Now in the final month of the 2014 Japanese baseball regular season, the "A-Class" teams in the Central and Pacific leagues look forward to October's Climax Series of playoffs, while the three also-rans in both divisions begin thinking about next year.
How many clubs will change managers is a question to be answered in the coming weeks, but it seems likley the Tokyo Yakult Swallows will be looking to hire a new skipper. The Seibu Lions, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and Yokohama BayStars may also be thinking about getting a new field leader.
Yakult has been in last place in the Central circuit despite having the highest team batting average (.283) in the CL through Friday, thanks to the emergence of second baseman Tetsuto Yamada (hitting .333), third baseman Shingo Kawabata (.317) and right fielder Yuhei Takai (.318). On the flip side, the Swallows also have the highest pitching staff ERA (4.73) in both leagues.