Offseason Changes: Tokyo Yakult Swallows

» 10 February 2009 » In npb »

Coming: Jaime D’Antona, Hei-Chun Lee, Ricky Barrett, Ryoji Aikawa, Ryosuke Morioka

Going: Adam Riggs, Dicky Gonzales, Sean Douglass, Wilson Valdez

Staying: Aaron Guiel, Chang Yong Lim, Ryota Igarashi

Trending: slightly upward

Synopsis: Aikawa arrives to give Yakult their first regular catcher since Atsuya Furuta retired, while hope springs eternal for untested foreigners D’Antona, Lee, and Barrett. I don’t think any of these guys puts Yakult into playoff contention, but they should be more effective than the group they replace.

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  1. Patrick
    Shane Taber
    01/03/2009 at 1:58 pm Permalink

    Maybe you can help me: I’m going to be in Nara, Japan visiting my daughter in early May, 2009. I’d like to see a Yakult Swallows game v.s. the Chunichi Dragons, particullarly if newly acquired pitcher Ricky Barrett is scheduled to be pitching. While I don’t know Ricky, his dad, Rick Barrett, and I graduated class of 1974 from Dixon High School, 20 miles SW of Sacramento. I think we had a total of 75 kids in our class give or take a couple – a very small rural high school. I worked in Nara myself ffrom 1979 – 1981 and saw several major league baseball games in Osaka. One game featured the Lee brothers out of Sacramento – a great game that ended in a tie – 11 – 11. I couldn’t believe it when everyone left the stadium with a tie score on the board – I didn’t know that was one of the differences between US and Japanese baseball. So, is there any way to find out the Swallows pitching rotation for early May so I might be able to catch Ricky Barrett pitching? Thanks so much for your help – domo arigato gozaimasu. sct

  2. Patrick
    Patrick
    06/03/2009 at 12:37 pm Permalink

    Hi Shane-

    Here is the Swallows’ schedule for the 2009 season. Looks like you’ll have the option of seeing Yakult play against Hanshin or Chunichi in May. From what I’ve read, Ricky is going to be used out of the bullpen so you’ll have to take your chances on what game you attend.

    If you haven’t found these sites already, Tsubamegun is an excellent English-language site to follow the Swallows, and JapaneseBaseball.com is excellent for Japanese Baseball in general.

    Please excuse the lateness of this reply — I’m on a little sabbatical.