The Seibu Lions have appointed Fumiya Nishiguchi, 52, coach of the second division, as their new head coach. He is a baseball player who retired from playing for the Seibu team for 21 years and worked as a coach for the Seibu team. The Japanese sports magazine Sports Nippon reported on Sunday that the Seibu team has decided to promote itself internally as a new coach for next season. An official announcement will likely be made immediately after the end of the regular season.안전놀이터

Nishiguchi has ties to the Korean professional baseball league. In late February 2016, shortly after his retirement, he coached pitchers as instructors at Hanwha Eagles' Okinawa spring camp. It was a time when manager Kim Sung-geun was in charge of Hanwha's headquarters.

Seibu, the most winning team in the Pacific League, is experiencing its worst performance this season. When the team fell to the bottom of the league in the early days of the season, it suddenly replaced Kazuo Matsui (49), a legendary infielder. Hisanobu Watanabe (59) took the helm in late May, ahead of an exchange game with the Central League. He took the lead by replacing the team's leadership in the early days of the season.

However, the team plummeted without rebounding. Under Watanabe, the coach and general manager once served as the team's coach, the team plunged into a deeper quagmire. As of Tuesday, with nine games to go during the regular season, the team has recorded 88 losses (44 wins, 2 draws, a winning rate of 333 percent). Since the inauguration of the Seibu team, the team has been reeling from its biggest loss in a season. At one point, the team had been concerned about losing 100 games in this season as its winning rate dropped to around 20 percent.

Watanabe, the legendary pitcher who won multiple titles three times when he was active, led Seibu for five years from 2008. In 2008, the first year of his managerial career, he led Seibu to a victory in the Japan Series. However, he was helpless this time.

Watanabe, the coach and general manager, said, "I feel deeply responsible for the failure to rebuild the team. I apologize to the fans," expressing his intention to resign as well as the manager.

The Seibu club has been working on the appointment of the next head coach since the end of August. It is said that leaders from other clubs have also reviewed the list. After a long period of consideration, Nishiguchi, the head coach of the second division, who is well aware of the team's situation and problems, was judged to be the right person.

After graduating from Ritsho University, Nishiguchi joined Seibu as a three-time rookie in 1995. During 21 seasons through 2015, he pitched in 436 games, posting 182 wins (118 losses, 3.73 ERA). He became the champion of multiple wins twice, and posted double-digit wins for seven consecutive years from 1996. Nishiguchi won the 1997 Sawamura Award and the MVP award, which he garnered 15 wins. He was the star pitcher of Seibu, which started five times as an opener.

He worked for five years as a pitcher coach for the Seibu 1st and 2nd teams and three years as a manager for the 2nd teams. After serving as a pitcher coach for the 1st team, he moved down to the 2nd team in 2022 when Matsui took over. This season, the Seibu 2nd team has been competing to lead the Eastern League (the 2nd team league).

Seibu struggled more this season due to lack of scoring ability than it did on the mound. It was not bad, ranking fourth with a 3.11 ERA. Young pitchers are better. His team batting average is 201, the last among the 12 teams in both leagues. He has scored 316 points in 134 games, 252 fewer than the top-ranked Softbank Hawks. If the main hitters become free agents over the past few years, he has left the team. Due to poor situation at his parent company, he has been called the dominant player in the Pacific League

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