[tehsuigi]

2039-40 Offseason Summary

Awards Season
* Mitsui Golden Gloves were bestowed to pitcher Tomohito Narita, second baseman Keiichi Sugiyama, and shortstop Yui Nakamura of the Shizuoka Arrows
* Third baseman Koji Kashima was the sole Arrow named to the Best Nine with his .290/.347/.541 slash line
* Paul Paez has won his fourth straight Manager of the Year Award, which makes his extension for a further five seasons in Shizuoka all the better news
* To no one's shock, Shigejiro Matsumoto won the Eiji Sawamura award thanks to his triple crown effort. Kim Chae-bong finished 3rd in voting, with Hiromitsu Nishi in 5th.
* To a great many people's shock, Shigejiro Matsumoto also finished SECOND in MVP voting to Marines LF Satoshi Teramoto. Kashima landed 4th, Kim 10th, first baseman Tomosaburo Morioka 15th, left fielder Brad Chapman 16th, and right fielder Luis Alejandrez and Nishi tied for last.

Arbitration and Free Agency
* The following players were declined arbitration: RHP Atsumori Maeda, RHP Gunji Inouye, C Toshiichi Kashima, 1B Tsuyoshi Taguchi, 2B Keiichi Sugiyama, SS Pasqualino Casale, LF Sukesaburo Ishii, and RF Shigejiro Matsunaga
* Leaving in free agency are 2B Yasushi Kanno, C Yasutoki Kato, LHP Tomohito Narita, and CF Kakuya Kimoto.

2039 First Year Draft
With the final pick of the first round, the Shizuoka Arrows drafted right-handed pitcher Fukuzo Hirata from Maebashi Ikuei high school. His fastball and slider are already ***-grade and getting better. He profiles as a potentially dominant bullpen arm.
2. Masahiro Kurihara, solid college outfielder whose bat is intriguing.
3. Tooru Kubo, the last solid starting pitcher left. Good four-pitch mix, but he needs to add some movement to his pitches to be more effective.
4. Tetsuzan Akiyama, a high-school leftie knuckleballer who also throws a changeup and curveball. This is less a functional choice and more a laboratory experiment.
5. Yukihiko Miyahara, a balanced corner infielder from high school whose contact bat may play.
6. Kenichi Ando, solid infielder (3B or 2B) with a dominant college season last year.
7. Masayoshi Nishimoto, potent power bat for a corner outfielder in high school
8. Norio Nagao, typical defensive catcher
9. Iori Shibata, college reliever with a trio of good pitches...when he throws them right.
10. Takuzo Teranishi, unimpressive leftie arm

Winter Meetings and Beyond
* The Shizuoka Arrows added leadership, a fearsome bat, a new catcher, and some prospect capital in a six-player trade with Yokohama DeNA. The BayStars added 1B Makoto Fukuhara, OF/DH Takao Okamoto, and RHP Bret Pettis, while the Arrows acquired RF Ryoji Tokuda (50% retained), C Kawanari Kondo (100% retained over 2 years), and 2B Shigeharu Tanaka.
* Needless to say this means the end of the Yasutoki Kato era in Shizuoka. What a run for the 35-year-old catcher.
* Also leaving the dynastic Arrows is Keiichi Sugiyama; he signed with the Kirin Spirit for 5 years and an average of 3.75M.
* Rejoining the Arrows on a spring training invite is right fielder Shizue Uchino - after his time in Fukuoka came to a close, he was very interested in returning to Shizuoka. Maybe to finish his career.
* Yasutoki needs to stop with the dramatics. Kato is back in Shizuoka, 1 year at 1.2M.
* Shizue Uchino was given his release after failing to make the major-league roster.