My Proposed New Uniforms for the Fighters

Baseball's over for the year and even the Asia (Eastern Hemisphere) Series is finished.  I thoroughly enjoyed Rakuten's run and I'm very happy for Hoshino to finally taste a championship and for Tanaka and Norimoto, who left everything they had on the field. 

But now it's time to think about next year, free agency, new foreign players and new posting rules.

Something that would be nice for next year would be new uniforms for Nippon Ham.  I've never been a fan of the Fighters' asymmetrical uniforms, though their current ones are slightly better than the previous ones.  So I've sketched up something I would prefer.

One thing I like about their current home uniforms is that they have more of the blue color that they use.  I would make that blue a main color as well as bring back orange, which was once one of their main colors.  These are pretty simple, the alternate is a pullover and based on the 80's jersey with gold instead of yellow.  The pants that go with the alternate would have piping on only one side, a memorial to the asymmetrical uniform period.

Tanishige Named New Manager, Ochiai Returns as GM

It's been nearly a month now since Motonobu Tanishige was announced as the new player/manager of the Dragons.  When I first heard the news I was surprised, then a little disappointed, then finally okay with it.  I do think that Tanishige will be fine manager, he's probably seen everything that can be seen in Japanese Baseball as a catcher for twenty-five years and counting.  Still the player/manager thing is weird, it doesn't seem like the best possible scenario.  It's hard to say if management is really high on Tanishige and expecting him to transition into the full-time manager for the next decade or if they are just looking for a place holder.

It will be interesting to see how things work in the upcoming season.  Tanishige played in 130 games last year, but will he still be the main catcher now that he's also the manager?  There isn't currently a viable option at catcher to replace him, though there may be a couple free agent options.  If Tanishige continues as the main catcher he will have to rely on his assistant coaches quite a bit, which may not be a bad thing, but we shall see.  In Tanishige's press conference he mentioned that he will emphasize the defensive aspects of the game, which makes sense with him being a catcher and also fits with the skills of the current roster and the philosophy that led to the Dragons' success over the last decade.  Under Tanishige, Chunichi's "boring" style of baseball is likely to continue, but if it wins games I'm all for it. 

In what seems like a synchronous move with Tanishige's promotion, Hiromitsu Ochiai was named the new General Manager.  This is a move I like a whole lot, even if he isn't exactly a general manager, as has been rumored.  I believe that Ochiai is commited to winning and I think that will help in any role that he's given.  I know he's not afraid to make tough choices, and that will be important as the team begins a transition away from it's current veteran roster.  He has a lot of experience with this team and though he's had disagreements with upper management in the past, the fact that he's back already shows they have confidence in him, even though they don't always agree.  I think that will be a positive moving forward.  I believe Ochiai is the right guy for the job.

Takeshi Yamasaki Hangs Up His Spikes

Takeshi Yamasaki, at 44 years old, has now officially retired after 25 years of professional baseball.  He played his final game for the Dragons last Saturday in Chunichi's final game of the season.  The team did several ceremonial things for his last game, as can be seen in these photos.  Yakyubaka has the details of the event including an English translation of his retirement speech.  Japanese Baseball Cards also has a nice write-up about Yamasaki's career.

Though he had already moved on from the Dragons when I began following Japanese baseball, I've been a fan of his.  There's a lot to like, at least for me, he's from Aichi and went to Aikodai Meiden, he's got the big slowpitch softball swing and even drives a lamborghini.  He also authored one of my father-in-laws favorite Dragons' moments:

A walkoff home run from 1999 bringing Chunichi's magic number to five.  They eventually held off the Giants and went to the Japan Series that year for the first time since 1988.

He wasn't the most consistent player, but his at-bats were always must-see, he wasn't going to be cheated and a prolific home run could be on the way.  I'm glad he could go out as a Dragon.

