This blog has been inactive thanks to being on several trips, including a recent dismissal of Kazuo Matsui as the manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions.
Let's catch up on the several things from May and more.
Former coach passed away
On May 5, former pitching coach Eiji Kiyokawa passed away from a battle with cancer. The team announced this news a week after his passing as they mourned for him. He served as a farm pitching coach from 2019-2023 and his last work was under an advisory role for 2024.
As a player, Kiyokawa, 62, was a pitcher for the Hiroshima Carp and Kintetsu Buffaloes. Prior to the Lions, he also served as a coach for the Carp and Orix Buffaloes.
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Matsui's "retirement" occurs before interleague play
Kazuo Matsui was forced into a "leave of absence" or "rest" by the Lions front office after an abysmal 15-30 record through May 26. The Lions won their final two games in a weekend series against the Orix Buffaloes, but it wasn't enough as the team suffered two losing streaks of at seven games or more, including an eight game losing streak from May 14-24.
General manager Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe named himself the "acting" general manager as they search for a long term replacement.
Nabe-Q managed his first game since 2013 on May 28 against the Chunichi Dragons.
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Lions offense remains as weak as ever
The one fear most people had dating back to last season was needing an improvement on offense. Unfortunately, they've taken a further step backwards with both foreign position players in Jesus Aguilar and Franchy Cordero took time off the ichi-gun roster, though the latter is back.
This worst case scenario just continues with a lack of pop aside from occasional HRs by an old Takeya Nakamura, who is coming to hit 500 for his career.
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Nearly every position player drafted since 2017 is either a busy or part time player at best
The biggest elephant in the room points at Kento Watanabe, the first round pick of 2020, not doing anything at the ichi-gun four years removed from college. He's just one of many whiffs by the Lions front office or even the coaching staff at failing to develop.
Manaya Nishikawa was a second round high school pick in 2017, but he can't win himself a job.
Kakeru Yamanobe was thought to be insurance for the loss of Hideto Asamura, but he's only seen as a bench person for his poor hitting.
Gakuto Wakabayashi can't fulfill the promise he once held in 2021.
Only Yuto Koga appears to have developed as a hitter and being the full-time catcher. Regardless, the Lions can't reload like they used to when losing a star player to free agency.
There is still hope for Takuya Hiruma, but time will run out if there's no progress by 2025.
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Organizational cheapness comes back to bite
There can be a catch to keeping a player too long. See Yuji Kaneko, Tatsushi Masuda and Ken Togame. However, it's been known when a star player reaches free agency and wants money, he usually leaves the Lions.
Takayuki Kishi was the most clear as day moment when the Lions wouldn't budge their hard offer, something the Rakuten Eagles beat by a mile.
It's happened several times in history from going back to Kazuhiro Kiyohara signing with the Yomiuri Giants and Kimiyasu Kudo with the Daiei Hawks.
This is a constant of the Lions front office not being with the times, though they've invested in their ballpark and player dormitories, the culture hasn't led to keeping several of their players around.
More recently Tomoya Mori signed with the Orix Buffaloes with no regrets.
Even with the star pitchers currently here, will they want to walk when they reach domestic free agency? It's likely.
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What happens now?
At this rate, it's about trying to have the best season you can have. Develop your players, dump the deadweight and look for fresh blood.
It's now a mistake the Lions dumped David MacKinnon with a fake lowball offer thinking Aguilar was an upgrade.
The only thing this Lions organization has gotten right, is taking Natsuki Takeuchi with talent over need in Ryuki Watarai. Takeuchi has lived up to the hype of expectations and the scouts got it right showing his command and versatility in pitches have helped the rotation. But even then, it's hard not to think he'll want to leave when he reaches seven years of service time, or even as low as six if the new agreement changes.
Nabe-Q is just being a caretaker seeking a replacement. As cool as Koji Akiyama sounds as a name, he's been away from the game since 2014 and wouldn't be ideal since the times have changed.
The Lions will need to spend these next few months wisely as they find a manager who can both coach and display strong leadership.
Kazuo Matsui's dismissal is only a classic scapegoat move as the fall guy for the Lions failures. It happens all the time in sports to have the manager/head coach being the first domino to fall.
He's the face of all the responsibility, but his issue stems with constant poor offense, an issue that's been around since 2020, or to translate, when Shogo Akiyama signed with the Cincinnati Reds.
With the current structure, the front office in charge of scouting position players or coaches developing them needs to change. Someone has lost their touch now that we're at five years and counting of being dismal offensively.
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