DragonSoulCast #3 - 2022 is dead, long live 2022

 Hi guys,

I'm sticking with Podcasts for now. I have actually set-up an RSS feed (still playing with this) for future podcasts. As I mention in the episode, I don't have a schedule or anything so I just upload when I can.

Today I talk about the end of the season, staff shuffles, who the Dragons might be saying farewell to and what they might want to target at the draft. 

I will have an episode as well to preview the draft but that will go-up likely next week. Draft is slated for the 20th of October.

DragonSoulCast #3 - 2022 is dead, long live 2022

4th October 2022 - 5:00pm update

The Dragons have gone heavy on the cuts and have laid off the following:

Ryosuke Hirata, Ayatsugu Yamashita, Yu Sato, Masaru Watanabe, Marc Ishida, Yoan Tavarez, Luke Wakamatsu, Kaname Takino, Yuta Omine and Tatsuro Hamada. 

They have cleared 8 spots on the top-team roster in one foul swoop. The names listed are not one's I'm surprised about but perhaps Kaname Takino can consider himself a little unlucky. Tatsuro Hamada's career has been hanging on by the good wishes of the club. He's had injury after injury and the man once uttered in the same breath as Shohei Otani and Shintaro Fujinami will be leaving the team. Yamashita leaving is also slightly surprising given the lack of options at first-base on the farm, but this may well change. Looks as though at least the team are keen on bringing back Ariel Martinez, we'll have to see how his contract plays out.

DragonSoulCast #2 - Who is Neo? The oufielder-come-short-stop now a pitcher (16th June 2022)

 Hi all, another podcast of sorts today which is a half-rant/analysis about Neo being converted to a pitcher by Kazuyoshi Tatsunami. I make a few comparisons and largely throw my arms up in despair. 

DragonSoulCast #2 - Who is Neo? The outfielder-come-short-stop now a pitcher (16th June 2022)

The Curious Case of Shuhei Takahashi

 

Tatsunami's monstrous attempt to play Shuhei Takahashi at short-stop against the Lions last night is telling of a few things, most of which is there isn't a place for Takahashi in this team. Shuhei missed out on a number of months with an injury to start the season but now it seems there are better options at his two preferred positions of third-base and second-base. 

There's a number of issues that are preventing the former regular's use and here I would like to run through a few of them.

1. The form of Toshiki Abe

Abe had a pretty bad year last year, but this year, the Iwate-born infielder has been one of the Dragons' hottest bats. He's currently hitting a .275/.344/.450 slash which is one of the best among Dragons hitters. His splits are also a bit strange for a right-handed hitter as he's only hitting .238 against lefties but in a small sample size of 21 plate appearances. He's otherwise striking .281 against right handers. Shuhei has traditionally been a good hitter against righties and last year he was abysmal against lefties. A platoon situation therefore is off the table somewhat at second base. Plus, let's face it, Abe is slugging at a level that is beyond what Shuhei normally musters and in a team that lacks big hits, taking out Abe would be suicidal. 

2. The development of Takaya Ishikawa

Out of all the position players in the Dragons organisation, Ishikawa has by far the highest ceiling. A third-baseman that hits for power and is an above average defender is a prized commodity and seeing him develop and ensure he can be that superstar the teams needs in future is important and in particular a mission of Tatsunami's this year. Ishikawa has been typically inconsistent for a young hitter this year and has been slashing a modest .228/.269/.423 this year. While the slugging potential is certainly there, the on-base ability hasn't come along just yet. Only 7 walks in 135 plate appearances is somewhat telling of where Ishikawa is at with his plate discipline, but he doesn't strike-out and awful lot either (26 this year) which means he's getting contact but perhaps just not on the right kinds of pitches. 

When we look at his splits however, he is only hitting .215 against right-handers in 107 PA while, in a much smaller sample size, hits .313 over 16 PA against lefties. Ishikawa is a potential platoon candidate with Shuhei based on these numbers but we must take into account two things. Firstly, there just don't seem to be a lot of PAs against lefty pitchers in the Central this year compared to the inverse. Secondly, you want Ishikawa at this stage in his development to face everything and everybody so that he can adjust and get the experience so he can be better at hitting right-handers; this is a tack I think the Dragons are definitely taking. So in this respect too, finding time for Shuhei, who offers little power but probably better on-base skills, is not really a prime candidate. 

