Dragons Den: News around the Dome; Ono the unbendable (1/9/2020)

 

Thanks to all of those that provided feedback for in the form from the last post. I have a better idea of what you want to see from me. For the time being, I'll try to at least put up some team news once a week based on what I've scoured over from the local sports rags and any other information I can dig up. So with that, it's time for another edition of Dragons Den. 

• Yudai Ono has pitched his 5th consecutive complete game thus equaling the
  
  Dragons record alongside Mitsuru Sato, Hiroshi Gondo and Katsuhiko Ishikawa. Quite a feat given it hasn't happened in 14 years and the you have look back almost 50 years to see when it last happened. If it weren't for a certain Giants right-hander, Ono would be the front-runner for the Sawamura Award nomination.

Perhaps the scary thing for Dragons fans is that amidst the best season of his career, Ono will become a domestic free agent at the end of it. A big club might come calling and it's going to take a sizeable offer to keep him in Nagoya given the class he's exuding. Add to the fact that he's a childhood fan of the Tigers who also happen to have deep pockets....

• Katsuki Matayoshi has returned to the top team for the first time in 2 months after having 6 scoreless outing on the farm. Matayoshi was looking sharp in pre-season but hadn't yet found his way into Tsuyoshi Yoda's plans. He's hoping this is his chance to stay with the top team for the rest of the year. 

• Ryosuke Hirata is one away from his 1000th professional hit after his single against the Carp in the 8th inning on Tuesday. Hirata has returned to the first-team for the most part after a lengthy absence where Masataka Iryo was most prevalent filling-in in right-field.

• Ariel Martinez is back to about 90% of his powers following his left hand injury. He had a live batting practice against Hiroaki Matsuda on Tuesday marking the first time facing up against a pitcher since his injury. 

• Akiyoshi Katsuno was brought up for the game on Sunday against the Giants and after a woeful first inning, looked to bring things back together with a well pitched 6-inning outing. Perhaps not what he had hoped after 22 days away from the top team, but he showed that he can re-focus on the mound. Katsuno was perhaps a bit unlucky with rookie catcher, Yuya Gunji dropping a few pitches while the Giants somehow hit some bullets within the diamond dimensions to advance runners. Hopefully a performance that will inspire confidence later on. Katsuno was de-registered on Monday.

• Hiroto Fuku had a 0.00 ERA through August! the lefty reliever has gone from strength to strength after his breakout season last year. He pitched 8 games without a run earned in August with a 2-0 record and 3 holds.

• In case you were wondering where Kodai Umetsu is (I was!), he has been working out on the farm after some discomfort in his right elbow which led to his deactivation at the start of August. On Saturday, he was said to be "throwing at 80%" strength claiming that his "elbow was fine now". He threw 30 pitches to a standing catcher. He has a 2-3 record with a 3.74 ERA this season after opening the year in the starting rotation.

• In other injury news, Kenshin Kakikoshi, Ryushin Takeuchi and Hiroaki Matsuda all returned from various injuries to start their rehabilitation programs.

• More on the farm, and on Saturday, Masami Ishigaki had a multi-hit game including his 3rd homer of the the Western League season to maintain his pedestal of average leader. He's hitting .373 over 33 games with a .952 OPS. A first team call surely can't be too far away. 2019 top draft pick, Takaya Ishikawa sits in 5th with a .272 average and a .738 OPS. 

• In case you hadn't heard, the Dragons have applied successfully for rookie status for Yariel Rodriguez and Ariel Martinez. Rodriguez last outing against the Giants may well turn the press against him for ROTY honours, but should either win the award, they'd be the first foreign player to do it. As neither have played in MLB or MiLB, the argument goes that they're eligible for the award at the end of the year.

• On Tuesdays game, Yoda was effusive in his praise for his hitters getting a 3-run cushion in the 8th inning despite 2 outs on the board saying that the his hitters ability to identify the pitches coming in was key to victory. Shuhei and Abe put the runs on the board. 

• In news that surprises no-one, despite their 4th placing, the Dragons have the fewest homeruns in NPB, sticking with modern trends, with 34. The Pacific League basement dwelling Buffaloes are the next worst at 42.

Team ERA however is 4th in the NPB indicating the pitching is apparently doing something right.

