Ding-dong the season's dead

143 games, 58 wins, 82 losses.

Well, the Dragons have failed to see October for the 4th year straight as we bow out in our worst position in the league in 19 years. A 4 straight years of "B-Class" (wins under 50%) results is the worst in club history since the 2-league system was introduced. We're going through some dark times and to be honest it doesn't look like it's going to get much better in the near future.

I'm going to take this opportunity to do a bit of a season wrap-up with some broad strokes while I'll take another look at the 2015 draft class in another post in a similar vein to what I did at the all-star break. I'll then give a run down of the most recent news regarding free agencies, the draft and staff movements in my next post.

Right, well, where to begin. At the beginning of the season, I like many others had my expectations relatively low for the Dragons and I predicted them to finish second last. My expectation were raised slightly however in the opening quarter of the season as the Dragons managed to keep pace with the league leaders due to a bit of sparkling form from Shuhei Takahashi, Ricardo Nanita and Dayan Viciedo as well as a bit of luck running into some teams that hadn't sorted their stuff out. As we progressed to the middle of the season there were some hopeful moments where we were still in play-off contention and the optimist in me thought this team in reconstruction might just have enough in the tank to get into the final play-off spot. However after a bit of dip and then the acrimonious sacking of manager Motonobu Tanishige, the team never looked like going anywhere but the bottom two places. The Dragons were somewhat lucky that the Tigers at times made us look good, but in the end we crawled to a very poor end to the season capped off by two extra innings losses to the Giants in Tokyo, one a grand slam given up by probably our best player of  the season, Shinji Tajima and another, final inning goodbye see you later loss tossed up by Daisuke Sobue.

Bullpen

Let's first talk a little about the heroes of this season. Shinji Tajima with his 31 scoreless innings from opening day probably tops the lot. He created a new NPB record for doing so, and equalled a club record set by Akifumi Takahashi (now of the Tigers) for consecutive scoreless innings/games pitched. Tajima probably would have even more impressive stats if he hadn't been called up to become the team's closing pitcher. Despite being brought into the piece fairly late he still earned 17 saves to go along with his 21 hold points. He ends the season with a 3-4 record and a 2.44 ERA. Certainly another great successor to the line of bullpen pitchers the Dragons have produced over the years. He was recognised for his efforts as he collected the "Crown Award" from Chunichi which is a gift of a new model Toyota Crown to the player considered to the best during the season.

Our bullpen pitchers are just about the only thing I can't complain about. Toshiya Okada, Katsuki Matayoshi and Ryuya Ogawa all did magnificently well in my opinion. Ogawa had a bit of a breakout season this year and his 0.947 WHIP really impressed me. Okada has been a mainstay in the bullpen along with Matayoshi and I think we have a lot of depth in this area. Hiroto Fuku and Yu Sato, the rookies this year took part in relief sessions here and there and did their jobs without being spectacular. Also kudos to Daisuke Sobue who started the season as the second team closer and ended up being the late innings reliever in the first team; a 1.087 WHIP rating for him.

Starting Rotation

As for starting pitchers, most have been terribly unlucky with getting wins due to a terrible Kazuki Yoshimi came back into the team after surgery last season and held down his spot in the rotation. He went 6-7 this year but certainly deserved better. There was one game against the Tigers this year that he had to win by himself as he hit the winning RBI in a 1-0 win. He pitched 131 innings this year which is the most work he's done since 2012 which is a good sign going forward. Still only 31, he'll be a mainstay for a few more years to come. A 3.08 ERA is still a little bit high considering his early career stats, but still, the veteran did extremely well this year in difficult circumstances.
offense, but

Jordan Norberto, the first year Dominican, was another bright light in the rotation and his ability to keep opposing batters off foot with his ability to hurry through pitches was very effective particularly in the opening half of the season. As the season progressed however I got a feeling that batters got a better read on him and he started leaking more runs. He ended the season with a 6-6 record and a fairly high ERA of 4.24. His 108 strikeouts for the season was a team high.

Yudai Ono worked his socks off as the season's proclaimed ace this year and on the second game he played when he returned from injury he pitched a very solid shut out which I thought was going to be the start of a rebirth. Not so apparently. In decisions this year Ono was 7-10 and 5th in total strikeouts for the Dragons. He wasn't particularly bad but not particularly outstanding. He was however one of the hardest workers with 3 completed games and over 120 innings pitched.

Raul Valdes the Cuban veteran showed his usefulness and was the second best starter behind Jordan in terms of strikeouts per 9 innings. A 6-7 record is certainly respectable given his age and the ability of the team but he also gave up the most homeruns of the pitchers with 17 of his pitches clearing the fences.

I would last of all like to talk in detail about Ryosuke Oguma who has impressed me a lot. He
went out injured in the first third of the season and it took him a long while to get back but his stats are the best of the starters. He had a 5-2 record in 8 starts, the best winning percentage of any starter aside from Yu Sato who only started and won one game. An ERA of 2.80 also doesn't look too bad when you assess his contribution overall and I would dare say he may well have won 10 games this year had he been fit. In his first start of the year he shut down the Baystars with a 93 ball, 1 hit shutout in Nagoya. He was the only Chunichi to get a shut-out this year apart from Ono. I think we can grow to expect a bit more from the man whose name translates to "little bear."

I could go on forever about our starters, but these are the main guys I felt worthy of mention. I will of course talk about the trials and tribulations of our 2015 #1 draft pick Shinnosuke Ogasawara in another post as his story is a nice one to tell.

Batting

This is where the stories get a bit dark, but the main thing to come out of it was Yohei "Even Year" Oshima who came out to play this year cracking a .298 BA and hitting for the cycle in the process. He finished second in the central league charts for hits behind Ryosuke Kikuchi of the Carp with 174 and 3rd in stolen bases behind Tetsuto Yamada and Kikuchi with 26 (although he was caught stealing 12 times. If my SABR thinking is right, that's a really poor success rate). As our lead-off hitter he really did his job this season after being fairly bang average last year. A bright to slightly dimmed light in a very dark season.

For most improved bat of the season I have it as a two way tie between Shuhei Takahashi and Nobumasa Fukuda, both coincidentally guys that played the majority of the season at 3rd base.　Takahashi went ham in his first 20 or so games averaging over .400 with a few homers and all the rest. That of course quietened down a bit but he still was performing well until he broke a bone in his hand to enforce an extended break on the sidelines.  In that time, the Dragons tried all manners of stop-gap solutions at 3rd base with Tetsuya Tani, Naomichi Donoue and Masahiko Morino among others brought in to try and make the position their own. It wasn't however until Fukuda was given the green light that we started seeing more production at that position. Fukuda went on to hit a personal best 10 homeruns this year with a .744 OPS and a .265 average. He finished the season in left field to accommodate the return of Takahashi who showed some of his early season prowess and ended with a .251/.319/.369 slash line.

Both I think had outbreak seasons this year and if Ricardo Nanita isn't retained, we might see Fukuda out the left pocket to add a bit more pop to the line-up if Viciedo and Takahashi remain the incumbents at 1st and 3rd respectively. Masahiko Morino also made a bit of a statement when Viciedo was injured claiming the highest OBP of any of the Dragons batter this season. It might well be a headache for selection next year.

