sentences:  The team ended up struggling to escape from last place in the league throughout the season; far removed from the third-place finish that would have enabled the team to participate in the newly created Climax Series playoffs.Kuroda declared his intention to play in the major leagues next season on October 18, 2007.It was briefly rumored that he would use the posting system to move to the major leagues, giving the poorly financed Hiroshima team some monetary benefits from the process, but he ended up declaring free agency, which enabled him to negotiate freely with any of the major league teams.