Japanese Baseball - Pacific League Playoff Preview Part 1: The Favorite

#1 seed) Nippon Ham Fighters (82-54-0)
567 RS, 452 RA (.611 pyth %)
Team Avg: .269/.323/.418
Team ERA: 3.05

The Nippon Ham Fighters feature a lineup with 3 ex-MLB players: ex-Met and Giant CF Tsuyoshi "Mr. Sparkle" Shinjo (.258/.298/.416), 3B/RF/God he sucks Jose Macias (.229/.264/.344), and DH/Cleanup hitter Fernando Seguignol (.295/.356/.532, 26 homers). Seguignol teams with 1B Michihiro Ogasawara and RF Atsunori Inaba (.307/.355/.522, 26 homers) to form one of the most potent 3-4-5 combos in the J League; Ogasawara leads the PL in total bases, slugging percentage (.573), and homers (32). Ogasawara and Seguignol are 1-2 in extra-base hits, with 64 and 63. Not only have these three been great, but they were simply on fire in September. In fact, they finished 1-2-3 in slugging in September, with Seguignol hitting .408 and leading the PL over the last 30 days in average, hits, total bases, slugging percentage, home runs, and RBI's.

The Fighters are also blessed with two pretty good tablesetters in LF Hichori Morimoto (.285/.343/.413) and 2B Kensuke Tanaka (.301/.358/.415). That's a good thing, because beyond those first five, their lineup is horrible. Shinjo has been fairly awful, exempting his glove, and the only other player with more than 250 AB's is SS Makoto Kaneko (.254/.300/.382).

The other 2 positions have been completely up for grabs. Manager Trey Hillman has been giving other 3B options a chance to step up, particularly Inada (.270/.301/.389, not embarassing in comparison to Macias). He also loves to use Iyama as a defensive sub at third base. Catcher has been a mostly split platoon between Shinji Takahashi (.251/.289/.363) and Shinya Tsuruoka (.241/.251/.340).

On the mound, Nippon Ham has two of the top 10 starters in ERA in the PL with rookie sensation Tomoya Yagi (12-8, 2.48) and Yu Darvish (12-5, 2.89), however, their calling card pitching-wise is in their depth. They only had 4 pitchers with an ERA above 4, and they have an awesome 1-2-3 bullpen punch with former MLB'er Mike Nakamura (5-1, 2.19, 39 saves) who leads the PL in saves and his setup men Hisashi Takeda (5-3, 2.09, 40 holds) and ex-Yomiuri pitcher Hideki Okajima (2-2, 2.14, 20 holds). Third starter Satoru Kanemura's supsension and fine following his tantrum at not being allowed the chance to win his tenth game on Sunday will leave the Fighters scrambling at the back end of the rotation. In terms of American baseball teams, probably the closest recent playoff team would be the 2004 Cardinals: mediocre starters behind Carpenter and a terrific bullpen, and 3 star hitters.

This is the first time in twenty-five years that the Fighters have finished first in the PL regular season, and only their third overall. The win guarantees them homefield and a bonus win in their matchup with the winner of Fukoka/Seibu. Now, I think automatically with the 1 extra game in their pocket that you'd have to consider these guys the favorites to advance. It's hard to not win 2 of 4. However, Seibu is probably as good if not better, and I'll explain why on my entry about them (hint: may involve Daisuke Matsuzaka).