September 16th and 17th - What to make of it?

The final series of the must win games was over with Tigers taking 4 games and losing 5. What this means is anyone's guess. Iwata wasn't on form in the second game of the rubber and gave up two runs in the first three innings. Tigers though managed to bounce back and take a one run lead. So far so good but with Iwata not on form the chances that the Swallows would take the lead again were high. They did so in the sixth with a two run home run from Iihara. An extra run off Takamiya gave them a final victory 5-3. However, the home team could get absolutely no traction in the final game. Nohmi was on form and dominated proceedings. This was just as well as Tigers batting was poor. Despite scoring five runs they wasted numerous opportunities to score including a no out bases loaded situation in the sixth and a no out runners on first and third situation in the eighth (a sacrifice fly is not the only reward you want from the situation). Sensible management saw Nohmi replaced after 8 innings on 110 pitches and Andoh finished the game off. Tigers 5-0 Swallows.

Notes from last night:

Oh was warming up in front of the third base seats. When Andoh went in for Nohmi, seems like the entire 3rd base side of the stadium began grumbling, it was a very unpopular move (though it certainly worked out well).

Lots of heat from fans for Wada when he walked past the 3B seats to leave the field. not just a handful of people, it was nearly everyone the entire way! good thing for the net...

Im surprised people werent fainting when Murton smiled at them. throughout the season ive seen no one but Wada gets as much fan attention. any chance the tigers let him go anywhere else, or will they throw everything they've got at him to re-sign?

Paired with Tsuruoka Andoh is a positive menace to a scoreline and that was the concern I would think. He works highly effectively with Umeno though. Wada is not popular with fans - another obvious lightweight chosen for the wrong reasons. It wouldn't be difficult to get Wada to re-sign though; he has nowhere else to go.

hah, yeah agreed about wada, but i meant murton re-signing. he has only had one-year contracts, right? would be smart for tigers to try and sign him for longer. he's a huge fan draw and he is easily one of their best players on the field. this season in particular is likely to draw a lot of interest in him from other clubs.

It's standard to offer foreign players one year contracts (though two year contracts have been offered in the past). That way if the player doesn't put up the numbers he can be easily disposed of.

Pretty sure Murton wanted a one-year deal because he's still trying to go back to the big leagues. Remember that Messenger got a 3 year extension and that was before he really settled in to NPB this year. I think the length of a foreign players contract is 50/50 how much they like you and how much of a proven talent you are.

If Murton doesn't get an offer from an MLB team in the off-season, I suspect he will try to stay with the Tigers, but I wouldn't be surprised to see other teams (Kyojin... ugh) offer him more money.

I'm not a fan of Wada at all, and until two weeks ago I didn't have a problem with him being the Manager, but if the Tigers don't make it into the postseason, he HAS to get run.

And the bullpen is awful. Bunch of arsonists. Converting Nohmi to a setup man might be the best idea anyone has ever had...

Dirty Barbarian,

Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! (Especially about the relievers.)

Keiichi Yabu presented the idea of Nohmi as a setup man. I read the article in Japanese and translated it into English. It's from over a month ago, but if you get the chance, check it out:

http://thehanshintigers.wordpress.com/2014/08/31/article-translation-how-the-tigers-can-win/

Interestingly Nohmi was a set up at the beginning of his career before becoming a starter. Tigers aim was always to make him a starter though and they worked very hard over several years before he was finally able to start successfully.