NPB Draft 2024

STATUS: Back in Japan and the whole draft is done except the Hawks ikusei height/weights since they're not on the website.

Hey everyone, welcome to my 19th year of translating the NPB draft. (Yes, I literally have been doing this since before some of the draftees were born.) If you're gonna use my translations elsewhere, can you at least link to me or let me know you're doing it?

Anyway, I've also been using the draft posts for a personal yearly update for anyone who used to read the blog: as I mentioned last year I was laid off from my job at Google in the first round of their huge layoff trend, and took off 2023 to decompress and spent most of it watching baseball in Japan, and since I didn't find a job in the US over the winter, went back to Japan this spring... and this year in addition to watching baseball all summer, I also job-hunted a bit and got a software engineering job in Tokyo. So, I'm actually in the US right now since I came back here for a week or two to get my work visa (you have to do it outside Japan) and I'm flying back in the morning and starting my new job next week. Therefore, might be a 12-hour delay on filling in any draft info that I don't have by the end of the evening. We'll see!

Happy to answer (reasonable) questions about the process for getting the highly skilled professional engineering visa in Japan, anyway, having just gone through it, if anyone reading this is in software/research and thinking about it.

As in recent years, I expect to mostly just translate as it comes in over the usual news sources; this year I didn't even buy any draft magazines. Nikkan Sports is my usual go-to, and I use draft-repo for high-school kids and the individual websites for colleges/companies for the others, when more obscure people get drafted and the major news outlets don't have their stats ready.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Lions
x Rui Muneyama          IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   02/27/2003   175/78
x Yusei Ishizuka        IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   04/06/2006   181/82
1 Hiroto Saitoh         IF  Kanazawa HS             R/R   01/27/2007   181/76
2 Seiya Watanabe        OF  Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   08/31/2002   177/88
3 Shoma Karyu           P   Saiki Kakujo HS         R/R   12/25/2006   186/74
4 Kuanchen Lin (?)      OF  Japan Econ Univ         R/R   12/30/2002   195/105
5 Hibiki Shinohara      P   Fukui Kodai HS          R/R   09/20/2006   178/76
6 Haruki Tatsuyama      C   Enagic Sports HS        R/R   05/13/2006   175/78
7 Teruki Koga           IF  Chikumagawa Club        R/L   08/25/2000   181/88

(Lin is Taiwanese but has been in Japan for a while)

i1 Yamato Fuji          P   Omiya Higashi HS        L/L   08/26/2006   186/80
i2 Taiyo Satoh          IF  Kanagawa Univ           R/L   05/19/2002   176/78
i3 Ramal Rathnayake (?) OF  Osaka Toin HS           R/R   04/08/2006   180/90
i4 So Satoh             P   Seisa Dohto Univ        L/L   02/09/2003   177/79
i5 Haruto Sawada        OF  Kyoto Kokusai HS        R/S   07/30/2006   170/68
i6 Haruma Fukuo         IF  Gakuho Ishikawa HS      R/L   04/06/2006   181/77
i7 Okemu Umebinyuo (??) OF  Asahikawa Shiho HS      R/R   04/10/2006   185/77

(Gonna admit that I'm transliterating with knowledge of existing Sri Lankan names, 
but nowhere have I seen an official English transliteration of his name yet.)

(And definitely haven't found a definitive Nigerian last name source.)

Dragons
1 Yumeto Kanemaru       P   Kansai Univ             L/L   02/01/2003   177/77
2 Seiya Yoshida         P   Seino Transportation    L/L   05/23/2002   175/80
3 Shunta Mori           IF  Toko Gakuen HS          R/L   12/25/2006   187/91
4 Yuta Ishii            C   Nihon Seimei            R/R   08/18/2000   178/84
5 Kosuke Takahashi      P   Hokusho HS              L/L   12/31/2006   177/82
6 Keito Arima           P   St Catherine HS (Ehime) R/R   09/20/2006   190/78

i1 Naiki Nakamura       IF  Nagasaki Shogyo HS      R/R   08/16/2006   183/73
i2 Kenya Inoue          P   Kagoshima Jitsugyo HS   R/R   12/20/2006   178/80

