JAWS and the rotation

Tigers rotation for the next stage of their campaign is planned to be

1. Iwata v Swallows
2. Uezono v Swallows
3. Shimoyanagi v Dragons
4. Atchison v Dragons
5. Kanemura v Dragons
6. Iwata v BayStars
7. Uezono v BayStars
8. Andoh v BayStars

It is interesting to see the appearance of Kanemura. For the Olympics when Kubota and Fujikawa are away the relief will be Williams, Abe, Watanabe and Atchison (Jeff Williams, Abe, Watanabe and Scott Atchison). Negotiations for the new foreign pitcher to cover Atchison's move to the relief are well advanced though no name has been mentioned as yet.

Surprised to see Atchison being moved, but it might work out. He tends to tire easily, so relief might be a better position for him. Hopefully Kanemura can step up and be the consistent starter he was with the Fighters. Glad to see Sugiyama not listed, as he doesn't really deserve another chance. Vogelson wasn't great this year, but I thought they gave up on him a little too early. Any updates on Fukuhara's recovery?

Nothing yet on Fukuhara - we can hope that he is ready for the Olympics. Vogelsong I think needed to show he had a lot more and didn't. He was disappointed to be included in the starting rotation but when he got the opportunity fully justified the lack of faith placed in him. I am pleased to see Abe getting his chance and I hope he can rise up to the challenge.

Do you have the official dates that players will be away for the Olympics? It's troubling that on top of the usual road of death we also have the Olympics to deal with this year. But I think our depth is one of our strengths, so hopefully we'll survive!

The baseball tournament runs from 13th August to 23rd August. I believe Hoshino-kantoku wants his team from 4th August so around then would be likely. The final 24 still have to be announced and this will happen in July.