Yakult Swallows

The Swallows have long been Tokyo’s second-banana Central League franchise, their Jingu Stadium home situated about five kilometers from Tokyo Dome. Except for the 1990s, when Yakult was the Giants’ principal rival, the Swallows have fluctuated between terrible and competitive.

Manager: Shingo Takatsu
2019 Finish: Last, 18 games out and nine games out of fifth place.

Former manager’s record: Junji Ogawa

Year	Team	G	W	L	T	Pct	Finish
2018	Marines	143	59	81	3	.421	5
2019	Marines	143	69	70	4	.496	4
	Total	286	128	151	7	.459
Prev. 3 yrs		439	199	224	6	.470	3,3,6

Takatsu’s 286 saves are second all-time in NPB. He turned pro out of university in 1991 and didn’t wrap up his top-flight career until he saved 26 games in Taiwan in 2010. He also saved 27 in MLB and eight in South Korea. He becomes the second Japanese big leaguer to manage in Japan after Tadahito Iguchi took over the Marines in 2018.

Like Iguchi, he’ll have a former big leaguer as his pitching coach, former Los Angeles Dodgers all-star Takashi Saito.

Like Shinji Sasaoka of the Carp, Takatsu was promoted from pitching coach to manager when his boss quit. He is also the third straight Swallows manager to have run the farm club, having managed to good finishes in 2017 and 2018, when new Eagles manager Hajime Miki was his head coach.

Evaluating Yakult is a monumental task because of Jingu. An outdoor park with modest dimensions in the middle of Tokyo’s summer heat bubble, a lot of fly balls tend to get out, but not always. The club had four plus offensive performers last year: Superstar second baseman Tetsuto Yamada, left fielder Wladimir Balentien, Norichika Aoki (still grinding) and 2019 CL rookie of the year Munetaka Murakami.

The pitching was on the weak side, while the fielding was particularly poor. In 2014, this was the Swallows’ profile. The following year, the club brought in a new manager, a new veteran shortstop and an emphasis on defensive fundamentals. Those three things, an unusual amount of good health and a historic season from Yamada made them champions.

This year, they have a new manager, a new veteran shortstop (Alcides Escobar) and we’ll see. That 2015 Japan Series was played between the Swallows and the Hawks, two teams bent on bringing fitness training in Japanese baseball into the 21st century.

Unfortunately, since then, both clubs have had more than their share of injuries, which has been the norm for Yakult since 2010.

Key players

Tetsuto Yamada 2B
Munetaka Murakami 1B, 3B
Yuhei Takai RF
Yuhei Nakamura C
Wladimir Balentien LF >> SoftBank Hawks
Kengo Ota 3B
Norichika Aoki CF, LF
Taishi Hirooka SS, 3B
Nobuyuki Okumura SS

Strengths and weaknesses

Team Offensive rankings

Best in the league: walks
2nd best in the league: runs, home runs, OBP, Iso Power
Next to worst in the league: stolen bases, BABiP
Worst in the league: doubles, strikeouts, Avg

Rankings against opponents’ offense

Best in the league: nothing
2nd best in the league: GDP
Next to worst in the league: triples, stolen bases
Worst in the league: runs, home runs, strikeouts, BABiP, Avg, OBP, Slug,

Other rankings

Next to worst in the league: errors, saves
Worst in the league: ERA, quality starts
And… the Swallows issued 23 intentional walks, the second fewest in the league and were fourth in sacrifices.

Roster

Notes: Names in all caps are imported players; names with asterisks still qualify as rookies, hyperlinks are to the player’s English language page.

