2009 Chunichi Dragons season

The 2009 Chunichi Dragons season features the Dragons quest to win their first Central League baseball title since 2006. The season did not start off well as the team was absorbing the loss of longtime staff ace Kenshin Kawakami, who departed via free agency. As the season progressed, the Dragons' pitching came into their own, led by Taiwanese ace Chen Wei-Yin, Kazuki Yoshimi, Kenta Asakura, and young lefty Yudai Kawai, who won eleven starts (eight in a row) before taking his first loss of the season on August 6. Chen had the lowest ERA of any pitcher in the last 40 years in Japan (1.54) despite having an unspectacular 8-4 record. However, he lost out in the Sawamura Award voting to Saitama Seibu Lions ace Hideaki Wakui.

Offensively, the Dragons had only two batters hit over .300 for the season (minimum 500 plate appearances), but the real surprise was Dominican slugger Tony Blanco. Despite striking out far and away the most times of anybody on the team (157 K), he crushed 39 home runs and knocked in 110 runs while batting .275. He had some help from domestic sluggers Masahiko Morino and Kazuhiro Wada, who added 23 and 29 home runs, respectively.

Chunichi finished second to the eventual Japan Series champion Yomiuri Giants in the regular season with an 82-61-1 record. In the first round of the playoffs, they were almost eliminated by the upstart Yakult Swallows, but came back to win the next two games and advance to the 2nd Stage against the Giants, where they were eliminated.

Roster

Chunichi Dragons roster
First squad				Second squad
Pitchers 11 Shinnosuke Ogasawara 12 Shinji Tajima 19 Kazuki Yoshimi 21 Toshiya Okada 24 Koji Fukutani 29 Daisuke Yamai 30 Takuma Achira 33 Daisuke Sobue 34 Hiroto Fuku 44 Raúl Valdés 57 Ryuya Ogawa 61 Shunta Wakamatsu 99 Jordan Norberto Catchers 40 Iori Katsura 45 Shota Sugiyama		Infielders 2 Masahiro Araki 23 Issei Endō 37 Taiki Mitsumata 53 Kyohei Kamezawa 55 Nobumasa Fukuda 63 Naomichi Donoue 66 Dayán Viciedo Outfielders 4 Atsushi Fujii 6 Ryosuke Hirata 8 Yohei Ohshima 31 Kei Nomoto 60 Ricardo Nanita 62 Takahito Kudo Manager 27 Motonobu Tanishige		Pitchers 13 Hitoki Iwase 14 Yuu Satoh 16 Katsuki Matayoshi 17 Yudai Kawai 18 Shota Suzuki 20 Ryosuke Nomura 22 Yudai Ohno 25 Yuta Mutoh 28 Shinji Iwata 32 Kentaro Nishikawa 41 Takuya Asao 42 Juan Jaime 43 Tatsuro Hamada 47 Tomohiro Hamada 50 Takeshi Kaneko 51 Masashi Yamamoto 52 Drew Naylor 58 Tomoya Yagi 59 Shota Ohba 64 Ryosuke Oguma 65 Junki Ito Catchers 35 Takuya Kinoshita 38 Masato Matsui 39 Takuma Kato 52 Shingo Takeyama 68 Ryuichiro Akada		Infielders 00 Anderson Hernández 3 Shuhei Takahashi 5 Toshiki Abe 7 Masahiko Morino 9 Shun Ishikawa 48 Hayato Mizowaki 70 Tetsuya Tani Outfielders 1 Shota Tomonaga 26 Masataka Iryo 46 Takeru Furumoto 56 Yusuke Matsui 69 Kazuyuki Akasaka Manager 82 Michihiro Ogasawara Development Players 201 Takahiro Kawasaki (P) 202 Junki Kishimoto (P) 203 Seiya Nakagawa (P) 205 Shu Yoshida (P) 206 Takuya Mitsuma (P) 207 Masaru Fujiyoshi (C) 208 Mikihiro Nishihama (P) 210 Kaito Goya (P) 211 Kodai Ishigaki (P) 212 Masaru Watanabe (OF) 213 Hiroki Kondoh (OF) 215 Hitoshi Tamura (OF) Updated 2016-05-31 → All NPB rosters

Regular season

Standings

Central League	G	W	L	T	Win%	GB
Yomiuri Giants	144	89	46	9	.659	—
Chunichi Dragons	144	81	62	1	.566	12
Tokyo Yakult Swallows	144	71	72	1	.497	22
Hanshin Tigers	144	67	73	4	.479	24½
Hiroshima Carp	144	65	75	4	.464	26½
Yokohama BayStars	144	51	93	0	.354	42½

Player stats

Batting

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI	SB

Pitching

Player	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	ERA	SO