yielding to eventual winner Yamada (2-0).

11th HAN W 4-0 Two third inning home runs propelled the rest of the game as John Van Benschoten threw yet another great game improving to (3-2) as he threw a complete game shutout allowing only 4 hits 1 walk and striking out 7. JVB's last three starts have seen him throw two shutouts, and overall throw 24 2/3 allowing 2 runs, 14 hits, 7 walks, and 22 strike outs. He now has four consecutive quality starts in a row.

12th HAN W 5-4 With Matsumoto on the mound, and two men in scoring position, a balk was called scoring a run, moving a man to third, and causing blown save number two. One pitch later Hanshin scored and took a 4-3 lead. And with Ryoma Abe batting and Shimizu the PR on first, Abe ripped a shot down the line that just cleared the walk. His 8th home-run of the season was a walk-off shot that saved the win! Tadayoshi Yamaguchi is 7 for his last 13 after starting the month 2 of 25.

13th YOK L 6-5 Okabe returns from his back spasms to make this start. He only missed one start, and 8 total days. Okabe struggled a little in his return, but didn't take the loss and T. Hirose (1-1) struggled early and took the loss, and blown save (2). We left two in scoring position with one out and Gato and Yamaguchi due up.

14th W 7-3 YOK tied 1-1 we brought on Yamada who in 18 1/3 innings had allowed only one run, but unfortunately that doubled tonight as he allowed two runs in the bottom of the eight. We two outs and the bases loaded, Pinch Hitter Nakamura drove in a run, then Abe drove a double to the wall to score two more. Then Samurakami drove two more in. Gato then singled driving Samurakami in. Yamaguchi then doubled, before the inning ended. Yamada wound up the lucky winner (3-0) and despite walking four in only an inning of work managed to keep the team in it. Mochizuki pitched quite well overall.

15th YOK W 6-4 Facing Tim Wakefield again he had our number in the first start. We will see how tonight goes. Nakamura comes through once again, Nakamura drove in two with two out in the top of the ninth, driving in a run in the clutch once again (second straight game.) Matsumoto came in and struggled a little but got his 15th save without too much drama.

16th DAY OFF

17th CHU L 6-4 Nakamura tripled in a run in the ninth, but the team was already down 6-2 at the time. JVB struggled pretty badly tonight and picked up the loss (3-3). David Wells won again moving to (3-8) after starting winless in his first seven starts.

18th CHU L 4-3 in 15. After playing 7 and a half innings in a row of scoreless baseball, we brought Kiyomizu in for what we were hoping was long relief, 4 pitches later, the Pacific Leagues #1 Slugger driller a "seat-banger" his 20th for the walk-off win. Okabe threw 6 quality innings before being replaced by Rocky Cherry who went 5 flawless innings, before handing it to Yamada who threw 3 more flawless innings. But Kiyomizu was hit quickly falling to (2-5).

19th CHU L 4-2, and yet again Chunichi delivered a walk-off blast. Bryan Johnson delivered and the Dragons completed the sweep. Kimura threw 8 innings of two hit baseball, but in the end it was nullified when McClellan allowed the 2-run shot.

20th DAY OFF

21st DAY OFF

22nd DAY OFF

23rd Though it was a day off, there was a move that was made. The Seibu Lions sold 26-year old starter Naboku Shimizu to the Washington Nationals organization. Shimizu will begin in AAA Columbus, but will likely appear in the majors before seasons end. Washington also sold Jordan Zimmerman a 22-year old starter who pitched in AA, and AAA this season back to Seibu as the transfer fee. Zimmerman is expected to fill bullpen role with Seibu.

24th SEI L 10-2 Speaking of Seibu they are the opponents . Its hard to win when you cannot get outs. Seibu scored 8 runs in the eighth.

25th SEI W 2-1 Back on track as Sato struck out 10, allowed 4 hits and 1 run in 7 innings to move on to (5-6). Yamada set the stage for Matsumoto who record save 16.