Dayan Viciedo of course is the man that has probably attracted the most attention and his 22 homers helped the Dragons about as much as could be hoped. He hit fairly well for average at .272 and was third in the team for most walks behind Hirata and Oshima. He was also third in hits for team behind Oshima and Naomichi Donoue. Injuries cut short his season, but the Dragons are in talks to keep him on and there's a good chance he could be producing even better next year.

Lastly a couple of mentions for Donoue and Hirata. Donoue became the starting short-stop this year after an injury to Issei Endo and his defense has been nothing short of fantastic. He only hit .257 this year but put wood on ball enough times to tally 116 hits for the season.

Hirata too had a good season when fit going over the fence 14 times in a personal best season. A .248 BA  is pretty disappointing however but he was the most walked player on the team taking the short jog to first base 72 times.

I could go on about others, like Nanita, but I don't want to make this entry any more encylopedic than it has to be.

Catchers

Just a little appendage here about the catchers. We started the season with Iori Katsura and Shota Sugiyama  battling it out to be everyday catcher and I think we finished with Takuya Kinoshita and Sugiyama as the two most likely candidates going forward. Sugiyama started the majority of games this season but Kinoshita showed very good promise with the bat in the limited time he was given. I was expecting at the beginning of the season for there to be a 3 way battle for the catcher's mitt this year and there has been. Sugiyama hit a .260/.340/.357 slash line in probably one of the best batting performances from a Chunichi catcher in some time.

I feel sorry for Katsura in a way who is a very talented catcher in his own right, but he'll be either put to work on the farm or maybe looked at as a trade chip. But who am I kidding, nobody trades anyone in the NPB.


Against the others

We had a terrible record against Hiroshima (7-17)  and Yakult (9-16) this year. No surprise that both teams have two of the best batting line-ups in the league either as most of the time we were well out gunned.

The only team we had a winning record against was the Giants (13-11) which is a welcome surprise. Unsurprisingly perhaps, we got away the most hits against the Giants out of all Central league opponents with 227 hits. ERA as well was the best at 2.91 second to DeNA with 2.99. Given that the Giants finished 2nd this year,  I think this is one of the positives we can take away from the year. At least we were a nuisance for Yomiuri. That is satisfying.


Conclusion

Honestly, it has been a terrible season. With all the back office drama to go with the results it's just awful. I've experienced a very similar thing with the Twins in the MLB this year so needless to say that uh, baseball hasn't been nice to me this year.

The Dragons still really haven't overcome the losses of their veterans but I am confident with the pitching side of things. If we can get in one more quality starter in the draft this year, the rotation will be pretty set for the next 3 or 4 years. We have quite a few young guys that can come in and do things in the bullpen (although Mori wants to bring in foreign help, probably a closer) and there are others that given a bit of luck could develop into really good starting arms in the future.

Our batting however worried me. With Oshima and Hirata looking at the free agent market, we would be dead without them at the current time. There is no one in the Dragons system that can do what these two do and losing them would kill our hopes of winning anything in the near future or getting into A-Rank season territory. There is the potential in this team, even in the bats, to produce some really solid hitting but it hasn't come about yet. I  do however think that we discovered a lot this year about who can do what and I think that is important. Next year production at short-stop will be I think a key point of interest and it will be on Donoue and possibly Endo to get their batting up to a good standard. Left-field will also be another interesting position going forward given Nanita's injuries and age and Fukuda's recent experience there. We'll see what happens.

For the time being. All I can say was, well, at least that's over now.

It's October! Post-season Fallout

There is so much stuff that's going on in the fallout from this season that I'm still trying to figure out the best way to parse it all out into different blog posts. For the time being I've decided I'm going to use this post to put up news and we'll go from there. I have another post that will come later regarding my thoughts about the season passed. 

Let's get into it:

Manager Hunt

Well, the Japanese media had forever pointed at Michihiro Ogasawara to be getting a big promotion to lead the Dragons first team at the end of the season. So incessant were the rumours, that I didn't even think of the possibility of another very obvious choice. Keep the interim manager on. This is in the end the option that the Owner Mr Shirai has gone with as Shigekazu Mori, the former head coach and interim manager, was given the reigns for the 2017 season. 

Mori looks like he'd be more at home in a Yakuza flick.

The former Seibu Lions closer has been with the Dragons for a good long while now having two stints with the team as coach between 2004-2011 under Ochiai, and 2013-2016 under Tanishige. He was originally brought back into the team to help Tanishige while he was transitioning from player-manager to full-time manager but after being given the interim job, it seems that he has showed enough to be kept on full-time. The key reasons given for his hiring has been mainly down to experience needed to rebuild an under performing team which is why he was given the position over Ogasawara. 
After there being rumours that Tanishige didn't have the best of relationships with upper management, including Ochiai, it is possible that Mori is the yes man that will smooth over a lot of these formerly rocky situations allowing those ahead of him to make decisions without getting in the way. That's perhaps too cynical an interpretation, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.

This then brings the question regarding Ochiai's continuation as general manager. His contract is up in January and while he'll be taking care of the draft picks for the October 22nd meeting, he may well not be here next year. President Shirai has left the decision up to Ochiai as to whether or not he'll stay on, but the appointment of Mori makes me think there might be a little more life in Ochiai's reign just yet. We'll see though. He was reportedly not present when negotiations started with Yohei Oshima and Ryosuke Hirata over extending their stays with the team but that may be more a face saving issue rather than a operational one. Ochiai's abrasive attitude may not be the best mix for the negotiation table for two key pieces of a team that finished last. 

Free Agents/Retirements/Releases

As mentioned, Hirata and Oshima have finally started talks with the team as club spokesman Senor Nishiyama has told the press he has started talks with them. He will be conducted the talks alone. Mori has declared his that both players are important to the future of the team and we might even see the Dragons dig into their wallets to keep them both in Nagoya. A wise choice if you ask me. 

Our foreign legion has yet to receive word of anything going forward, but Dayan Viciedo has voiced his desire to stay and the Dragons still want him. He, Juan Jaime and Anderson Hernandez all headed home for the off-season last week.

We have had some retirements toward the end of the season with Yudai "Sunday" Kawai, a multi-pennant winner with the Dragons and a record setter with 11 consecutive wins from starting day, as well as 29 year old Shinji Iwata whose no-spin fork ball was somewhat of a legend. Kawai and Iwata had been playing on the farm but it was becoming more and more clear that neither had a future with the team with the development of other players around them. Yudai was particularly average on the farm and Iwata had control issues. Both had send off matches against the Hanshin Tigers at the Nagoya dome where Iwata showed off his trademark forkball and Yudai threw down consecutive fastballs to finish off his illustrious career. 

Hitoshi Tamura, the former Baystars and Hawks slugger that came to the Dragons famously as the oldest man to sign a development/trainee contract, also signaled his retirement after he was told by management that they would not be renewing his contract. Tamura played mostly as a DH on the farm and batted .279 with 8 RBIs in 43 at bats. He had his issues with injury to begin the season, but it was clear that his playing days were coming to a close with younger players like Takeru Furumoto showing much better proficiency with the bat. His leadership with the team will however be missed as I'm sure a lot of the young players learned a lot from him.

