Terry Collins?

It appears all the Orix fans, both of them, don't read this site.

Seriously though, Orix doesn't really make a lot of news so it's not a surprise that nobody knows anything about this guy's time in Japan.

Collins-kantoku was unable to get the Buffaloes going. I've never met him personally, but those who have said that his tenure with Orix was wrought with frustration. Like Brown-kantoku with the Carp, things he'd go over with the coaches and players wouldn't get executed the way he wanted; in one ear and out the other it seemed.

I sat in on an interview between Jim Allen and his pitching coach one time. Jim asked, "If you could change just one aspect of the way you do things, what would it be?" The pitching coach (Mike Brown) replied, "I'd have the next day's pitcher in the dugout."

To understand that comment, you need to realize how Japanese baseball teams are organized. A given team has a maximum of 70 players between the top team (ichi-gun - pronounced like "goon") and the farm team (ni-gun). On ichi-gun, one may have up to 28 men registered, but only 25 of them may be listed as on the bench for a given game. In order to use those bench spots efficiently, the previous 2 days' starters and the next day's starter are usually left off of the roster for a given game. Because the next day's pitcher is not on the roster, he may not be in the dugout watching the game live and getting valuable feedback directly from this day's pitcher about how he's facing the batters. (Note: This doesn't mean that he's off goofing around. In fact, it would be unusual for the next day's pitcher not to be watching the game live, either from the clubhouse or in his hotel room.)

So, what does Brown-pitching-coach's comment have to do with Collins-kantoku? Well, while the "Japanese Way" of handling the daily registered users for the top team worked against Brown's wishes to better prepare pitchers for the next day's game, it's my belief that Collins-kantoku didn't take advantage of the ichi/ni-gun system as well as the other managers.

You see, the other aspect of the system is that you may send a player down to the farm for a minimum of 10 days, bringing another player up to take his place. No reason is necessary. If the manager doesn't feel that a player is hitting well, he can send him to the farm for a week and a half (or a month) to work out his problems without hurting the top team. If somebody is really burning up the minors, the manager can bring him up and see if that translates at ichi-gun. But Collins-kantoku ran his team like an MLB team, deciding on a roster at the start of the season, then mostly only exchanging players with the farm team when there was an injury. The result was a stale, losing team.

After Collins-kantoku went into voluntary retirement (against the owner's wishes - he had tried once before but the owner convinced him to say on - that lasted a couple more weeks), head coach Daijiro Ohishi took over the top team. The first thing that Ohishi-kantoku-daiko said was that he was giving everyone at ni-gun a chance to prove themselves and be promoted. He then started shuffling players on a nearly daily basis between ichi and ni-gun, and the team started winning. The Orix Buffaloes, static and floundering in last place for the first 1/3rd of the season under Collins-kantoku, finished the season in second place under acting manager Ohishi. It was an amazing turn around, and all thanks to an infusion of young talent that was given a shot under the new manager.

Unfortunately for Ohishi-kantoku, that magic didn't last a second season. But I think that it did show the importance of using all the tools available to your advantage. While I'm sure there were more factors playing against Collins-kantoku, every other team used their farm system to keep their teams fresh, while he chose to ignore the resource.

Well that was my observations and interpretations of what went down in Osaka back in 2008. I hope it was interesting and educational for you.

Well I certainly didn't expect such a lengthy and detailed analysis. It certainly was educational and interesting sir and I thank you. Japanese baseball seems like a completely different kettle of fish. Many foreigners must find the adjustment challenging to say the least.

The word on Collins is that he is pretty old school so I'm not surprised that he didn't utilize all the means available to him. It will be interesting watching him in New York. A buddy of mine who works in new media bumped into him at the winter meetings last month and said he was extremely gracious with his time and very engaging which lead to us wondering about his time in Japan.

I will pass on your feedback with due credit. Thanks again "westbaystars."

Well, I played for Terry with the Buffaloes and it didn't work for a lot of reasons.

First, the acting general manager was Nakamura, the former manager. I find that really interesting that they kept him on. That was their biggest mistake. He was not going to let Terry succeed. The front office worked against his wishes.

The players didn't follow. He p***ed a lot of people off when he came here because he kept knocking the Japanese way and saying how much better the American way was. With Japanese people being very prideful, they took this personally.

His intentions were good, but he just sent the message the wrong way. It seemed to happen over and over. Terry is a great baseball man. He really knows his stuff. He is a tireless worker. He just took everything too hard. His time really wore on him in Japan. He wanted to turn that into a winner so bad but it was impossible without the support of the players and front office.

I remember the Japanese players kept asking me about him. It was very important that us gaijin players supported him or the Japanese players would not follow suit. Needless to say, Terry had rocky relationships with a few of his gaijin players. This made it impossible for him to succeed.

The Orix organization has to be the worst in Japanese baseball. Too much turnover. You would think in that market that they would have more success but change must start at the top. They need to clean house in that front office. They have some nice young talent. I think they can have a nice future if they get the right manager in there and keep him there. Okada is not the guy. Collins wasn't the guy. I hope whoever is next can do the job.

Put it this way, I was asked not to speak about any of the JP to SoftBank and Orix incident.

Orix dropped the ball on the whole situation. There was a lot of behind the scene stuff that no one knows about, but the kicker is that the one guy who was not at fault at all was JP.

He was perfectly healthy, and while waiting on his physical exam results, he was days away from camp starting. While Orix was dragging their feet he asked if he could still report to camp on time. In order to do so, he signed the last page of the Japanese contract in good faith that all was going to be well. Then Orix tried to change terms. They couldn't agree. Then the agent asked the commish if they could speak with other teams and they said it was fine, so they did, they got an guaranteed offer from SoftBank and they signed. No brainer.

JP did no wrong. He tried to come to camp with Orix and he was very excited to do so. I think that addition could have really helped us that year. Someone up front didn't want him, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was Nakamura. I know kantoku Collins wanted him badly.

Instead he gets suspended. I don't get it. He was just going where he was wanted. The whole thing was crazy. How the Pacific League handled it, how the commish handled it.

The agents for JP were Craig Landis and Max Ohno. After that incident, no other Landis/Ohno player was offered a contract. They had players such as Rick Guttormson, Tom Davey, Adam Riggs, among others that were in Japan at the time. Kind of ironic.

Okada not the guy? Why not? Huge turn-around last year in Okada's first year: from 30 games out of first the year before under Collins-replacement Ohishi (a horrid manager) to just missing the playoffs. Okada's not warm and fuzzy but he's got his own distinctive style, and last year he was extremely skillful and successful at managing players - both in games and in actively using ni-gun (the farm team). The other thing about Okada is he's a big name in Kansai (being a former Hanshin Tigers star), which helps Orix publicity-wise in this town where the Buffaloes struggle in the shadow of the gigantically popular Tigers.

As much as I liked Cabrera and will miss his bat, it was clear that he was also a divisive presence for team atmosphere.

There were an awful lot of very young fans at Buffs games last season, and T-Okada (not manager Okada, but our left fielder and last year's Pacific League home run champ) is becoming a household name, so it looks like Orix could be building a stronger fan base.