26th SEI W 8-1 Tonight we face Jordan Zimmerman the guy who was just acquired from the Nationals organization. We never really figured Zimmerman out, but we sure figured out the bullpen, plating 6 in 2 innings off them to win the game 8-1, Kimura (4-7) and Hirose who came in when it was 2-1 finished the game with a save (1).

27th Off-day, we did announce that Tsunesaburo Fukuda (a reliever who had pitched for Rakuten's Ni-Gun team had signed with us and will go to Kobe.) Fukuda was 1-3 with one save for Rakuten Ni-Gun, he pitched in 12 games and went 21 innings striking out 22 and walking 13. We hope that he will be able to add to the team late in the season.

28th CHI W 8-0. We rapped out 18 hits, and everyone except Maruyama had at least one. Gato was 4-5 with 3 RBI, Kitakawa and Abe were each 3-4. Best of all Van Benschoten pitched his third shutout of the season and dominated to move to (4-3).

29th CHI L 3-2 Okabe duels the best pitcher in the NPB Ota tonight. We defeated Ota in the first meeting. Okabe was dominating 8 innings, 2 hits, 1 run, but Zamora opted to bring in the closer who got two quick outs before allowing a homerun, a double, and a single scoring two and putting us in the loss column. Shinobu Gato was named player of the week again going 7-14 with 2 HR's and 5 RBI's in 4 games.

30th TOH W 5-2 Sato pitched well and rolled to evening his record out at 6-6. Satsumoto finally got back on track picking up another clean save (17) and throwing a ton of strikes.

END OF JUNE 38-38 (1 GB)

WORLD OF BASEBALL UPDATE

NPB

JPL
Fukuoka 39-38 (1 Game ahead of Nippon Ham and Orix)
JCL
Yakult 43-27 (1 games ahead of Yomiuri)

Leaders
JPL
AVG: Matsumura .323 (Chiba)
HR: Takahashi 22 (Chiba)
RBI: Takahashi 66 (Chiba)
Wins: Ota 11 (Chiba)
Saves: Matsumoto 17 (Orix)
K's: KatoYamaguchi 141 (Fukuoka)
ERA: Ota 1.68 (Chiba)

JCL
AVG: Takaji .362 (Yakult)
HR: Takaki 22 (Yakult)
RBI: Takaji 63 (Yomiuri)
Wins: Kawano 14 (Yakult)
Saves: Yamaguchi 17 (Yakult)
K's: Kawano 147 (Yakult)
ERA: Kawano 1.62 (Yakult)

MLB
AL East: New York 51-35
AL Central: Cleveland 53-32
AL West: LAA 48-36
Wild Card: Boston 45-41, Baltimore 44-40
AVG: Vidro .345 (SEA)
HR: Ortiz (BOS) 29
RBI: Ortiz (BOS) 71
Wins: Wang (NYY) 13
Saves: Soria (KC) 25
ERA: Pettitte (NYY) 2.98

NL East: Braves 52-32
NL Central: Brewers 48-35
NL West: Padres 55-30
Wild Card: Phillies 51-33, D-Backs 51-33
AVG: Guzman (WAS) .352
HR: Howard (PHI) 32
RBI: Howard (PHI) 70
Wins: Hamels (PHI) 12
Saves: Lyon (ARI) 26
ERA: Peavy (SDP) 1.80

Atlantic League Of Professional Baseball
Patriot League
Long Island 31-26
AVG: Liao (LI) .369
HR: Liao (LI) 22
RBI: Liao (LI) 63
Wins: Pacheco (LI) 9
Saves: Barry (LI) 14
ERA: Pacheco (LI) 2.79

Freedom Division
Southern Maryland 37-21
AVG: Cantu (CAM) .346
HR: Pryor 24 (LAN)
RBI: Pryor 54 (LAN)
Wins: Warren (SMD) 9
Saves: Mirza (CAM) 14
ERA: Bowers (SMD) 2.64

Overall Best In the Minors
Record: Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Low-A) 74-9 (33 GAMES UP)
Worst Record: Tacoma Rainiers (SEA AAA) 17-69
Most HR:Joe Mather (Quad Cities STL Low-A) 20

1st TOH L 3-1 Mochizuki (3-5) fell but pitched an average game. Wada struck 4 out, but also put 4 on. The win moves Simontacchi to (6-10) and gives him his first win against Buffs.