Shota Oba, a cash-for-player signing from the Softbank Hawks in the 2015 off season has been told to find another club after barely featuring in the farm team. A starter cum reliever, Oba was a top prospect at the 2007 draft being chased by 6 teams at the time. He ended the farm team year having played 9 games pitching 22 innings for a 5.73ERA. Not exactly awe inspiring. Oba has yet to decide whether or not he will attempt to continue playing or retire. 

A 4th pitcher to join the pitching scrap heap is Kentaro Nishikawa who was the Dragons second draft pick in 2011. Given his time on the farm, he, uh, may have deserved to be cut. In 10.2 innings pitched he gave up 13 earned runs to give him the unflattering ERA of 10.97. Nishikawa never really excelled at this level. He pitched 12 games in the first team in 2013 with a 6.26 ERA and 6 games in 2015 for a 3.68 ERA. I think we have much better players than him in the team at the moment, and it was perhaps no surprise given his lack of improvement that he was told to seek greener pastures. 

Other releases include 3 development/trainee players; Takahiro Kawasaki, Kodai Ishigaki and Kaito Goya. Kawasaki has been with the Dragons since 2012 and has most recently played on loan with the Fukushima Hopes in the independent Baseball Challenge League. He was drafted on a professional contract at the 2011 Draft but was deemed unworthy of the status in 2014 where he resigned on a trainee contract. Second time around hasn't been successful for the young lad however. Goya was drafted last year and apparently lost his desire to play the game after seeing Ogasawara in the first-team at the same age. He's returning home to work at his father's courier business. Ishigaki had a case of the Ips and couldn't get his form back after some shoulder pain completely threw him off causing him to throw far too many walks. He apparently did get back to some version of his old self but the Dragons had seen enough.

Wish all these players the best in their future endeavours but that means now there's a few holes we can fill in the draft. Only one outfielder out of the 9 players leaving us this year, so expect pitching in the 2016 draft. (I do pray for a couple of sluggers though)

The Phoenix League

I love the name of this tournament and it makes it sound more glorious than it probably should be but the Dragons farm team will be taking off to Miyazaki prefecture to compete in the Phoenix League and annual tournament held for the best part of a month to help the development of younger players. All Western and Eastern League teams will be entered while they will also be joined by teams from the Doosan Bears, LG Twins and the Hanwha Eagles from the KBO and a selection from the Shikoku Island League Plus. Umpires from the NPB, KBO, Shikoku Island League Plus and Baseball Challenge league will be taking part. It starts today (October 3rd) and will run until the 24th. 

The Dragons have sent out a fairly competitive team this year with a few first team regulars scattered around. Shinnosuke Ogasawara is the main man not in the squad, but he will be taking time off to work on building strength in his lower body moving toward next season. 

Here's the roster:
*Bolded players took part in the first team this year

Pitchers: Shota Suzuki, Ryosuke Nomura, Koji Fukutani, Yuya Muto, Takuma Achira, Hiroto Fuku, Takeshi Kaneko, Junki Ito, Junki Kishimoto, Seiya Nakagawa, Shu Yoshida, Takuya Mitsuma

Catchers: Takuya Kinoshita, Takuma Kato, Shota Sugiyama

Infielders: Shuhei Takahashi, Toshiki Abe, Shun Ishikawa, Ryota Ishioka, Taiki Mitsumata, Hayato Mizowaki

Outfielders: Shota Tomonaga, Masataka Iryo, Takeru Furumoto, Hiroki Kondo, Masaru Watanabe

Takuya Mitsuma has been named as opening day pitcher, the first trainee player to do so for the Dragons. He'll be pitching against the Giants to start the tournament.
Koji Fukutani is set for a long relief role that he was so successful in in 2014 before his ill-fated stint as a closer. It will be interesting to see who will be the closer in this team however with most filling starting or mid-relief roles in the past. 

I'll try to keep up with the league and give a bit of analysis once it finished up at the end of the month. 

NB: The game for the 3rd has actually been called off (I'm guessing weather), Dragons play Yakult on the 4th.

Other News

In other more random news, Mori wants to bring in Masahiro Doi in as a full-time coach on his staff. The former Kintetsu Buffloes and Seibu Lions hitter worked with Shuhei Takahashi among others last off season. A well respected figure in Japanese baseball, it would perhaps be a good move to get him in to the team. 

Yudai Ono is working to add a curveball to his arsenal next season as he looks to diversify what he can deliver over the plate. Generally uses 3 or 4 pitches; a slider, forkball, fastball and a 2-seamer but a curve would be a good addition. 

Yuya Yanagi, the man likely to receive the Dragon first pick at the 2016 Draft notched his 20th win of the Tokyo University Big6 season with a 1 hitter in a dominant performance registering 13 strikeouts against Keio University.

August: News and Musings

Hi all, time for an update of sorts with a bit of news about what's going on.

First of all the talking point:

• FA Risks; who's staying and who's going?
• Manager search update
• The good, the bad and the fugly - Results and Records
• 2016 Draft Information and possible targets

FA News

Alright, well, I'll start off with what I've heard regarding possible free agent moves. First of all, Yohei Oshima, probably our best bat this year (averaging around .300) has elected to browse the market. He is eligible for domestic free agency this year and has taken his right to do so. However it is worth noting that just because he has elected to be a free agent doesn't mean he won't resign with Chunichi. I think it would be an absolute travesty to lose him particularly after the season he's having and we really have no one else in the organisation notable enough to fill in for his offensive and defensive production. He steals bases, hits for average and has one the Golden Glove for center-field 2 years in a row. The other outfield options in the organisation don't fill me with confidence. Shota Tomonaga would be a like for like replacement, but he's just a speedster with bang average numbers on the farm. We might see a stop-gap replacement of some sort in the future if he leaves. 

The other major piece at risk this year is Ryosuke Hirata, el captiano. While he's had a pretty rough year with injuries and being moved up down and sideways through the line-up (he's batted at pretty much every spot from 3-7 at some point) hasn't helped things at all. At the start of the season he was well on track for around ..280 and 20 homers, but his production has really slowed up of late. That however doesn't change the fact that he is still a very good player and very important to the Dragons. The poor season we're having and the mismanagement of Tanishige might well sway him to look elsewhere. He hasn't as yet elected for free agency but the team would take a massive hit if he left. I said our outfield options aren't hot and there's no one that can replace what Hirata offers. I wouldn't be surprised if someone like the Giants was hovering around waiting for him. I honestly believe that if we lost Hirata, morale would completely nose dive. We need to keep him. 

Otherwise some of the veterans are available as international FAs this year with Araki, Morino and Iwase open to sign for teams overseas. Given the stature of all of them as club legends though they won't be going anywhere and they're already being reported to be making moves to remain for next season. 