• On the individual leaderboard side of things, Shuhei Takahashi is 5th in the Central League in average while Dayan Viciedo trails RBI leader, the Giants' Kazuma Okamoto by 3. Yudai Ono meanwhile is 3rd in ERA and 2nd in WHIP while leading the Central League in strikeouts and strikeout percentage (9.37) Ono's FIP ranks a bit higher than Tomoyuki Sugano, but it's Sugano's 5 point run support average to Ono's 3 points that might be the decider in who gets the glory in the end of season awards.

Dragons Den: News around the Dome (19/8/2020)

 Apologies for the lack of activity, Dragons fans. I've finally found some time to put up a post. 

In regards to the format from here on in, I'm going to freestyle it a little bit. I'm going to go more feature heavy and lessen the pressure on myself to put up daily/weekly match reports. I am however keen to know what my readers want, so please, have a look at this survey and drop me any tips or anything you'd like to see on the blog. More frequent updates are a given, but I'd like to get a better idea of why you visit my website and what you want to see from me in the future. 

So let's dive into some of the more interesting news coming out of camp and the world of the Chunichi Dragons. 

• Yohei Oshima racked up his 1500th hit against the Swallows on Tuesday making him the fastest in club history to achieve the feat. 70s-80s hit machine, Kenichi Yazawa and Mr Dragons III, Kazuyoshi Tatsunami also achieved the feat in their 11th season, but it is Oshima who leads the pack. In saying that, Yazawa achieved the feat in fewer plate appearances so, I'd argue he's ahead. 

Looking deeper into the statistic to see which other notable Dragons passed the 1500 hit mark in their careers, I found that Hirokazu Ibata achieved it in his 13th year while luminaries, Morimichi Takagi and Toshio Naka both achieved the feat in their 14th seasons. Oshima is in very, very, good company!

• Akira Neo is putting more work on the farm and former outfielder and commentator, Yonetoshi Kawabata seems optimistic about what Neo learned at the top team mentioning that Neo appears to be loosening up when swinging causing his body to move more fluidly. Hopefully good signs! Neo has played a variety of positions for the Dragons this year, mostly in outfield, but has often played at second on the farm-team.

• Shinnosuke Ogasawara won his first game of the season on Tuesday against the Swallows in his 2nd start of the year. The occasion was marked also as the first win between he and formal Koshien rival, Yuya Gunji. Gunji and Ogasawara were on opposing sides in the 2015 Koshien final where Ogasawara pitching Tokai Sagamihara High School to the championship against Gunji's Sendai Ikuei. 

• Yudai Ono has pitched 3 complete games in a row showing his vintage form. The most recent against the Giants on Sunday marked his second against the Central League leaders. It was also his third, 10-plus-strikeout game of the season. This is the first time in club history that a pitcher has had 3 consecutive, 10K+, complete games. This was the first time in 14 years that a Chunichi starter had 3 consecutive complete games.

Mitsuru Sato in 2006 was the last Dragons pitcher to throw three consecutive complete games in the team's pennant winning year; he ended up throwing 5 to equal the club record held by Hiroshi Gondo (1961) and Katsuhiko Ishikawa (1955).

• Raidel Martinez keeps impressing as he clocked 160km/h on the gun again on Tuesday, the fastest pitch thrown by a Chunichi right-hander in club history. The Cuban fireballer has settled into the closer role after it was vacated by Toshiya Okada in a short-lived experiment to see if another lefty with a handy slider could be the Dragons' "God of Death". 

• Due to the flooding rains that have affected Gifu prefecture in recent months, the Dragons will be donating funds to the recovery effort through the sale of player towels. The Dragons have a number of Gifu-natives on their roster with the prefecture falling well within established team. 

• Older news, but Ariel Martinez became the first foreign catcher since David "Dingo" Nilsson in 2000, to field behind the plate. We also witnessed one for the rare occasions in NPB history where a foreign pitcher threw to a foreign catcher when Luis Gonzalez took to the mound. Martinez has really added some fire to the catching department with no only his hitting but also his game calling. Yuya Gunji and Takuya Kinoshita as well seem to be benefiting from the stimulation as they've been hitting much better this year too.

• Shuhei Takahashi is hitting .327 in August with a .403 OBP. The captain has been getting on base like a monster and has just slotted in so well at the number 5 position. 