2nd TOH W 11-4 An 8 run eighth put us over the top as we cruised to the victory. Yamaguchi was 3-5 with 3 RBI and a 1 HR (10). Takahashi was 3-5 with 2 RBI. Kimura got the win (5-7) and didn't strike anyone out, that's a rare feat for a starter. Cherry went 2 innings and struck out 4, quality out of the pen.
Made a move post-game adding Noriaki Tanaka to the NPB roster and demoting Iwane Kitakawa. Kitakawa was hitting .162 and was mainly pinch-running. The team felt he was not adding as much as the power-laden Tanaka will add. Tanaka, a first basemen, will likely split time between first and DH. He was hitting .281 overall, but .329 against righties, with 12 home runs and 40 rbi's. We feel his power and ability to get on base will add alot to this team. He will wear #35. Kitakawa will play in LF and RF while with Kobe and we hope that he is sufficient there when he returns to us. We also activated Mike Stanton, and in turn in order to keep the roster limits proper we sent Zach McClellan to Kobe. Zach was the only reliever with a negative VORP, he also had the highest ERA 4.71.

3rd DAY OFF

4th FUK L 2-1 Okabe falls to (7-7) Tanaka went 0-4 with 2 k's in his debut. We are wanting Stanton to pitch alot in the next two weeks so that we have a better idea of what to do with Zach.

5th FUK L 5-1 Tanaka went 0-3 and is now 0 for his first 7 with 3 total strikeouts. I still suspect he can hit at this level but he might just be a little green. Stanton worked 2 good innings in relief as Sato fell to (6-7).

6th SEI L 5-2 Once again we fell behind quickly and never made it back into the game, JVB threw a below average game, and allowed alot of runners (14) over 7 innings. Stanton then followed suit allowing 6 more runners.Despite the 20 runners We held them to 5 runs, but we couldn't manage more than the two we got. JVB fell to (4-4).

7th SEI L 12-3 Bad things come in 5's...Seibu had 5 runs in the first two innings, 5 stolen bases, and we had 5 errors.The Lions DH Hirose went 4-4 with 4 runs and 6 RBI's. He went yard twice (2, 3). Kimura got rocked and fell to (5-8). We've lost 6 out of 7. The good news is Kyoji Tsuchiya (the LF from opening day, and a solid player) has been activated from the DL. Shinjiro Ito was sent back to Kobe.

8th SEI W 10-3 We busted out tonight, 15 hits, 10 runs, nice. Takahashi went 0-5 but other than him the team was 15-34. Mochizuki went 8 and is now (4-5).

10th DAY OFF

11th NPH W 6-3 We gave Okabe good run support early and he held on we won easily, and Wada recorded a "soft" save (1). Umaba was hurt while running the bases and left early.

12th NPH L 8-3 Sato got beat up and left before the fifth. Wada and Stanton pitched the remainder of the game allowing 4 baserunners and one run. The only bright part was Tsuchiya went yard (his 3rd) and has been playing well since returning.

13th NPH W 8-6 JVB pitched decently and picked up the win (5-4) 7 of our players had RBI's and we got to there starter Suzuki in the first.

14th DAY OFF

15th TOH L 4-3 Pre-game today we added a reliever Eitoku Fukui who was recently cut by the Fighters, with the Fighters and the Ni-Gun club combined he was 2-2 with 6 saves in 28 games. His ERA with the Fighters was 4.73. He is a guy with great movement, and may profile as a lefty specialist. Ichizo Wada was sent to Kobe to make room for Fukui who will wear #51. We don't want Wada to say in Kobe, but we want him to work on cutting back on the hits allowed (37 in 27 2/3 innings). Opponents are hitting .339 against him. Kimura struggled with consistency again and fell to (5-9). Tayayoshi Yamaguchi did go yard (12) but all in all the team under performed.

