[tehsuigi]

2032-33 Offseason

Awards
* Catcher Yasutoki Kato and right fielder Shizue Uchino were honoured with Golden Gloves. For Kato, it's his 4th in a row.
* Kato also picked up a Best Nine selection, alongside DH Kikuo Kawamoto
* LF Bobby Ochampaugh finished 3rd place in the Rookie of the Year Award. Buffaloes LF Motonobu Kai took home the award.
* Hideiichi Hashimoto won Manager of the Year award for the PL in his first season managing the Arrows
* LHP Yoshimitsu Ota was the top Arrow to get Eiji Sawamura award votes at 3rd, with Hawks starter Kazuo Okuda winning the award unanimously
* DH Kikuo Kawamoto finished second in MVP voting behind Lions SS Hiroshi Abe. Yoshimitsu Ota also got votes, but not many.

Pre-Winter Meetings and Free Agency
* The Shizuoka Arrows and Hanshin Tigers made another trade, this time sending LHP Christian Reyes and RHP Yukinari Nakano to Nishinomiya, with OF Hiromoto Nomura coming back the other way.
* The next day, CF Kintaro Sasaki and C Motosugu Fujiwara were headed to Shikoku, with the Ehime Honda Comets added DH Michio Suzuki.
* The Arrows went to arbitration with C Asakichi Shimoda, and won.
* Rumours about 1B Hirotaka Hayashi being traded in that deal were false, but he's been declined arbitration instead. Also declined are DH Michio Suzuki (whoopsie!), and OF Kenjyu Kuwahara.
* Leaving via free agency are RHP Ethan Smith, CF Louis Okoye, and RHP Kodai Umetsu.

First Year Draft
The Arrows are drafting fourteenth. Fingers crossed we get who the mock draft predicts for us...
1. Rintaro Takashima, a leftie starter from Kindai University. A groundballer with three OK-to-good pitches, and a BB/9 below 1. He'll fit right in (yessss).
2. Narihira Kimura, a closer out of Osaka Toin HS. If his arm develops, he'll do well as a middle reliever groundballer.
3. Yoshio Kato, high school third baseman who looks to fit the Takahiko Arakawa mold.
4. Ikkaku Masuda, a high school third baseman who's probably a better fit in the outfield.
5. Tsuneto Kobayashi, high school first basman who's got the makings of a decent right fielder.
6. Yoriyoshi Hamada, the usual high-ability catcher
7. Kosaburo Tsumura, college 3B who's torn up whichever feeder league he's in with a high contact bat. Good leadership.
8. Atsushi Mikami, handsy high school 2B. Could play SS too.
9. Kikaku Yamada, the usual lottery ticket reliever (although he seems to not want to sign right away)
10. Narihari Hirayama, a college first baseman who may be better suited in the outfield.

Update: Kikaku Yamada refused to sign and will be heading to University of Tokyo.

Winter Meetings and Adjacent
* The Hiroshima Carp made an early move to save some budget, sending RHP Enmanual Mejia to the Shizuoka Arrows for RHP Yonathan Ramirez. For the Arrows, they get another groundballer reliever to fill the foreign player slot left open by Ethan Smith. (Chris Bowling takes the one Christian Reyes vacated)
* CF Kunimitsu Mizokami joins the Arrows on a minor-league deal. His speed and outfield prowess helped him to a 1.3 WAR season with the Hiroshima Carp, and 10 WAR over 6 seasons there in total.
* Rumours are swirling that OF Kenjyu Kuwahara may return to the Arrows as a free agent after all. Will keep you posted.
* 1B Hirotaka Hayashi returns to the Shizuoka Arrows on a minor-league deal. Will see if he sticks with the big club - Takahiko Arakawa has put in work at first base to make room for Ryota Miyake at 3B, so he may be out of a job.
* A minor league pitcher swap as the Fighters get Tony Canizales from the Arrows for Masahiko Maruyama.
* A quick shuffle of the coaching staff, as Yoshtaka Hashimoto was promoted from AA to AAA, Derrick Lewis from AAA to the major league club to work with all those groundballers, and Steve Delabar heading down to AA.
* Hard to keep a good man down - OF Kenjyu Kuwahara returns to the Shizuoka Arrows on a 1 year, 1.245M deal.