June 20th Fossum v Shimizu - Humiliation

Fossum is clearly not a Ichi-gun pitcher. He was in trouble from the start and never recovered. Now one might want to ask why is Fossum persisted with when Uezono is messed around? In Uezono's last start he pitched three scoreless innings before giving up two solo home runs (Hawks) in the fourth. He was then taken out as "punishment" and hasn't started since. Instead he is being used as a relief pitcher and one suspects that if Tigers weren't so desperate for pitching that he would be in ni-gun. Fossum didn't manage a scoreless innings until the third when one imagines BayStars were just taking a rest break. However, this whole pitching display was so inept that one wonders. It is only one game but Mayumi should be required to explain why. The relief doesn't respond and the coaches don't seem able to bring out their talent with any consistency. I have mentioned before how Mayumi seems to be basically clueless about using the relief pitching and events like the day before seem to be more luck than actual judgment. Tsutsui has deteriorated since last season and now seems to have no confidence. Uezono doesn't care and Kanemura didn't seem ready. Mayumi needs to do some careful thinking and somehow restore his relief pitching's confidence. Currently, Tigers are comfortably second but they do need to tighten up considerably if they are to challenge the Giants and to eliminate performances like this. Of course, as a Tigers fan, I think that Tigers should have won both matches but given the BayStars recent record this is not an unrealistic perception. But for Tigers to win their pitching needs to perform and for their pitching to perform it needs to be valued. The Tigers pitching in this game was an embarrassment, there is no other way to put it and it wasn't that the batting didn't perform - they produced six runs but with the profligacy of the pitchers it was irrelevant. Scores

          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  R  H E
Tigers    1 0 0 0 2 0 0 2 1  6 13 1
BayStars  2 1 0 3 2 3 3 0 X 14 18 0

Starting lineups

Tigers
1. Toritani (Short)
2. HIrano (Second)
3. Murton (Short)
4. Arai (Third)
5. Brazell (First)
6. Johjima (Catcher)
7. Lin (Left)
8. Sakurai (Right)
9. Fossum (PItcher)

BayStars
1. Shimozono (Right)
2. Ishikawa (Short)
3. Uchikawa (First)
4. Murata (Third)
5. Sledge (Left)
6. Ohnishi (Centre)
7. Takeyama (Catcher)
8. Castillo (Second)
9. Shimizu (Pitcher)

The start was bright as Toritani hit a solo home run off the first pitch of the game 1-0 Tigers. Hirano and Murton both failed but then Arai drew a walk and Brazell hit to second. It needed Johjima to do something but he flew out to centre to end the innings. BayStars first was everything they could have wished for. Fossum started his dreadful display by walking Shimozono. Ishikawa bunted Shimozono to second but then Uchikawa hit his second pitch to left for a two run home run 2-1 BayStars. It had taken Fossum eight pitches to destroy the lead. Murata was next but he would have a poor game and miss out on the run feast. Sledge hit to centre but didn't advance beyond first as Ohnishi grouned out. Honours were definitely with the BayStars. Tigers second was a waste. Sakurai hit and was bunted to second by Fossum. Toritani walked and then Hirano hit to short and beat the throw to load the bases. Murton was next and he hit straight to second for the final out. Toritani at three would have been a better option but Mayumi is adamant that Toritani should stay at first. In BayStars second Fossum drifted once again and gave up a solo home run to Castillo 3-1 BayStars. Arai led off Tigers third with a nice two base hit. Shimizu wasn't exactly pitching that wonderfully either. He stayed on second as the next three batters failed to budge him. Another chance wasted. Fossum then pitched surprisingly well and retired the three batters in BayStars third in order. This though might have been a pause before the onslaught.

