School Over, Reports Resume!

I deeply apologize for not updating in a very long time. Unfortunately, school had to come first, and when it's hard to work on a computer that freezes at the very thought of multitasking. Now that I'm out of school and will have a new computer soon, updates will be much more frequent.

Instead of chronicling each and every game since the last time I've updated, I'll go over what's been good and bad for the Hawks at about a third of the way through the season.

Offense: C+
This group was wildly inconsistent at the beginning of the season, but is now starting to pick it up. The biggest contributor to the SoftBank lineup was CF Hitoshi Tamura, and he's out for a while with a fractured fibula. Kawasaki, Matsunaka, and Matsuda all got off to slow starts, compounding the problem.

However, recently Matsunaka has found his stroke again, leading the team with a .324 batting average, 7 home runs and 35 RBI. This is a major improvement over his .266 average and 15 home runs last year. Kawasaki has also come to life, batting .303 with 12 RBI and 10 steals.

The one constant has been OF Hiroshi Shibahara, who is having his best season in a long time. He's at .306 right now with 2 HR and 16 RBI. More importantly, he has made some spectacular catches in the outfield, serving as a defensive rock.

Some of the other major contributors on offense, Hitoshi Tamura and Shotaro Ide, are out with injuries. Tamura won't be back until June or July with a cracked fibula, and Ide sprained his ankle, keeping him out until about that same time. Yusuke Kosai has been called up to fill in, and he's been great, batting .300 with a home run.

However, the offense has been searching for consistency, which is something it needs. Despite a number of people hitting over .300, the team can't seem to put it together from game to game.

Starting Pitching: C
Let's face it, when three of your pitchers are injured (Tsuyoshi Wada and Kazumi Saitoh) or inactive (Jeremy Powell), it makes for some tough decisions on who is going to pitch.

However, despite this the starter's ERA as it stands now (May 13, EST) is 3.62. Toshiya Sugiuchi (3-3, 3.17) is coming to life, throwing at least 8 innings in each of his last four starts, and has not given up a run in the last 17 innings. He leads the team in innings with 59.2, and has 68 strikeouts in that span.

Kenji Ohtonari (3-4, 3.12) leads the team in ERA and has given up the fewest hits of all the starters (26). Both Sugiuchi and Ohtonari have WHIP's under 1.000 as well, with Sugiuchi at 0.99 and Ohtonari at 0.77. Rick Guttormson, while his WHIP is the worst on the team, his ERA as a starter is 3.28, which fits right into Guttormson's serviceablility.

These numbers are also supplemented by the return of Tsuyoshi Wada, who has been pitching very well. He may not have gone longer than 7.1 innings in any of his starts this season, but in 5 of his 6 starts he's given up either 2 or 3 earned runs.

However, Shota Ohba and Jeremy Powell have been shaky at best. Powell's ERA is at 4.50, and Ohba is at 4.12. Ohba has failed to go 7 innings in each of his last five starts despite the fact that he's 2nd on the team in innings (54.2). Powell may still be feeling some ill effects of his offseason knee surgery, and he was also inactive for most of the spring because of the Orix debacle. The good news is that when Ohba's been good, he's been insanely good. Case in point: his 4-hit, 16-strikeout performance against Lotte.

Considering how bad the pitching was at the beginning of the season, it's almost amazing that the starter's ERA is 3.58. Now that Wada is back and Sugiuchi is pitching better, the pitching seems primed to take the lead in a possible SoftBank turnaround.

Relief Corps: B
The relief corps at the beginning of the season was in tatters. With super closer Takehiro Mahara out with an injury, the bullpen was hard-pressed to find a replacement, and went through a few options. The team seems to have found their closer in DJ Houlton (1-1, 2.13), who has 5 saves.

The set-up men have also been very good. Rookie call-ups Yuki Kume and Shinsuke Ogura have been stellar, Kazuhiro Takeoka has also been very good, and Koji Mise just came back from a ni-gun assignment and seems better for it. In fact, the bullpen ERA, adjusted for the members currently up at ichi-gun, is a microscopic 1.84! Not much else to say, aside from the concern that Kume and Ogura could be overworked by the end of the season with the innings they're putting up.

Intangibles: D+
Despite the fact that the Hawks are great on paper, there is a reason why they play the games. After a great 5-0 start, which included two sayonara victories, the team has not shown much in the way of moxie. Ever since the great start, the team has been stuck in neutral, and has been in a pattern of win one, lose one baseball.

Somebody needs to step up as the leader and fast, because the rest of the Pacific League is just too close to call. Lotte will wake up eventually and start running circles around people, and Nippon Ham's pitching is enough to get them by despite their awful offense. Seibu has surprised everybody this year, and I have reason to believe that they've got staying power, so if the Hawks don't shape up, they could be up the creek without a paddle.

With interleague play starting next week, Lotte has historically stepped on the gas pedal during this time, so it's up to the Hawks to race stride-for-stride with them, despite SoftBank's mediocre record in interleague. This will show how much heart SoftBank has.

The things that SoftBank needs are consistency and some mental toughness. These two qualities will definitely help SoftBank turn it around and possibly make the playoffs. I stand by my beginning-of-the-season prediction that the Hawks will fall to Lotte in the Pacific League Climax Series.