• Back to the Cubans, and Yariel Rodriguez is the latest off the production line. His last start was 6 innings of no-hit pitching until he was undone in the 7th. Still, it was to be his victory. With Enny Romero showing no signs of returning, and Luis Gonzalez perhaps not being as effective as hoped, there's been an opportunity for Gonzalez to hop into the rotation and so far, he's not looked out of his depth. He is now one of four Cubans with the club and the third that has graduated from the farm via a development contract. Rodriguez, unlike A-Mart, was a very quick promotion as he only had to toil on the farm for less than 6 months before he was given a fully rostered deal.

Weekly Wrap: Carp & Tigers; Seiya Suzuki tames timid Dragons while Tigers taunted (June 26- July 2)

Getting behind on reports, so we're going to do a couple of quick weekly wrap ups. The Dragons took on the Carp in what has been a fairly comfortable series win in previous years. Seiya Suzuki however did the damage. Against the lethargic Tigers, the end of the rotation proved to be enough to sweep the kitties in Nagoya

In wider team news, development catcher Ariel Martinez was given a full-time deal by the team after serving 2 years on the farm. 

Game 7

Dragons 1-4 Carp

A fairly familiar face in Daiichi Osera, threw down yet another complete game against the Dragons making that his gajillionth career CS vs the boys in blue. 

It was otherwise a typical Yudai Ono start as he gave up back-to-back homeruns to the Seiya Suzuki and Alejandro Mejia in his second inning. Ono would give up a further solo shot to Suzuki in the 4th inning before the Carp made things comfortable in the 5th with a timely single from Ryosuke Kikuchi. 

Shuhei Takahashi did all he could with a modasho batting 5th in the lineup. Kengo Takeda started in right-field ahead of the misfiring Ryosuke Hirata. Neither he nor Hirata, who later entered as a pinch-hitter, could make ample impact on the game. 

The bullpen held steady behind Ono with only 2 hits conceded in the final 4 innings. The team were in a good position to make the Carp pay in the 9th after loading the bases, but all Hirata could manage was a grounder to third base to end the inning. 

A typical showing against the Carp ace. 

Game 8

Dragons 6-1 Carp

Experience won out over youth and Kazuki Yoshimi out-pitched Hiroki Tokoda. Yoshimi seemed to hit his spots relatively well while Tokoda simply didn't. 

Nobumasa Fukuda started the scoring with a batting cage exectuted left-of-centre line-drive while Shuhei Takahashi would chime in next up to drive Fukuda home. Hirata, leading off this time, would drive Kyoda home in the second to effectively end Tokoda's start. The Carp would get one back in the 4th through Kikuchi but a volley from Almonte and Oshima in the 6th followed up by Viciedo's second homer of the season sealed the win.

Game 9

Dragons 3-10 Carp

It was launchpad day for the Carp as they smashed three homeruns and a massive total to speed away from the home team. Big hits to Jose Pirela, Shota Dobayashi and Kosuke Tanaka saw the Carp take things out of reach very quickly.

A battle of recent university graduates in 2019 draftee Masato Morishita and 2018 draftee, Kodai Umetsu saw the underclassman pitch the better game. Umetsu was credited with 7 of the Carp runs over his unsuccessful 5 innings. Takuya Mitsuma in relief did similarly poorly giving up the further 3. 

Yota Kyoda was the best with the bat for his multi-hit game, while Yuki Hashimoto was the only pitcher left unscathed with his two scoreless frames. 

Overall, an unhappy kind of series. The better starter won on every occasion and it wasn't really that close a match-up in any game in the end. The Dragons will be disappointed not to have done better against a team they're traditionally good against at home. 

To wax away the disappointment, fans were treated to an eyewash series sweep against the Tigers in their first match-up oft the year. 

Game 10

Dragons 5-0 Tigers

Yuya "run support" Yanagi threw a gem to help lead his team to victory. The righty-hurler threw down 7 strikeouts through 7 innings while Raidel Martinez and Toshiya Okada cleaned up the 8th and 9th. 

Toshiki Abe gave the Dragons a precarious 1-0 lead in the 6th but it a demoralizing grand slam from Zoilo Almonte put the Dragons into cruise control. 

A tidy win where the team did the right things at the right times. Yanagi seems to look pretty good as the leader of the bottom-half of the rotation while he looks to be taking a whole lot of strikeouts which is another positive. So far, he looks like he's taken a step on last year. 

Game 11

Dragons 6-3 Tigers

Takumi Yamamoto claimed his first win of the year with 6 tidy frames for 2 earned runs. 

