Toshikazu Yamaguchi, the Giants’ “owner,” issued a statement after DeNA’s victory Friday that consigned Yomiuri to consecutive fourth-place finishes that tells you two things about Yomiuri: The organization feels the pennant belongs to them each and every year, and changing managers is really, really painful.
“This is extremely frustrating,” Yamaguchi said. “We came into this season intent on recapturing the pennant (for the first time since 2020), but couldn’t stay in championship contention. That point makes this a season that deserves an apology to the fans.”
With all the regular season games complete, more players who were hoping to be back with their teams next year have been informed that those teams have different plans.
On Tuesday, amurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama announced his squad for four November games that will help him prepare for March’s World Baseball Classic, with the big news out of that being how a lot of top players were not on the list, and I don’t just mean the MLB guys who are not eligible until March.
We also had news about Tatsunori Hara’s desire to manage the Yomiuri Giants next season despite the team’s failings, and some thoughts on a possible replacement for Tadahito Iguchi with the Lotte Marines.
Meanwhile the SoftBank Hawks have named their starting pitcher for the first stage of the Pacific League’s Preclimax series against the Seibu Lions starting Saturday.