16th TOH L 6-5 Okabe pitched well, but in the end Yamada and Kiyomizu did not and the team dropped the game. Perhaps worst of all Tsuchiya was hurt once again we will re-evaluate him shortly.

17th DAY OFF

18th DAY OFF Good news Tsucihya was cleared and will not miss any time thanks to the off-days.

19th CHI L 8-1...but if earned runs were all that counted the score was 2-1...ouch, the errors will kill you mark my words on that. Fukui made his debut going 3 innings allowing 1 hit, hitting one batter, and walking one. He allowed 2 unearned runs, and struck out one. We have fallen 5 games back, and the team is getting frustrated. We really feel like we need one or two big bats to make this work. Post-game we made a trade with an MLB Organization, Tadayoshi Kimura who had been 5-9 with a 4.31 ERA was sent along with Eitoku Fukui to the Boston Red Sox organization, as per NPB rules laid out pre-season we can make trades with MLB organizations if they show interest in players, that said the NPB can veto any deal. This deal they agreed with Kimura is a 30-year old vet, and Fukui is a 38-year old vet, both of the them were eligible to go to the MLB when there contracts ended, and as such we opted to acquire a power bat in 1B/OF Jeff Bailey. Bailey is a 29-year old 1B who is very capable of playing RF or LF. He is a patient hitter who can make contact and pop homers. We feel the move will help Bailey resurrect his career. Between two levels (AA and AAA) this season Bailey was hitting .240 with 10 homers 45 RBI's. The thing we like is the 45 walks to 49 k's, and .321 OBP. We also recalled Sanu to even the roster out. Jeff Bailey arrived at Osaka airport earlier this morning and will be donning a Buffaloes uniform with the #18 on it tonight.

20th CHI L 6-7, with two outs and nobody on with a 1-run deficit Jeff Bailey stepped to the plate, he ripped a single up the middle. Samurakami ripped one to the wall but the RF snared it ending the game. Bailey was 2-4 with 2 K's and walk in his debut. JVB got hit around again and fell to (5-5) rumor has it that Jason Hirsh may be replacing him in the rotation momentarily. Indeed after the game I sent JVB to Kobe (though he may not pitch there) and recalled Zach McClellan, Zach will be up for two games before Jason Hirsh will take his place and make the start.

21st CHI L 5-4 With two on and no one out you'd expect the chances of scoring to be high...but we failed to plate even one and dropped the game 5-4. Jeff Bailey was 1-3 with 2 walks and 1 RBI, McClellan went 4 innings in relief striking out 5 and allowing only 1 hit. Okabe struggled and went only 4 innings allowing 6 hits and 5 earned runs. He fell to 8-8 on the season.

22nd SEI W 6-5 We hung tough throughout the game and thanks in part to R. Abe's 4-6 performance and a tough as nails bullpen striking out 4 of the 6 they faced. Cherry set-up the transition getting to Matsumoto who picked up his 19th save. Post-game we made the flip as planned promoting Hirsh and sending McClellan back to Kobe. That said the plan is for Hirsh to make one start.

23th SEI L 4-3 Jason Hirsh said he wanted the ball in the eight and we gave it to him, he went all eight but yielded 6 hits. Tsychiya broke up the no-hitter in the eight, and Shinobu Gato went yard in the ninth to make the game close...but that only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.

24th SEI Today the NPB all-stars were announced, making the team from Orix were the following.

SP Shinsaku Okabe (22 GS/GP 8-8 3.17 ERA 150.1 IP 146 K)
RF Shinobu Gato (93 games .275 AVG 14 HR 50 RBI)
SS Osamu Samurakami (92 games .249 AVG 7 HR 43 RBI)
1B Tadayoshi Yamaguchi (90 games .303 AVG 13 HR 50 RBI)
CF Ryoma Abe (91 games .281 AVG 8 HR 33 RBI)

Matsumoto in my opinion is the teams only snub, and quite frankly Samurakami and I agree, he is not an all-star.