A profitable 5th inning would be where the team would truly get the winning wheels moving as Hirata and Viciedo drove in 3 runs. Shuhei Takahashi's following at-bat would see the team score on a passed ball to push things to 6-1. The Tigers would claim two more runs, including Justin Bour's first homer in Japan, but it wouldn't be enough as the Dragons took the series. 

Takuya Kinoshita starred with the bat with a modasho and and RBI to his name, while Ryosuke Hirata similarly chimed in with 2 hits and an RBI of his own. 

Game 12

Dragons 4-2 Tigers

Yuichiro Okano had a rough outing against the Baystars in his debut but the run-support was with him in a solid but unremarkable outing. 

Dayan Viciedo was the hero with the bat as his 3-run shot in the first inning wasn't to be bested by the Tigers. 

The pinch-hitting Masataka Iryo added to the team's tally in the 8th inning. Raidel Martinez would give fans jitters in the 9th after putting 2 Tigers on base, but an infield-fly and a double-play would vindicate the rapid firing hurler. 

Overall, a positive series win for the Dragons over a misfiring Tigers outfit. The Tigers have had their worries early in the season, but if they get firing with Jerry Sands, Bour and Jefrey Marte in their line-up, I'm sure they'll be a dangerous foe later down the stretch. 

Series Wrap: Baystars v Dragons @ Yokohama Stadium, June 23-25; Baystars set Dragons alight in series sweep

After a hoodoo shaking 2-1 series win over the Swallows in the opening weekend, the Dragons were taken back to earth very quickly with a short trip on the Fukutoshin line out to Yokohama. While Yuya Yanagi and Takumi Yamamoto put up valiant efforts to keep their team in the hunt, but Yuichiro Okano was given a rough introduction to the NPB with a less than glorious start on Thursday. 

Game 4

Baystars 3-0 Dragons

Yuya Yanagi made his first start of the year against the team that he almost signed for back in the 2016 draft. Tyler Austin and Toshiro Miyazaki were the destroyers for the Baystars as Austin went 4-4 with and RBI and Miyazaki hit the nail in the coffin solo homer in the 6th. 

The Dragons managed to match the Baystars in hits with Yohei Oshima going 4-3 in the lead-off spot. The team however was unable to convert their any chances as Haruhiro Hamaguchi went 8 1/3 innings in a quality start. Yanagi threw 6 innings for 8 strikeouts, but wasn't economical with his pitch could as he threw 120 pitches in only 6 innings. Hiroshi Suzuki had 2 clean innings with 2 strikeouts to mop up the game but ultimately the Dragons line-up would not respond to an otherwise decent outing from their starter. 

Game 5

Baystars 3-2 Dragons

The diminutive Takumi Yamamoto was given his first run in the opening rotation at the tender age of 20 years old. The youngster from Takarazuka in Hyogo prefecture put up 5 steady frames that were disrupted by a go ahead homerun from Takayuki Kajitani. The Dragons had opened the scoring in the 2nd inning with Shuhei Takahashi's first homerun of the season in front of his hometown crowd. 

Despite mustering 10 hits, the lack of cutthroat ability with runners in scoring positions meant the team would lose out in a close game.

Dayan Viciedo, Toshiki Abe, Yota Kyoda and Yohei Oshima all had mutl-hit games but it was the misfiring middle-order sans Ryosuke Hirata that didn't put things together while Issei Endo and Zoilo Almonte in the 2 and 3 spots went hit-less. On a different day, keeping a team to 3-runs would have been easy to defeat, but early season form hasn't been encouraging yet. 

Game 6

Baystars 10-2 Dragons

My big hope for an immediate impact in the rotation, Yuichiro Okano, was shot down in flames as his introduction to NPB was a rough one. The Dragons started the game with Yuya Gunji behind the plate for his starting debut to create the first Dragons rookie battery since 2016 with Shinnosuke Ogasawara and Takuya Kinoshita. They also proved to be the first battery to make their NPB starting debut together since spring of 1937.

The Baystars took 5 runs off 5 innings including a homerun given to Tyler Austin in the 1st inning with a juicy chest high meat ball. Yuya Sakamoto on the mound for Yokohama was in good form as he took 5Ks in 6 innings keeping the Dragons to just one hit. Whilst Okano gave up 5, the relief pitching wasn't much better as fellow rookie, Yuki Hashimoto gave up 2 more in 2 innings despite 4Ks (a 2-run homer to Kajitani) while Hiroshi Suzuki faired even worse with a 3-run dinger given up to Toshiro Miyazaki. 

