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 Fighters @Nagoya Dome, June 17th - 19th; Dragons go Ham on Fighters

The last round of interleague play would bring about old foes, the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters. The Fighters are probably best known abroad for fostering the growth of Texas Rangers ace, Yuu Darvish as well as home of the man that may follow in the aforementioned’s footsteps, Shohei Ohtani. To Dragons fans, at least in recent memory, the Fighters were the team that they traded Japan Series blows with in 2006 and 2007, the latter series where the Dragons clinched their J-Series title in 53 years off the back of a Daisuke Yamai and Hitoki Iwase combined, sphincter clinching, 1-0, perfect game.

Game 1 at the Nagoya dome would see Jordan Norberto face off against Luis Mendoza. Both pitchers went pound for pound the whole game with Jordan pitching 115 balls in 7 1/3 scoreless innings for 8 strikeouts. The Dominican has put in some great shows of stamina recently and his accuracy as well has to be applauded. Mendoza went 7 innings pitching a comparatively economic 88 deliveries with 6 strikeouts and 3 hits conceded.

The deciding event of the game would be a combination between old hands, Yohei Ohshima and Ryosuke Hirata. Ohshima got to first only to be bunted ahead by Araki. Hirata stepped up to take a two base hit and send his lead-off hitter home to end the scoring at 1-0 in the 4^th inning.

Commentators made mention of the vague similarity to Yamai and Iwase’s heroics 9 years ago, and apart from the 5 hits that Jordan conceded, it was pretty close to replay as Tajima took his 4^th save of the season to end the game.

Game 2 would see another appearance from the re-born Yudai Ohno on the mound as he faced off against Mitsuo Yoshikawa to try and win the series for the Dragons.

Hirata would be the hero once again as his solo homer in the bottom of the first set the Dragons off to a winning start.

Takuya Nakajima however would take advantage of a wayward Ohno in the 5^th inning after the bases were loaded up with a single to even the scores. The Dragons would however retake the lead in the 6^th through that man, Hirata as he sent Araki home after his successful steal, 2-1. Nanita would add to the carnage through a two-base hit to allow Hirata to score and make it 3-1. Brandon Laird however gave the Fighters hope in the 9^th through a solo homer of his own.

It was however to be of no consequence as Tajima settled and took out Asama and Ushino consecutively to end the game and claim the save.

Hirata was “da man” with his two game deciding hits while Nanita, Ohshima and Hernandez all chipped in with hits of their own to contribute to the victory.  Ohno threw down 7 innings with 3 strikes and 3 walks or 1 earned run while Matayoshi held and Tajima made the save.  Another even game that the Dragons just edged with a bit of individual brilliance to give the Dragons a series win.

Game 3 and the final game of interleague play would see a battle of aces old and new with Shohei Ohtani facing up against Chunichi’s ace in the hole, Kazuki Yoshimi. It would take until the 6^th inning before the Fighters broke through with Brandon Laird’s timely two base hit to send Ohtani in to score, 1-0. Ohtani himself would contribute with  the bat in the 8^th after a bizarre substitution of three pitchers, Okada, Matayoshi and Ogawa loaded up the bases. Ohtani took a walk off Ogawa to give the Fighters some room at 2-0.  It would take the 4^th pitcher change of the inning in Daisuke Sobue to end the inning.  Daikan Yoh would be the next to add to the lead as his single off Daisuke Yamai sent Taniguchi home, 3-0.  The Dragons would try their best to rally in the bottom of the 9^th as Masui gave up a walk to Hirata and a hit to Viciedo to put runners on 2^nd and 3^rd. Ricardo Nanita’s then ground out to first would allow Hirata to score to put things at 3-1. Hernandez’s base hit would then score Viciedo to bring the scores to 3-2 and a tense moment for Ham closer, Masui. Nomoto would then take a walk to bring the closer off the mound to be replaced by Chris Martin. Up against the former Fighter, Takahito Kudo, Martin fanned the veteran outfielder to end the game and claim the save. A tense ending to a great game.

Daikan Yoh was the pick of the hitters with his three while Hernandez and Viciedo both claimed two hits a piece for the Dragons. Yoshimi looked good in his 6 innings as he fanned 8 while giving up one earned run. The less perhaps said about the bullpen this game the better.

An overall series win for the Dragons in some very tightly contested but enjoyable games.

The Dragons finished the interleague standing in a respectable mid-table 8^th with a 7-11 record, the weakest team batting average at .195 but conversely the best team ERA with 2.31.

Chunichi currently sits at 3^rd on the Central League ladder after 70 games with a .478 winning average.

The team now has a rest until Friday when the play the Yakult Swallows at Jingu.

The good news to come out of camp this week however is that Shuhei Takahashi looks set to be on the return train as he was given the all clear to join the 2-gun team for practice.  Juan Jaime made it through he first bull-pen practice since he was injured in pre-season and Drew Naylor doesn't look likely to return until at least after the all-star break.

