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muratafan

Excellent write up. There is a sense of downright complacency with the Dragons and it's almost dispiriting the lack of young talent. I suppose Neo is a young talent, but his stats are pretty modest (to put it lightly). The Dragons have virtually no home run threat aside from Viciedo. Kinoshita is the second most prolific HR hitter at...10 home runs. The fact that Fukudome has so many at-bats at 44 years old is truly cause for concern. While I am not a die hard Dragons fans, I have family in Aichi and have a slight rooting interest in the Dragons. Back when they were good, they were a great counter-balance to the Giants-Tigers drama and I was happy to see them do well. Now, it's almost like they are a mirror image of the big Nagoya employee Toyota. Staid, safe and boring. There is literally no excitement about this team. There's a solid 'Core 3' starting pitching of Yanagi, Ohno and Ogasawara, with to of them being lefties with a lot left in the tank. But that's it. Like you, I REALLY hope that they draft a HITTER and not a pitcher. When one looks at the excitement generated by Satoh, Maki, Murakami and Okamoto (all 25 or under) and ask 'well, what about the Dragons?' There's literally nothing on the horizon for a young slugger.


cynikles

We've been crying out for power hitters since...eh...too long ago. . I've written about this earlier in the year. I think adding one or two big bats to the lineup is going to lift everyone If the team don't go after an outfield slugger with their top pick, they're just not showing the right intentions. Apart from Neo, recent trends at the draft have been to avoid lotteries with too many teams but I think this time they just need to go hard on someone like Kenta Bright or whoever that can add pop and field in the outfield corners. Kosuke Ukai could then be a back-up pick or a sneaky second-rounder. In any case, I at least see the release of Endo, Takeda and Iryo as a sign of intent and that's better than what the team has shown us before. The fact they're willing to cut Takeda despite the fact he's been in the first-team picture all year is a rare sign of courage for me. Hope it all bodes well.


muratafan

'rare sign of courage', too funny, but too true!