2009 Season Review: Tokyo Omyoujis

In the standings the year was rather uneventful for the Tokyo Omyoujis, who sat steadily between third and fifth place in the EHCC all season long. On the field, however, it was a different story. Ultimately, the 2009 season for the Tokyo Omyoujis can be summed up in a single word, "PLAYOFFS".



2009 Season Review: Tokyo Omyoujis
By: Matt Ryder; Tokyo Omyoujis Owner



"We didn't advance in the playoffs, but just making it to them was a great success," said star pitcher C.C. Sabathia after experiencing his first playoff season.

The Omyoujis' success this season can be attributed to a number of individual breakout seasons from position players and the usual, steady, above-average effort from the pitching staff. Mark Reynolds, taking over for the departed Garrett Atkins, turned in a 50 home run campaign in his first full season at third base, combining with Prince Fielder to power the Omyoujis offense. Adam Jones helped to keep the Omyoujis offense running early in the season, finally bringing an end to Jeff Francoeur's disappointing Tokyo career. Later in the season the offense was buoyed by the acquisition of Derek Jeter, brought on to help stabilize an offense that seemed to be slowing down. Jeter went on to fill the stat sheet for the rest of the season bringing power to a position previously inhabited by the young, currently powerless, Elvis Andrus. Offensive cornerstones Brian McCann and Brandon Phillips contributed average years for themselves.

Jeff Francoeur, Alexis Rios, and Billy Butler were again disappointments for Tokyo. Francoeur was cut from the team after the discovery of Adam Jones. Alexis Rios ended the year on the bench, after hopes of a 20/20 season were dashed by inconsistent play. Billy Butler's inability to turn his constantly growing doubles totals into home runs seems to be a trend with no end in sight. Tokyo has been unable to get consistently excellent play from their outfield for the past three seasons, after the career seasons of Francoeur and Rios, the trade of Curtis Granderson to Arlington, and Shane Victorino's exit via free agency.

Early injuries to the Omyoujis' pitching staff threatened to derail Tokyo's season. Brandon Webb was lost after only two starts, out for the season. Joakim Soria experienced shoulder soreness intermittently for the first two months of the season. In addition to the injury problems C.C. Sabathia started the season slowly, rendering the top three pitchers from the 2008 team ineffective. Brandon McCarthy missed the first half of the season recuperating from an arm injury and Jeremy Guthrie experienced a season long slump.

The staff recovered from the early season problems with John Danks and Edwin Jackson pitching superbly from the start to the end of the season. Brandon McCarthy returned at mid-season and C.C. Sabathia shook off some early season inefficiency to turn in above average seasons for Tokyo. Mid-season acquisition Ross Ohlendorf pitched excellently down the stretch, turning in win after win with his crafty pitching approach.

The bullpen was one of the best, if not the best, in the league. Mainstays Jonathan Broxton and Joakim Soria pitched like All-Stars when healthy. 2009 acquisitions Heath Bell and David Aardsma turned in outstanding performances of their own. With four excellent relief pitchers all the Tokyo starters had to do was get to the sixth or seventh inning and the game was sealed. "The Ohlendorf and Aardsma acquisitions were made at the suggestion of our pitching coach, Hideo Nomo," said GM Enkidu Ishtar. "Nomo thought he saw a hitch in each of those free agent pitchers' pitching motions that he could fix, he was right."

Some in Tokyo were disappointed to see that GM Enkidu Ishtar traded out of the 2009 minor league draft in favor of picking up all of Peoria's picks in the 2010 draft. "In this poor economic environment we wanted to reduce expenses," said Ishtar. "We thought we'd make cuts in the costs of our Vermont affiliate before moving onto the major league team's expenses. Luckily, with the insurance money from Webb's injury we didn't have to make any additional cuts." Tokyo also ended up trading a minor leaguer, Mike Moustakas, and put pitcher Fautino De Los Santos on injured reserve for the year, allowing them to collect insurance money on his contract. All of the minor league cuts left Chris Tillman as the only player on Vermont's roster that counted toward Tokyo's minor league expenses for the full season. "No one is buying robot dogs, Pokemon, or sake this year," said manager Sadaharu Oh, summing up the problem by naming Japan's three biggest exports. "We might have to start cutting back on the number of geishas in the dressing room, and maybe even on the post-game buffets."

"They better not cut back on that buffet," said Prince Fielder, "or I'm going to start eating Pokemon and robot dogs."

After being told about the possible buffet cuts, C.C. Sabathia apparently agreed with Fielder as he huddled in the corner muttering to himself, "Gotta catch 'em all, gotta catch 'em all."