New Staff Announced for Kazuki Inoue's Backroom

If you've been asleep on the Dragons for the past few months, while I wouldn't blame you, you would have missed that Kazuyoshi Tatsunami has resigned after three unsuccessful years. Well, out with the old and in with the Inoue. Kazuki Inoue, the team's farm manager last year has been promoted to the top job. With him he has brought some new friends to the backroom and I would like to make a quick and dirty post here to prognosticate on what their roles may be. 

First, the team parted way with Tatsunami and five of his coaches. Following the hall of famer were Atsushi Kataoka, Kazuhiro Wada, Takahiro Ueda, Takayuki Onishi and Eiji Ochiai - or so we thought.

Incoming is former Hawks MVP and triple-crown man Nobuhiko Matsunaka, former Fighters utility Yuji Iiyama, Eagles Japan Series winner, Shinichiro Koyama, former lefty killer Masato Kobayashi, former golden boy Ryosuke Hirata and recently retired star reliever, Shinji Tajima. 

Apart from Hirata and Tajima, the three coaches that Inoue has brought in with him have experience with other teams. Matsunaka was a career Hawks player while Iiyama was a career Fighters player. Koyama was a former #1 pick with the Dragons before moving to the Eagles when they were established in 2004. Iiyama and Koyama both have coaching experience with their respective teams while Matsunaka was the GM/manager of the Kagawa Olive Guyners in the Shikoku Indy League before doing some guest coaching for the Chiba Lotte Marines. Oh, and did I mention that Eiji Ochiai will be appointed the farm manager - yes in the ultimate 'gotcha' moment, although Ochiai had been announced to be leaving the team, Inoue convinced him to stay on to manage the 2-gun team. All other coaches, are to be retained.

All of these players have a connection to Inoue, although some more obvious than others. Matsunaka and Iiyama are both from Kyushu, like Inoue. Iiyama is also from Kagoshima like Inoue, while Matsunaka hails from Kumamoto. Inoue and Matsunaka got to know each other when Inoue was still in 2-gun as a player and played a game against Matsunaka's industrial league team, Nippon Steel Corporation Kimitsu Works. They have maintained their relationship since. Koyama and Inoue both played for the Dragons at the same time with Koyama being drafted in 1996 and leaving in 2003, overlapping with Inoue's tenure. Hirata and Inoue shared two seasons playing together before Inoue coached Hirata in 2010 under Hiromitsu Ochiai and later under Morimichi Takagi where he would have begun his familiarity with Tajima. 

I don't have any complaints over these appointments. No one really knows how important coaching really is and it's hard to measure. Some players will give credit to certain coaches, I'm sure Hirata credits Masahiro Doi for his good form with the bat during Shigekazu Mori's tenure, but overall who knows. But, what we can at least judge is the character of the coaches, their pedigree and what kind of players they were. 

So far, how the coaches are going to be spread through the organisation along with the retained group is yet to be seen, but I think it will look something like the following. 

Role	Coach
Manager	Kazuki Inoue
Head Coach	Akinori Otsuka
Pitching	Shinichiro Koyama
Pitching	Daisuke Yamai
Hitting	Nobuhiko Matsunaka
Position player	Yuji Iiyama
Infield	Naomichi Donoue
Outfield	Ryosuke Hirata
Battery	Kohei Oda

This is how I see the 1-gun staff line-up. Given the team will now have five pitching coaches plus Eiji Ochiai as a farm manager, I think Otsuka, given his experience, would be an interesting choice as head coach. It goes on the Hiromitsu Ochiai blueprint of a former pitcher taking the reigns like Shigekazu Mori. Otsuka is the most experienced of the coaches remaining in the backrooms so this makes sense to me. (UPDATE [4/11/2024]: Inoue has stated that he won't be employing a head coach)  I wouldn't be suprised if Koyama is now the bullpen coach with Yamai handling the starters more - given Yamai's relative inexperience as a coach, having a guy like Otsuka in the background could be helpful for his development as well. 

I expect hitting to be a combined effort from the coaches involved. Matsunaka is going to be chief here, but I would expect Iiyama, Inoue and maybe even Hirata and Donoue jumping in with their thoughts where necessary. Iiyama is an interesting one, Mitsuo Tateishi under Yoda was the last to have this role and he was credited with helping a number of hitters while roaming about being helpful. Otherwise I think Donoue and Oda stay where they are with Hirata keeping with the relative youth on the top team. Inoue could decide he likes working with Yutaka Nakamura, as he has at Hanshin and on the farm, which could see Hirata on the farm instead. 

Role	Coach
Manager	Eiji Ochiai
Pitching	Takuya Asao
Pitching	Shinji Tajima
Hitting	Masahiko Morino
Hitting	Nobumasa Fukuda
Infield	Yuto Morikoshi
Outfield	Yutaka Nakamura
Battery	Shota Ono
Development	Masato Kobayashi
Development	Hiroyuki Watanabe

I think here, given Ochiai's experience with managing the farm of the Samsung Lions is going to be valuable. I actually thought this was the job that Tatsunami had brought him in for three years ago. A former head pitching coach with the Lions, Chiba Lotte Marines and Dragons, Ochiai can also bring that nous to the farm which makes me think they'll keep the inexperienced Tajima on the farm with Takuya Asao who seems to be good with younger players. Given Matsunaka is a left-handed hitter, I can see Morino staying here too while Fukuda likely stays where he is. Morikoshi worked with Inoue last year and Nakamura similarly worked with him on the farm and at Hanshin. Shota Ono is still only one year into his tenure, and I can imagine he'll stay on the farm unless Inoue wants to swap him with Oda. Somewhat surprisingly for me, Hiroyuki Watanabe will likely retain his role in development while Masato Kobayashi, who was a scorer after he retired in 2014, takes on a development coaching role. I'm very curious to know what Kobayashi will bring. As a scorer, he was often in charge of the Trackman data that the team introduced about five years ago. Is this a turn toward more active use of data? Or is it just the want for a guy who was a good lefty to help mentor some of the new lefty arms coming in and up? Something I'm keen to watch for anyway. 

My only concern with the configuration of the coaches on the farm, is that all of the pitchers were career bullpen arms. Not that it matters all that much, but I wonder who then takes control of the starters. I assume that means Ochiai will have a more active role in managing the pitching staff while perhaps relying more on Morino and Fukuda to develop the hitting. I do theoretically like the idea of a more flexible approach as a coaching group, if this is what is being inferred from these coaching titles and hires. 

Overall there is an interesting mix of former players here that make up the 2025 coaching group. Most of them have had direct playing experience with or under Inoue while the others are friends he...made along the way. The key things to watch for me are the establishment of a head coach, if at all, and what happens to Daisuke Yamai. I'd also maybe keep a lookout for the outfield and battery coach as I think that could be interchangeable depending on what Inoue wants. If he wants more senior leadership on the farm, then Nakamura and Oda could move there. But if he wants a more youthful approach, maybe Ono and Hirata are the combination you go with. Either way, it will be interesting to see how it turns out. 

In the meantime, I will try to do a draft write-up at some point. No promises. The Dragons had a very successful draft based on the base talent they have collected, but as with all drafts, the proof is in the pudding. Of course also, there will be some players inevitably let go as a result of the draft as well, so I will be keeping a keen eye out for new to that regard.