Pro Yakyu Spirits - Superstar/Interesting Players

[MukaMuka]

Chiba Lotte Marines (based on first patch/first roster update)

The Marines is off to a very hot start this year and they are just .5 game behind the Lions for 1st place at the day of this post. They especially have the lineup to thank as the TEAM batting average is .296 at the moment and they are the #1 run scoring offense in Japan. In the game you can also expect them to all hit pretty well and their defense is also really good. Their worst defender is an E in left field...everyone else is at least a D and mostly B's, so this is also a really fun team and a good choice to play Pennant with.

Default Lineup:

1. Nishioka - #7 - SS
2. Hayasaka - #68 - CF
3. Ohmatsu - #10 - LF
4. Kim - #52 - DH
5. Iguchi - #6 - 2B
6. Saburo - #3 - RF
7. Fukuura - #9 - 1B
8. Satozaki - #22 - C
9. Imae - #8 - 3B

Lead-off man Nishoka is a great all around player who hits about .300 with 10 homeruns and 25 steals in Japan every year. He has the Big Stage ability so he strives in the playoffs. Also he is one of the few guys with the "Lead-off homerun" ability, so that means in the first at-bat of the game, he will get a power boost.

If you play as the Lotte, immediately remove #2 hitter Hayasaka and put in #4 Ogino from the bench and make him your permanent starting outfielder. He is a rookie but in real life before going on the DL he was hitting .330 and had taken over the #2 hitter + starting CF role. In the game he has the fastest speed possible at S (20), the infield single skill, Steal Up 1, and Baserunning Up THREE making him by far the fastest and best runner in the entire game.

Cleanup hitter Kim is an import from Korea and after starting out really terribly he has caught fire and is hitting .300 and leading the team in homeruns. #5 hitter Iguchi is the same Iguchi you may know from his MLB playing days with the White Sox and Padres. He may not be able to get a job in the US but back in Japan he is one of the best all around players. Both Kim and Iguchi has the Oppo-Field Power skill so try to use Power Swing+Opposite field swing on balls away/outside and you can hit a lot of opposite field doubles and homeruns.

And speaking of all around player just take a look at #3 Saburo's attributes...he pretty much has a B for everything which is quite insane. However he also has some bad skills to go along with the good ratings such as Bunt down 1 and Stealing Down 1 which slightly offsets his good speed when base stealing.

Finally rounding out the infield are the 7, 8, and 9 hitters. All 3 guys are probably better with their gloves than with their sticks. for example, the catcher has a really good game calling rating at 4 and has 1 of the best arm strengths in the game at B (18).

Pitching

The aces are no doubt #17 Naruse and #19 Karakawa. Naruse is a very soft thrower but his trademark pitches (fastball and change) have really high Sharpness/Stuff rating so he is hard to hit when you time all his releases perfectly. To give you an idea of what he can do, in 2007, Naruse went 16-1 with a 1.82 ERA in 24 starts. Karakawa is only 20 years old and he can also dominate as he has 3 very good pitches - fastball, hard slider, and drop curve. He also has the Spin skill (which is Fastball Life in Power Pro) making his fastball appear even faster. I am sure he will be even better once you awaken him.

And obviously you can't talk about the Marines without mentioning Watanabe, the unique submarine starting pitcher. If you face him using the Real batting point option hes annoying as his slow motion fastball will rise up and super slow motion breaking pitches will float all over the place. His ratings in the game has dropped a bit since he had a few bad years, but if you have a soft spot for him like many fans do, after you awaken him his fastball will be a B and his slow curve will be a S!

In the bullpen #49 Yabuta was a bust with the Kansas City Royals so this year he's already back in Japan with his former team.

The Closer for this team is #41 Kobayashi Hiroyuki (not to be confused with former Lotte Marines Kobayabshi Masahide, who went to play for the Cleveland Indians and is now back in Japan with the Giants) and to be honest, his attributes in the game pre-patch is complete crap...I think all his pitches were E sharpness. You will really need to donwload the PS3 roster update patch for him to be useful or I guess you can try to awaken him. Otherwise stay away from him and just use Yabuta.