Buffaloes
x Misho Nishikawa       OF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   03/25/2003   182/81
1 Yusuke Mugitani       OF  Fuji Univ               R/L   07/27/2002   180/81
2 Naruki Teranishi      P   Nittai Univ             R/R   10/18/2002   186/85
3 Reo Yamaguchi         P   Sendai Ikuei HS         R/R   05/14/2006   193/97
4 Ryoma Yamanaka        OF  Mitsubishi Juko East    R/L   12/14/2000   178/82
5 Reiji Higashiyama     P   ENEOS                   R/R   05/05/2000   180/83
6 Raiku Katayama        P   NTT East                R/L   10/07/2002   177/82

i1 Tomoki Imasaka       IF  Osaka Gakuin Univ       R/L   10/19/2006   178/82
i2 Musashi Shimizu      IF  Tochigi Golden Braves   R/R   04/14/2003   173/76
i3 Taiga Uehara         P   Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   03/13/2007   178/84
i4 Seiichi Teramoto     OF  Hiroshima Econ Univ     R/L   02/05/2003   170/86
i5 Kosuke Tajima        C   Shinano Grandserows     R/R   04/09/2000   173/78
i6 Kento Inui           P   Kasumigaura HS          R/R   06/28/2006   188/88

Swallows
1 Yuto Nakamura         P   Aichi Tech (Aikodai)    R/L   02/08/2003   176/85
2 Nikita Moiseyev       OF  Toyokawa HS             L/L   11/29/2006   182/87
3 Kota Shoji            P   Sega Sammy              L/L   05/22/2000   172/88
4 Haruto Tanaka         IF  Kendai Takasaki HS      R/L   06/25/2006   183/85
5 Taijiro Yano          C   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/R   05/22/2002   179/80

i1 Tatsunori Negishi    IF  North Carolina A&T Univ L/L   09/20/2000   180/95
i2 Yu Hirosawa          P   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/R   04/27/2001   193/100
i3 Shunsuke Shimokawa   P   Niigata Albirex         R/R   03/22/2000   176/88
i4 Ryunosuke Matsumoto  C   Sakai Shrikes           R/R   03/01/2005   176/82

Eagles
1 Rui Muneyama          IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   02/27/2003   175/78
2 Kazuto Tokuyama       P   Intl. Pacific Univ      L/L   04/11/2002   177/87
3 Haruto Nakagomi       P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   01/23/2002   175/83
4 Masahiro Ehara        P   Nippon Stainless Steel  R/R   08/03/2000   186/93
5 Tsubasa Yoshinoh      OF  Waseda Univ             R/L   08/16/2002   180/87
6 Po-Hsiang Yang        IF  Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/L   01/23/2005   173/64

i1 Yuya Kishimoto       IF  Nara Univ HS            R/R   01/30/2007   180/72

Carp
x Rui Muneyama          IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   02/27/2003   175/78
1 Tai Sasaki            IF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   12/24/2002   178/82
2 Ryunosuke Satoh       P   Fuji Univ               L/L   11/01/2002   179/86
3 Shun Okamoto          P   Konan Univ              R/L   06/12/2002   186/80
4 Yuto Watanabe         C   Fuji Univ               R/R   07/07/2002   181/98
5 Harun Kikuchi         P   Chiba Gakugei HS        R/R   01/21/2007   200/110

i1 Tsubasa Kobune       P   Chitoku HS              R/R   06/20/2006   198/110
i2 Kaito Takeshita      P   Tsuruga Kehi HS         L/L   11/06/2006   180/76
i3 Toshiki Yasutake     C   Shizuoka Univ           R/R   04/17/2001   178/85