Staying

The future of our foreign legion however is much more uncertain as the 7 players on the books may well be culled quite significantly. The good new however is that Viciedo has signaled that he wants to stay in Japan and play with us so he appears to be undergoing contract negotiations with a view to stay. I am very happy with that. His production has been off the second half of the season, but so has the whole team. 

Undecided/Should Stay

While I have not hear solid new about the others, Raul Valdes has mentioned a desire to stay and I can't see why not given he's been fairly solid this year despite his age. Ricardo Nanita had a blistering start to the season only to get injured (not unlike last year) and I suppose there are possibly doubts over whether he'll stay given that injury history, his age, and the emergence of Hiroki Kondo. Jordan Norberto is probably the only other of the group that deserves to stay based on his performances so far and I personally hope we hold on to him.

Probably Gone 

Drew Naylor, Juan Jaime and Leyson Septimo I would think would be on the way out. I really don't want Drew to leave as he shows a real desire to play well at this level. He's shown a desire to adapt to the Japanese way of playing/coaching and I would hope they'd keep him on even as a relief option. Jaime has been a victim of a season ending injury at the beginning of the season and we've barely seen any of him. Septimo had one start and hasn't been seen since so it's likely he'll get the chop too. Anderson Hernandez always seems to do something for the team and his willingness to drop in and out of the firsts freely is quite an asset but given the local options we have for middle infield spots (Endo, Donoue, Kamezawa, Araki, et al), I can see him possibly leaving. 

I am yet to hear about us moving for any FA players from other teams, but I have heard we will be looking at the market. The weirdest rumour I have heard however is that we are in for Hawks outfielder Ryuma Kidokoro who, despite his career .200 average, was the MVP of the interleague series hitting .415.

Manager Search Update

There's really not much to add but the noise is still Michihiro Ogasawara, our farm team coach. He's got the credentials really and the owner seems to like him. I can't see the management thinking outside the box for this one and I completely believe he'll get the job. The farm team are second in the Western League at the moment and Ogasawara has done well with his charges. Whether or not that will translate to the big leagues is another thing entirely. I personally think he'll be a good coach but whether or not he'll get the support he needs is another thing entirely.

The good, the bad and the fugly - Results and Records

We suck. Currently we're the whipping boys of the NPB and we don't even look like upsetting anyone. Mori has not done anything that Tanishige couldn't have done and we're just seeing so much crap it's ridiculous. Mori even had Shuhei at 2nd base for some reason in the past few games and that makes about as much sense as eating 5 bars of chocolate a day to stay in shape. Viciedo has been out injured which has not helped things but the batting line-up is just woeful. We recently went on a 15 game run of scoring 3 runs or less. The worst in 48 years. For real. Our bats don't produce frequently enough. 

Also to add to all the doom and gloom, our number one pitching prospect, Shinnosuke Ogasawara is 0-5 this year which is the second worst high school rookie year in NPB history and the absolute worst in the Central League. He has not pitched badly at all. He should be more around 3-2 or so. The batting line-up has not helped him in any of his games and two of the occasions he looked like getting a win (on his debut and then the following game) the bullpen didn't hold on for him. Fukutani gave up 4 runs in relief on Ogasawara's debut and Tajima gave up an equalising run against..someone I can't quite remember in the 9th inning to rob him of his win. I feel sorry for the lad. He's really improved a lot. He's putting his secondary stuff in the zone a lot more often now and his most recent start was a fantastic 8 strikeouts in 7 innings where he only conceded 3 hits including a 2-run homer. Makes me sick that this team can't help a young guy out. 

For the good thing however, we have actually had two good wins in the last two games. While we lost the series against the rampant Carp on the weekend, Naomichi Donoue struck his first career grand-slam in the third game to give us the win. Shota Sugiyama then went on to get his first career slam against the Tigers yesterday against an errant Shintaro Fujinami. 2 grand slam games in a row is a first for the Dragons in 10 years. Donoue was also on fire against the Tigers as he hit 4 to contribute to the team's win. 

Kazuki Yoshimi also strung together two wins in a row recently which is the first for him in a while too which is good to see. 

2016 Draft Information and possible targets

Well, unless you follow university/high school/industrial league baseball you're probably not going to have heard of either of these guys, but that's why I'm here.

Meiji University stater, Yuya Yanagi has been suggested by Chunichi Sports as the number one target for the Dragons at the draft.  He's a former graduate of lauded Yokohama Senior High baseball club (where Nobumasa Fukuda among others is an alum of) and was the team ace at the Spring Koshien in 2012 where he pitched 26.1 innings in 3 games taking 22 strikeouts for a 1.72 ERA. 

He's been posting good numbers in the Big6 University League in Tokyo. He posted 5-2 from 60 innings with 73 strikeouts for a 1.95 ERA (2nd best in the league) in fall last year and he has posted an even more impressive 6-1 from 72 innings with 87 strikeouts for a 0.87 ERA in the spring league this year. He was selected in the Best 9 for both league seasons

He has played for the Japanese national university team and took an astonishing 8 straight Ks against the US in a 1-0 shut-out win. 

He can throw a 150 km/h fastball, slider, a killer curveball, change-up, two-seamer and a cutter. A pretty diverse arsenal. 

We desperately need better starters and Yanagi could provide that but he is apparently being chased by Rakuten and the Giants as well as apparently 10 Major League teams if you can believe it. Although, I must admit, given our batting woes a good solid hitter wouldn't go amiss either....

The other target that has been mentioned is someone that is probably going to be the most sought after pitcher in the draft for a long while. Soka University's Seigi Tanaka. I've heard some reports that as many as...well...all of the teams are interested in having him. He may well be the most sought after player at the draft since Hideo Nomo. 

He played his high school ball with Soka Senior High but his team didn't make it as far as Koshien. He has however been tearing through the university leagues in both the fall and spring leagues last year, he posted 6-0 with an era of 0.40 and 0.00 respectively. No one can hit this guy and he strikes out just over one batter per inning on average. He also took part in the Haarlem Baseball Week with the Japanese national university team and ended up with 16 wins from 22 games for a 0.47 ERA including striking out 11 in 9 innings for one run in the semi-finals. 

His biggest weapon is his 154 km/h fastball which, well, is fast. He regularly clocks speeds around over the 150 mark and his strikeout numbers speak for themselves. 72% of his pitches in the Haarlem tournament were straight deliveries. He also has a slider, fork, curve and a cutter in his kit bag that appear to be used sparingly. He's a big lad at 186cm and 90km, but the extra weight helps with his power.

I don't like our chances of snagging Tanaka, we never do well in the contested lotteries, but we might get Yanagi if we go in for him from the off. Have a feeling that Yanagi might be the better fit for the team.

Anyway that'll be all from me for now. Just thought I'd throw a bit of news out there and do a bit of research on my won. Already looking forward to the post-season! 

Peace

Player Update: Where are they now?; 2015 Draft, FA and Foreign player stats

As we’re just about halfway through the season, I thought I would do a run-down of how all the new guys are doing. This report will include all the 2015 draft picks as well as the new foreign guys that have come in this season.

