Tigers season - what went right?

Tigers seemed to have regressed and in a stubborn display which seems to mirror problems with Japanese company management in general regressed. Wada justified all the doubts and was totally inept and ineffective. Whilst this would earn a sacking in MLB (witness Bobby Valentine) in Japan it produces a statement from Sakai owner (endlessly repeated) that Wada 'has a contract' and that the contract is for three years. What did result was that the totally ineffective coaching team was overhauled but Wada remained and this isn't exactly going to improve things.

Pitching
This was much improved and to be honest Yabu as pitching coach was actually a very impressive success. Tigers problems didn't lie with the pitchers who were generally kept within limits and for the most part not over pitched. There were no more of the complaints of tiredness which dogged the previous season. Andoh and Iwata were perhaps the weakest of the pitching staff with Andoh being eventually removed because he was ineffective. The problem for the pitchers was the poor batting performance and a pitcher would often find himself without run support. Tigers were shut out 25 times and lost 24 games by the margin of one run. Messenger, Nohmi and Standridge all did well with Iwata being variable. Kubo was one who suffered from poor batting most having 18 starts but only 4 wins and 7 losses. The real exciting sensation was Iwamoto who came on against Dragons and delivered a rubber victory giving Tigers their first series victory at Nagoya Dome for a very long time. He followed up with a couple of fine pitching performances before losing because of poor run support.
Relief pitching was not as proficient as before but there were still a lot of fine performances. Fukuhara demonstrated that he was still a good relief pitcher. The real standout was Katoh who surprised us all with some aggressive and intelligent pitching which showed that perhaps the decision to sign him had been right after all. The likelihood is that Fujikawa will leave Tigers for MLB and this will create serious problems for Tigers as none of the other pitchers looked like they had the qualities to be a good closer. Tsutsui is perhaps the most likely candidate - a fireballer with plenty of aggression but needs to be paired with Komiyama to exploit this to the full. Kobayashi and Kubota both proved to be useless and whilst the former has gone the latter is still around. If Kubota survives this has to be his last season. The surprise was the dropping of Cheng who had looked quite effective in his first team appearances.

Catching
Komiyama is set to become the Tigers main catcher next season probably with Fujii as support. Fujii improved a lot this season - the competition forced him to lift his game from his usual mediocre bumbling and he worked extremely well with Messenger and Nohmi. He didn't work so well with other pitchers though and it was interesting to see how attitudes changed. At the start of the season he got on well with Fukuhara but by the end they were not working well together. There is no word on whether Fujii will be offered a contract for next season but he may have done enough to be retained. Komiyama continued to mature and showed more of the signs that this is a brilliant catcher in the making. His batting does need more work though but Nakamura GM is prepared to live with this as his catching skills are such that one doesn't want to waste them. Johjima finally gave up and retired - in a very gentlemanly manner but what a waste of money. This signing certainly doesn't reflect well on the front office. The other poor signing, Imanari really did show up the front office. A panic decision of a player who was not a good catcher and didn't really prosper with the bat to the extent needed.

Batting
Tigers disaster area - mismanaged and incompetent coaching and management left the players exposed and unable to drive in runs. Takahiro Arai and Brazell were the ones who suffered most and it was almost if they were victims of the principle that no one must stand out. Takahiro Arai started the season on fire but suffered a slight slump which was exacerbated by Kataoka and Wada who seemed to want to use punishment as a motivation. He was shifted from third so that his ineffective brother could play and then platooned with Brazell. Brazell was not happy and also struggled eventually being let go at the end of the season. The batting coaching was really abysmal. Toritani had a quiet season and may even go to MLB as well - he is keeping his cards close to his chest. Another player who suffered was Hirano who had to put up with Wada's desire to play the useless Uemoto at second. Hirano has free agency and is looking at other teams. Murton's season was also poor and he was also not particularly happy but Tigers want him back next season. Kanemoto finally retired and here we saw the full farce of Wada's management, playing Kanemoto at No. 4 and 5 when he quite clearly was no longer able to play effectively. Ryota Arai was tried at four as well but can't really be said to have prospered. Tigers really suffered in this position which ruthlessly exposed Wada's cluelessness and that Kataoka was out of his depth. Yamato looked effective and drove in runs quite merrily but Shibata who started the season proved to be a disappointment. The essential point about Tigers batting was that those batters who drove in runs were not encouraged and a lot of lightweights received more playing time than they should have.
Hiyama was once again reliable but pinch hitting was poorly handled and this was a regression on the previous season. Sekimoto was ineffective and Asai misused. Incredibly Fujii was used as a pinch hitter again and whilst his general batting was acceptable he wasn't a pinch hitter.

Coaching
There is nothing new to add here. Yabu was good and the rest abysmal. Wada as manager was as ridiculous a joke as he was expected to be. One doesn't expect this situation to change next season especially as the new batting coach Mizutani is talking about the old discredited rubbish about swinging many times to improve your batting. Under this regime Koshien will continue to empty.

Free agents
Tigers are doing what they always do in this kind of situation - reach for the checkbook. Tigers have singularly failed to develop their young talent because they have signed big name free agents and because their coaches have been poor. They have been making noises about developing young talent this season but haven't really done anything beyond the noises. To cover up this deficiency the checkbook comes out again. Tigers are chasing Nishioka who may indeed be a good signing and Fukudome who wants to return and who's ego will only allow him to go to a big team. The latter is the big worry - does he have it in him to play at the highest level anymore or will he be another Johjima. Tigers are also interested in Igarashi and Nakajima especially if the latter fails to attract MLB interest. Tigers are also supposed to be interested in new foreign pitchers and power hitters but whether these plans mature and whether Tigers management are able to pick up good batters (and their record in America is not good) remains to be seen. So what went right? Pitching and Komiyama but nothing else.