Marines
1 Misho Nishikawa       OF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   03/25/2003   182/88
2 Ryusei Miyazaki       IF  Yamaha                  R/L   12/09/2000   173/90
3 Rikima Ichijoh        P   Toyo Univ               R/L   02/10/2003   190/90
4 Haru Sakai            P   Kanto Daiichi HS        R/R   05/08/2006   178/78
5 Koshiro Hiroike       P   Tokaidai Kyushu Campus  R/R   09/16/2002   185/85
6 Yu Tatematsu          IF  Nihon Seimei            R/L   02/05/1999   177/82

i1 Tsuyoshi Tanimura    IF  Wakayama Higashi HS     R/L   09/15/2006   177/85
i2 Yuta Ibaragi         P   Teikyo Nagaoka HS       R/R   05/09/2006   187/93
i3 Kosuke Nagashima     P   Fuji Univ               R/R   07/05/2002   187/92

Baystars
x Yumeto Kanemaru       P   Kansai Univ             L/L   02/01/2003   177/77
1 Yu Takeda             P   Mitsubishi Juko West    R/R   07/05/1999   184/96
2 Kentaro Shinogi       P   Hosei Univ              R/L   05/07/2002   177/75
3 Hibiki Katoh          IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   06/15/2002   180/85
4 Naoki Wakamatsu       P   Kochi Fighting Dogs     R/R   05/10/2000   183/82
5 Manato Tanai          IF  Okayama Sanyo HS        R/R   03/06/2007   177/79
6 Kasuga Sakaguchi      P   Kokugakuin Univ         R/R   09/12/2002   178/80

i1 Daiki Kobari         OF  Nichidai Tsurugaoka HS  L/L   10/10/2006   191/94
i2 Haru Yoshioka        P   Anan Hikari HS          R/R   08/28/2006   182/88
i3 Koki Kanabuchi       P   Hachinohe Kodai #1 HS   L/L   10/01/2006   183/87

Fighters
x Rui Muneyama          IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   02/27/2003   175/78
1 Reo Shibata           P   Fukuoka Ohhori HS       R/L   04/18/2006   187/87
2 Ryusei Fujita         P   Tokaidai Sagami HS      L/L   11/17/2006   198/96
3 Tamon Asari           P   Meiji Univ              R/R   09/06/2002   186/88
4 Daiki Shimizu         P   Maebashi Shogyo HS      R/R   07/17/2006   192/95
5 Shu Yamagata          IF  Waseda Univ             R/R   05/01/2002   176/80
6 Kotaro Yamashiro      P   Hosei Univ              R/R   09/03/2002   183/84

i1 Sorato Kawakatsu     P   Seiko Gakuen HS         R/R   02/11/2007   180/88
i2 Junki Shibuya        P   Obihiro Agricultural HS L/L   11/25/2006   182/87

Tigers
x Yumeto Kanemaru       P   Kansai Univ             L/L   02/01/2003   177/77
1 Takato Ihara          P   NTT West                L/L   08/07/2000   170/77
2 Yuki Hasamaru         P   Hotoku Gakuen HS        R/R   06/02/2006   187/77
3 Rito Kinoshita        P   KMG Holdings            R/R   01/27/2001   183/90
4 Hayato Machida        C   Musashi Heat Bears      R/R   04/03/2003   186/88
5 Taiyo Sano            IF  Toyama GRN Thunderbirds R/R   02/14/2002   178/81

i1 Taisei Kudoh         P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   11/19/2001   177/82
i2 Rinshiro Shimamura   C   Kochi Fighting Dogs     R/L   07/13/2003   177/90
i3 Daiki Hayakawa       P   Kufu Hayate             R/R   12/18/1999   185/95
i4 Toshiaki Kawasaki    IF  Ishikawa Million Stars  R/L   05/02/2001   174/82