25th DAY OFF

26th ALL-STAR GAME!

Abe is batting second, Gato is batting third, Yamaguchi is seventh, and Samurakami is ninth.

Okabe pitched the 5th inning.

The Central league scored 5 in the last three innings and won the game by the score of 8 to 6.

Abe was 1-2 with a walk
Gato was 0-3
Yamaguchi was 1-2 1 R 1 RBI
Samurakami went 2-4 with 3 RBI 1 HR 1 run and an error (the error led to two unearned runs that cost the team the game.)
Okabe threw 1 inning allowing 1 hit and 1 walk
Samurakami was named the MVP in a losing effort

27th DAY OFF

28th DAY OFF

29th FUK L 7-3 Well it was 0-0 after 5, 3-2 after 6, and 7-3 after 7, ouch. Sato allowed 7 runs but only 3 were earned. Stanton came in with the bases loaded, but two runs scored. Eitherway outside of Yamaguchi the team was dead and couldn't score.

30th FUK L 8-2 Again it was close, and then blow out, six innings in he had a quality start, one inning later he had allowed 7 runs. The bats were alive, the runs were not. Jeff Bailey was 2-4 bumping his average to .333.

31st DAY OFF

August

WORLD OF BASEBALL REVIEW

ORIX RECORD: 43-52

JPL
Chiba Lotte (50-43) (2.5 up on Fukuoka) (8 up on Orix)
JCL
Yokohama (55-37) (1 up on Yomiuri)

Leaders
JPL
AVG: Matsumura .325 (Chiba)
HR: Takahashi 32 (Chiba)
RBI: Takahashi 93 (Chiba)
Wins: Ota 14 (Chiba)
Saves: Matsumoto 19 (Orix)
K's: Yamaguchi 169 (Fukuoka)
ERA: Ota 2.00 (Chiba)

JCL
AVG: Ogawa .350 (Chunichi)
HR: Yoshiokai 25 (Chunichi)
RBI: Hara 72 (Yomiuri)
Wins: Kawano 14 (Yakult)
Saves: Yamaguchi 24 (Yakult)
K's: Kawano 191 (Yakult)
ERA: Kawano 1.98 (Yakult)

MLB
AL East: New York 69-41
AL Central: Cleveland 66-43
AL West: LAA 58-51
Wild Card: Boston 61-49
AVG: Vidro .346 (SEA)
HR: Ortiz (BOS) 40
RBI: Ortiz (BOS) 102
Wins: Wang (NYY) 16
Saves: Soria (KC) 31
ERA: Pettitte (NYY) 2.76

NL East: Braves 66-43
NL Central: Pirates 61-49
NL West: Padres 73-37
Wild Card: D-Backs 66-43
AVG: Utley (PHI) .353
HR: Howard (PHI) 38
RBI: Jones (ATL) 85
Wins: Webb (ARI) 14
Saves: Lyon (ARI) 32
ERA: Peavy (SDP) 1.83

Atlantic League Of Professional Baseball
Patriot League
Somerset Patriots 44-40
AVG: Liao (LI) .355
HR: Liao (LI) 27
RBI: Liao (LI) 84
Wins: Pacheco (LI) 13
Saves: Barry (LI) 19
ERA: Pacheco (LI) 2.62

Freedom Division
Southern Maryland 51-33/Camden 51-33
AVG: Mills (SMD) .352
HR: Pryor 33 (LAN)
RBI: Pryor 77 (LAN)
Wins: Warren (SMD) 11
Saves: Mirza (CAM) 22
ERA: Green (SMD) 3.16

Overall Best In the Minors
Record: Delmarva Shorebirds (Baltimore Low-A) 99-12/Idaho Falls Chukars (KC Rookie) 44-2
Worst Record: Orem Owlz (7-36) LAA Rookie
Most HR:Joe Mather (Quad Cities STL Low-A) 31