[Fullgatsu]

MukaMuka that was a really good write up on Chiba Lotte Marines and they are a really fun team too play with in this game and while the 3 last hitters are not special with the bat their defense are really nice to have, Fukuura with his C rating at first takes away many hits that no other regular firstbaseman have a chance on.

Shunsuke Watanabe strikes fear in me when he's awaken with real batting point as the fundementals of batting are shaken up when facing him, the fastball that starts under the strikezone and tails in to it is quite fearful and even if you hit the ball it's likely that it will end in a groundout and when you have to adjust to his slow speed and the wierd angle on all his pitches you have hard time ahead of you when facing this guy.

[MukaMuka]

i am glad you like it...maybe i will do Nippon Ham or Lions next week. by the way Fullgatsu you seem to be a very knowledge fan of the teams and this game, if you have the time or the interest to do 1 of these introductions please feel free to do so!

[Fullgatsu]

Okay I would be glad to do an introduction and since I have played alot with Eagles I could do theirs. Since I'm playing the PS2 version I don't have updated roster my info may have some wrongs or I may have missed something so if you want to add something feel free to do so when I post it. I should be able to write one quite soon.

[MukaMuka]

great!! like u said i dont think the update matters very much, or maye you can just write that ur report is based on default roster/pre-patch! i love iwakuma, he is 1 of my favorite players in the whole world...a few months ago i remember he had a game in which i think he got 21 groundball outs or something (im talking about real life, not video games just in case anyone reading this is confused)...i might be slightly off but holy crap he is ridiculous.

[Fullgatsu]

Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles

The Golden Eagles have struggled a bit this season but was great last season when they placed second in the PL and qualifed for the playoffs for the first time in this expansion team young life. Created at the conclusion of the 2004 season when Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes merged with Orix Bluewave and some players like Iwakuma was orginally players for Kintetsu Buffaloes.

Default Lineup:

1. Watanabe - #2 - SS
2. Takasu - #4 - 2B
3. Teppei - #46 - CF
4. Yamasaki - #7 - DH
5. Kusano - #12 - 3B
6. Phillips - #5 - 1B
7. Linden - #3 - LF
8. Nakamura - #00 - RF
9. Shima - #37 - C

Watanabe Naoto is good lead-off hitter that is great on the basepath with Speed+2 and Steal+1 combine that with his B rated speed means that he should have standing greenlight for stealing bases. He is fairly unspectacular with the bat but still decent just don't expect him to hit for power, his defense on shortstop is rated at an A so he's a great player to have.

Takasu brings good defense to secondbase which is rated B and reminds of Watanabe but with less speed however if you awaken him once he becomes a good contact hitter.

Teppei was the PL batting champion 2009 and as such he is a good contact hitter with some power also, his speed will also allow him to steal bases and his defense in the centerfield is impressive.

Yamasaki brings one thing and that is POWER which is S rated as he hit 39 homeruns last season which was good enough for second in the PL, this power threat causes many pitchers to pitch around him, as he is 41 years old he may decide to retire after a season but that is not a certainty. Yamasaki is DH and should play there as he tire quite fast and his quite bad in the field.

Kusano is a decent hitter but becomes better with one awaken and with the second awaken level he becomes a great hitter that will always be a candidate for the batting champion title. His power is decent with a C but he will never become a homerun threat he's more of doubles hitter. His defense at third is okay that is D rated but he can also play SS, LF and 2B which is E rated so he give you some options.

Phillips is a hitter with good power that should hit 10-20 HR and he have good contact against leftys but rightys not so much, he can play around the field a bit but he plays bad defense at all positions so he should play firstbase.

Linden is hitter that hit for some power and some contact. He have a pull shift against him that can be a challenge to get through and when he have two strikes and the count is not full his strikeout ability kicks in which means his ability to hit the ball is quite low so try to find a pitch to hit before that.

Nakamura is quite unspectacular but have atleast a B rated speed so he can steal some bases.

Shima is a bad hitter but have an amazing arm that catches alot of runners and if MAXED gets an 6 in lead.