3. Positional inflexibility

Shuhei has shown a willingness to move around the diamond throughout his career to get opportunities. First coming up under Morimichi Takagi, there were attempts to play him at short-stop to replace the departing Hirokazu Ibata. Shuhei was a bit exposed at short and ended up being billed as a third-baseman, trapped behind Hector Luna. Once Luna left the organisation however, Nobumasa Fukuda started providing power from the hot corner, and Shuhei was then given an opportunity at second-base where he was competent but still looked like a WWI-era tank turning double plays.  We all know that he has an elite glove at third-base. The diving catches and neat footwork have been somewhat of a trademark, but at the moment team need is not at third, it is probably at short-stop if anywhere. Unfortunately, Shuhei is built like a power-hitter and is not the kind of guy you want at short-stop long-term. That being said there's really no-one banging on the door to be the team's next short-stop. 

Takahashi is essentially the odd-man out at the moment. He can't play short, but is probably capable at just about every other position across the diamond. However, what does Shuhei bring to the team? Good corner infield defense and on-base skills. Given Ishikawa is a competent third-baseman that can bring in extra bases, this limits Shuhei to play third. Second base is currently occupied by the team's hottest hitter and another that is more skilled at getting extra base-hits. The question is, what do you do with Shuhei? If this were the MLB, there'd bit a strong case to trade Shuhei to maybe bring in a potential short-stop but I don't think the Dragons would part with one of their team faces so easily. 

What is the solution? Well, it might just sort itself out. Patience with Ishikawa may dwindle and that might force Tatsunami's hand to play Shuhei at third more often. Abe could get injured or drop-off, and that too would allow for Shuhei to be first-up at second-base. At the current point in the season there just doesn't seem to be a proper space for him unless you are using him as cover to give Abe and Ishikawa rest-days which again, seems kinda unlikely for the Dragons or an NPB team to do. 

Let's all agree, that no matter what happens he should never appear at short ever again.

Other news: Yakyu Cosmopolitan on YouTube and I collaborated on a video. They have used a bit of my analysis for their video on the rise and fall of the Chunichi Dragons. Please give it a watch.

Dragons Top 10 Best Offensive Seasons: Individual & Positional

With the severe lack of runs over the past few seasons, it's hard not to get a little skeptical as to whether the Dragons ever scored runs with an proclivity whatsoever. I often find myself looking back into the Dragons' history for the greatest that have played the game for the team. And while those celebrated by fans quite commonly come up with a scour through the data and statistics, I'm always excited to find cases that challenge those conceptions or that highlight the careers of players long since forgotten. I am also keen here to find out if the Dome era has really been such a negative for Dragons hitters over the past 25 years. 

In this post, I'm using data on wRAA (weighted runs above average) and WRC+ (weighted runs created plus) to give you an idea of some of the most productive seasons by players in a Dragons shirt. 

Here's some definitions before we move on:

wRAA measures how many runs a hitter contributes, compared with an average player -- so a player with a 0 wRAA would be considered league average, offensively. It's calculated by finding the difference in the number of runs contributed between a player and the league average (which is determined by the league average wOBA). 

 wRC+ takes the statistic Runs Created and adjusts that number to account for important external factors -- like ballpark or era. It's adjusted, so a wRC+ of 100 is league average and 150 would be 50 percent above league average.

- mlb.com

First, as WRC+ is a statistic that is based on wRAA plus a few bits and bobs, I will present to you the greatest career years for Dragons based on position and wRAA. This will be followed but a top 10 list not constricted to position.

Position	Name	wRAA	Year
C	Tatsuhiko Kimata	37.7	1970
1B	Tyrone Woods	60.6	2006
2B	Morimichi Takagi	29.7	1966
3B	Hiromitsu Ochiai	41.6	1987
SS	Kiyoshi Sugiura	30.7	1950
RF	Kōsuke Fukudome	70.0	2006
CF	Toshio Naka	31.9	1966
LF	Shinichi Etō	59.7	1965

I quite enjoyed the results I got here. The majority aren't huge surprises, but there are a few standouts that piqued my interest. First of all, we must all just marvel at Kosuke Fukudome's 2006. Historically, it's the highest wRAA for any Dragons player in history followed up by Tyrone Woods' effort in the same year. Somewhat surprising in the lack of a clear standout at second-base. While Takagi pips the next best by a few points, I thought Takagi was going to be a clear winner. Some of the more interesting pick-ups here is Kiyoshi Sugiura's 1950 season. Masaru Uno and Hirokazu Ibata are the most commonly cited best players in Dragons history at this position, but Sugiura's inclusion is an interesting one. His production at short-stop was very good for someone playing in a time guys that could hit 25+ homers a year were at a premium. Sugiura had a career best .929 OPS in 1950 which contributes highly to his presence on this list. Overall, we're still seeing a lot of what we'd appreciate as the established greats of the team. Sugiura and perhaps Woods are the only real outliers here.