2013: What Went Wrong

Today's the last game of the season for Chunichi who will finish the season in 4th place with their first losing season in over a decade.  Depending on how the last game goes they will lose either 23 or 24 more games than last season.  That's a significant difference, especially for team with nearly the same roster, so let's take a look at that factors that added up to a very mediocre season:

Injuries

Every team has injuries, and Chunichi had their fair share last year and was able to maintain, but major injuries to the team's best players this year had a clear impact on their their record.  The Dragons lost their ace, Kazuki Yoshimi, early in the season.  He pitched in only 36+ innings prior to opting for season-ending arm surgery and the innings he did pitch were negatively impacted by his worsening elbow injury.
Takuya Asao, arguably the team's best reliever and go-to guy to get an out in clutch late-inning situations wasn't available for the first half of the season.  During that time the bullpen was a mess, with several players including last year's rookie stud, Shinji Tajima, struggling to get outs and the Dragons lost a bunch of close games because of it.  In the past the bullpen was the strength of the team, bailing out an average to below-average offense.
Chunichi lost league leading hitter Hector Luna for the second half of the season due to a knee injury and like Yoshimi his play was starting to be affected by the injury prior to calling it quits for the season.
The Dragons were also without the services of useful starting pitchers like Kenshin Kawakami, Soma Yamauchi and Junki Ito for the majority of the season.

Top of the Batting Order

Yohei Oshima took a step back this year.  He was an all-star last year and great all-around player.  In 2012 he hit .310 with a .376 OBP as the full-time leadoff hitter.  This year his defense was still good but he struggled at the plate hitting only .249 with a .307 OBP.  He eventually lost his job to Atsushi Fujii, but got it back when Fujii got hurt. 
Hirokazu Ibata's production dropped significantly this year as well.  He was unable to carry his hot hitting in the WBC to the NPB regular season and his participation in the WBC may have had a negative impact on his year as he battled nagging injuries all season.  His BA dropped by .048 and his OBP dropped by .033 points in 2013.

The Bullpen

As mentioned previously the bullpen was a mess early in the season.  It was one of the main contributing factors to the Dragons digging themselves a hole in the first month.  It was failure by committee as it seemed like no one could get the lead to Iwase in the ninth.  Tajima struggled horribly and Mutoh, Yamai and the rest did as well.  Kenichi Nakata was eventually converted to a reliever and did well in that that role.  When he stabilized the bullpen the Dragons were finally able to crawl out of the cellar.  As the season went on the bullpen got stronger.  Asao returned, foreigner Warner Madrigal was added and Hitoki Iwase was solid all year long.  At the end of the year the bullpen was a strength of the team again but a lot of the Dragons lack of success this year can be attributed to how many games the bullpen kicked early in the season.

The Overall Pitching Staff / The New Ball

Chunichi's Team ERA rose for the second straight year from 2.46 in 2011 to 2.58 in 2012 to 3.82 this year.  A lot of that has to do with the injuries and the new ball, but the Dragons ERA didn't rise proportionally with the rest of the Central League.  They led the CL in Team ERA in 2011, were second in 2012 and are fourth this year.  Overall they just haven't pitched that well this and that's what the Dragons prior success has been based on.  It's possible that the new ball affected them more than other teams, as most of their starters pitch to contact, but I don't really like that argument.  I think it was something that all of the NPB pitchers had to deal with this year.  I would say that the injuries had a bigger impact on where they ranked, but it will be interesting to see how they do next year.  I'm pretty sure the league won't secretly introduce another new ball again next year.

Offensive Production at First Base?