On the bench you have #32 Kosaka who can't hit but plays amazing defense so he is a good option in late innings. #0 Uchimura also cant hit but plays good defense on SS and 2B while having blazing speed, when maxed he becomes a decent hitter but still unimpressive with the bat.

In the Nigun(second team) you have #99 Norihiro Nakamura who becomes a good hitter when awakend and will give you more option on third and first. Also in the Nigun is #63 Makida who is defensive beast who plays outfield while he will never become a good hitter his defense may be worth it as his arm is one of the best in the league and throws out plenty of runners. One player that caught my attention is #55 Nishida who can awaken 6 times and if you go through all that work he becomes a pretty good lead-off SS/2B.

Pitching

On the pitching side Golden Eagles got two Aces in #21 Hisashi Iwakuma and #18 Mashiro Tanaka.

Iwakuma is a pitcher that first pitched for Kintetsu Buffaloes but refused to join Orix Buffaloes and was then traded for cash to Golden Eagles, Iwakuma have battled injurys for much of his professional aswell as a forced change in his mechanics because of new rules but these last years he have proved to be healthy and have certainly proved his ace status, especially in 2008 when he went 21-4 with a 1.87 which won him the Sawamura, MVP and Best Nine Award while playing for a fifth place team and he collected almost a third of the team wins, One of the most impressive things Iwakuma accomplished that season was only allowing three HR during 201 inning and he only allowed one HR to the PL. In the game Iwakuma have topspeed of 152-153 km/h and have a C rated fastball and slider, his B rated forkball is his strikeout which is a great weapon when you have 2 strikes on the hitter, his D rated shoot should not be forgotten as it can be really good against leftys.

Masahiro Tanaka also know as Ma-kun is a true Koshien(high School tournament) hero as he led his team to three consecutive Koshien finals appearance and in his last he lost to Yuki Saito who was able to outpitch him. After that he was drafted by Golden Eagles and have quickly showed his ace ability. In the game his fastball tops at 155-156 km/h and both the fastball and forkball is rated at C while his best pitch is his hard slider with some diagonal movement, he also have a D rated two-seamer that can be great to induce groundballs or even if setup properly be good strikeout pitch.

Satoshi Nagai #30 is the third pitcher and he's no slouch and have three D rated pitches (Fastball, Slider, SFF) and C rated drop curve which is a good pitch when you want to strike out the hitter.

After that the starting pitching really drops off and while fujiwara #15 is okay he don't really compare to the top three.

In the bullpen you have the closer #11 Fukumori who have good shoot and decent fast and fork, he should be a decent closer.

As setup you #57 Koyama which have a great B rated fastball that tops at 153 km/h and complements that with a D rated two-seamer and hard sinker, he may actually be the better pitcher off the two so you may want to use him as the closer.

And then you have #50 Morillo who throws nothing good except a B rated fastball with a G in control. He throws some other pitches but they are F or G rated so never pitch them near the strikezone. His fastball should be good enough to get hitter out as he tops at 157 km/h, while he only throws one pitch he's really effective with it and makes for a good relief pitcher as he have B in stamina so he can throw some innings in a row. While he have high stamina he's not suitible to start as he only throws one pitch and the second time through the lineup the batters are aiming for it. Also if you awaken him three levels he gets a fastball that reaches 167 km/h and then he the fastest in the game unless I missed someone and will then break Kroons record for fastest pitch i can't wait to get him to that level.

Then you have #26 Arime who have S rated stamina and a C rated slider with almost full break and a C rated slider with much less break so you might think he could be good at starting but alas no all his other pitches are either E or F rated which means he lives or die depending on his slider and I think he's only good as a lefty pitcher against leftys.

That was everything I had to write for now so I hope you all enjoy it.

[MukaMuka]

that was perfect! very detailed and u even mentioned some of the farm guys! if you enjoy doing this please let me know if you want to do more!!

[Fullgatsu]

I could do some more teams it was quite fun, Was thinking doing Yokahama Baystars/Tokyo Yakult Swallows next.