Shimizu then retired the batters in order in Tigers fourth which was a useful innings. Fossum returned for BayStars fourth and immediately made a mess. His first pitch to Sledge was hammered into the back screen for a solo home run 4-1 BayStars and if Tigers wanted to salvage the game they needed to pull Fossum. However, he stayed in and Ohnishi hit. Takeyama bunted him to second and then Castillo hit to left which put runners on the corners. Shimizu then hit a sacrifice fly which really shouldn't have happened. Once again this would have been a good point to remove Fossum but he was left in by Mayumi. He repaid the faith placed in him by giving up a left centre two base hit to Shimozono which given its location was enough for Castillo to get home 6-1 BayStars, runner on second. This finally got through to Mayumi who brought on Tsutsui. He got Ishikawa to ground out and end the innings. At this stage things weren't that bad - Tigers have actually overturned bigger leads than this against the BayStars and the latter are a rather abject side. However, the relief pitching need to do their job and this they conspicuously failed to do. Tigers fifth was actually an indicator of what might have happened. With one out Murton hit to short who wasn't the most efficient in that position. Arai failed but Brazell hammred a two run home run 6-3 BayStars. Johjima hit a two base and then Lin hit to right. One would have thought that Johjima should have tried for home but he didn't. Tigers needed the runs and a risk here would have probably paid dividends. Shimozono isn't that strong a thrower and so the chance was wasted - runners on first and third. Sakurai then grounded out to short to end the innings. What was to follow as shocking (if you're a Tigers fan) and rather enjoyable (if you're a BayStars fan). Having fought back and reduced the margin the pitchers threw it all away. Tsutsui gave up a hit to Uchikawa. He made second on Murata's first ground out and then Sledge hit again. Uchikawa was round the bases and home 7-3 BayStars, runner on first and exit Tsutsui. Either Tsutsui is ready or he isn't. If he isn't he shouldn't be in the top team. Uezono replaced him and showed a total lack of interest. He gave up a hit to right which put runners on first and second. Then he gave up another hit to Takeyama which brought another run home 8-3 BayStars and runners on first and third. Castillo flew out to right but BayStars didn't try for the sacrifice fly. Then Shimzu grounded out to end the innings. Shimizu then walked Toritani and Hirano in Tigers sixth with one out. At this point Obana decided that Shimizu had done enough and brought on Sanada. He got Murton to hit into a double play and another chance was lost. This was Murton's second failure this game with runners on. For BayStars sixth, Tigers pitcher was Kanemura. He has been in the top team for quite a while without getting an appearance and one would have thought that Mayumi would have used him earlier just to turn his arm over. Kanemura is now back in the second team after this display but once again he was either ready or not ready. If he wasn't ready what was he doing in the first team? Shimozono grounded out but Ishikawa hit - runners on first and second. Murata was next and he grounded out which moved Ishikawa to third. Next was Sledge who accepted the gift and slammed his second home run of the game - this time a three run 11-3 BayStars. Ohnishi walked but then Takeyama flew out to end the innings.

Sanada continued pitching for Tigers seventh and gave up a hit to Brazell. However, Johjima hit into a double play and ended that chance. Kanemura returned for BayStars seventh when one would have thought that Mayumi would have replaced him but he didn't - maybe he had no one else. Mayumi did replace Johjima with Komiyama as catcher and one has to ask again. Where is Kanoh? He is the better catcher by far and one should be using one's best players not indulging one's little fancies and fads. Whether it was Komiyama or Kanemura though the pitching still stunk and the BayStars continued to hit freely. Castillo reached first on a Hirano error. Fujita (pinch hitter) hit and then so did Shimozono which loaded the bases. Ishikawa was next and he hit to right which brought home two runners 13-3 BayStars, runners on second and third. Uchikawa grounded out to short and the runner on third made home successfully 14-3 BayStars, runner on second. Murata flew out but then Kanemura walked Sledge and Ohnishi to load the bases again - the pitching was that poor. Finally, and somewhat fortuitously Takeyama grounded out to end the innings. With Tigers eighth Obana decided to try Kobayashi. He started with a two base hit to Lin and Mayumi sent Kanemoto to the plate for his pinch hit appearance. This was definitely worthwhile as Kanemoto blasted a two run home run 14-5 BayStars. Still the BayStars had a lot of runs to play with. Takahashi (pinch hitter) struck out looking and both Toritani and Hirano flew out to end the innings. Kubota is back in the top team now - his last second team appearance wasn't inspiring but he's needed. He gave up a third hit to Castillo - Arai not being able to get the throw away in time. Then he struck out Fujita. Kubota being Kubota he had to work a wild pitch into the innings and this took the runner to second. Shimozono walked and the runners made second and third on Ishikawa's ground out. Kubota then struck out Yamazaki (replacement first) swinging to end the innings. He had shown more application than the feeble pitchers before him. Ejiri pitched the Tigers ninth and started by walking Murton. Arai though hit into a double play which wasn't what the doctor ordered. Brazell was next and hit his 22nd home run of the season - a solo due to no fault of his own 14-6 BayStars. Komiyama was the final batter and he grounded out tamely to third to end the game. BayStars victory.

