Lions announce coaching staff for 2023

 

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Kazuo Matsui had his first public press conference announcing the Saitama Seibu Lions staff for the 2023 season on Tuesday. 

While answering many questions about being the new skipper taking over for a retiring Hatushiko Tsuji, a handful of changes were made to the staff with some coaches moving back up to ichi-gun and others were not retained. 

Yosuke Hiraishi, who joined the staff from the Softbank Hawks after 2021, is now the team's second-in-command at head coach.

Shogo Akada is on the ichi-gun staff and Shigenobu Shima returns there for the first time in three years. 

The new staff members include Hiroyuki Oshima, who was preciously a scout; Tetsuya Utsumi and Masato Kumashiro, who both retired as players.

Coaches not returning for 2023 on the main staff include Tomoaki Sato, Norio Tanabe and Tatsuyuki Uemoto. 

Here is the full staff list:

Ichi-gun:

Manager: Kazuo Matsui (previously head coach)

Head Coach: Yosuke Hiraishi (previously with hitting coach)

Pitching coach: Hayato Aoki

Pitching coach: Kiyoshi Toyoda

Battery coach: Kosuke Noda

Hitting coach: Shigenobu Shima (previously ni-gun field coach)

Hitting coach: Hisashi Takayama 

Infield Defense and Base Running (3rd base): Satoshi Kuroda

Outfield Defense and Base Running (1st base): Shogo Akada (previously ni-gun outfield defense and base running coach)

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Ni-gun:


Manager: Fumiya Nishiguchi 

Lead Pitching coach: Eiji Kiyokawa

Field General/Hitting coach: Tatsuya Ozeki

Hitting Coach: Hiroyuki Oshima* (previously a scout)

Pitching coach: Shuichiro Osada 

Pitching coach: Tetsuya Utsumi*

Pitching coach: Tatsuya Oishi

Battery coach: Shota Nakata 

Infield Defense and Base Running: Masahiro Abe

Outfield Defense and Base Running: Masato Kumashiro*

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San-gun

Battery coach: Yuta Arakawa (previously bullpen catcher and assistant farm manager)

Defense: Yuji Onizaki (previously academy coach)

*New face on staff

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