Giants Stumble Into The Season
Tokyo Giants
by "Sayonara" Shuto
Union League correspondent
Tokyo Yakyu
No Joy in Mudville
After
very nearly one-tenth of the season put away into statistics, only
one-tenth of the season, the hometown fans are starting to grumble.
Initially the fans were let down because Sahadahur Oh got away in the
Draft, and management did not seriously put any offers out to bring him
to Tokyo. Instead they presented the hometown faithful with the God of Batting,
Tetsuharu Kawakami. That mollified the raucus fans for a while, but
after 15 games Kawakami is batting .197 with 4 extra-base hits
and 7 RBI. The chant has already changing from "Ganbare Kawakami!" ("Good Luck, Kawakami!") to "Jigoku ni ochiro, Kawakami!" ("Go to hell, Kawakami!"). It is getting very ugly in the stands as the long-suffering fans expect a lot more from their Hall of Fame team.
Besides Oh, there were a few other players that got away as well.
Ichiro Suzuki & Hideki Matsui are two prime names often muttered
over china cups of sake, but fans also wonder why Hideo Nomo is still a
free agent.
A quick look at the stats shows some heartening figures: Furuta at
.381, Karita .348, Nomura & Yonamine .313. But Furuta and Nomura
are both catchers and can't play at the same time. Karita is the good-glove-no-hit
second baseman, and nobody expects that average to hold up for long.
Ok, so Yonamine's play is heartening, but only if one doesn't notice
that starting at .250 and going down to .104, batting averages we're
talking here, we can find six (6) regulars from the lineup. Seven
if we go down to .000, but Chiba got injured after only 4 at-bats so we
won't count him.
The Giants are 1-4 at home, and also 1-4 in one-run games -- two areas
in which improvement must manifest itself. As well, the team batting
average is an anemic .230 with an equally distressing .299 On Base
Average, while the team ERA has ballooned to 4.20 with only 7 Quality
Starts in 15 games. It doesn't help that rival Orix is on top of the
division standings. Look for some serious after-game practice sessions for the forseeable future.
2005 Tokyo Giants*
as of 4/20/2004
Name AVG OBP SPC G AB H 2B 3B HR R RBI BB K HBP IW SB CS
Furuta .381 .435 .381 9 21 8 0 0 0 1 4 2 1 0 0 0 0
Karita .348 .400 .609 12 23 8 1 1 1 3 5 2 2 0 0 0 1
Nomura, Ka .313 .389 .500 13 32 10 0 0 2 6 2 4 3 0 0 1 0
Yonamine* .313 .362 .469 15 64 20 2 1 2 8 8 5 7 0 0 1 0
Yamamoto, K .294 .400 .706 12 17 5 1 0 2 2 2 2 3 1 0 0 0
Ito .250 .500 .250 3 4 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 0
Nagashima, S .250 .318 .500 15 60 15 4 1 3 10 9 6 6 0 0 0 0
Betto .214 .274 .393 15 56 12 2 1 2 7 7 5 7 0 0 1 0
Toyoda .200 .333 .200 6 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0
Noguchi .200 .333 .800 3 5 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
Fukumoto* .200 .246 .217 15 60 12 1 0 0 5 4 4 4 0 0 2 2
Kawakami* .197 .269 .311 15 61 12 2 1 1 6 7 4 8 2 0 0 2
Ochiai .174 .310 .304 12 23 4 0 0 1 2 2 5 3 0 0 0 0
Yoshida .104 .196 .167 15 48 5 1 1 0 7 4 6 2 0 0 0 1
Chiba .000 .000 .000 2 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Kawai .000 .000 .000 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Pitchers .143 .143 .250 15 28 4 0 0 1 2 4 0 11 0 0 0 0
Total .230 .299 .375 15 512 118 14 6 16 61 59 49 61 3 0 5 6
2005 Tokyo Giants*
as of 4/20/2004
Name ERA W L S G GS CG SHO INN H R ER BB K HR GDP BF
Enatsu* 1.08 1 0 3 7 0 0 0 8.1 4 1 1 5 9 0 1 32
Takatsu 1.35 0 1 0 5 0 0 0 6.2 5 2 1 5 2 0 2 27
Katori 1.74 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 10.1 8 2 2 3 6 0 2 41
Wakabayashi 2.33 1 1 0 3 3 0 0 19.1 18 5 5 6 6 1 3 79
Egawa 3.18 1 0 0 3 3 1 0 17.0 16 7 6 10 11 1 1 74
Noguchi 3.65 1 1 0 2 2 1 1 12.1 7 5 5 2 3 2 0 45
Sugiura 4.00 1 1 0 4 1 0 0 9.0 8 5 4 3 5 0 0 39
Koyama 4.50 0 0 0 6 1 0 0 18.0 18 9 9 4 19 4 1 77
Sugishita 6.23 0 2 0 2 2 1 0 13.0 12 11 9 10 6 4 3 61
Starffin 7.50 1 1 0 2 2 0 0 12.0 12 10 10 3 9 5 0 51
Suzuki,K* 7.56 0 1 0 6 0 0 0 8.1 14 7 7 2 6 1 1 39
Kaneda* 16.88 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 2.2 6 5 5 4 3 0 0 19
Total 4.20 6 9 3 15 15 3 1 137.0 128 69 64 57 85 18 14 584
