Mid Season - Far East Division

Kyoto Bushido

Kyoto got off to their annual hot start, but they've managed to maintain first place a lot longer that in previous seasons. Still, the team has been struggling, going from the best record in the WL in June to a slim 2.5 game lead over Taipei for the division lead. The offense is rock solid, 2nd in the league in HR and in the top half in most other categories. There's an outside chance the team finished with four 30+ HR players. The pitching staff is anchored by Jordan Auerbach, but many of the complimentary parts were pulled off the scrap heap, and though they showed some surprising numbers early, their true colors are coming through. The notable exception is Charlie Gibson, who at 6-2, 3.49 has managed to make up for the disappointing rookie season for Tomakazu Kaise.


Taipei Tai Fong

It's been an up and down season for Dylan Goforth's team, with injuries being the main culprit for the inconsistent play. The team is leading the wild card race and is competing for the division, but no single player really stands out when you look over the stat sheet. Some of the starting pitching (Fetter, Myers, Ruettiger) has been good, and the bullpen has been better than most, but no one on this staff will be competing for any awards. Likewise, the offense has no real holes, but no superstars either. Rookie Mook Jockster leads the team in HR and is second in RBI, proving to be a nice compliment to the other young hitters on the team (Kakazu, Iwata). The question moving forward is whether this team has any hope of taking down the Knights in the WLCS....


Chiang-Mai Kwaan

After a terrible start, Kwaan GM Ben Royer decided to put his entire team on the trading block. He unloaded proven commodities like Trevor Bayne, Eddie Degerman and Delmon Young for prospects, and then the funniest thing happened; the team started winning. Now the team sits a game over .500 and 2 games out of the wild card. Did the team turn it around because of the trades or despite them? We'll never know, but what we can be certain of is that Thurman Murman has been an absolute beast this season. The top half of the batting order have all been exceptional, in fact, and the team has crept up to 8th in runs scored. The pitching has been the problem with nine different players getting starts. Chiang-Mai was one of a handful of teams who quickly promoted nearly all of their 2021 draft class in hopes of creating a spark. Blake Korg (2-0, 2.75) has been the most successful of those call-ups.


Osaka Ronin

When you play in a band box, you live and die by the home run. Osaka has always hit a ton, but they also give up a ton. At 7 games under .500 at home, it's safe to say that the team isn't ideally built for Domo-Kun Field. The usual suspects are pounding out the long balls (Brown, Peppers, Parker), but not even career win leader CC Sabathia can conquer the dimensions of SLB's version of Coors Field. Ricardo Romero and rookie Michael Casper have managed to do alright, but the pen is a nightmare. If there's one GM who is counting the days until the reboot, it's Tom Hey....