Pacific League Race

I would still say it's too early to tell the #1 team in the PL. Though, I would have to say it would be either Softbank or Chiba.

Chiba's pitching has been way too good not to compete for the top spot this year. Watanabe, Kubo, and Kobayashi all come to mind quickly. Also, Chiba has hit well this year: Kosaka, Nishioka, Agbayani, and many others have all been great this year.

Seung-yeop Lee is having a great second year in the NPB (as it looks like he's adjusted to the change) and 2nd-year foreign player Matt Franco has been great this year also. Valentine's managing is helping, too, as he's truly a great manager and baseball person in general.

Softbank, on the other hand, has been red-hot lately, as they have won their last 10 games. Johijma and Matsunaka have hit like expected. Free agent acquistion Ohmura is also looking good in his first year with Softbank, after spending his career with Kintestu. Also their pitching is starting to look very good, expectly Sugiuchi.

Softbank Hawks' owner Masayoshi Son's vision for Softbank this previous off-season is looking like it's working well this year. The off-season acquistions of Batista and Jolbert Cabrera have been good so far.

With this said I'm looking forward to the second half, as I think it will be an exciting one, as Softbank and Chiba look to fight it out for first place the rest of the year.

It's very much a two-horse race at this point, with only Softbank and Chiba being above .500 and the PL. The last few pennant chases in the PL have proven to be more exciting then the CL chases, although both may potentially be decided on the very last day.

I'm watching the Hawks' game live right now on the Internet, early in the morning in the Eastern United States (1:00 AM, June 3rd), and the Hawks are off to a great start. Back-to-back-to-back home runs by Matsunaka, Johijma, and Zuleta off Orix pitcher Masato Yoshii.

It continues to be an interesting PL race, and will continue to be an interesting 1-2 PL race for the rest of the season between Softbank and Chiba.

It's crazy, but the 1-2 race for first place (and all playoff games at home), and the race for the last playoff spot (despite the three teams being 19 games removed from first place - they are packed together at 0.5 games separating the three) are both exciting races.

Whether the third place team even deserves a spot in the playoffs with a sub-500 record is another debate.

And to think that only 14 games separate the entire Central League! What a crazy year, but the races do look more interesting in the PL (but then again I'm a PL fan, so it's biased :P ).

Meanwhile, it still looks like two teams and a bag of beans over in the Pacific League. Buffaloes hold the third spot for now, but they're clearly behind Lotte and Softbank. [PL Standings - Borisov's Pro Yakyu]