This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
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Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
Historically, Hanshin has choked in the month of June. Tiger fans go wild with great April and May starts, but have been let down year after year by their "June Swoon." [According to WordNet - swoon: A spontaneous loss of conciousness caused by insufficient blood to the brain. Rather fitting, no?] The Tiger fans at work have all been rather cautious this year, down playing yet another great start. But they're all starting to really feel the fever that their time has come again.
Monthly win/loss breakdown:
That one loss in March was opening day against Yokohama. Since then, Hanshin has a 16 game winning streak against the BayStars, totally dominating them. Close to 1/3rd of Hanshin's wins this year are against Yokohama. Broken down by team, Hanshin is:
As you can see, they haven't dominated Chunichi or Yakult, so I don't think that they really qualify as one of the most dominating teams. On the other hand, they're 12.5 games ahead of second place Chunichi, pretty much running away with the Central League.
To me, Hanshin really looks like Yokohama in 1998. Pretty much all the regular members are having career years. And most importantly, no matter how much they may be down by, there is a feeling that they can always come back in the 7th, 8th, or 9th - and they do. Another parallel with the 1998 BayStars is that the Tigers are winning by putting together big innings with consecutive hits rather than relying on the long ball (currently, only Hiroshima has hit less home runs in the Central League).
[Source for tables: Nikkan Sports]