Can Dragons be changed to a winning team in 2024 ?

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Please understand that what I post on this blog is purely my personal opinion.
Of course, I also understand that everyone has their own opinions.

I believe that if the key players on a team that can’t win are mid-career or above, that team won’t win even if they keep using those players.
Therefore, I felt no discomfort whatsoever about trading away Youta Kyoda and Toshiki Abe, who were regulars at second and shortstop.
In fact, trading them creates an opportunity for younger players and new acquisitions who haven’t gotten much chance to play until now to emerge.
Moreover, for a team that hasn’t been able to rejuvenate for years, this should have been a major motivator.

Since I was thinking about rejuvenating the team, I decided not to worry about our 2023 pennant race standings.
(Honestly, I do want the Dragons to win. But…)
Therefore, I believed that if the team used potential young players in first-team games until summer, they could grow both physically and mentally.
Of course, I understand that rapidly rejuvenating the team is risky.
The risks are individual differences and injuries. Regarding individual differences, I don’t think everyone will develop as expected.
In other words, I don’t believe the team can solidify regular starters across many positions in just one season.
Even so, rejuvenating the team is an urgent necessity.

Even if it’s to develop them for this year, it’s difficult to create a winning team by just testing young players for a whole year.
Therefore, in the final month of the season, I wanted the Manager Tatsunami to make decisions focused on winning, regardless of the results.
I believed that would also be a learning experience for the young players.

I felt like the starting lineup decisions late in the season were losing their way.
I was dissatisfied with that lineup because I expected games that would build momentum for next season.
Perhaps Manager Tatsunami was taking a short-sighted focus on this year’s results.
The Dragons are a team often said to lack offensive scoring power.
Of course, it’s natural for the Dragons based at the spacious Bantelin Dome to be focused on defense.
However, if a team can’t score runs, they can’t win even if the pitchers hold the opposition down.
Let me write about one specific game. It was a home game where we were losing by one run. In the late innings, the team got a runner on base with no outs. But the next batter was the eighth hitter, Manager Tatsunami chose to hit for power instead of sacrifice bunting. As a result, they failed to get a hit that advanced the runner, and no run was scored.
Manager Tatsunami might have been aiming for a dramatic comeback, but since it was a home game, I think a strategy to first tie the game would have been better.
This is the kind of winning strategy I expect. I wanted him to think about how to get that one run.
This kind of strategy makes me worry if the team can really become a winning one.

Also, the Dragons were the only team in both leagues without a four-game winning streak, and I sometimes felt the manager himself was stopping the momentum of the winning streak.
For example, after a three-game winning streak driven by Usami’s consecutive walk-off hits, the atmosphere was ready for a big winning streak.
However, Manager Tatsunami made major changes to the starting lineup for the next game. Incredibly, he removed even Usami who was riding high on momentum from the starting lineup. As a result, the momentum was completely broken, and the team went on a big losing streak starting from that game.Certainly, many managers do change their starting lineup during a winning streak.
As a manager, I understand wanting to adjust the lineup to best suit the opposing team or starting pitcher to keep the winning streak going.
However, for the Dragons who hadn’t had a four-game winning streak, I questioned this decision that seemed to break the team’s momentum.

What I strongly felt was that, despite being labeled a team that couldn’t score runs, the major factor in their losses seemed to be their pitching changes.
They often gave up large numbers of runs after pitcher changes. They’d lose leads in games they were winning, or surrender big innings in close games.
When watching the pitching changes, I felt they were deciding which pitchers to use in relief before the game even started, rather than judging the momentum of the game or the condition of the pitchers in the bullpen.
Of course, I understand the recent concerns about player fatigue. However, they are not office workers. They are professional baseball players earning very high salaries. At the very least, I wish they would use the pitchers in good condition during games they are winning.

This year is the third and final year of the contract for Manager Tatsunami.
What the Dragons need is continued reinforcement of their offense.
I believe acquiring Nakata who has proven his ability to deliver results, was a great reinforcement, even considering his age. However, the team also need to consider what happens if Nakata gets injured.
The team has already announced the acquisition of Alex Dickerson. And there are players like Orlando Calixte and Dayan Viciedo who are becoming adapted to Japanese baseball.
However, I feel that another power hitter is needed…

And the manager’s decisions are also important.
For 2024, I want them to study and implement solid strategies for scoring that one run and for pitching changes in winnable games.

Thanks.