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Chunichi 2009 Info?

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Chunichi 2009 Info?
Hi everyone. I'm new to the website and Japanese ball. I'm a Chicago Cubs fan here in the States. So in large part due to Kosuke and Mr. Baseball, I guess I'm finding myself a Dragon fan. Silly reason I know. But it's all I know about NPB.

That said. I've read the roster pages and the news about the two infielders they just resigned. Can anyone direct me to a source than can tell me their tentative lineup and just a general preview of what the '09 team holds?

Thanks and it's great to be at such a cool forum.
Comments
Re: Chunichi 2009 Info?
[ Author: nanbanjin | Posted: Mar 29, 2009 12:11 PM | HAN Fan ]

In case you're interested, the writers of the magazine Shukan Baseball think Chunichi's batting order will look more or less like this:
  1. SS Araki
  2. CF Fujii
  3. 3B Morino
  4. 1B Blanco
  5. LF Wada
  6. RF Lee
  7. 2B Ibata
  8. C Tanishige
Re: Chunichi 2009 Info?
[ Author: MattHaggard | Posted: Mar 30, 2009 12:48 AM | CHU Fan ]

Thanks! That's exactly what I had in mind. I looked up salaries to see who goes where but I was worried it would not line up.

There's not a lot of conversation on the boards about the Dragons, I've noticed. Are they the black sheep of NPB? Unpopular?
Re: Chunichi 2009 Info?
[ Author: Deanna | Posted: Mar 30, 2009 11:53 AM | NIP Fan ]

They're not unpopular per se, we just don't have any diehard Dragons fans here like we have of other teams -- the Hanshin Tigers are by far the most popular around here it seems, and Westbay's a BayStars fan. Personally, I'm always first and foremost a Fighters fan, but I was kind of supporting the Dragons for a while until they basically had a fallout with their ouendan, so I didn't really enjoy cheering for them in 2008 and kind of lost interest in the team. I'm still a huge Morino fan and I'll cheer for them when I'm in Nagoya visiting friends, or when I want to go to the Tokyo Dome and specifically yell a lot of "Yomiuri taose wo!" but that's about it at this point.

In the regions between Tokyo and Osaka, though, even stretching up to Kanazawa and such, Chunichi is rather popular. It's just that outside of there, they really aren't. However, their mascot Doala is more popular than the entire team, I think -- you can find tons of Doala goods all over the place. I've been in arcades with UFO catchers with Doala stuff in them and teenage girls will squeal "Doala! He's so cute, I want one!" even if I'm fairly sure they might not even know that he's the mascot for Chunichi.
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