Offseason Changes: Hanshin Tigers
Coming: Kevin Mench, manager Akinobu Mayumi
Going: Lew Ford, Ryan Vogelsong, Toshihiro Noguchi
Staying: Jeff Williams, Aarom Baldiris, Scott Achison, Chris Resop
Trending: about the same
Synopsis: Mench should be better than Ford, but aside from that Hanshin will go into 2009 with the same team that squandered a big lead down the stretch last season. The Tigers failed to land their offseason prize in Daisuke Miura, and in their nominal efforts to sign Kenshin Kawakami, so they still lack a guy who can eat 200+ innings. Resop could be an assett if he gets over his control issues.
04/02/2009 at 8:45 am Permalink
Lew was brought back I thought. There was no mention of him leaving. Thanks for the update. Hopefully with the addition of Iwata, Ishikawa and Kubota in the starting rotation they will be a little better but now you have a hole in the bullpen with Kubota starting now. They might go with Egusa, Atchson, Watanabe, Williams, Abe. But they do have the same time as before really hopefully this year a healthy Arai can get them the pennant this year. Also they don’t have to worry about WOODS long ball in stage 1.
04/02/2009 at 12:15 pm Permalink
I don’t think I put Ford’s departure on this site, but he’s definitely gone. Don’t forget about Kyuji in that bullpen.
22/02/2009 at 4:36 pm Permalink
I’ve just completed my preview of Tigers chances for 2009 on Tigers Tales so all comments are welcome. It will be interesting to see if Mench can contribute given that all of Tigers recent direct batting imports from MLB have been failures. Pitchers have also been mixed – some good ones, some indifferent ones.