2017 Central League Climax Series: Hanshin taking on streaky Baystars

While we already previewed the Pacific League's first round of the Climax Series, the Central League also has an intriguing matchup of the Yokohama DeNA Baystars and Hanshin Tigers. Here is our breakdown:

Yokohama DeNA Baystars

The Baystars came into this season with higher expectations after finishing in A-class for the first time in the Climax Series era. They were able to repeat this success with a third place finish, but some will argue that they were the beneficiaries of the Yomiuri Giants underachieving. The Giants had a poor 6-12 stretch in interleague play with an overlapping 13 game losing streak and a stretch of 1-15 when it ended.

DeNA clinched A-class on the last week of the regular season as the Hanshin Tigers knocked out toe Kyojin. This year's team had some down seasons offensively with some inflated numbers due to their hitter's ballpark. Yoshitomo Tsutsugo only had 28 home runs and Takayuki Kajitani wouldn't get on base as well for a leadoff hitter. It took a batting title season from Toshiro Miyazaki and a tremendous rebound year from Jose Lopez to do enough with the bats.

Starting pitching continued its upward trend, where Shota Imanaga avoided a sophomore slump, Shoichi Ino carrying the innings and Joe Wieland being a solid foreign import signing. Middle relief and inconsistent hitting has been the Baystars weakness as they've been dependent on the home run. Spencer Patton, Tomoya Mikami and Kenjiro Tanaka were all shaky, but Yasuaki Yamasaki had a better season and re-earned the closer spot in the middle of the year.

At 73-65-5, Alex Ramirez's (Rami-chan) Baystars had a winning record for the first time since 2001.  The Baystars will probably use Imanaga, Wieland and Ino in this series.

===

Hanshin Tigers

Tomoaki Kanemoto entered his second season as the team's manager and with the trend among the Tigers, this year determines a make or break scenario for the long run. The Tigers started slow out of the gate defensively with plenty of kids in the field.

Hanshin's ultimate strength was pitching with Randy Messenger, Takumi Akiyama and Atsushi Nomi being the mainstays in the rotation. Messenger spent the last two months injured while others had to step it up. Their bullpen took the biggest leap with Rafael Dolis closing, Marcos Mateo as the setup man, while supporters Akifumi Takahashi, Kentaro Kuwahara, Suguru Iwazaki and Kyuji Fujikawa all had roles in middle relief.

The only disappointment in all of this was Shintaro Fujinami spending most of the year in ni-gun as he struggled with control. He is slated to not play in this series.

Offense has been up and down, where free agent signing Yoshio Itoi spent a chunk of the season injured, but was solid in the second half when healthy. Takashi Toritani kept his iron man streak intact with a decent year at the plate, but some positions would change from opening day. Like last year, it was all about getting experience for players and a few were able to step it up.

Masahiro Nakatani, Shunsuke Fujikawa and Hiroki Uemoto were all decent in perspective with Nakatani leading the team in home runs. Kosuke Fukudome is getting up there in age, but he still had a role with 18 home runs. An aging Takashi Toritani had a rebound season playing 3B. Even Hayata Ito, an outfield viewed as a first round bust, has become a solid pinch hitter.

Shun Takayama, the team's 2015 first round pick, was disappointing and was sent to ni-gun, Fumiya Hojo would lose his job at shortstop and foreigners Eric Campbell and Jason Rogers only provided a short term solution for a handful of games.

Like Rami-chan, Kanemoto doesn't have a  track record and this will be his first postseason as manager. It's likely the Tigers will have Messenger, Akiyama and Nomi taking the three games.

===

History

As earlier mentioned, this is only the second time the Baystars have played a postseason game in the Climax Series era with the first being last year. Prior to 2016, their last playoff game was in the 1998 Japan Series.

Hanshin missed the postseason after a poor September in 2016 in Kanemoto's first year. They were an A-class team from 2013-2015 and made the Japan Series as a second place team in 2014.

The Tigers won the head to head series 14-10-1 in the regular season. Strangely enough, the road team would do better when these two teams played, where Hanshin dominated Yokohama Stadium going 8-3-1.  This means DeNA won the games at Koshien going 7-6, but this record shouldn't mean too much.

===

Outlook

Christian: I think the Tigers rotation and bullpen will be no match for the Baystars, but anything can happen. DeNA needs to get to the starter early, because if Hanshin goes to their bullpen, it's over on paper. The Baystars starting pitching can keep them in games, but I don't trust their pen, nor their streaky bats who live and die by the home run. Kanemoto's inexperience could hurt them in the series as Rami-chan is one who has strong preparation skills. However, I'm picking the team with more talent and stronger pitching over an intriguing rotation, but no middle relief. Yokohama's team won't be as lucky like last year when avoiding Tomoyuki Sugano.  Tigers in 3. 

Wes: Like Christian, I see this series pretty similarly. I can see the Baystars matching the Tigers in one game, but not two, which is why it's hard for me to find a path for the Baystars to steal another Climax Series. I think the venue of Koshien not only favors the Tigers because of the home field advantage but more so in the fact that it's a pitcher's park which will play into the strengths of the Tigers and less so for the Baystars. If Rami-chan does get it done, there has to be something to be said for his motivation skills but I just don't see in this series. Tigers in 2.

===

For more in-depth Tigers coverage, The Hanshin Tiger can take you there. 

Follow @TheHanshinTiger

Follow us on Twitter @GraveyardBall