Draft 2015

#1 – Shinnosuke Ogaswara (Tokai University Sagami High)

The young bloke had a shaky start to life in the Western League as he regularly gave up big runs and lots of walks. He was however entrusted with starting duties against the Hawks, Buffaloes and Marines in inter-league play and walked away with just one loss from his 3 games, pitching rather well. Early signs show that he might be a Wakamatsu style pitcher throwing 4-seam fast-balls mixed with regular change-ups, but the hope is that he can get his curve and slider into the zone to open up his armory a bit more. Early signs are good for the youngster who may well be the best 1^st draft pick-up in a while.

2-gun stats: 6 games, 2L, 26.1 IP, 22 SO, 5.47 ERA

1-gun stats: 3 games, 1L, 15 IP, 10 SO, 3.60 ERA

#2 – Yu Sato (Tohoku Fukushi University)

Sato has also seen some first team action already this year and became the first Dragons player since Kenshin Kawakami to claim a win in a starting debut in his performance against the Yokohama Baystars. He was used as a reliever a couple of games later much to the dismay of many and hasn’t been seen in the first-team since. Looks like he could still be good in the time to come.

2-gun stats: 8 games, 1W1L, 22.1 IP, 16 SO, 3.22 ERA

1 gun stats: 4 games, 1W, 10.2 IP, 7 SO, 5.91 ERA

#3 – Takuya Kinoshita (Toyota)

The industrial league’s best catcher was brought in to give more competition to Katsura and Sugiyama but has only seen one match in the 1^st team so far and that was from the bench. Takuma Kato was preferred over him on opening day, but it looks like he is finding his feet in the 2-gun with some good batting on show. Next year he will probably be in the mix to be the 3^rd catcher off the rank.

2-gun stats: 26 games, 52 AB, 2 HR, 5 RBI, .308 Avg, .462 SLG, .400 OBP

#4 – Hiroto Fuku (JR Kyushu)

The young lefty has been probably the most frequently used by Tanishige this season. He showed good promise in the pre-season open games and has obviously been showing the right stuff in training. Deployed mostly as a long-reliever this year he has done reasonably well. He got his first win when Drew Naylor went down with injury after one batter in May against the Giants, and has otherwise been thereabouts in the bullpen. Recently he hasn’t seen much time I believe due to the resurgence of Takuya Okada and the emergence of Ryuya Ogawa.

1-gun stats: 22 games, 1W1L, 4 HLD, 36.2 IP, 27 SO, 4.17 ERA

#5 – Toshiki Abe (Honda)

Abe was given Wada’s #5 by management which should give some indication of expectation, but the utility infielder has struggled a bit adapting to the pro game. He has only featured in the Western League so far and has been at the end of a few errors in the field and hasn’t really been doing a whole lot with the bat either. Given the other options ahead of him for the infield positions, there’s next to no chance we’ll see him in the first team this year.

2-gun stats: 25 games, 68 AB, 7 RBI, .206 Avg, .324 SLG, .304 OBP

#6 – Ryota Ishioka (JR East Japan)

Not much to really say about Ishioka. He was injured at the beginning of the season and has just started getting back into the swing of things. He has looked very good in his showings in the Western League so far but it is a bit early to tell as to how far he can continue his form. A good batting infielder by the looks and he may well get a look-in for the first team this season if all goes well.

2-gun stats: 11 games, 26 AB, 10 H, .385 Avg, .500 SLG, .448 OBP

FA/Cash Signings

#1 – Shota Ohba (Softbank Hawks)

This one has me scratching my head now. Ohba was the Dragons first signing of the season through a cash settlement with the Hawks. My initial thought was that he might be another piece to put in our starting rotation, but he hasn’t seen any time in the first team at all. Not only that, but he’s been limited in his action with the 2-gun as well. As a youngster Ohba was very highly though of and had 6 teams after him in the draft where the Hawks claimed him, but I really don’t understand why just yet.

2-gun stats: 7 games, 2L, 16.1 IP, 7 SO, 6.06 ERA

New Foreign Players

#1 – Dayan Viciedo (Chicago White Sox)

Well, the Dragons were missing homeruns last season and Viciedo has provided them. The Cuban announced himself with 3 homeruns in consecutive games of the opening series of the season against the Hanshin Tigers to set a record for the first foreign player to do so. He hasn’t just been hooking balls into the left stand either as he has been placing homers all over the park. His early pace saw him on track for a 40+ homer season, but pitchers have been able to find him out a bit more recently. Tigers manager, Tomoaki Kanemoto mentioned early on that Viciedo was weak to dropping balls like curves and forks and that seems to have become standard across Japan now when approaching him. Still, Viciedo’s presence has been immense and “El Tank” has become an instant fan favourite and a constant starter at first-base for the Dragons.

1-gun stats: 70 games, 257 AB, 46 RBI, 16 HR, .276 Avg, .518 SLG, .363 OBP

#2 – Jordan Norberto (Oakland Athletics)

Jordan came into the team as a respected long-relief pitcher with experience in the MLB but Tanishige and the pitching staff started to turn him into a starter as soon as he got off the plane. Norberto made his debut as a relief pitcher against the Tigers, but has since been a constant part of the starting rotation. The lefty has the stamina of an ox and is as miserly as Ebenezer Scrooge, barely giving up an inch when on the mound. He and Viciedo have easily been two of the best pick-ups in the off-season for dare I say it the entire central league.

2-gun stats: 1 game, 1W, 5 IP, 4 SO, 0.00 ERA

1-gun stats: 11 games, 4W1L, 66.1 IP, 53 SO, 2.04 ERA

#3 – Juan Jaime (Atlanta Braves)

The Dominican closer was highly touted on his introduction to the team as a man that could throw a 163km/h fast-ball. He hasn’t had the chance to show it however as he injured his shoulder in Spring training. Given the woes with Koji Fukutani this year, he may well have been a handy player to have. He has however just recently come back from injury and is getting in some bull-pen practice. We might see him in the first-team if Tanishige can sacrifice one of Viciedo, Hernandez, Norberto or Nanita.

#4 – Luis Septimo (Chicago White Sox)

Septimo, another Dominican, was brought in just earlier this month after some time spent training with the team. He’s only pitched one game so far for the farm team so we’re not sure just yet what he can offer. I’ve heard him described as a closer but he may well be a starter.

2-gun stats: 1 game, 1 IP, 2 SO, 0.00 ERA

(Stats correct as of the 23^rd of June 2016)

Also, just as a note to you all, I have mentioned it on the twitter page, but I have been updating a lot of the DragonsWikipedia pages. A lot of pages are still stubs but I’m filling in information when I get the time. The best of my work so far is Shuhei Takahashi, Yudai Ono and Shinnosuke Ogasawara. Feel free to ch-ch-ch-check it out. 

Inter-league: Dragons vs Buffaloes @Kyocera Dome, June 7th - 9th; Dragons feast on dodgy Buffalo

Series three of inter-league play took the Dragons back to Osaka to play the talented but inconsistent Orix Buffaloes. It wouldn’t be the first time the Dragons played at the Orix home park as they faced off against the Tigers in the opening series of the season in the same place. Viciedo was on fire in his debut series and hit 3 consecutive homeruns to announce himself in Japan. Would the same ballpark produce the same results?

