It’s All-Star Break… no real baseball to watch and analyze, so let’s look at our crop of hitters and give a few brief comments about each of them. What’s your take? Whom do you like at the 8 fielding positions? The above “depth chart” is just my own observations, and isn’t necessarily the way the…
After a humiliating series sweep at the hands of these young upstart Dragons, Hanshin needed to get their revenge by winning their final two games before heading in to the all-star break. And although Nagoya’s boys came to Kansai on a two-game losing streak, they saved two left-handed import pitchers (against whom Hanshin has had…
Despite starting the month with two wins against the Swallows and a split series against the BayStars, one couldn’t help but think that this Hanshin team had still not yet found its way out of the post-interleague funk it was in. This series confirmed fans’ worst fears but ended with some hope and joy on…
The hard-charging Yokohama DeNA BayStars could leapfrog Hanshin with a series sweep in the two teams’ last showdown before the All-Star Break. But Hanshin was also showing signs of breaking out of their worst slump of the year, having won two straight to end the series against the Swallows. Which team would prevail? Game 73…
Hanshin has recently announced the signing of first baseman Jason Rogers. Apparently he is quite excited to be joining the team, as he answered a random fan’s direct messages on Twitter about his arrival date (before the deal was officially announced), and simply tweeted the words “Hanshin Tigers!!” a day later. (The tweet has since…
This isn’t funny anymore. The implosion against a powerful Rakuten Eagles team, I get. Same with the shutout the next day. Then losing two straight to Hiroshima is hard to stomach but also a plausible scenario, one we could stomach, to an extent. But the ONE RUN series against the Dragons? Sure, it was on…
With nine interleague wins and a weekend of clear skies in the forecast, it looked like the Tigers would have a couple of good things going for them as they headed back to league play: 1) A winning record against the stronger Pacific League; and 2) With no rain dates to make up, four straight…
← Click here for a team profile The last three seasons of cat fights, the Lions have remained kings of the jungle. As the Tigers try to claw their way back into the hunt for first, beating the team out of Saitama at home would be key, especially with the best team coming last on…
Interleague play gives Central League teams a chance, for nine games, to imagine what it must be like to have an extra big bat in the lineup. For teams who have been sacrificing sound defense for having a good bat in the lineup, this is a chance to shore up the fielding issues without losing…
← Click here for more information about the Orix Buffaloes The last time these two teams clashed at Kyocera Dome (in 2015), the results were disgraceful. Hanshin got outscored 26-2 over three games, and left Osaka for the comfortable confines of Koshien with bruised egos. Would this time be any different? Game 53 – Tuesday…