Hawks
x Rui Muneyama          IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   02/27/2003   175/78
x Reo Shibata           P   Fukuoka Ohhori HS       R/L   04/18/2006   186/85
1 Taito Murakami        P   Kobe Koryo HS           R/R   02/20/2007   180/73
2 Yudai Shoji           IF  Kanagawa Univ           R/L   10/02/2002   178/73
3 Shun Antoku           P   Fuji Univ               R/R   05/18/2002   177/82
4 Shinjiro Uno          IF  Waseda Jitsugyo HS      R/R   07/05/2006   176/78
5 Soma Ishimi           IF  Aikodai Meiden HS       R/L   06/10/2006   176/75
6 Shunsuke Iwasaki      P   Toyo Univ               R/R   03/11/2003   178/78

i1 Ryo Furukawa         P   Nihon Gakuen HS         R/R   05/06/2006
i2 Zairen Sobukawa      IF  Hamamatsu Shogyo HS     R/R   05/29/2006
i3 So Ohtomo            C   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   07/23/1999
i4 Yuki Hirose          IF  Matsudo Shiritsu HS     R/R   02/02/2007
i5 Shinichiro Kawano    P   Miyazaki Gakuen HS      L/L   08/20/2006
i6 Tohya Kawaguchi      P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   10/26/1999
i7 Kenshiro Tsukayama   P   Kobe Kokusaidai HS      R/R   07/24/2006
i8 Yuta Aihara          P   Sendai Univ             R/R   06/16/2002
i9 Koichiro Okada       P   Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   06/04/2002
i10 Koha Gyofu          OF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   07/16/2002
i11 Hayato Kinoshita    OF  Chiba Keizaidai HS      R/L   08/16/2006
i12 Taiga Kumagai       P   Toryo HS                L/L   10/17/2006
i13 Dan Shioji          P   Ishikawa Monzen HS      R/R   05/18/2006

Giants
x Yumeto Kanemaru       P   Kansai Univ             L/L   02/01/2003   177/77
1 Yusei Ishizuka        IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   04/06/2006   181/82
2 Shunsuke Urata        IF  Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/L   08/30/2002   170/70
3 Yu Aramaki            IF  Jobu Univ               R/L   12/23/2002   184/92
4 Juza Ishida           P   Hokusei HS              R/R   07/21/2006   191/86
5 Shunsuke Miyahara     P   Tokai Univ Shizuoka     L/L   09/12/2002   175/82

i1 Tatsuya Sakamoto     C   Fuji Univ               R/R   08/31/2002   173/76
i2 Shotaro Horie        P   Bunsei Art Univ HS      R/R   10/08/2006   187/88
i3 Keishin Suzuki       P   Yokohama Sogakukan HS   R/L   07/09/2006   183/85
i4 Shido Fukita         P   Hirosaki Seiai HS       R/R   02/21/2007   188/84
i5 Ayumu Nishikawa      P   Yamamura Gakuen HS      L/L   11/15/2006   169/76
i6 Raia Takeshita       IF  Meitoku Gijuku HS       R/R   11/12/2006   183/98

I think this year I'm not going to bother with the other stuff -- it doesn't matter after all the dust settles.

NPB Draft 2023

Hey everyone, welcome to my 18th year of translating the NPB draft.  If you're gonna use my translations elsewhere, can you at least link to me or let me know you're doing it?

Moving everything else to the bottom of this post.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Dragons
x Ryuki Watarai         OF  ENEOS                   R/L   10/04/2002   183/83
1 Sho Kusaka            P   Asia Univ               R/R   11/21/2001   182/75
2 Keishi Tsuda          IF  Mitsubishi Juko East    R/R   11/23/2002   180/80
3 Rintaro Tsujimoto     IF  Sendai Univ             R/R   08/11/2001   168/73
4 Konosuke Fukuda       P   Riseisha HS             L/L   08/11/2005   180/80
5 Shota Habu            P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   03/10/2001   181/92
6 Ryuma Katoh           P   Toho Gas                R/S   05/13/1999   185/102

i1 Toki Hiwatari        C   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/L   09/20/2004   173/89
i2 Towa Kikuta          P   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/R   09/25/2003   182/88
i3 Goki Oda             OF  Tochigi Golden Braves   L/L   08/03/2000   175/74
i4 Rii Kawakami         IF  Oita B-Rings            R/R   03/10/2001   178/85