A few interesting duals among the two teams with old faces on both sides. Former Baystars and Dragons slugger Tony Blanco would be occupying the Orix batting line-up while former Buffalo trainee Taiki Mitsumata would start from the bench for the Dragons.

Game 1 and Shinnosuke Ogasawara was given his 2nd start of his career to see if he could claim his first pro win after he got “Fukutani-ed” in his debut against the Hawks. The Buffaloes would front up with Yuki Nishi who has only claimed 2 wins in this season from 10 starts.

Chunichi would start the scoring in the 2nd inning as consecutive hits from “El Duo del Diablo,” that being Viciedo and Nanita gave Chunichi a chance and it was Fukuda’s sac-fly that saw the scoreboard tick over to 0-1. The Dragons extended their lead in the 3rd with Ohshima hitting an RBI double followed by Viciedo’s base hit to move the score to 0-3. Itoi would pull one back for the Buffaloes in the bottom of the inning while another RBI single in the 4th from Adachi put Orix within one, 2-3. Ogasawara was withdrawn after 5 innings for Daisuke Sobue and the youngster would have to put faith in his relievers again to secure his first win. It was unfortunately not to be as Shinji Tajima, uncharacteristically for this season, gave up a single to Nishino in the 9th to even up the scores and send the game into extra innings.

It would take until the top of the 12th before the Dragons started to beat down on the weary Buffaloes. With bases loaded, Takahito Kudo’s 2 RBI single put the Dragons into a 3-5 lead while Sugiyama’s double drove 3 home to put the boys from Nagoya into an unassailable 3-8 lead. Fuku was given closing duties in the bottom of the 12th and young lefty gave up only one hit as the Dragons claimed the win.

Ogasawara will have trust issues with his bullpen after his last two games, but the youngster played well. Officially, however, the winner was Toshiya Okada who got his 3rd win of the season. 14 hits today from the line-up with a lot of them coming late on. Ohshima, Viciedo, Nomoto and Sugiyama topped the hit charts with two each.

Game 2 would be a much lower key affair with Shunta Wakamatsu and Takahiro Matsuba doing the dance on the mound. Nakajima of the Buffloes bludgeoned a Wakamatsu ball into the stands in the 2nd inning to give the Osaka team the lead.

Viciedo struck back with a solo homer in the 4th, but his 15th homerun of the season wouldn’t help the Dragons to victory as the scores stayed the same at 2-1 to the Buffaloes.

Matsuna fanned 8 bats in his 8 innings showing some good control. He ultimately kept the Dragons to 2 hits the entire game despite 2 errors in the field. Hirano claimed his 12th save of the season as the Buffaloes closer tries to come back to the form that earned him so many plaudits some years ago.

Game 3 would be a good contest with Raul Valdes and Chihiro Kaneko going head to head.

Viciedo wasted no time as he donged his 5th homer in the Kyocera Dome this year in the 1st inning scoring Araki along the way to make it 0-2.

The Buffaloes struck back through a Nishino RBI single in the 3rd but a homerun from Nanita in the 4th put the lead back to two.

Donoue would continue the scoring as he struck an RBI single while Ohshima would follow suit with one of his own. The mayhem continued in the 4th with Araki joining the party to make it 1-6. Viciedo continued to contribute with the bat in the 7th through a sac-fly while Atsushi Fujii’s 2nd solo homer of the season put the Dragons 1-8 up.

In the 8th inning, Valdes would load the bases allowing Itoi to swing and send two home, but the introduction of Ogawa stemmed the tide. Daisuke Sobue was brought in for the 9th and finished up the game, 3-8 in the Dragons favour.

The slap hitters of Ohshima, Araki and Kamezawa claimed two hits each today while Valdes pitched 7 1/3 innings with 3 earned runs, 2 walks and 2 Ks.

A great series for Dragons fans but many will be scratching their heads about the result in the middle given the dominance of the sandwich. Dayan Viciedo showed that he loves playing in the Kyocera dome with his 5th dong in 6 games at the stadium. Ogasawara was perhaps a little unlucky not to claim his maiden win once again but the 18 year old still has plenty of time to break his duck. He looks good so far, just hope we can nurture him right.

Inter-league: Dragons vs Eagles @Nagoya Dome, June 3rd - 5th; Birds of prey continue to plunder Dragons

The second round of the interleague series would see the Dragons encounter a different type of poultry to the Hawks in the Rakuten Eagles. The game took place in Nagoya for the first home games of the Pac-Cen battles.

In Game 1, Jordan Norberto lined up against Takahiro Shiomi for this one with the Dominican looking for his 4^th win of the season.

The Eagles were the ones to take the early initiative through Zelous Wheeler who trundled a ball over the right stand to take the lead 0-1 in the 2^nd.

The Dragons struck back immediately in the bottom of the inning as a Nobumasa Fukuda sac-fly allowed Viciedo to score to put things back to 1-1. That’s the way things would stay until the 7^th inning when Ginji, pinch-hitting for Shiomi, got one away to take the lead for the Eagles once more. Okajima would pile on more pressure with another RBI single to slowly start to take the game away at 1-3. The Dragons would not be able to break the Rakuten bullpen however as the batting line-up failed once again to break through. It was even between both sides with 5 hits a piece, but the Eagles made it count and pitched well to seal the win.

Game 2 would mark the comeback to the first team for Yudai Ohno who has been out since early May with elbow soreness. A vital piece of the puzzle returns and makes the starting rotation look all the more impressive. Yoshimi, Ohno, Jordan and Wakamatsu have all looked good this season with still some question marks over Valdes and Ogasawara.

Ohno however wouldn’t make the greatest of comebacks as the Eagles didn’t allow him to get his rhythm going in the 1^st as Mogi struck first blood with a bunt and run that allowed Okajima to get in to score. Zelous Wheeler contributed once more as his ground-out to second was followed by Yoshimochi coming in to score. Nakagawa would keep the pressure on after Matsui was walked as he copied Wheeler’s example allowing Mogi to score to make it 0-3. The Dragons continued to knock on the door all game to try and get something out of the result, but 0-3 would be the end score.

 8 Dragons hits to the Eagles 5 was perhaps some bitter reading as with a bit more luck (and a more honed Ohno) the result could have easily gone the other way. Araki, Nanita and Fukuda all posted two hits each while Ohno’s return was marked with 2 Ks, 3 walks (all in the first inning) and 3 hits conceded. If we forget the first inning, we could call it a decent comeback!

Eager for revenge, the Dragons wanted to avoid the sweep on Sunday. Kazuki Yoshimi’s safe hands were entrusted with the ball to try and set up the first win at home in the interleague period.

The 0-0 lock would be broken in the 6^th through Dayan Viciedo as a poor throw from Mogi allowed Yoshimi and Ohshima to scurry home to make the score 2-0. And that would be all she wrote! The Dragons held on for a close victory that the Eagles never really looked like endangering. Only 3 hits today from the Dragons which is some cause for worry particularly as one of them came from the pitcher, but a win is a win is a win. Yoshimi grabbed his 3^rd win of the season while Tajima snatched his 3^rd save.