Pos	Name	No.	Prev years
P	Chihaya Sasaki	11	3
P	Ayumu Ishikawa	12	6
P	Tomohisa Otani	14	10	Non-tendered
P	Manabu Mima	15	9
P	Atsuki Taneichi	16	3
P	Roki Sasaki*	17	0
P	Kota Futaki	18	6
P	Yuki Karakawa	19	12
P	Taiki Tojo	20	4
P	Tatsuya Uchi	21	16	Non-tendered
P	Yusuke Azuma*	24	1
P	Daiki Yamamoto*	27	2
P	Takahiro Matsunaga	28	7
P	Yuji Nishino	29	7
P	Tsuyoshi Ishizaki	30	6
P	Masaki Minami	33	9
P	Seiya Dohi	34	3
P	Keita Watanabe*	35	2	Non-tendered
P	Yuki Ariyoshi	36	3
P	Fumiya Ono	37	5
P	Kakeru Narita*	41	4
P	FRANK HERRMANN	42	3	Non-tendered
P	Kazuya Ojima	43	1
P	Daiki Iwashita	46	5
P	Yasuhiro Tanaka	47	14
P	Toshiya Nakamura*	48	1
P	CHEN KUAN-YU	49	5
P	Naoya Masuda	52	8
P	Shu Hara*	56	4	Non-tendered
P	Hirokazu Sawamura	57	9	9/8 Traded from Giants
P	CHEN WEI-YIN	58	5	9/21 Signed as free agent Non-tendered
P	JAY JACKSON	58	3	7/10 Released at player's request
P	Rikuto Yokoyama*	60	0
P	Shoji Nagano*	62	2
P	Yuta Omine	64	13	8/24 Signed dev roster
P	Takuro Furuya*	65	1
P	Hideto Doi*	69	1
P	JOSE FLORES	86	0
P	Fumiya Motomae*	120	0
P	Mizuki Kamata*	121	0	Released 11/30
P	Ryotaro Mori*	123	0	Released 11/30
P	JOSE ACOSTA	128	0
P	EDUARD SANTOS	130	0	Released 11/30
C	Tatsuhiro Tamura	22	7
C	Toshiya Sato*	32	0
C	Yuta Yoshida	39	6
C	Yuito Munetsugu*	45	3
C	Naoya Emura	53	9
C	Toru Hosokawa	55	18	Non-tendered
C	Tomoya Kakinuma	99	3
C	Shota Ueda*	125	0
IF	Takashi Toritani	1	16
IF	Yudai Fujioka	4	2
IF	Hisanori Yasuda*	5	2
IF	Shogo Nakamura	8	5
IF	Taiga Hirasawa	13	4
IF	Ryo Miki	23	6
IF	Koki Fukuda*	40	0
IF	Seiya Inoue	44	6
IF	Shin Matsuda*	50	1
IF	BRANDON LAIRD	54	5
IF	Kazuya Katsuki	57	5	9/8 Traded to Giants
IF	Kei Hosoya	59	14	Non-tendered
IF	Kenta Chatani*	67	3
IF	Kenji Nishimaki	68	2
IF	Takuya Takahama	127	13	Released 11/30
OF	Takashi Ogino	0	10
OF	Ikuhiro Kiyota	1	10
OF	Kyota Fujiwara*	2	1
OF	Katsuya Kakunaka	3	13
OF	Shuhei Fukuda	7	13
OF	Shohei Kato	10	7
OF	Hiromi Oka	25	7
OF	Tsuyoshi Sugano	31	2
OF	Akito Takabe*	38	0
OF	Koki Yamaguchi*	51	1
OF	Kazuma Mike*	61	3	Non-tendered
OF	Koshiro Wada*	63	0	June 1 Signed from deve roster
OF	LEONYS MARTIN	79	1

2019 team data

Batters

Name	Thr	G	CG	SO	W	L	S	H	W Pct	IP	H	HR	BB	K	R	ER	ERA
Kota Futaki	R	22	1	0	7	10	0	0	.412	128 2/3	127	16	30	115	68	63	4.41
Ayumu Ishikawa	R	27	0	0	8	5	0	5	.615	118 2/3	129	9	28	81	50	48	3.64
Atsuki Taneichi	R	26	0	0	8	2	0	2	.800	116 2/3	114	11	51	135	47	42	3.24
Hideaki Wakui	R	18	2	1	3	7	0	0	.300	104	121	14	27	87	58	52	4.50
MIKE BOLSINGER	R	20	0	0	4	6	0	0	.400	103	105	14	52	86	61	53	4.63
Daiki Iwashita*	R	21	0	0	5	3	0	1	.625	96 1/3	80	14	47	74	44	39	3.64
Yuji Nishino	R	37	1	1	2	3	2	5	.400	70	56	6	23	64	23	23	2.96
Naoya Masuda	R	60	0	0	4	5	27	12	.444	58 2/3	36	5	22	56	15	14	2.15
Tomohito Sakai	R	54	0	0	5	4	0	20	.556	57 2/3	51	9	25	60	28	28	4.37
CHEN KUAN-YU	L	44	0	0	1	1	0	5	.500	57	54	2	27	45	28	23	3.63
Kazuya Ojima*	L	10	0	0	3	5	0	0	.375	54 1/3	55	5	20	45	28	26	4.31
Taiki Tojo	R	58	0	0	1	0	0	16	1.000.000	52 1/3	52	7	21	53	26	22	3.78
Yasuhiro Tanaka	R	44	0	0	4	1	0	2	.800	39 2/3	42	2	12	29	12	12	2.72
Yuki Karakawa	R	40	0	0	5	3	0	14	.625	37 2/3	47	7	6	30	25	22	5.26
Takahiro Matsunaga	L	46	0	0	2	3	0	25	.400	34 2/3	25	3	17	32	13	10	2.60
Chihaya Sasaki	R	7	0	0	2	1	0	0	.667	32	26	2	12	22	11	9	2.53
Seiya Dohi	L	6	0	0	1	0	0	0	1.000.000	31 2/3	35	4	12	28	12	11	3.13
Toshiya Nakamura*	L	10	0	0	1	1	0	3	.500	25	23	2	8	21	12	12	4.32
Yusuke Azuma*	R	24	0	0	3	2	0	7	.600	21	19	2	13	16	11	11	4.71
BRANDON MANN	L	14	0	0	0	2	0	3	.000	16	16	1	12	20	9	7	3.94
Yuki Ariyoshi	R	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	.000	7 1/3	12	4	5	2	11	11	13.50
Kazunari Abe	R	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	.000	4	1	0	2	2	0	0	0.00
Shoji Nagano*	L	5	0	0	0	1	0	3	.000	4	3	0	2	2	2	2	4.50
Masaki Minami	R	4	0	0	0	1	0	0	.000	3 2/3	4	1	4	3	5	5	12.27
Tsuyoshi Ishizaki	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	2	4	0	1	0	2	2	9.00
JOSH RAVIN	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	1 2/3	3	1	3	1	5	5	27.00
Tomohisa Otani	R	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	.000	1 2/3	2	0	2	1	3	2	10.80
Keisuke Takano	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	1 1/3	3	2	1	0	2	2	13.50