Fighters
x Yuhi Nishidate        P   Chuo Univ               R/R   03/11/2002   183/79
x Yugo Maeda            P   Osaka Toin HS           L/L   08/04/2005   180/80
1 Haruki Hosono         P   Toyo Univ               L/L   02/26/2002   180/85
2 Yuya Shintoh          C   Jobu Univ               R/R   03/10/2002   182/88
3 Kazuki Miyazaki       OF  Yamanashi Gakuin Univ   R/R   08/30/2001   184/82
4 Ryosuke Myose         IF  Kagoshima Josei HS      R/R   08/25/2005   183/90
5 Hinode Hoshino        OF  Maebashi Kogyo HS       R/R   04/18/2005   182/84

i1 Taiki Hamada         IF  Kyoto International HS  R/R   11/28/2005   189/73
i2 Daiju Hirata         OF  Seta Technical HS       R/L   08/25/2005   181/70
i3 Yamato Katoh         P   Teikyodai Kani HS       L/L   01/12/2006   190/79

Swallows
x Natsuki Takeuchi      P   Kokugakuin Univ         L/L   07/21/2001   185/90
1 Kota Nishidate        P   Senshu Univ             R/R   06/09/2001   188/87
2 Kengo Matsumoto       P   Toyota                  R/R   04/14/1999   180/80
3 Yuki Ishihara         P   Meiji Univ              L/L   08/30/2001   180/85
4 Kyo Suzuki            C   Tokoha Kikuchikawa HS   R/R   03/21/2006   180/76
5 Ryui Itoh             IF  Niigata Albirex         R/R   09/11/2002   180/77

i1 Shosei Takahashi     P   New Taipei Yingge HS    R/R   12/17/2005   187/81
i2 Sota Takano          IF  Mitoya HS               R/R   07/28/2005   176/90

Lions
1 Natsuki Takeuchi      P   Kokugakuin Univ         L/L   07/21/2001   185/90
2 Taiga Ueda            P   Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   11/15/2001   182/84
3 Haruki Sugiyama       P   Yokohama HS             L/L   09/23/2005   181/80
4 Haruse Narita         P   Hirosaki Technical HS   R/R   02/27/2006   185/81
5 Taisei Miyazawa       P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   04/15/1999   183/91
6 Reon Murata           IF  Kogakkan Univ           R/R   08/04/2001   196/110
7 Ryota Itogawa         P   ENEOS                   R/R   04/30/1998   174/77

i1 Joseph Sinclair      P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  L/L   06/12/2001   193/94
i2 Asahi Taniguchi      IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   04/03/2004   185/85
i3 Masahiro Kawashimo   P   Hakodatedai Yuto HS     L/L   04/03/2005   186/72
i4 Koji Kaneko          IF  Musashi Heat Bears      R/L   09/02/2003   176/77
i5 Shota Kise           P   Kyoto Kitasaga HS       R/R   04/05/2005   185/82
i6 Koichi Okumura       OF  Gunma Diamond Pegasus   R/R   12/24/1999   177/82

Giants (ikusei)
1 Yuhi Nishidate        P   Chuo Univ               R/R   03/11/2002   183/79
2 Shunya Morita         P   Honda Suzuka            L/L   02/11/1997   185/87
3 Shunsuke Sasaki       OF  Hitachi Seisakusha      R/L   11/06/1999   174/77
4 Yuta Izuguchi         IF  NTT Nishinihon          R/L   05/17/1999   178/81
5 Teppei Mataki         P   Nihon Seimei            L/L   01/01/1993   181/90

i1 Katsunari Miura      P   Tokyo Int'l Univ        L/L   04/28/2001   179/80
i2 Gen Murayama         IF  Kanoya Chuo HS          R/R   06/27/2005   178/63
i3 Kisara Utsunomiya    IF  Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   06/23/2004   176/66
i4 Yuya Tanoue          IF  Nichidai Fujisawa HS    R/R   06/08/2005   181/82
i5 Atsuki Sonoda        P   Fukuoka Kodai Joto HS   R/R   07/07/2005   183/72
i6 Takahiro Chiba       P   Asahikawa Meisei HS     L/L   05/15/2005   175/77
i7 Kota Hirayama        OF  Chiba Sky Sailors       R/R   03/16/2004   185/82