Not a great series from the batters, but there’s not much you can do about that. The Eagles have been good this season and maybe this was another case for the gulf between the two leagues. The Dragons sit on 2W 4L against interleague opponents so far this year. Will be interesting to see if we can even get .500. The coaches don’t seem to be taking it all overly seriously though with time given to a few newer members, particularly Ogasawara.

In back office news however, the Dragons have signed a new pitcher. Another lad from the Dominican Winter League, a team-mate of current Dragon Juan Jaime even (and even a former team-mate of Viciedo in the Majors), former White Sox pitcher, Leyson Septimo. It is likely that he will be used as a closer to compete with the misfiring Koji Fukutani. That does however raise the question of who out of Nanita, Viciedo, Valdes and Jordan will be given the flick to make room for him, but that’s something we’ll find out I guess. Maybe if Oguma returns we’ll see Valdes de-regged to make room for him. 

Inter-league: Dragons vs Hawks @YahooAucDome, May 31st - June 2nd; Hawks get the swoop on Dragons

The start of inter-league play! One of the more interesting caveats of the season to break up the monotony of playing the same 5 times over and over again! The Pacific League has been the better between the two leagues of late and the inter-league competition would be another proving ground to see how teams on either side are fairing.

The Softbank Hawks in Fukuoka would be the first challenge for the 2^nd placed Dragons. The Hawks are of course the reining Japan Series and Pacific League Champs and after a rocky start to the season, sit perched high on the table with no signs of slowing down.

In Game 1 Shinnosuke Ogasawara was in the limelight for the lead up as the first draft rookie had been hyped up for his first start on his pro debut against the Hawks. Ogasawara would make a minor record on his appearance becoming the first high school rookie to debut on the opening day of inter-league play. A very specific record, but a nice one to have nonetheless. Rick Van den Hurk would be the starter for the Hawks and the lanky starter would prove to be a tough challenge to overcome.

Ogasawara pitched with great poise, control and balance in the opening 2 innings as his change-up wreaked havoc on the Softbank line-up.  He didn’t wait long for his first career strike-out as he took care of Makihara in quick time. After seeing Imamiya ground out, Ogasawara then struck-out Hawks star, Yuki Yanagita to end the inning. A very promising start.

The Dragons opened the score first in the 3^rd inning through Ricardo Nanita as he belted his 3^rd homerun of the season making it 0-1.

The Hawks would return fire in the bottom of the 3^rd through Imamiya who got the first hit against Ogasawara on the evening and the first RBI as he split the centre, 1-1. It was however to be former Hawk, Kyouhei Kamezawa that would strike back in the top of the 4^th to give the lead to Chunichi once more with a sacrifice fly, 2-1. Ogasawara would keep the Hawks out of the game as he pitched a total of 5 innings for 1 earned run, 4 strikeouts and 7 walks. Hiroto Fuku took over for one inning with Daisuke Sobue taking the other to keep a hold of the Hawks attack and give Ogasawara the best chance possible to get his first win on his pro debut.  In the 8^th inning, Fukutani was given the chance to keep the good work going but after taking two outs he gave up consecutive hits to Uchikawa and Hasegawa.  Matsuda then evened up the scores with a a single while Nakamura rifled in a 3 RBI double to stretch the winning score to 5-2. Fukutani had absolutely blown it. With only one out to get he let it slip away. Possible mentally unprepared for such a battering, the Chunichi counter-attack was rendered useless by Dennis Sarfate who ripped through Nomoto, Ohshima and Kamezawa to end the game, claim the save and most importantly the win.

 One can only feel frustrated for Ogasawara who had a debut win in his sights. It all came down to Fukutani though and the poor lad was devastated in the post-game barely being able to look at his team-mates. Needless to say, Fukutani was sent down to the 2-gun after his performance. Tajima looks set to be the closer for the time being.

Ogasawara however fulfilled and exceeded my expectations. His first few innings were absolute dynamite. He looks to have gotten a bit bigger since being drafted and his 140km+ straight balls and his change-up looked really good. He seems to have a decent curve ball on him as well which he didn’t quite get working on the night. The weapons seem to be there he just needs to put them to good use. My benchmark for him in the game was to remain at 1 earned run for 5 innings and he did that with gusto. I’m very proud of the young man.  I hope we get to see more of him this season.

Game 2 of interleague play would see Shunta Wakamatsu take to the mound to try and reverse his bad luck of late, losing his last 4 games on the trot. Tsuyoshi Wada would be his opposite number on the mound with the veteran Hawks pitcher only losing 1 game and winning 6.

Donoue started things of brightly in the second as he hit Viciedo home to open the scoring in the 2^nd. Hirata would then chip in with some of the good stuff at the right time as in the 3^rd inning the Chunichi captain cracked three run homer into the stands to make it 0-4.

Viciedo would end the scoring in the 5^th inning with an RBI single to send Ohshima home. Wakamatsu pitched out the game very well as the Hawks struggled against his wizardry. Wakamatsu claimed 8Ks in 8 innings giving up 2 walks and only 3 hits. A tremendous return to form. This writer however is a tad pessimistic as he things the Pacific League boys just haven’t had the time to figure him out like the Central League batters have. Hirata and Viciedo both had two hits a piece today and figured prominently in the reckoning. Good win for the Dragons to bounce back from the previous evenings unfortunate loss.

Game 3 against the Hawks would bring with it a bit of nostalgia for the Dragons fans as former starter Kenichi Nakata started for the Hawks. The Kyushu-born pitcher had some good years with the Dragons but was still looking for his first win of the season. Raul Valdes would take the ball to start the Dragons pitching.

These kind of match ups interest me. Do former players, particularly pitchers, have an inside knowledge that helps them against their old team mates? I can only think there has to be something to that line of thinking.

Anyway, it was to be the reverse of my thinking to start off as former teammates Nakata and Fujii did battle in the 1^st inning only for the latter to come out the winner as he whacked a solo homer into the stands to start things off for the Dragons, 0-1.

The Hawks would reply immediately however as with only one out taken, Valdes loaded up the bases. Hasegawa would take the opportunity to but the Hawks into the lead with a 2 RBI single followed by Matsuda’s sac-fly to make the scores 3-1. Nanita’s second solo homer of the series in the fourth but the Dragons back in reaching distance.

But the Hawks would taketh away through Imamiya’s solo homer in the 4^th to make it 4-2 and restore the two point gap.

Hiroto Fuku was brought in to replace Valdes but the youngster couldn’t stem the tide; he didn’t get much help from his teammates either. Honda looked to be on his way to grounding out but a poor pick up from Kamezawa got the veteran home as well as scoring Tsuruoka. Uchikawa would then rub salt into the wounds with an RBI single to blow the score out to 6-2.

The Dragons failed to rally and only mustered 3 hits from their 9 innings, two of which were homeruns. So concluded another poor showing from the batters that were shown up by their former pitching staff.