As for the All-star fan voting, as of the 20th a few Dragons players have popped up. Wakamatsu is the main nominated starter with 19,224 votes but Tomoyuki Sugano is way ahead of the pack with 131, 239 votes. Baystars Shota Imanaga trails him with 101,879 votes while Hiroki Kuroda of the Carp sits in third. 

Shinji Tajima however sits in the lead of voting for relief pitcher with 168,852 being trailed by Tomoya Mikami of the Baystars and Scott Mathieson of the Giants.

Viciedo is second with 121,470  at the moment for 1st base behind Takahiro Arai who's well ahead with 214, 646 votes. Mauro Gomez rounds out the top 3. 

Tetsuto Yamada is unsurprisingly taking the lions share of votes for second base with 252, 631, Ryosuke Kikuchi trails him by around 100k votes. Masahiro Araki however sits in 4th 10,000 votes off 3rd placed Luis Cruz.

Shingo Kawabata looks set to take 3rd, but our boy Shuhei sits third in the ranking with 63, 341 behind Giants favourite Shuichi Murata. 

Naomichi Donoue sneaks into the top 5 for short-stop with 59,123 votes, but Hayato Sakamoto sits on top with 183, 373 votes. 

Meanwhile in the outfield Ryosuke Hirata is the only one that gets a mention in the top 8 as he sit is 5th behind Tsutusgo, Maru, Takayama and Eldred in the voting. No sign of Nanita; what a travesty. 

I'll fill you in when the selections are made but for the time being you can review the current count here.

Hirata and Tajima are probably certain selections at this stage, apart from that we'll just have to see what happens!

Interleague: Double Trouble: Dragons v Seibu Lions & Chiba Lotte June 10th - 16; I didn't care about interleague in the first place!

Well, we're back for inter-league play and for the sake of convenience I'm doing two reports in one go. Fair? Good. Let's get going.

It was a battle of the pitchers on Friday night for Game 1 against the Seibu Lions in Saitama.

Former Giants and Fighters outfielder, Takahito Kudo was elevated to the starting 9 as Ryosuke Hirata was put on ice due to back pain complaints.

Jordan Norberto started on the mound and did all he could to keep the Dragons in the hunt for honours.  His quick motion kept the Lions on their toes as the Dominican, apart from one hiccup in the 2^nd inning where he loaded the bases, on top to keep his team in the game. Jordan threw down 130 pitches in 7 innings fanning 9 and walking 5 for 3 earned hits. Massive numbers for the southpaw.

Shinsaburo Tawada for the Lions as well was well in control showing magnificent accuracy and form with his pitches in what commentators dubbed as his best performance out of the farm. He pitched 107 in 8 innings fanning 8 and only walking two for the same amount of hits as Jordan.

Relievers on both sides would do their jobs as Yamai and Okada held for the Dragons while Masuda and Makita held for the Lions

The decisive run would come in the final extra inning off Shinji Tajima’s pitching as Akiyama’s RBI single sent Uemoto home to seal a walk-off win. 

A very close game that was decided in the worse way possible for the Dragons but that was the ball game. Top pitching from both sides made for a great spectacle.

Game 2 would be a much higher scoring affair with Yudai Ohno his second start since recovering from injury. The Dragons ace would be up against Yasuo Sano in his first start of the year.

Ohno would be the first to break in the 3^rd inning as a sac-fly from Asamura allowed Kaneko to open the scoring.  It wouldn’t be held for long as in the bottom of the inning, Hirata was scored by Nanita from a sac-fly of his own to even things up. Katsura would take the lead for the Dragons in the 5^th through another sac-fly as Donoue wandered home to make it 1-2.  Ohno unfortunately however hit a bad run in the bottom of the inning as he gave up a walk to Kaneko, a hit to Onizaki and another walk  to load the bases; the rot would continue however as Mejia elected to walk to put Lions back on an even footing. It would be however Hirata the hero in the 8^th as the captain mashed a 2-run homer, his 8^th of the season, to give the Dragons the lead.

Ohno would pitch out a complete game and close out a well -deserved win.

Hirata and Ohno showed why they were chosen for the Premier 12 with their performances today. Both showed just how important they are to the Dragons with match winning contributions.

Game 3 against the Lions would have a different complexion again. Kazuki Yoshimi started for the Dragons while Ryoma Nogami started for the Lions.

The mightly Lions would strike metal first as Mejia took the bat to Yoshimi and sent him over the fence for a solo homer, his 21^st of the season, in the 1^st  inning.

The Dragons would quickly reply however through Sugiyama as his single allowed Viciedo to score. Chunichi would take the lead in the 6^th inning after a pitcher induced lull as Donoue struck a triple to send Nanita in to score, 1-2. In the 7^th inning, Yamai was introduced to replace Ogawa and a poor throw from Kamezawa to Viciedo at first would allow Mejia a base hit and send Akiyama home to even the scores. News would get worse for Yamai as he gave up a hit to Asamura who scored Mejia to grab the lead for the Lions. Masuda was brought in to end proceedings and did a good job of it giving up just the one hit to Kamezawa before closing out to claim the save.

