https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/af537886b2ef75a59bf6c05305a5618e134f6924

Masato Kobayasi comes in as a development coach. Eiji Ochiai will manage 2-gun.

Big changes. 3 guys that had careers outside of the Dragons with two recent retirees. Slightly different coaching titles too. Matsunaka is “chief hitting coach” while Iiyama will be a “position player coach”. Not sure how these guys will get divvied up between the top team and the farm.

Also puts into question what they’re going to do with Otsuka, Yamai and Asao. Do they go 5 pitching coaches like under Yoda?

https://x.com/aomiso97/status/1847349400286482586?s=46&t=RSRSXdRm9bMFJwe7qNE72Q

Sounds like the Dragons are looking to build their draft this year around highly touted lefty fireballer, Yumeto Kanemura. They they have also listed high school short stops Yusei Ishizuka (Hanasakitokuharu) and Hiroto Saitō (Kanazawa).

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/1074354fdff6e8ef23dd9eb117f3762818fe45ba

https://t.co/LpPsZYzWLy

Dragons closer Raidel Martinez is at the end of his deal with the Dragons and is reportedly fielding offers from other NPB teams in excess of $8M per season. DeNA and SoftBank are reportedly in on him.

Surely that kind of money prices the Dragons out.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/edfa7077325ba5c39b76aea61bd3d9594d479823

No real surprise here. Most of Tatsunami’s friends will be leaving with him. Who comes in to replace them will be intriguing.

This means, Kohei Oda (Battery), Akinori Otsuka (Pitching), Masahiko Morino (Hitting) and Naomichi Donoue (IF defence) will be staying on.

Otsuka, Morino and Oda were had finished three years with the team, Inoue obviously wants them on board. Donoue is only one year into his tenure.

Changes on the farm are yet to be seen.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ca5c7eca0e63bde3aa4b7ed0917098628c389c88

Interesting article. Former head coach under Tsuyoshi Yoda, Tsutomu Ito has remarked on an emotional distance between the players/coaches and the front office commenting on the difficulty of a manager to improve the team.

my favorite team

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/a281b828f8e20b3ca7cf5b5f1d876d592de15817

Ride the waves dudes! I don’t know what to do with my claws! 🐉

It’s been nearly 8-years since the Dragons last topped the league.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky_HgN0khGk

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Ukai 2-2 HR (1) 4 RBI

Muramatsu 2-2 2 RBI

Tsujimoto 5-2 2 RBI

Umetsu 3IP 1SO

Matsukihira 4IP 1SO

Dragons had a big ol’ win against the Marines with Ukai’s homer being the highlight.

A couple of concerns would be the 2 XBH (Ukai homer and Takuma Katō double late in the game) and 4 total strikeouts. The Marines were put to death by a thousand singles.

https://chunichisoul.blogspot.com/2024/02/dragons-rice-ban-sensible-explanation.html?m=1

https://chunichisoul.blogspot.com/2024/02/emerging-talents-2024-chunichi-dragons.html?m=1

This was hard! I’m not sure how useful this will be in the end, but it is a deep dive into the talent the organisation has and will hopefully give you all something to look out for as the season progresses.

https://chunichisoul.blogspot.com/2023/12/dragons-capture-former-major-leaguer.html?m=1

After my fuck up in r/NPB yesterday, I’ve gone and posted a better researched opinion on new signing, Alex Dickerson.

https://full-count.jp/2023/12/05/post1481599/

Interesting stats. It’s just quoting Delta Graphs but it confirms largely what I’ve been arguing for a while. 1B was rated at 91 WrC+ for the Dragons this season gone. That’s 9% below average.

I’d love to see the stats across all positions, but I don’t feel like paying for a Delta subscription.

https://www.chunichi.co.jp/article/816235?rct=dragonsnews

The local paper is reporting this as a done deal. Dragons were first movers on Nakata with reps from the FO and Tatsunami himself present for negotiations. The team have presented Nakata with a 2-year ¥600M deal with a further incentive of ¥100M if he passes 75+ RBIs in a season.

It’s expected the capture will be revealed officially in the coming days with Nakata taking on the #6 jersey formally worn by Osaka Toin sempai, Ryosuke Hirata and Dragons legend, Hiromitsu Ochiai.

The Dragons went in hard on Nakata as soon as he became available and this is the largest free agent contract they’ve doled out since Kazuhiro Wada ahead of the 2008 season. Even then, that was for ¥280M per season. This will match highest earner, Yudai Ōno in salary and will make him the 10th highest earner in Dragons history (over the course of a year). Aside from Dayan Viciedo’s ¥350M p/year deal signed in 2020, Nakata is the first position player since Kazuhiro Wada in 2011 to break the ¥300M mark.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/5c9a0b005b2f4b566ba7b98aa7aad7a3d39ac0ba

Dragons appear to be well on the way to signing a number of veterans from the FA market with Sho Nakata topping their shopping list. Team are largely expected to sign SoftBank off cut, Seiji Uebayashi for outfield depth, Hiroyuki Nakajima for PH and 1B depth, and former Tiger Taisuke Yamamoto for infield depth.

