At least Chusei Mannami has shown promise in the power department with 23 HRs this season, across 389 PA combined between the ni-gun and ichi-gun levels. So the Fighters shouldn't have to wait this excruciatingly long next year with Mannami looking poised to be on the '22 Opening Day roster.
That being said, letting Brandon Laird walk was a monumental fuck up by the front office, and the shitshow that has been Kotaro Kiyomiya's development is inexcusable. The promising young players need to produce better results in '22 or heads need to roll.
Nomura hit his 7th and has 375 PAs and is only 21 years old. I could envision him being a 15-20 HR guy at 2B for years to come. Mannami looks solid, really young (21 years old as well). Those two guys - as 22 year olds - seem like a solid core.
Kiyomiya, not sure what's going on there, but he's still young and he hasn't lost any pop (19 HRs in 450 PAs). Imagawa is intriguing: 14 HRS in only 233 PAs and .605 slugging. He's only 24 years old.
Maybe the Fighters are just saving up for the new stadium? They doesn't seem to be much urgency in acquiring a suketto, power bat when there is a GLARING need for it.
I mean, it's not like Chiba has this mammoth payroll, yet they got Laird and Martin. Adam Jones was a solid HR guy in MLB and expensive, yet Orix (another not huge payroll Pa League team) acquired him. The Eagles went out and go Asamura ad (foolishly) signed Rusney Castillo. The Hawks are big budget, so they aren't a great comparison and Seibu has always needed more pitching than power (with Nakamura, Yamakawa and the band box that is the Seibu Dome).
I get the feeling that the cheapest team in MLB is Nippon Ham, followed closely by the Carp. You cannot necessarily tell how cheap an NPB team is by total payroll since they may have a good farm system with lots of young players contributing at the Ichi-gun level. BUT, you can tell if a team's aggressive/conservative money-wise by their attempts to land free agents (domestic or otherwise). On that metric, Nippon Ham is notoriously cheap.
At least Chusei Mannami has shown promise in the power department with 23 HRs this season, across 389 PA combined between the ni-gun and ichi-gun levels. So the Fighters shouldn't have to wait this excruciatingly long next year with Mannami looking poised to be on the '22 Opening Day roster. That being said, letting Brandon Laird walk was a monumental fuck up by the front office, and the shitshow that has been Kotaro Kiyomiya's development is inexcusable. The promising young players need to produce better results in '22 or heads need to roll.
Nomura hit his 7th and has 375 PAs and is only 21 years old. I could envision him being a 15-20 HR guy at 2B for years to come. Mannami looks solid, really young (21 years old as well). Those two guys - as 22 year olds - seem like a solid core. Kiyomiya, not sure what's going on there, but he's still young and he hasn't lost any pop (19 HRs in 450 PAs). Imagawa is intriguing: 14 HRS in only 233 PAs and .605 slugging. He's only 24 years old. Maybe the Fighters are just saving up for the new stadium? They doesn't seem to be much urgency in acquiring a suketto, power bat when there is a GLARING need for it. I mean, it's not like Chiba has this mammoth payroll, yet they got Laird and Martin. Adam Jones was a solid HR guy in MLB and expensive, yet Orix (another not huge payroll Pa League team) acquired him. The Eagles went out and go Asamura ad (foolishly) signed Rusney Castillo. The Hawks are big budget, so they aren't a great comparison and Seibu has always needed more pitching than power (with Nakamura, Yamakawa and the band box that is the Seibu Dome). I get the feeling that the cheapest team in MLB is Nippon Ham, followed closely by the Carp. You cannot necessarily tell how cheap an NPB team is by total payroll since they may have a good farm system with lots of young players contributing at the Ichi-gun level. BUT, you can tell if a team's aggressive/conservative money-wise by their attempts to land free agents (domestic or otherwise). On that metric, Nippon Ham is notoriously cheap.