Alex Ramirez, the manager of the Yokohama BayStars, responded to the loss of his best player by declaring the dawning of a new generation.
Ramirez expects his BayStars to be good this year, even without Yoshitomo Tsutsugo in the No. 4 spot. He misses the MLB-bound slugger, as any manager would lament the loss of, for this franchise, a generational talent. He just isn't dwelling on it. When he created the team slogan for this season, "New Generation is Here," Ramirez was also turning the page on the Tsutsugo era in Yokohama.
"I felt we needed to start right from the beginning with the players we already have," Ramirez said Saturday night in Yokohama. "This is the new start of this generation. The new generation is here. That is the reason why I came up with this slogan. I feel pretty good about it."