Tigers had been hammered - even the six runs couldn't hide this. Pitching had not been up to standard apart from Kubota and BayStars had taken full advantage of this unexpected windfall. They had hit with runners on but Tigers hadn't. Murton needs to go back to lead off batter and Toritani to third. A quick look at their RBIs (Toritani 40, Murton 32), OBP (Toritani .337, Murton .392) and hits (Toritani 58, Murton 90) shows that Toritani is much more effective at driving in runs whilst Murton is more effective at getting on base. Brazell now leads the Central League in home runs (22) just one ahead from the Giants Abe. He is back to his old form and hitting more frequently with runners on. Tigers want to challenge for the pennant and if so they need to improve radically on this performance. One can only hope that this is a flash in the pan but BayStars are the team who can feel best about the two games played over the weekend.

Agree with pretty much everything you said here, Christopher - this was a brutal pitching performance from top to bottom. I don't think Mayumi can be faulted for his use of relievers here, though - you don't want to waste your better arms pitching innings that aren't crucial to the game's outcome. Pulling Fossum after the double was about right - maybe he could have hooked him earlier, but the 1-2-3 inning in the fourth showed that maybe he was settling down. When he hooked him at 6-1, though, I was thinking at home before Tsutsui even came on that he was the right choice to pitch. Bringing Nishimura or Watanabe on down by 5 is a waste of their arms - at a certain point the lesser arms in the bullpen have to eat some innings. Same went for Kanemura and Kubota - games where the score is out of reach is the right time for a manager to give auditions to the guys who wouldn't get them normally. Tsutsui and Kanemura pitched poorly, Uezono looked like he didn't want to be there and Kubota buckled down and got out of a jam. Guess who just moved up the bullpen heirarchy a bit. This kinda thing hurts, but it has to be done sometimes, and 6-1 is the game to do it. Also, it's fine to criticize the manager - and often you're right to, he DOES have a horrible habit of leaving Kubo in too long - but at some point it comes down to the players' performance. Mayumi's pitching just didn't come through for him today.

Also, I agree with you about Toritani and Murton, but the stats you use are a bit misleading. RBI is just a flawed stat, from an analytical standpoint. Remember that for most of the season Toritani batted out of the 3-hole and Murton hit leadoff, meaning that Toritani probably had lots more runners aboard for him to drive home, which would explain his higher RBI total. More telling would probably be their batting average with Runners In Scoring Position (RISP) - Toritani's hitting .333, Murton .268. That's a much better indicator of who should be batting where, and the numbers still show that Murton-Hirano-Toritani would run much more smoothly than the other way around. Good call.

Good post and thanks very much for the RISP figures which back up what I thought. Kanemura actually did quite well as a reliever last season but both him and Tsutsui should have been able to pitch better (one doesn't expect them necessarily to be perfect) but I suspect that there is more to things than just a bad day. As I mentioned before Mayumi is quick to punish and this I think causes problems because the punishment is sometimes unjustified. The relief does not seem to be happy at the moment. Take for example Egusa. Normally, a cheerful pitcher he did not looking happy at all on the mound. Uezono has had problems with Kubo (pitching coach) for a long time and it seems is not going to bend. I suspect he would like to be traded. I think he, in particular, is getting a very raw deal and putting in a starter who is more fallible is not exactly good management. If Tigers can persist with Nohmi they can certainly persist with Uezono. My feeling, and its just a feeling, about the management and coaching is that the task has just gotten beyond them.

Excellent point - I look at young players like Maeda Kenta in Hiroshima and Chono in Tokyo and wonder where the Tigers' young superstars are. Player development is a big part of management's job, and the Tigers seem to be pretty bad at it recently. The decision to swich Kanoh to the outfield, for instance, hasn't really been paying off. I really think he'd benefit immensely from a few years under Johjima's wing. They're remarkably similar players and I think Joh would be a fantastic mentor for him, but instead we have Komiyama in 1-gun while Kanoh tries to learn how to catch fly balls on the farm. Hard to understand.

Too many of Tigers management decisions on player development haven't been paying off. We had the attempt to convert part of the bullpen to starters. Then we have the Murton, Toritani reversal. Yano is pretty much finished and was out-performed by Kanoh last season. From what I've seen Kanoh and Johjima get on very well. Kanoh took over for one innings with Egusa and called very well. Johjima looked very pleased and congradulated him at the end of the innings. As you said - Johjima would make a good mentor for him and Kanoh has the makings of a very fine catcher.