You can read all about what H-TEN thought we needed to do in the draft (held October 26) in this piece. Below we give some important details about the seven guys who will join the fold in 2018. Round 1 – Kosuke Baba (馬場 皐輔) From: Miyagi Prefecture Date of Birth: May 18, 1995…
In order to determine whether or not a draft was successful, more often than not a few years are needed. Some players need a long time to develop. Others start out strongly and fizzle out quickly. But we can also evaluate a draft by the strategy the team has used, and whether or not they…
Last year I posted a list of 8 books that I had hoped to plow through during the offseason. I got through most of them, plus a few extras I picked up along the way, and just a day after the 2017 season ended, I completed the final book from that list. Well, I have…
As most of you know, the Hanshin Tigers experienced a long drought between 1986 and 2002. The team had just one 2nd place finish during that spell against 10 last place seasons. They became known as ダメ虎 (Dame Tora = Awful Tigers) and looked to be perennial losers until the end of time. Not only…
First of all, congratulations to the BayStars on their second straight trip to the Climax Series Final Stage! Hanshin lost to a strong team, and I hope they can take down the Carp next! Ryo (@baystarsEN) is back to share some of his thoughts on the series between Hanshin and his Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Our…
Host T-Ray recaps the First Stage of the Climax Series game by game, gives some general impressions of the games, names a Player of the Series, and discusses (with himself) what is lacking or missing from these Hanshin Tigers. What do you think they need to take that next step? Share your thoughts in…
See Recaps of Game 1 here, and Game 2 here. The Kansai area got way too much rain for baseball to have been played on Sunday or Monday. But due to poor scheduling plans, one of those days had a historically muddy game. After Monday night off, the teams played a winner-takes-all matchup on Tuesday….
Heading into last weekend’s playoff series at Koshien, the weather forecast looked quite grim. The best-of-three schedule was to see Game 1 played Saturday, Game 2 on Sunday, and Game 3 on Monday. Tuesday was a rain date in case it would be needed. The Final Stage of the Climax Series has been scheduled to…
In Game 1 of the first round of the 2014 Climax Series, Randy Messenger pitched six shutout innings and got support via a home run by Kosuke Fukudome in the sixth. In Game 1 of the 2017… (same as last sentence). You probably remember that 2014 is the last time these Tigers found themselves playing…
It was looking like the weather might wash away the entire weekend of baseball, but the skies held up as Game 1 between the Hanshin Tigers and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars got started. All the talk was that winners of Game 1 of this playoff series go on to the next round 95% of the…