Full Name: Román Junior Méndez Pérez Name (Japanese): ロマン・メンデス Date of Birth: July 25, 1990 Hometown: San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic Family Status: Height: 191 cm (6’3″) Weight: 107 kg (225 lb) Throws/Bats: Right/Right Wore #: 20 Walk-Up Song: Hironobu Kageyama – Chala Head Chala Originally drafted by: Undrafted (signed with Boston Red Sox as amateur free agent, 2007) Joined the Tigers’…
The Hanshin Tigers announced on August 31st that they had successfully acquired the services of pitcher Luis Mendoza (33) from the Nippon Ham Fighters, who waived him late last week. Mendoza is a native of Mexico, and is in his fourth year in NPB. He will wear number 75, and is expected to step into…
Obon is the time of year that people all across Japan return to their hometowns and pay their respects to their dead relatives/ancestors. Roughly 100,000 fans paid respect to the not-so-alive Hanshin Tigers at Kyocera Dome over the course of these past three days. Game 104 – Tuesday 8/15. O NO! MEN, DEZ NOT GOOD!…
The long, hard road trip continues on with two crucial matchups. We put the series loss to the Yomiuri Giants in the rearview mirror, and try to remain positive in light of the bad news about Randy Messenger. On tap over the weekend was a crucial set against the hard-charging Yokohama DeNA BayStars. Getting swept…
Could the annual “Road of Death” road trip start anywhere worse than Nagoya Dome? Our boys have NEVER fared well there, except perhaps the last time we won the pennant, back in 2005. Having been completely humiliated the last time we faced the Chunichi Dragons in their territory, Hanshin needed to take at least two…
It’s All-Star Break… no real baseball to watch and analyze, so let’s look at our crop of pitchers and give a few brief comments about each of them. What’s your take? Whom do you like in those final couple of rotation spots? In the bullpen? The above “depth chart” is just my own observations, and…
Hanshin has finished its “Koshien” home portion of the exhibition schedule, and will not play on its hallowed grounds again until April 7 (vs. Giants, games 7-9 of the regular season). For now, it sees itself playing at Kyocera Dome (Osaka) for 2 before heading out on the road for 6, then returning back to Kyocera…
To see a few pictures of the game, click here Samurai Japan seemed to have found its stroke in a recent exhibition match against Chinese Taipei. With just two more practice games before the World Baseball Classic starts (on Tuesday, March 7), Hanshin was supposed to help them feel good about their lineup and pitchers…
* If you’ve read the reports for the 1st Cool, the 2nd Cool, the 3rd Cool or the 4th Cool you know this already. For those of you who are new to H-TEN… The Japanese use the word クール (from the French cours = course / installment / season) to divide the spring training sessions into parts. But since…
* The Japanese use the word クール (from the French cours = course / installment / season) to divide the spring training sessions into parts. But since クール is usually used to mean “cool” I have turned it into a cool headline. Hope the クール factor isn’t lost on you! Happy Valentine’s Day, my western world friends! Today…