Next, the all-time highest wRAA in a season list:

Team	NPB	Position	Name	wRAA	Year
1	18	RF/CF	Kosuke Fukudome	70.0	2006
2	37	1B	Tyrone Woods	60.6	2006
3	39	LF	Kazuhiro Wada	60.5	2010
4	44	LF	Shinichi Etō	59.7	1965
5	85	RF	Kōsuke Fukudome	53.2	2005
6	89	1B	Hiromitsu Ochiai	52.8	1991
7	-	1B	Michio Nishizawa	48.6	1952
8	-	1B	Dayan Viciedo	47.7	2018
9	-	3B/1B	Hiromitsu Ochiai	45.8	1989
10	-	LF	Satoshi Sugiyama	45.3	1952

A lot of familiar names here. Apart from Fukudome, most our players here have positions that are usually reserved for bigger hitters and this shows. Topping the list of course is Fukudome and Woods while Kazuhiro Wada's 2010 MVP winning season manages to slip into the top 3. Shinichi Etō once again appears for his 1965 season while two seasons from Hiromitsu Ochiai show his value as a hitter for the Dragons. Michio Nishizawa, the first "Mr Dragons" comes in at #7 while his team-mate, Satoshi Sugiyama rounds out the top 10. The big surprise here is perhaps Dayan Viciedo's 2018 season clocking in. Among all these great seasons, it's quite a surprise to see such a modern hitter make the list in the Nagoya Dome and uniform ball era. Perhaps more credit is due to El Tanke than I first thought.

Now, let's weigh these statistics down with some ballpark measurements, history and all the rest. What does our line-up now look like with WRC+. Once again, I will follow-up with the top 10 regardless of position.

Position	Name	WRC+	Year
C	Tatsuhiko Kimata	182	1970
1B	Hiromitsu Ochiai	206	1991
2B	Morimichi Takagi	165	1966
3B	Hiroji Okajima	169	1958
SS	Akiteru Kawano	150	1963
RF	Kōsuke Fukudome	212	2006
CF	Alonzo Powell	168	1993
LF	Shinichi Etō	233	1965

Well, with the weighting of this run production, there has been a bit of a shake-up. Woods, Naka and Sugiura have been replaced while Hiromitsu Ochiai changes positions with more weight given to his 1991 season. First of all, the eyes pop now at Shinichi Etō's 1965. Etō lead the league in average (.336) and has an OPS of 1.032. A massive 233 wRC+ puts him in touching distance of the legendary Sadaharu Oh who led the league in wRC+ in the same year with 266, his career best until 1973. Kōsuke Fukudome's 2006 continues to earn the respect it deserves, while we must continue to marvel at the kind of destruction that Hiromitsu Ochiai was capable of, this coming after his consecutive triple-crowns seasons with the Lotte Orions in his age 37 season.

The big surprises here are the two men that appear at third base and short-stop. That being Hiroji Okajima and Akiteru Kawano. If you've never heard of either of these players, you are not alone. I wasn't aware of their existence until doing this list. Leo Gomez of the late 90s Dragons had the highest career wRC+ for a Dragons third baseman, but he somehow doesn't make it onto this list as his best season was a 147. Okajima stole 47 bases and hit 16 homeruns in 1958 where the ball just didn't fly as much as it did in the modern game. Who then fits into the top 10 seasons of all Dragons hitters if we're not restricted by position?

Chunichi	NPB	Position	Name	WRC+	Year
1	14	LF	Shinichi Etō	233	1965
2	40	RF	Kōsuke Fukudome	212	2006
3	48	1B	Hiromitsu Ochiai	206	1991
4	52	LF	Shinichi Eto	204	1966
5	61	LF	Satoshi Sugiyama	201	1952
6	91	1B	Michio Nishizawa	192	1952
7	97	1B	Tyrone Woods	191	2006
8	-	LF	Kazuhiro Wada	190	2010
9	-	1B	Kenichi Yazawa	183	1980
10	-	C	Tatsuhiko Kimata	182	1970

There are 5 players that have cracked 200+ wRC+  points in a season and two of those seasons belong to Shinichi Eto. That's quite an achievement. Eto here fully shows how much of a star he was in the mid-1960s. Alongside Morimichi Takagi and Toshio Naka, Etō was one of the modern day stars of the day. Eto had 11 all-star appearances to go along with 5 selections in the Best 9 during his career. There's more to go into, but we might leave that for another day. Alongside the usual suspects, it is perhaps Kimata's 1970 season that sticks out where he hit 30 homeruns for a .283 average, the best production of any Dragons catcher ever. Kenichi Yazawa's 1980 also needs to be appreciated as he hit a league leading .369 average with 27 homeruns despite his team finishing dead last and overall underperforming horribly.