Most will probably say that Chunichi shouldn't have let Tony Blanco go last offseason, and that is probably true but I don't really see that as a major factor in the difference in success of last year and this year.  Had Matt Clark done more damage at the plate it may have helped to change Chunichi's fortunes this year, but in the end they got about the same production from Clark that they got from the combination of Blanco and Morino last year.  If you look at Clark's numbers this year he hit .238 with 14 doubles, 25 HR, 70 RBI, 49 BB and 130 SO in 467 plate appearances.  Last year Blanco was injured for a portion of the season and had only 359 plate appearances, but if you add 108 of Morino's plate appearance and prorate Morino's numbers you get .249, 15 doubles, 25 HR, 76 RBI, 51 BB and 99 SO for the combo.  Clark did strike out more often than the Blanco/Morino combo, but the production is about the same.  This comparison doesn't account for this year's juiced ball but I still don't think it would be a dramatic difference.  Chunichi should still look to get more from the position next year.

The Old Guys?

Did age catch up to the Dragons' veteran players this year.  Ibata did take a step back and Araki hasn't been any good in a while, but most of the other vets had solid years.  At least about as good or better than last year.

Kazuhiro Wada 2013 .275, 21 2B, 18 HR, 76 RBI, .371 OBP, .435 SLG
Wada 2012 .285, 32 2B, 9 HR, 63 RBI, .370 OBP, .409 SLG

Motonobu Tanishige 2013 .217, 12 2B, 6 HR, 34 RBI, .306 OBP, .296 SLG
Tanishige 2012 .228, 14 2B, 5 HR, 32 RBI, .324 OBP, .303 SLG
He's a career .241 hitter and still good defensively.

Masahiko Morino 2013 .287, 20 2B, 16 HR, 51 RBI, .369 OBP,  .463 SLG
Morino 2012 .249, 23 2B, 6 HR, 50 RBI, .327 OBP, .348 SLG

Hitoki Iwase 2013 ERA 1.86, 36 SV, 0.513 BB/SO
Iwase 2012 ERA 2.29, 33 SV, 0.433 BB/SO

You could make a case that the hitters should have done even better with the new ball, but these are still solid numbers and Iwase's numbers were better when they should have gotten worse.

The Manager?

It's hard to say much about what's really going on in a team's clubhouse, but there did appear to be some rifts this year between Takagi and some of his players.  This being Takagi's last year may have also had some impact.  I do give Takagi some credit, though I'm happy to see a new manager coming in.  He wasn't dealt a full hand this year and in some cases was able to tinker with things and find some success.  It was far from a great season, but Chunichi was at least in the race until the final week.

The Positives

While the season overall was unsuccessful there were some positives.  After getting off too a slow start Ryosuke Hirata came back to have his best season yet.  He seemed to square up more good fastballs this year and looks like he could become a full-time corner outfielder moving forward. 
Shuhei Takahashi is looking like he's closer to becoming a regular though he's still very young.  He's looking more comfortable and had some big hits, but is still understandably inconsistant. 
Masahiko Morino's bat showed some life with the switch to the juiced ball, he also showed he could be a capable second baseman. 
Atsushi Fujii did well with more playing time and looked like he may be a bit more than just a late inning defensive replacement.
Daniel Cabrera did pretty well, he certainly didn't walk as many guys as I thought he would.  The team hasn't decided yet whether he will be back for next year.
Yudai Ono in the rotation and Toshiya Okada in the bullpen were both solid this year and can hopefully improve on that next year.

Chunichi Drops First Game of Hiroshima Series, Playoff Chances Near Zero

With last night's 5-3 loss to Hiroshima the Dragons are now 5 1/2 games behind the Carp with seven games left to play.  After failing to make up much ground this past weekend, only one game in the standings, it was already reaching "needing a miracle" territory for the Dragons.  Last night's loss was the next to last nail in the 2013 season coffin. 

Chunichi had Kawakami on the mound for the game and he pitched well, leaving the game with a 3-2 Dragons lead after six.  The Carp took the lead in the top of the 7th with some clutch hitting off of Mise and Asao.  The Hiroshima bullpen held the lead from there.

It would take an all-time collapse now by Hiroshima for the Dragons to make the playoffs and that's not going to happen.  Hiroshima is playing some good ball right now, right when they needed to.  They may even make it to .500 by the end of the season, maybe for the first time all season.  If they do make it into the playoffs, hopefully they will at least knock off Hanshin and Yomiuri in the Climax.  They don't the same talent as those teams, but with good pitching they have a chance, the Dragons have shown that over the past several years.