Eagles
x Hayato Tsunehiro      P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   09/18/2001   180/73
1 Tatsuki Koja          P   Toin Yokohama Univ      L/L   08/18/2001   181/75
2 Haruto Sakai          P   Takigawa #2 HS          R/R   04/05/2005   186/83
3 Naoki Hinata          P   Tokaidai Sugao HS       R/R   07/06/2005   190/100
4 Rikai Waters          IF  Wellness Okinawa HS     R/R   10/14/2005   177/72
5 Takuma Matsuda        P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   02/26/2002   186/73
6 Daisuke Nakashima     OF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/L   06/04/2001   180/78  
7 Seiya Ohuchi          P   Wellness Miyagi HS      R/R   03/09/2006   191/77
8 Takumi Aono           IF  Himi HS                 R/R   07/26/2005   180/85

Baystars
1 Ryuki Watarai         OF  ENEOS                   R/L   10/04/2002   183/83
2 Ryoto Matsumoto       P   Meijo Univ              R/R   12/05/2001   183/89
3 Riku Takeda           P   Yamagata Chuo HS        L/L   06/06/2005   174/78
4 Taiki Ishikami        IF  Toyo Univ               R/L   05/18/2001   172/82
5 Yutaro Ishida         P   Chuo Univ               R/R   01/22/2002   180/74
6 Kento Inoue           OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   02/23/2000   177/87

i1 Ikumi Takamizawa     IF  Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/L   01/18/2006   183/85
i2 Manato Shimizu       P   Jutoku HS               R/R   10/06/2005   186/75
i3 So Ogasawara         IF  Kyoto Shoei HS          R/L   10/20/2005   180/92
i4 Haruto Shoji         P   Aomori Univ             L/L   05/31/2001   184/91
i5 Taiga Kondoh         C   Senshudai Kitakami HS   R/R   09/18/2005   174/80

Hawks
x Natsuki Takeuchi      P   Kokugakuin Univ         L/L   07/21/2001   185/90
1 Yugo Maeda            P   Osaka Toin HS           L/L   08/04/2005   180/80
2 Shunsuke Iwai         P   Meijo Univ              R/R   07/30/2001   182/90
3 Ryuta Hirose          IF  Keio Univ               R/R   04/07/2001   182/91
4 Kenichi Murata        P   Meiji Univ              R/R   08/31/2001   181/87
5 Ryotaro Sawayanagi    P   Rokitechno Toyama       R/R   03/08/2000   180/85
6 Ryo Ohyama            P   East Japan Intl. Univ   R/R   03/27/2002   180/70
7 Yutaro Fujita         C   Fukuoka Ohhori HS       R/R   06/03/2005   173/75

i1 Shuya Ohizumi        OF  Fukushima Red Hopes     L/L   09/16/1999   
i2 Yuwa Miyasato        P   Tokyo Nogyo Univ        R/R   09/27/2001
i3 Kyoshiro Sakura      IF  Kyushu Kokusaidai HS    R/L   11/03/2005
i4 Koki Nakazawa        IF  Hachinohe Kosei HS      R/R   07/03/2005
i5 Kotaro Hoshino       P   Komazawa Univ           R/R   10/24/2001
i6 Haruto Fujiwara      P   Iizuka HS               R/R   12/26/2005
i7 Junpei Fujita        P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  L/L   05/14/2000
i8 Keishin Nakamizu     P   Kyoto International HS  L/L   08/08/2005

Carp
1 Hayato Tsunehiro      P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   09/18/2001   180/73
2 Taichi Taka           P   Osaka Shogyo Univ       L/L   07/26/2001   180/80
3 Kazuki Takita         P   Seisa Dohto Univ        L/L   12/28/2001   183/77
4 Yuto Nakada           IF  Okinawa Shogaku HS      R/R   07/31/2005   186/94
5 Kento Akatsuka        P   Chukyo Gakuin Univ      R/R   07/01/2001   195/110

i1 Takeru Sugita        P   Nihon Univ (int'l rel)  R/R   08/28/2001   189/82
i2 Keisuke Satoh        IF  Shizuoka Univ           R/L   05/24/2001   181/92
i3 Mirai Sugihara       P   Kyoto International HS  L/L   09/23/2005   175/72