Tatsunami has sent out a “love call” to Nakata but there will be competition for his signature.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/d4c562645f1cb950b0cc0263b6b998c76939bb7c?page=2

Correction, FA declaration window.

On the heels of the news that the Dragons have been pursuing Hotaru Yamakawa, there’s a fe interesting tidbits in here.

• Yamakawa has until Wednesday to declare free agency.

• Chunichi probably don’t have the kind of money that Yamakawa would want.

• Yamakawa has a 1-year deal waiting with the Lions but likely at a much reduced amount than the $2.5M he had previously been guaranteed.

• Yamakawa might want to pay back the Lions and rebuild trust with them rather than move.

• Dragons have a plan to let Yamakawa sign with the Lions on a 1-year deal then use their pitching depth to trade for him on what would likely be a more team friendly deal.

The last bit is curious. It would allow Yamakawa to change his destiny and go back to free agency after one year. The Dragons can then bail out if it’s another bad year and can jettison Yamakawa and Tatsunami out in one foul swoop. What kind of pitcher would this deal command however is the question? I would suspect it would have to be one of the “next men up” as I mentioned in my previous blog post. Would Hiroshi Suzuki plus a kicker make the deal happen? Would they have to go as far as trading Kodai Umetsu? That’s the scary part.

Anyway, interesting storyline to follow this off-season. I expect we’ll see some moves following the active player draft in December, but it is possible something will happen earlier like the Abe/Wakui trade last year.

https://chunichisoul.blogspot.com/2023/11/2023-salary-negotiations.html

Keeping track of the contract updates. I think this helps us understand what kind of money is being thrown around and how much might be left over for signing other guys. One thing to keep an eye on is that $3.5M will likely come off the wage budget next off-season with Viciedo's deal ending in 2024. This could influence how the team may be willing to spend on multi-year deals beyond this season. Viciedo will likely either leave the team/retire or at worst, sign a much cheaper deal. Yudai Ono's 3-year deal after his Sawamura Award winning year has now run it's course, but the team are committed to paying him close to $3M for 2024.

Raidel Martinez' $2M per season deal will also run-out after the end of next year.

Other things to keep an eye on; Seiya Hosokawa's expected pay raise - this will be a very big one. Hiroto Takahashi, Yuki Okabayashi, Akiyoshi Katsuno and Takaya Ishikawa will also likely receive reasonable bumps; I'd expect one for Tatsuya Shimizu as well.

https://dragons.jp/news/2023/23103102.php

Well, this is quite a shake-up.

1-Gun

2-Gun

Well, big talking point here is Eiji Ochiai dropping to the farm. I can only assume this is an attempt to make the development pathway from farm to first team better. Ochiai was previously a 2-gun manager in Korea. Daisuke Yamai getting promoted is certainly interesting and not having that experience in the top team will hurt. I'm concerned for how the pitching will be managed with two hard assed position players as the leaders of 1-gun. Otsuka is career bullpen pitcher while Yamai is still very green - certainly some concern there.

Morino experiences his second demotion in his second stint as hitting coach. He previously served as a hitting coach under Shigekazu Mori in the first-team before being demoted under Yoda's regime.

Kazuki Inoue was also officially unveiled as farm manager on a 3-year deal. This could potentially see him outlive Tatsunami within the organisation.

I'm a tad gobsmacked by all this and hope there is a good explanation on the horizon, but knowing teams and they general cageyness on details, I'll be surprised if we learn anything of substance.

https://www.nikkansports.com/baseball/news/202310250000935.html

EDIT: Ryūki WATARAI

Hah. Ryuki. Hopefully he'll be Ryuki of the year. BA DUM TISSS.

So, with all the conjecture that the Dragons were going to select a pitcher is this class that is full of pitchers, the team has turned that on its head and will be selecting ENEOS outfielder-cum-infielder, Ryuki Watarai. WATARAI is a native of Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture (WOO REPRESENT). I am very surprised they didn't want to go in for one of the top college arms.

Watarai would fulfill an organisational need for more depth in left-handed outfield hitting, but the team also see him as an option at 3rd and 2nd base. Through his 3-years in shakaijin baseball, Dokai's stats are reasonable. He's hit an .840 OPS with a .305 average and 14 homeruns in 81 games. For ENEOS, he has mostly played in the #5 spot with the majority of his fielding opportunities coming in right-field.

With the Dragons having the first pick in the second round, I almost feel like Watarai is similar to Nakachi last year, could have been taken lower with a higher ceiling pick for the 1st round more doable. This seems like a safe approach to just take someone with a high floor in what I guess is a do or die season for Tatsunami. It still hard for hitters to adjust in their first season though.

Seems as though there could be other suitors and the public pick may have scared some off.