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The story
The Chunichi Dragons’ decision to release infielder Kenta Bright, who joined the team in the 2021 draft, became a hot topic on a 5ch thread. Bright had reportedly barely been seen even in second-team games this season, with fans describing him as having gone “missing,” and the thread buzzed with comparisons to fellow 2021 draftees Kosuke Ukai and Tomoya Masaki, along with debate over whether the front office’s roster decisions were justified. Posts ranged from shock at reports that Bright had stopped communicating with the team despite having received a signing bonus, to comments noting that some players manage to stick around on defense alone even when their hitting struggles.
What people said
What the hell is this
At least give a reason
I've seen Ukai plenty on the first team, no way he gets cut
Can't even compare him to Bright, who's been missing even from the second team
He's needed as backup for Muramatsu, can be used as a defensive replacement too
Every team's got a bench guy who's terrible at the plate but great on defense
Anyway, it's kind of funny how out of that self-declared 'Big Three,' the only one who's actually panning out is the guy they weren't originally hyping
Hmm, hard to tell if they've got a good eye for talent or not lol
He vanished off to Latin America
His sister announced her retirement and said she's staying in Japan
Well, their dad's fairly well-off anyway
Wait, was Chuni (Chunichi) even a pro baseball team…?
Bright, Ukai, Masaki
And somehow they only ended up with the dud
If they'd taken Masaki instead, Masaki would've just ended up like Ukai
When you say 'Bura-Ken' (nickname for Bright Kenta), this is the pic that comes to mind lol
Post more Bura-Ken pics with the bath mat
Good thing funny pics and videos like this got saved
Wasn't there a story that after a full year of finally getting his form into shape, he got influenced by someone else's offseason training, showed up to camp with a totally different swing, and everyone was furious?
[Dragons-only thread]
https://tanuki.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/livebase/1655339133/
Unfortunately Bright was genuinely good, and quite a few people were backing him
Bright was a distant second
I'd never even heard of Ukai
Even looking at his amateur-league stats, I remember just thinking 'why is this guy a second-round pick?'
He's from Osaka Toin (a top baseball powerhouse high school) but originally from Gifu, and was a first-round pick contested by multiple teams
If he'd been from Osaka Toin and actually from Osaka, he'd probably have been released or put up for the Active Player Draft by now
Did something happen?
He suddenly disappeared in early spring — for better or worse, Chunichi's the kind of team where info leaks to the press
It feels like the press already knows and is sitting on it, so nobody's bringing it up
Ukai: .235, 5 HR, 22 RBI, OPS .636
Bright: .071, 0 HR, 0 RBI, OPS .205
Masaki: .282, 28 HR, 59 RBI, OPS .916
Who picks 2 out of 3 and still whiffs on it?
Released
Kazama, Moriki, Kozono
Hikaru Yamashita, Bright
Still Active
Taisei, Sumida, Mukunoki, Tatsu
Kurohara, Matsukawa, Sota Yoshino
Taisei and Sumida are on a whole different level, heads above the rest
If SoftBank had gotten Bright, he'd definitely be shining right now (classic line about SoftBank's player development)
If SoftBank's player development were really that great, their first-round picks wouldn't be littered with busts — in the end it's on the player
Isn't he basically not even with the team anymore?
Sounds like he doesn't even show up at the team office and can't be reached, so this was apparently a one-sided notice
Refusing to answer the team's calls? Is that even allowed?
He's a grown man
Takes a 100-million-yen signing bonus and then just skips town?
Is he even still alive, seriously
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
Release notices are an annual NPB procedure carried out near the end of the season to trim rosters down to the 70-player controlled limit, and it’s not unusual for even high draft picks who never established themselves on the first team to be let go. Kenta Bright was one of the position players the Chunichi Dragons brought in through the 2021 draft, and at the time he was grouped with Kosuke Ukai and Tomoya Masaki as part of a trio dubbed the “Chunichi Big Three” of promising prospects. The thread pointed to the gap in this season’s stats among the three (Ukai .235, Masaki .282, Bright .071) as evidence of how far the results diverged from their draft-day evaluations. Another topic was speculation that self-training routines — including a so-called “bath mat training method” reportedly introduced by manager Kazuyoshi Tatsunami — may have contributed to changes in his batting form; it’s worth noting this is speculation from the thread, not an official explanation from the team or the player himself. Claims like “he doesn’t even show up at the team office” or “he can’t be reached” are likewise secondhand information from the thread and have not been confirmed by primary sources.
*This article is compiled and summarized from the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Chunichi] Kenta Bright Released.”
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