Marines
x Ryuki Watarai         OF  ENEOS                   R/L   10/04/2002   183/83
x Sho Kusaka            P   Asia Univ               R/R   11/21/2001   182/75
x Haruki Hosono         P   Toyo Univ               L/L   02/26/2002   180/85
1 Kyuto Ueda            IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   08/12/2001   183/90
2 Hikaru Ohtani         P   Toyama Thunderbirds     R/R   07/11/2000   180/82
3 Yuto Kimura           P   Kasumigaura HS          R/L   06/01/2005   183/74
4 Oto Hayasaka          P   Makuhari Sogo HS        R/R   07/26/2005   176/70
5 Ryusei Terachi        C   Meitoku Gijuku HS       R/L   08/19/2005   177/77

i1 Ryota Takeuchi       P   Seiryo HS               R/R   10/25/2005   184/84
i2 Shinya Matsuishi     P   Toin HS                 R/R   12/18/2005   175/75
i3 Hikaru Kohno         OF  Toyama Thunderbirds     R/R   06/17/2004   187/87
i4 Kazuki Fujita        OF  Nabeoka Gakuen HS       R/L   11/04/2005   185/82
i5 Konoshin Tomiyama    C   Aizu Hokurei HS         R/R   09/18/2005   181/70

Tigers
1 Kaito Shimomura       P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   03/27/2002   174/73
2 Tsuyoshi Shiiba       P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   03/18/2002   182/85
3 Shuya Yamada          IF  Sendai Ikuei HS         R/R   08/20/2005   177/71
4 Aoi Momosaki          IF  TokaiKumamoto Seisho HS R/R   09/11/2005   178/74
5 Yuya Ishiguro         P   JR West                 R/R   06/20/2001   180/82
6 Junya Tsuda           P   Osaka Econ Univ         R/R   08/27/2001   178/83

i1 Kai Matsubara        P   Toyama Thunderbirds     R/R   08/24/1999   180/88
i2 Kein Fukushima       OF  Hakuoh Univ             R/L   10/06/2001   171/72


Buffaloes
1 Seiya Yokoyama        IF  Ueda Nishi HS           R/L   10/28/2005   181/85
2 Kosuke Kawachi        P   St Catherine HS (Ehime) R/R   04/16/2005   180/72
3 Kaisei Tohmatsu       P   Kyoei HS                L/L   04/29/2005   177/83
4 Shuna Hori            C   Hotoku Gakuen HS        R/R   07/16/2005   179/76
5 Taito Takashima       P   Oji                     R/R   12/03/1999   189/77
6 Seiryu Kotajima       P   Nippon Express          R/R   06/29/1999   175/82
7 Ryusei Gonda          P   TDK                     R/R   01/28/2000   180/83

i1 Hiroto Suga          P   Eimei HS                L/L   06/16/2005   180/81
i2 Kaito Oe             P   Shimonoseki Phoenix     L/L   01/13/2000   181/93
i3 Riku Miyaguni        P   Toho HS                 R/R   08/07/2005   176/78
i4 Taketo Ashida        P   Musashi Heat Bears      R/R   02/09/2000   185/90
i5 Sota Kawano          IF  Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   05/22/2000   180/75

Hi all.  It's draft time again!

It occurs to me that for anyone who doesn't follow me elsewhere I should provide a personal yearly update: in the last year since the 2022 draft, back in January I was laid off from my job at Google after almost a decade there, and also I'm in the process of getting divorced, so I decided that the best thing to destress from everything was to spend most of 2023 in Japan watching baseball, so I've been here since May and gone to about 80 games.  (If anyone's hiring a bilingual-ish engineer/writer please let me know!)  I keep debating blogging about adventures here, but it's a hard habit to get back into, plus unlike 15-20 years ago, there's a lot more info out there in English nowadays and machine translation tools.  If nothing else, I should at least post all of my Es Con Field wanderings, since I went to 9 games there and visited pretty much every nook and cranny of the park.