Shota Takekuma grabbed his 3^rd win of the season as Yamai lost his 7^th game, ranking him as the least successful pitcher in the Central League.

A bittersweet series to end the road tour on, but they were hard fought on both sides. The pitchers prevailed during the series with both Seibu and Chunichi lads fronting up great performances. 

For the Lions perspective on the games, be sure to check out the lads at Graveyard Baseball for all things Seibu. The boys over there do a lot of good work.

Our second last inter-league match of the year (barring play-offs; HAH) would be up against the Chiba Lotte Marines. Now I have a soft spot for the Marines, the first game of baseball I ever saw was an inter-league game between the Marines and the Dragons at QVC stadium plus I live in Chiba so it’s hard not to like them at least a little bit (plus I really like Kakunaka).

Anyway, the first game would be in Gifu as the Dragons took one of their home games to Nagaragawa ball park. This is another personal little thing for me as I fell in love with the Dragons while living in Gifu!

Shinnosuke Ogasawara was in my mind scheduled to start this game, but Tanishige had other plans as he started the most veteran of the pitching staff, Raul Valdes. Ayumu Ishikawa would be the opponent and a tough one at that as the Lotte pitcher has already won 6 of his 9 games this season.

Lotte would be the ones to take an early lead in Gifu as Kakunaka’s single sent Hosoya home to score.  Yamaico Navarro would then step up and stamp his authority on the game by rifling a homer into the upper tiers of the stands to make it 0-3.

Valdes would go some way to atoning for his pitching in the 3^rd inning as his base hit sent Donoue into score, 1-3. Hirata’s heroics would then get Dragons hopes up with his solo homer in the 6^th to make it 2-3.

However it wasn’t to be as a Kiyota solo shot in the 9^th ended all hopes of a fight back to end the game at 2-4. 

Hirata was the best of the Chunichi bats with 2 in 4 but there wasn’t enough about the team to overcome a very good Ayumu Ishikawa.

Back to the Nagoya Dome for game 2 and it was Shunta Wakamatsu back on the mound  while a thus far undefeated Ryota Sekiya starting things off for the Marines.

Lotte would once again not hold back early on as they hammered Wakamatsu from the off with a lead-off homerun from Hosoya.  

Navarro would continue the scoring in the first with a base hit to send Alberto Despaigne home to make it 0-2.  Nanita hauled one back in the bottom of the inning as he scored Araki, but Hosoya would be at it again in the 2^nd inning with a two base hit to restore Chiba’s lead to two.  Things would get worse for Wakamatsu in the 5^th as he loaded up the bases only to walk Sekiya to cause an overload bringing Suzukihome. Hosoya the grabbed his 3^rd and 4^th RBIs of the game with a hit to bring Kiyota and Tamiura home to bust the game open at 1-6.

Donoue would restore some respectability to the game with his 3^rd homer of the season in the 5^th.

But it wouldn’t be enough to beat the Marines as the superior fire power of the Pac League side blasted 12 hits to the Dragons 5.

Hosoya was clearly the man of the match with his 4 RBIs with just about everything he touched turning to gold. Wakamatsu has to sort himself out as I really don’t think the Central League batters are going to be kind to him when we go back to regular season games. Sugiyama was the only real batter of note with his 2 base hits while, apart from Donoue, the others failed to really contribute postively

Heading into Game 3, the Dragons were looking to avoid a sweep at home and up to the mound came the junior, Shinnosuke Ogasawara to take on Kouta Futaki.

Giving up leads early on has been our specialty this series and the inevitable would only be delayed by one inning as Tamura’s sac-fly scored Marines captain, Daisuke Suzuki to make it 0-1. The Dragons would however find a way back through Donoue’s RBI double to make it 1-1 but the Marines would take the lead back through a Suzuki sac-fly with loaded bases as he scored Kakunaka to take a 2-1 lead. Kiyota would further extend the lead immediately after with 2-base hit to send Alberto Despaigne home, 1-3.  Ogasawara was then withdrawn for Shinji Tajima but neither team would budge from the 1-3 score line as Nishino claimed his 17^th save of the season (what a pace is that!?).

A sweep to the Marines and a first career loss to Ogasawara marked a pretty dismal day.  Despaigne was on fire for the Marines with 3 hits while Kakunaka struck two and claimed a walk. For the Dragons Ohshima and Yusuke Matsui both claimed two hits a piece in a very even game where both sides hit 7 base hits each.

A pretty poor performance overall, but the Marines are just a level above what we can offer at the moment. Injuries are taking their toll as well as we’re still waiting for the return of a host of players including Ryosuke Oguma and Shuhei Takahashi. Hirata was out of the third game with back issues as well. 

Check out We Love Marines for all the Chiba Lotte news you need and the Ouendan as well as all the Pacific League news you didn't need! 

Last of all, this week John Gibson and Jim Allen's Japan Baseball podcast this week will have our very own Ricardo Nanita on the show for a chat. Definitely check it out when it drops!

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.