It continues! Invoking his authority…Manager Tatsunami of Chunichi “releases” Kyoda as the player president for an unexpected reason

I didn’t expect to see …… as the players’ president.

On November 18, Chunichi announced the trade of Yota Kyoda (28) for DeNA pitcher Takeki Sunada. Three days earlier, they released Hisaki Abe, who had hit the most homers (9) of any Japanese player on the team, and acquired pitcher Hideaki Wakui from Rakuten. What is behind this string of surprises?

It is the intention of manager Kazuyoshi Tachinami (53). Tachinami’s goal is to play defense-and-win baseball. Sunada and Wakui (0-0 and 3-4, respectively) have both failed to produce satisfactory results this season, but there were unfortunate factors such as the new coronavirus infection and injuries. If they recover, they can be counted on to be pillars of the relay and starting lineups,” said a reporter for a sports newspaper.

Ballerina” matte for DRA1 player

Manager Tatsunami is a genius hitter who recorded 2,000 hits and was called “Mr. Dragons. He has a solid hitting theory and demands high standards from his players.

Because he has strong ideas, he sometimes has differences with those around him. It is said that he clashed with Norihiro Nakamura, the hitting coach of the first team, over differences in coaching policy. Nakamura was “demoted” to the second team in May of this year. It seems that manager Tatsunami is not very good at leaving things to others.

In this fall’s camp, he introduced a softball pitching machine with a feel speed of 150 km/h, based on his own idea. Last year’s No. 1 draft pick, Kenta Bright, was given a ballerina-like bath mat to practice hitting. The item is said to prevent his body from opening up. …… effect is unknown.”

Let’s return to the story of Kyoda’s blitz trade at the beginning of this article. Kyoda was the rookie of the year in 2005, and from 2006 he was the league’s best defensive player at shortstop for two consecutive years and also served as the team’s player president. The release of such a “face” of the team was also influenced by manager Tatsunami’s strong authority.

Tatsunami has been actively talking to the players in the field, and he himself has been a passionate leader of the team. I think he wanted Kyoda to be the center of the team. Because expectations were so high, there was a strong sense of disappointment, and in a May 4 game against DeNA, Kyota, who had not been in good form since the start of the season and was lackluster offensively and defensively, was called “not a fighter. He was sent back to Nagoya even though the game was still in progress, saying, “He doesn’t look like a fighter.

In order to restore a strong Chunichi, he would not hesitate to replace the blood in the lineup. Manager Tatsunami has been thinking about trading Kyota since June. Kyoda is also a strong player. It is said that he did not change his hitting form even when asked to do so. Since both of them are shortstops in their own right, it was probably inevitable that the relationship between the two, both of whom have firm ideas, would become strained.

This season, 16 players have left Chunichi. Three players who were in the starting lineup for the season opener have left the team. Will manager Tatsunami’s radical reforms work?