Japan’s WBC 2009 Manager

It looks like the new NPB commissioner, and former diplomat, Ryozo Kato is doing the sensible thing to avoid appointing Senichi Hoshino as the manager of Team Japan for the World Baseball Classic 2009. Hoshino failed miserably in player selection (taking along too many injured players or those having subpar seasons like Abe, and not taking players who were in top form such as Matsunaka and Iwakuma) and ingame management (unfathomable dedication to Iwase who is clearly starting his decline or having an off year, but he was used in high leverage situations, playing many players out of position, hardly using Darvish or Uehara, etc.) Hopefully this means that someone other than Hoshino will become the manager, anyone’s got to be better than him (well, maybe not Nakahata).

From Kyodo via Japanball.com:

”We all agreed it is necessary to have a strong team that can
win in the WBC,” said Kato, adding that he plans to get opinions
from several sources in the selection process, including Softbank
Hawks skipper Sadaharu Oh.

There has been some talk of Senichi Hoshino leading the national
team, but Japan finished in a disappointing fourth place with Hoshino
at the helm at this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

And from Yomiuri:

“It’s important for me to seek the opinion of knowledgeable and respected people, take that into consideration and then make the decision as soon as possible,” Kato told reporters after a meeting of Nippon Professional Baseball’s board of directors.

Japan Olympic manager Senichi Hoshino had been the front-runner for the job, but the position is now up for grabs after his team finished a disappointing fourth in Beijing.

Oh is not in the running because of health reasons.