Now we have an idea of the individuals, what about some of the teams? Out of the Dragons top 5 run producing teams, unsurprisingly, only one of them has occurred in the Dome era that started in 1997. You'd also be unsurprised to learn that this was the pennant winning 2006 Dragons that had Fukudome and Woods firing on all cylinders. Alex Ochoa and Kazuki Inoue also showed off above average offensive capabilities in this season, this however only clocks in at #2 in wRC+ although it does top the list in wRAA with 103.5. I'll add in some key contributors for each season but limit them at requiring 200+ plate appearances.

Rank	Year	wRC+	wRAA	Key Contributors	Place
1	1962	122	90.6	S. Etō (171), D. Newcombe (161), M. Maeda (143)	3rd
2	2006	117	103.5	K. Fukudome (212), T. Woods (191), K. Inoue (130)	1st
3	1966	115	65.3	S. Etō (204), T. Naka (168), M. Takagi (165)	2nd
4	1996	114	81.8	T. Yamasaki (167), T. Chen (149), A. Powell (141)	2nd
5	1991	114	74.9	H. Ochiai (206), T. Chen (140), K. Tatsunami (121)	2nd

For what it's worth, when the Dragons have a good hitting team, they don't tend to win the league. In each of these seasons outside of 2006, the Dragons still finished in the top 3 but often a step or two off the top teams. In most of these seasons, the Dragons had the best offense in the league based on wRC+. Some interesting stories here and some names popping up that we haven't seen before. Tai-feng Chen, the Taiwanese power-hitter comes up twice on this list as a key contributor, while Kazuyoshi Tatsunami finally shows his name. Don Newcombe is an interesting name on this list. The American trail blazer played right-field in his one season in Japan where he hit 12 homers and 43 RBIs in his age 36 season. What is perhaps the sad part, is the best team offensive season was a season where the Dragons finished third behind the Hanshin Tigers and the Taiyo Whales in 1962.

In a way, I was hoping to see more to defend the ideas that Dragons hitting teams can still win, but this is apparently not the case. 1991 is a particularly interesting season given the team has a wonderful offence and some big names in the rotation. On parsing through the pitching statistics, it's apparent that the ilk of Shinji Imanaka, Masa Yamamoto and Tatsuo Komatsu did not have particularly good years. Unfortunately, apart from 2006, there are no other seasons in the top 10 for wRC+ for the Dragons that have occurred in the Dome era.

From this brief overview, we must really just marvel at the 2006 season where the prodigious talents of Kōsuke Fukudome and Tyrone Woods made the difference in making the walls of the Dome seem a little smaller. Should we give up on ever seeing a highly productive Dragons team in the current condition of the Vantelin Dome? The statistics are unfortunately quite damning. Kōsuke Fukudome and Kazuhiro Wada are the only two to have seasons of note since the move. Both of these players were hitting before the uniform ball was introduced across the NPB as well. Knowing this, it's quite hard to feel optimistic about the team going forward. That being said, as I have mentioned previously on the blog, this can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The Dragons drafting over the past 10-15 years has reflected a focus on players that are more suited to defensive kinds of baseball. The team hasn't really gone after many power-hitters in the drafts. Takaya Ishikawa and to a lesser extent, Kōsuke Ukai could mark a significant derivation from this former philosophy and with Norihiro Nakamura on board as hitting coach, it's hard not to want to feel optimistic. 

The weight of history is on the 2022 Dragons to turn their offensive woes around. While the days of glamourous hitters like Shinichi Etō, Takeshi Yamasaki and Hiromitsu Ochiai may be gone with the Nagoya Stadium era, there is still a chance to overturn what has come before to create a new kind of team with a dangerous pointy end to it.

* I would like to thank the curator at the 日本プロ野球RCAA&PitchingRunまとめblog for the data used in this analysis. This is the go-to for any advanced historical data I need on Japanese baseball teams.