I'll at least be rooting for Rakuten this year.  They are the Pacific League team I pull for and have a good shot to do some damage.  They're a lot better than the last time they made the playoffs with the 41 year old "zombie corpse" (per the Eagles blog) of Takeshi Yamasaki as one of their main players.  He did hit 39 homers that year though, plus three more in the playoffs.  

Chunichi Up Against the Ropes

The chances of Chunichi keeping their postseason steak going are starting to look slim, but they still have opportunities to fight back into a playoff spot.  With eleven games left Chunichi is chasing Hiroshima by 5.5 games.  Definitely a big hill to climb, but fortunately the Dragons will be playing a weaker opponent this weekend in Yokohama while Hiroshima will facing Yomiuri in Tokyo.  Also, four of Chunichi's final 11 will be against the Carp including a series starting Tuesday at the Nagoya Dome.  So this next six game stretch will be Chunichi's best opportunity to make up ground.  If they aren't within a game or two of Hiroshima by next Friday you can stick a fork in 'em, but I'm holding out hope that the Dragons can make a run.  Momentum isn't currently on Chunichi's side, as they've been playing about .500 ball this month while Hiroshima has gone 11-4 this September.  Still if the Dragons can close the gap and apply some pressure, they are by far a more playoff-hardened group than the Carp who only have a handful of guys who have played in a professional postseason game.  It won't be easy, but it's not over, stay fired up Dragons fans!

Coming Down the Stretch... Chunichi @ Hiroshima Carp, Sep. 3 - 5

Chunichi and Hiroshima, each with 25 games left in the season, will face off this week in a three game series that starts tomorrow night.  Hiroshima currently holds a two game lead over the Dragons for third place and for the final berth to the playoffs in the Central League.  The two teams will play one more head-to-head series at the end of month, but this upcoming series may have a huge impact on which of these teams advances to the playoffs. 

I don't think Chunichi can afford to lose this series, they definitely can't afford to be swept.  Asking a team that's been winning only 44% of their games to make up three or five games over the final twenty-two is probably too much.  On the other hand if the Dragons could sweep or take two of three things could be very interesting down the stretch. 

Winning this series won't be easy for Chunichi, they'll be in playing at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima and though Chunichi has been a better road team than a home team this year I assume the Hiroshima fans will be in force to support a team on the verge of making the playoffs after a very, very long drought.  Hiroshima will also be throwing two of their best pitchers, Kenta Maeda is scheduled for Game 1 and he's obviously having a great season.  In the past Chunichi has done moderately well against Maeda but this season he's been dominant.  Kan Otake will likely pitch in one of the other two games.  Otake always seems to do better against Chunichi than he does against the rest of the league, so he'll be tough.  Kyohei Nakamura may get the other start for Hiroshima, it would be his turn, but they also may go with someone else because of magnitude of this series.

It looks like Chunichi will counter Hiroshima's starters with Kenichi Nakata, Yudai Ono and Kenshin Kawakami.  Nakata had a rough start last time out against Yakult.  Hopefully he can bounce back, he's been a key contributor this year.  Ono's been on a good streak, but will be pitching on less than a week's rest.  Kawakami's pitched well in his two starts since returning from injury though he hasn't gone deep into games, but with how well Chunichi's bullpen has been going they shouldn't need him to.

Both teams are evenly matched so the series, and in turn the season, could be turned either way by just a play or two.  The first game looks like a tough match-up, but if Chunchi can keep it close and make it a battle of the bullpens they could win it.  The second match-up is a coin flip and Chunichi probably has a slight advantage in the third game.  I think the Dragons can take two out of three and keep things interesting, but we shall see.  It's getting to be that time of the season, so let's get fired up Dragons fans!!!