Tokyo Big 6 College League Best Nine And Other Stuff

Yeah, this is way overdue, but I bought the Shube College Ball fall 2009 review issue this weekend and was reading through it, and they had a section where they listed what the graduating seniors would be doing next year (those that have decided so far), so I thought I'd type that in along with this other stuff.

First, Best Nine...

Pos  Name                 College  Yr.  Votes  Times   High School

P    Tatsuya Ohishi       Waseda    3     9      1     Fukuoka Univ Ohhori
C    Masahiro Nagasaki    Keio      3     8      1     Koshi
1B   Kazuya Onodera       Keio      4    21      2     Maebashi
2B   Fumiya Araki         Meiji     3    13      2     Nichidai #3
SS   Hiroki Matsunaga     Waseda    3    17      1     Koryo
3B   Shota Waizumi        Hosei     4    17      2     Yokohama
OF   Shohei Habu          Waseda    2    21      1     Koryo
OF   Yosuke Yamamoto      Keio      4    20      1     Okazaki
OF   Daisuke Ikarashi     Rikkio    4     7      1     Niigata Meikun

Full votes was 21, and Shohei Habu and Kazuya Onodera, as the top two batters, were the only ones to glean that. To be fair, for the most part the Best 9 list is just taking the best hitters at each position, except for catcher, where Atsushi Tanaka actually did a fairly respectable job for a Todai catcher, batting .310/.444/.414 Anyone wanna take a guess who the last regular Todai batter was to reach the .300 mark and when? (By regular I mean, enough PAs to qualify for the batting leaders, so Yuichi Suzuki's .300 in Spring 2007 doesn't count) Answer: a kid named Kei Ogita, back in Spring 2006. His .308 doesn't look so impressive compared to the rest of the league, anyway. Keiji Ohbiki hit .500 that semester!

The fact that Nagasaki got barely 1/3 of the votes tells me that I am not the only person thinking maybe Tanaka or someone else might have deserved it more. Shota Sugiyama did a hell of a job for a freshman, for example, and Ryota Yasuda was solid for Meiji.

I should also mention that I am, of course, overjoyed that Tatsuya Ohishi finally got a Best Nine -- he will be forever living in Saitoh's shadow, being a classmate at Waseda, but at least people realize that he saved a ton of games for Waseda this year and was, aside from his start at Soukeisen, was really, really good this semester.

By the way, if you can read Japanese, I advise looking at the historical Best 9 list sometime. I got totally lost in it. Something really crazy: take a guess who had the most Best Nine titles in their Big 6 college career? I will give you a hint: it is NOT Shigeo Nagashima.

Big 6 Fall 2009 Titles:
Batting average champ: Kazuya Onodera, Keio (21-for-46, .457/.509/.652, 12 RBI)
ERA champ: Kazuki Nishijima, Meiji (1.13 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 8.43 K/9, 1.68 BB/9, 32 IP)

2010 Captains:
Meiji: Yuki Yamauchi
Keio: Tatsushi Yumoto
Waseda: Yuki Saitoh
Hosei: Seiya Ohyagi
Rikkio: Soichiro Tanaka
Tokyo: Yoshihiro Maeda

(I was actually totally just going to go ahead and predict Tanaka, actually, but figured there was always a chance they'd maybe pick Nihira or someone else. All of these captain choices make sense except Saitoh.)

And here is the big list of where the hell everyone is going next year (of those who will actually be playing baseball -- I didn't type in the companies for everyone else):

Graduating Seniors Continuing Baseball

Meiji
P  Ogata Tomokazu        *Keiyo Gas
P  Narita Hayato         JR Hokkaido
C  Yasuda Ryota          Mitsubishi Nagoya
IF Chida Takayuki        Yamaha
OF Kobayashi Takuma      JR Hokkaido
OF Komichi Junpei        Tokyo Gas
OF Tada Hayato           Nihon Seimei

Keio
P  Komuro Junpei         Mitsubishi Nagoya
P  Nakabayashi Nobuaki   JFE Higashinihon
IF Onodera Kazuya        Meiji Yasuda Seimei
IF Urushibata Tetsuya    Toshiba

Hosei
P  Ueno Yushi            Toshiba
P  Futagami Kazuhito     Hanshin Tigers
P  Fujita Suguru         Panasonic
P  Takeuchi Hisashi      Hiroshima Carp
P  Nishi Kohei           Toho Gas
P  Nakagami Takayoshi    *Gamagori Shinkin Bank
C  Ishikawa Shuhei       JR Higashinihon
IF Matsumoto Masatoshi   Nihon Express
IF Waizumi Shota         Toshiba
OF Kamegai Shingo        Toyota
OF Kajiya Yudai          Kazusa Magic
OF Kita Atsushi          *Fukuoka Bank

Waseda
P  Kusuda Yusuke         Toho Gas
P  Takahashi Hideki      Kazusa Magic
P  Matsushita Kenta      Seibu Lions
IF Ohmae Yusuke          JR Higashinihon
OF Kojima Hiroki         Toyota

Rikkio
P  Tomura Kenji          Rakuten Golden Eagles
OF Ikarashi Daisuke      Mitsubishi Yokohama

Tokyo
(Nobody)

Italics are pro teams, and the * before a team denotes a softball team instead of hard ball, although it isn't softball like we think of it in the US -- rubber ball might be a better way to put it.

It will be interesting to follow these guys in the next year or two and see what happens to them in the industrial leagues! I'll certainly be keeping an eye on my favorite guys... this'll give me more of a reason to watch Toyota, and also JR Higashinihon (Tsuzuji from Toyo and Yumoto 56 from Senshu are also going there). Toshiba too! Exciting!