A 1-2 loss over the series was a result I probably would have taken at the beginning of the series but if not for Fukutani’s head explosion in the first game, we might have been celebrating a series win. Wasn’t to be and now we’ll have to redeem ourselves against Rakuten in Nagoya. 

Regular Season: Dragons vs Swallows @Nagoya, May 27th & 29th; Swallow your pride

In the last series before inter-league play, the Dragons faced off against the Swallows for their second series against the Tokyo team in Aichi. The record against the Swallows hasn’t been bad this year but with Swallows killer Drew Naylor out with injury, would his replacements be able to replicate his ability?

In Game 7 against the Swallows this year Valdes would take up responsibilities on the mound for the Dragons, while Naruse would be his opponent for the evening for the Swallows.

In a change to the line-up, Ricardo Nanita was elevated to the #3 spot. Ohshima was given a run there against the Baystars and Hirata had been hitting there before his injury, but the elevation up the order was given to the Dominican veteran as he continues his impressive form.

Shota Sugiyama would be the first to open the scoring as his triple in the 3^rd to send Viciedo and Donoue into score, 2-0. The Dragons would further extend their lead in the 3^rd inning as a Hirata double allowed Araki to score to make it 3-0. Ohshima continued his great form (possible all-star?) with a triple to allow Sugiyama to score while Araki obliged his outfielder with a single to stretch the lead to 5-0 in the 4^th. It wouldn’t all be smooth sailing though as  Iihara struck back for the Swallows in the 5^th with a 2-run homer.

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Sakaguchi would then put Yakult in reaching distance with his three base hit that sent home Ohbiki and Hiyane, 5-4 in the 6^th. Valdes would then be withdrawn in the 7^th inning for Yu Sato who, showing his inexperience, put two on base before a wild pitch put both runners into scoring positions. Sato was then withdrawn for Okada who walked his first batter to really put the pressure on with bases loaded. Ohbiki would be the man to claim the RBI but at the expense of a double-play, 5-5. From 5-0 down the Swallows had crawled back onto level terms. The Dragons would be the ones to chortle at the end of proceedings however as Nanita’s sac-fly allowed Ohshima to score again to take the lead 6-5.  Shinji Tajima would be called on in the 9^th inning to save the game and did so with aplomb.

Okada claimed his second win of the season while Tajima kept his scoreless record intact while claiming his 2^nd save of the year. Nanita was the hero of the night for hitting the winning runs while Araki and Ohshima both claimed a hit a piece.

A close win that was almost taken away from the team at the death (not unlike the last loss that the Swallows inflicted on us in their last visit) but the team held on. It was perhaps a strange decision for Tanishige to throw Sato into the fray at such an important juncture, but young lads need to be exposed to these high pressure situations.

Saturday’s game would be contested between Jordan Norberto and Hirofumi Yamanaka. Jordan has been in great form since starting his Chunichi career and has proven to be an important piece of the starting rotation this year (and one of the only consistent components at that).

Scoring would start late in the 6th but Hatakeyama would be the one to get the scoreboard moving as his RBI single allowed Yamada to score to put the Swallows 0-1 up. This however sprang the Dragons into life as consecutive blows from Nanita and Viciedo invited Hirata to clean-up and even up the scores. Kamezawa would then claim the lead, as today’s third baseman hit a 2 RBI single to put the scores at 3-1. The Swallows would continue the sparring however through Sakaguchi who sent one home while consecutive RBI singles from Kawabata and Hatakeyama put the Swallows 3-4 to the good. Not great pitching from Okada who was brought in to relieve for Jordan at the start of the inning. Daisuke Sobue was brought in to limit the damage but he couldn’t stop Imanami from getting on base off as Araki let one past him which subsequently let one in to extend the lead to 3-5.  The Dragons would get back within one from a Hirata solo homer in 8^th.

The Swallows however would extend their lead again in the bottom of the inning through Nakamura who scored Takeuchi to make it 4-6.  At the top of the 9^th however, the Dragons would expose the hole left by Tony Barnette’s return to the MLB as his replacement Ondrusek gave up an RBI single to Ohshima before Kei Nomoto hit with a sac-fly to even things up at 6-6!

Into extra innings now and it was to be the Swallows that would prevail in the 11^th with Hiroto Fuku pitching. Nakamura batted in the winning runs as he did last time the Swallows visited Nagoya, while Hiyane extended the lead to 6-9. The Dragons were unable to rally in the 11^th giving the Swallows a last gasp win.

Jordan pitched well again today as he fanned 7 batters but walked 5 in his 6 innings. Tajima also kept his spotless record going as he claimed the only hold for the Dragons on the night. Kamezawa was the surprise with the bat tonight as his 3 hits rendered 2 RBIs in a very successful night for the infield utility man. Ohshima, Nanita and Hirata all otherwise pitched in with 2 hits a piece in a fairly productive night for the line-up. The game was won and lost in the bullpen today however particularly with Okada’s shocking give away of 4 runs.

The final game of the series would see Kazuki Yoshimi maintain his spot in the starting rotation following his first win last week against the Giants. Juri Hara, the rookie, would start for the Swallows. It would be a story of Hispanic heraldry as Nanita and Viciedo made big contributions.

It would be Nanita who would open proceedings in the 1^st inning as his RBI single allowed Ohshima to score to open things at 1-0. Nanita would be at it again in the 3^rd inning as he double the Dragons lead with a solo homer, 2-0.

It wouldn’t stop there in the inning as Donoue’s double sent Viciedo home, 3-0. The Swallows finally made a reply through the virtuous Tetsuto Yamada as last year’s “Triple 3” man added to his collection of RBIs as he hit Ohbiki home in the 4^th.  Yoshimi however was otherwise doing his job of keeping the Swallows honest and it was through that pressure created that Viciedo was able to do his thing in the 7^th inning. With Ohshima and Nanita on base the Cuban took no pity on the first pitch from Matsuoka as he mashed a towering homer into the back screen for a 3-run homerun! 6-1!

Fukutani was given relief duties in the 8^th but it was Okada who would close off the inning in a relatively low pressure situation compared to the previous day to celebrate a bit 6-1 win.

The “Mash Brothers” or “El Masho Duo”  were the standouts on the night. Nanita grabbed two hits, including a homerun and milked a walk for his 2 RBIs.  Viciedo would also take two hits, including his wonderful dong, for 3 RBIs in a fantastic showing from the #3 and #4.  Yoshimi only conceded 3 hits against a loaded Swallows line-up which speaks volumes of his value to the team while Ryuya Ogawa and Sobue both took home holds in a game where the bullpen looked much healthier.

2 wins from 3 for the Dragons in the last game before the inter-league break. A good way to go out. The loss and the almost loss in the first game will be of worry to Tanshige but the results are all that matter and a series win is always a good thing.

Ahead of the interl-league break, our first draft pick in 2015, Shinnosuke Ogasawara  is set to make his pro debut in a start against the Softbank Hawks. This is a game we were never likely to win anyway, so hopefully the message to Ogasawara is to go out there and do his thing without too much pressure. Looking forward to seeing how the young fella will go! He will become the first HS rookie to debut in the opening game of the inter-league play since its inception 14 years ago!

Moeyo Dragons!