Pitchers

Name	Thr	G	CG	SO	W	L	S	H	W Pct	IP	H	HR	BB	K	R	ER	ERA
Kodai Senga	R	26	2	2	13	8	0	0	.619	180 1/3	134	19	75	227	60	56	2.79
Rei Takahashi*	R	23	0	0	12	6	0	0	.667	143	114	10	49	73	56	53	3.34
Kotaro Otake	L	17	1	0	5	4	0	0	.556	106	111	13	20	72	47	45	3.82
ARIEL MIRANDA	L	18	0	0	7	5	0	0	.583	86	80	13	48	58	44	40	4.19
Shota Takeda	R	32	0	0	5	3	1	9	.625	83	78	6	40	70	48	42	4.55
LIVAN MOINELO	L	60	0	0	3	1	4	34	.750	59 1/3	37	4	25	86	13	10	1.52
Hiroshi Kaino*	R	65	0	0	2	5	8	26	.286	58 2/3	49	6	34	73	28	27	4.14
Tsuyoshi Wada	L	12	0	0	4	4	0	0	.500	57 2/3	56	11	14	45	26	25	3.90
Yuito Mori	R	54	0	0	2	3	35	7	.400	53	40	5	13	59	13	13	2.21
Ryoma Matsuda	R	51	0	0	2	4	0	5	.333	52	41	8	32	57	23	22	3.81
Jumpei Takahashi*	R	45	0	0	3	2	0	17	.600	51	36	4	17	58	17	15	2.65
Arata Shiino*	R	36	0	0	5	2	0	6	.714	46	37	5	31	49	20	16	3.13
Akira Nibo	R	8	0	0	1	4	0	0	.200	38 1/3	40	6	16	15	19	17	3.99
Ren Kajiya	R	30	0	0	3	1	0	6	.750	36	42	4	22	23	26	24	6.00
Nao Higashihama	R	7	0	0	2	2	0	0	.500	35 1/3	36	5	23	26	26	25	6.37
Yuki Matsumoto	R	7	0	0	1	1	0	0	.500	33 2/3	35	2	11	32	18	15	4.01
Shinya Kayama	L	54	0	0	2	2	1	19	.500	31	29	1	5	26	13	9	2.61
ROBERT SUAREZ	R	9	0	0	0	4	0	0	.000	26 2/3	28	6	20	27	18	17	5.74
Hiroyuki Kawahara	L	19	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	23 2/3	22	1	14	10	10	7	2.66
Keisuke Izumi*	R	14	0	0	2	0	0	3	1.000.000	18 1/3	17	1	8	18	5	4	1.96
RICK VAN DEN HURK	R	3	0	0	2	0	0	0	1.000.000	17 1/3	13	2	2	22	7	6	3.12
Masato Okumura*	R	12	0	0	0	1	0	3	.000	12 1/3	13	3	7	10	12	12	8.76
Fumimaru Taura*	L	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	10	8	1	6	6	5	5	4.50
Shunsuke Kasaya*	L	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	5	6	1	7	7	4	4	7.20
Kenichi Nakata	R	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	4 2/3	3	0	3	2	1	1	1.93
Kazuki Sugiyama*	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	4	5	0	5	4	4	4	9.00
Shuta Ishikawa	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	3	2	0	0	3	0	0	0.00
Sho Iwasaki	R	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	2	1	0	1	2	1	1	4.50
Seigi Tanaka*	R	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	0 2/3	1	0	2	0	0	0	0.00

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