The Dragons clawed back 2-runs through a Yohei Oshima hit and a Toshiki Abe homer, but it was all too little too late as the pitching staff let the team down.

The Analysis

Overall, the first two games were winnable but the key cogs in the line-up just didnt' fire when required. Oshima is batting .400 through the first 6 games of the season; you can't expect much more from a lead-off hitter. Almonte conversely is currently hitting .263 with Viciedo averaging .231. Fukuda and Hirata similarly haven't done what has been required either. Not a great look from your clean-up hitters.

Yoda looks to have been platooning Fukuda and Almonte which looks good on paper, but Almonte is a switch hitter so you'd assume he could be a regular but I think the manager is doing his best to fit two of his better hitters in the line-up as often as possible. Fukuda can be so dangerous when he's on but it seems like he's only hot for a couple of months a year. Let's hope he can find his bat after warming up over the opening 2 series. 

The rotation will go through a second turn in the next home series against the Carp where Yudai Ono faces up to Daiichi Ohsera who has been somewhat of a thorn in the Dragons side the last couple of years. (What's a few complete game shutouts between friends?) The Dragons have however been good against the Carp at home, so this should be a good contest if Ono has found his feet. 

News from the Front

* Dragons golden boy, Akira Neo looks like he'll get a promotion to the top team for the first home series of the year after doing pretty well on the farm going 16-5 over 5 games batting 3rd and fielding at second.

Series Wrap: Swallows v Dragons @ Jingu Stadium, June 19-21; First opening series win in 8 years

The Dragons opened the 2020 season with the first good impression they've made to the year in 8 years as they took 2 games off the Swallows at Jingu with one convincing performance and one not as much so. 

Friday night's game was a slug fest as both team aces gave up hits like a pitching machine. 35 hits in total for the first game of the season marked a somewhat surreal beginning to the year. Dayan Viciedo's first homer of the year seemed to start things off well but a Tetsuto Yamada homer in the bottom of the same inning saw the Swallows take the lead. 

It was to be a topsy-turvy, close, affair and it took the Dragons until the 7th inning to get back on parity as Yota Kyoda and Shuhei Takahashi drove in 3 runs. Into extras, it was the Dragons that would come out on top as a Donoue grounder and a Abe single put the away team two in front. Toshiya Okada would load the bases in the bottom of the 10th to make for a tense ending, but he would finish in style, striking out young prodigy, Munetaka Murakami to end the game. 

It was a night for hitters. More than usual for Jingu. Yudai Ono only got through 4 innings after giving up 6 earned runs but the bullpen was able to hold it together for the rest of the game with only Hiroshi Suzuki giving up further runs. Ono just didn't have "it" on the day but luckily the team still pulled though. 

Saturday's game was a different tale as the batters quietened with Ryuya Ogawa and Kazuki Yoshimi on the mound. Yoshimi put in a solid 5 innings which were tarnished by 3 runs given up through 2 homers to Yamada and Murakami. The Dragons were able to claw 2 runs back but ultimately couldn't match the long-ball prowess of the Swallows middle-order. Shuhei's and Takuya Kinoshita's multi-hit games were just about the only thing to write home about in a relatively disappointing performance. 2019 #2 pick, Yuki Hashimoto made his professional debut in this game pitching a clean inning of relief.

The series decider would be decided by Kodai Umetsu's stunning performance on

the mound. The righty hurler threw a peachy 7 innings for 5 strikeouts looking to get impressive spin on his fastball, keeping the Swallows out of contention. Kyoda's 2-4un homer in the 2nd made life easier for Umetsu earlier, while an additional run added in the 6th made things comfortable where Umetsu himself scored. Credit must go to the Swallows too however as Hiroki Yamada pitched pretty well despite the homer given to Kyoda.

Overall, you can only be happy with the result. Ono exploding was perhaps not the greatest thing to watch but given he seems to require rhythm more than and other Dragons pitcher, I think we'll see him settle a little later on. Kazuki Yoshimi, despite being billed as someone with a good record against the Swallows, basically did was I expected would happen, ate a few innings for too many runs. My guess is that next week against the Carp, his spot will be taken by Shinnosuke Ogasawara. 

The Dragons will stay in the Kanto region to face the Baystars in Yokohama before the team have their home opener against the Carp on the weekend.