Offseason Changes: Chunichi Dragons
Coming: Nelson Payano, Tony Blanco, Junichi Kawahara
Going: Kenshin Kawakami, Norihiro Nakamura, Tyrone Woods, Rafael Cruz, Ryosuke Morioka
Staying: Hitoki Iwase, Byung-Gyu Lee, Maximo Nelson, Wei-Yin Chen, Tomas de la Rosa
Trending: downward
Synopsis: Chunichi lost three major contributors from it’s 2008 team, and so far hasn’t replaced any of them with a veteran signing. They still have a deep team, but will play 2009 without a veteran ace or middle-lineup slugger. Chunichi’s foreign additions for 2009 are of the discount bin variety, rather than established performers.