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The story
The Chunichi Dragons have officially been confirmed for last place in Japan’s Central League for the 2026 pro baseball season. A thread lit up on the “Nandemo Jikkyo G” (Anything Live-Commentary) board over the news, especially since the last-place battle with the Yakult Swallows had gone down to the wire, sparking lively debate over how to rate this year’s roster and how it stacks up against past slumps. The biggest talking points were the expectations surrounding Kudo, who’s reportedly set to take over as manager next season, and where to pin the blame for this year’s collapse. Posters split between those who argued “the talent was there on paper” and pointed fingers at front-office roster-building and in-game management, versus those who chalked it up to plain lack of ability — with several bringing up the earlier Tatsunami era, when the team likewise got dragged down to 6th place in the season’s final game.
What people said
Well, Aoyagi's not around anymore, so there's that
Chunichi rolling '6-6-6' these past few years (three last-place finishes) must mean they're absolutely stacked with prospects by now, huh
SoftBank also had a losing record against Yakult at home during interleague play, so we're fine
Yeah, there was a time they got dragged down to 6th right at the very end
Yakult was losing with two outs in the 9th, then pulled off a walk-off win from there — that's the absurd way Chunichi ended up in 6th that time
The Hanshin vs. Yakult final game? The one where Tetsuto Yamada's sacrifice fly won it for Yakult?
Satozaki didn't get a single one right!!!
Inoue's debuff is what sank Chunichi to last place
They seriously had the talent this year
The data backs it up too
Inoue, man…
Inoue wrecked everything
That's probably because Chunichi lost a bunch straight to the Giants late in the season, then swept Hanshin in three
Hard to believe, but from around the Hoshino era in the late '90s all the way to 2012's 'Joinasu,' they were treated as a powerhouse contending for the pennant every single year
Akira Neo (born 2000), after being drafted:
"Whenever I turned on the TV as a kid, a Chunichi Dragons game would be on, so it's a team I've been familiar with since I was little, and I have a strong impression of them as a powerhouse."
Guess that just proves he was too busy grinding at baseball practice to watch pro ball ever since their last Central League title under Ochiai back in 2011…
That's not fair
Inoue got 4th and 6th, so that averages out to 5th
If Kudo finishes last and gets fired after one year, he's worse than Inoue
I don't think it even lasted a month
There are plenty of examples of an eventual last-place team briefly (over a week) sitting in first
Well, it's about right for their actual talent level
They were just on an absurdly hot streak for a while
He'll probably bring him in as a coach (just a guess)
Aren't they going to let Takahashi go or something?
Did they really need to build a foundation rock-solid enough to survive a Nankai Trough megaquake…?
Arai, for sure
Kudo's still fired up, but Arai seemed completely broken and wanted to resign
Kyota did go on to become a Japan Series champion, though
Protagonist Tatsunami, rival Kyota — feels like you could make a movie out of that
Comeback-king Yakult
Like King Bomby from Momotetsu (the infamous bad-luck character from the Momotaro Dentetsu board game series)
Background and Key Talking Points
Chunichi was known as a perennial Central League powerhouse from the Hoshino era in the late 1990s through roughly 2012, but has been mired in a slump ever since, with this marking yet another last-place finish. “Inoue,” the name that kept coming up in the thread, was discussed as someone tied to roster-building and data analysis, and the debate centered on two competing takes: one holding that “the talent was there, but it fell apart due to lineup decisions and front-office policy,” the other chalking it up to plain lack of ability. Posters also pointed back to the Tatsunami era, when the team was likewise dragged down to 6th place in a race that wasn’t decided until the final game — suggesting many see Chunichi’s struggles not as a temporary rough patch but as a structural problem. The thread also weighed expectations for incoming manager Kudo against the struggles of Hiroshima manager Arai, who’s going through a rough patch of his own at the same time, reflecting broader interest in managerial moves across the Central League as a whole.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “Chunichi Dragons Safely Secure Last Place…“
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