Dragons Den: News around the dome; Fall Camp wraps up, 3 Golden Gloves and more

Fall camp has wrapped up now with Tatsunami and co. holding the reigns for the first time. There were a few interesting stories to come our of camp, but the overall theme seems to be "aim high" and instill players with confidence. Case in point being the encouragement to Yota Kyoda that he could be a "triple 3" player. Much encouragement was given to Takaya Ishikawa as well as someone who could hit 40 homers in a season. Overall, the messages have been very positive and some of the new techniques passed on by the new coaching staff seem to have been a hit. Dayan Viciedo was also on the receiving end of some tips to change his approach to hit for more power.

Missing from the camp however were new 1-gun pitching coaches, Eiji Ochiai and Akinori Otsuka. 2-gun coach, Takashi Ogasawara needed to step in as the "on the ground" coach, but Ochiai had sent on instructions from Korea. Ochiai's KBO team, the Samsung Lions had playoff commitments this year which has delayed Ochiai's arrival. Otsuka meanwhile has been sent to the Dominical Republic to scout new players. Possible international signings however have been put on the back burner while the world sorts out the severity of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

In awards news, the Golden Gloves were announced on Thursday with the Dragons capturing three different positions. Dayan Viciedo (1st Base), Yuya Yanagi (Pitcher) and Yohei Oshima (Outfield) all picked up ther 2nd, 1st and 9th awards respectively. Oshima's 9th golden glove is a club record. 

Without further ado however, let's skip to some of the pick-up points of the past few weeks: 

• The Dragons are kicking the tires on former Marines hurler, Yuta Omine. Omine was released through the senryokugai notices and is being looked at for a development contract signing. The logic seems to be that the farm needs an experience innings eater now that Yamai has retired. 
• Former manager, Tsuyoshi Yoda has been welcomed back to the club as an "executive advisor" for whatever that means. The Dragons front office appear to have wanted to keep Yoda around either for his pitching nous or perhaps for his connections across baseball in Japan. Either way, it is not a full-time role but it keeps Yoda in the Dragons fold.
• Katsuki Matayoshi has elected for free agency being the first former independent leaguer to do so. The Hawks, Baystars and Buffaloes are said to be the most interested in his services with the Dragons leaving an offer on the table should Matayoshi want a return.
• Ariel Martinez became the first foreign player ever to join fall camp for the Dragons. The catcher welcomed his family to Japan not long before the start of camp and showed his wares to challenge for a starting position next year. Tatsunami has already ear-marked Ariel for a possible transition to left-field to which the player is amenable. He has since headed back to Cuba for the off-season.
• During training, the Dragons official YouTube channel blew up. Some interesting videos to watch if you've got some spare time.
• The smallest men on the team, Keisuke Tanimoto and Takumi Yamamoto will be training together in the off-season. Yamamoto has previously earmarked Tanimoto as someone he wanted to learn from given their comparable height. 
• Akira Neo will be in the mix for outfield spots next season as Tatsunami indicates short-stop is perhaps a bit beyond him at the moment. While recently retired, Atsushi Fujii called out Neo that his hitting style "won't work", Neo has indicated a willingness to tear it all down and start again to ensure his longevity as a professional.
  
• Under Eiji Ochiai's instructions to hold 1-hour bullpen sessions per pitcher, the boys have gone ham throwing an enormous amount of pitches. Takumi Yamamoto threw down 380 pitches in a session while Hiroto Takahashi threw a PB of 246 pitches in his bullpen session. The main question however is, why?

Much of the buzz at fall-camp has been about Takaya Ishikawa's potential and his sessions with Norihiro Nakamura. A few adjustments seems to have increased his power slightly which is exciting and a number of Dragons former players, coaches and players have commented on his prodigious talent. 

Aside from Fall Camp, the contract situation continues. There are still a number of players that haven't renewed their contract, most notably Yota Kyoda and Yuya Yanagi. Otherwise there are a number of players that have been released and offered development contract deals such as Shota Fukushima, Sho Ishikawa and Tatsuro Hamada. This now leaves 7 positions open on the roster with two likely to be filled by a new international bat and pitcher while Matayoshi may also return. 

Lastly, it looks like the gathering of rookies for their official induction to the team will occur on the 22nd of December. An online event is planned for Fan Club members.  What numbers will go to which players is part of the excitement here. I'm a bit unsure of who will wear what but I could imagine: Bright #4, Ukai #23, Ishimori #29, Miya #56, Hoshino #61 and Fukumoto #43. I actually have no idea although I think the first three are reasonable guesses.