Takeshi Yamasaki, the incoming Chunichi Dragons hitting coach, asked manager Kudo to bring outfielder Yuki Okabayashi back from the team’s Kochi camp to Nagoya during the first autumn practice session at Nagoya Stadium, Yahoo!ニュース reported.
Yamasaki, 57, joined the club’s autumn camp in Nagoya on Wednesday for his first coaching session since being named hitting coach for next season. He worked with players including Hosokawa, Ukai and Ishikawa Ang, and also asked Kochi hitting coach Koike to film Okabayashi’s batting practice so he could review the video himself. After watching footage from Tuesday, Yamasaki said Okabayashi felt good about his swing but that it looked “not quite right” to him, so he decided to speak with him directly and requested that Okabayashi be moved back to Nagoya.
“He has a bit of an attitude of taking baseball lightly,” Yamasaki said. “I have to scold him on that, too.”
Okabayashi’s uneven season after a hamstring injury
Okabayashi, who wears No. 1, has been a regular since winning a starting spot in 2022, but this season was disrupted when he suffered a tear in his right hamstring in spring and missed about two months. After returning he struggled to find his form, and late in the season he spent days on the bench.
Yamasaki said Okabayashi had gone three or four years without a setback and had grown complacent, and that when a bad season arrived amid intensifying competition for outfield jobs, an atmosphere grew that he would not be a regular. “I’ll say it harshly, but there was a part where his nose got a little too big,” Yamasaki said. “If he becomes humble again, that will fix it.”
Yamasaki’s message: change the approach and he will deliver
The harsh words, Yamasaki said, come from confidence in the player. “I don’t think he has declined at all,” he said. “If he changes the way he approaches baseball a little, he’ll be fine next year.”
Nikkansports reported that Yamasaki joined the final day of autumn practice on Oct. 31, saying he left home feeling nervous and that the heavy atmosphere of going to the ballpark during the season came back to him. A 14-year returnee to the Dragons uniform, he hit 403 career home runs and is only the third player in history to win home run titles in both Central and Pacific Leagues. Manager Kudo asked him to look after players such as Ishikawa and Ukai, and Yamasaki said he wants to talk with them about aiming for a higher level.
Despite his reputation as a tough, “Gian”-nicknamed slugger, Yamasaki told Nikkansports his coaching style is dialogue-based: “People think of me as a fighter or a grit guy, but that’s not it. I think a lot,” he said, adding that he does not impose his batting philosophy unilaterally and wants instruction both sides can accept.
Camp theme: raise the batting average and every number rises
Sponichi reported that Yamasaki, appearing with former Dragons left-hander Masahiro Yamamoto on a TV program, said autumn camp should be used to “try, train and push,” noting that fielders can swing hard without the injury risk pitchers face with their shoulders. He wants hitters to decide clearly what they want to improve — speed or power — and tell the coach, while demanding quality and quantity in practice.
The Dragons hit 121 home runs, third in the league, helped by the new home run terrace at their home stadium, but finished with a team batting average of .228, fifth in the league. “If the average goes up, every number goes up,” Yamasaki said. “I want to bring out certainty.”
The two-site autumn camp continues, with Yamasaki staying in Nagoya while the Kochi group practices in Kochi Prefecture.