Anyway, I had tried to get tickets to the draft, but failed, so instead I'll be watching it on TV with a couple of my friends that I watch college ball with usually. I told them I'd be bringing my laptop and translating as we go, and they said it's fine, so we'll see :)

First round:

Dragons: Ryuki Watarai, OF, ENEOS
Fighters: Yuhi Nishidate, RHP, Chuo Univ
Swallows: Natsuki Takeuchi, LHP, Kokugakuin Univ
Lions: Takeuchi
Giants: Y Nishidate
Eagles: Hayato Tsunehiro, RHP, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Baystars: Watarai
Hawks: Takeuchi
Carp: Tsunehiro
Marines: Watarai
Tigers: Kaito Shimomura, RHP, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Buffaloes: Seiya Yokoyama, IF, Ueda Nishi HS

Lottery results:
Watarai goes to Yokohama
Takeuchi goes to Seibu
Tsunehiro goes to Hiroshima
Nishidate goes to Giants

...ugh :/

Second first round:

Dragons: Sho Kusaka, RHP, Asia Univ
Fighters: Yugo Maeda, LHP, Osaka Toin HS
Swallows: Kota Nishidate, RHP, Senshu Univ
Eagles: Maeda
Hawks: Maeda
Marines: Kusaka

Dragons get Kusaka, Hawks get Maeda.

Third first round:

Fighters: Haruki Hosono, LHP, Toyo Univ
Eagles: Tatsuki Koja, LHP, Toin Yokohama Univ
Marines: Hosono

Seriously?  Fighters get Hosono.
Marines finally take Kyuto Ueda, Meiji's captain and 3B, as the final first round pick.

Actual first round when the dust settles:

Dragons: Sho Kusaka, RHP, Asia Univ
Fighters: Haruki Hosono, LHP, Toyo Univ
Swallows: Kota Nishidate, RHP, Senshu Univ
Lions: Natsuki Takeuchi, LHP, Kokugakuin Univ 
Giants: Yuhi Nishidate, RHP, Chuo Univ
Eagles: Tatsuki Koja, LHP, Toin Yokohama Univ
Baystars: Ryuki Watarai, OF, ENEOS
Hawks: Yugo Maeda, LHP, Osaka Toin HS
Carp: Hayato Tsunehiro, RHP, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Marines: Kyuto Ueda, IF, Meiji Univ
Tigers: Kaito Shimomura, RHP, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Buffaloes: Seiya Yokoyama, IF, Ueda Nishi HS

NPB Draft 2022 post

Hey all, it's that time of year again.  Yes, I am of course translating the draft.  I expect to stay up for the first round or two and then crash, but who knows.  I don't personally know anyone going into the draft this year as far as I know, thanks to the pandemic, but at this point I can't imagine NOT making my yearly blog post and making sure I see every single person in the draft for at least long enough to translate their name and school and whatnot :)

Here's a table.  I'll fill it in as I go along tonight/tomorrow.

The first round was simple enough (only 2 runoffs) that I'm not going to bother including it since you can tell from the table.  The most interesting thing to happen during the draft IMO was the Fighters indeed attempting to draft Gosuke Katoh (an American-born Japanese, he has to be drafted to play in Japan, and was last seen in the Mets minor-league system).

Status: Done.  I had done everything except tediously extract the Hawks ikusei height/weight numbers and someone did it for me on Reddit. 

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Fighters
1 Kota Yazawa           P   Nittai Univ             L/L   08/02/2000   173/70
2 Shoma Kanemura        P   Fuji Univ               R/R   08/29/2000   175/73
3 Gosuke Katoh          OF  New York Mets           R/L   10/08/1994   185/89
4 Kanato Anzai          P   Tokoha Kikugawa HS      R/R   11/13/2004   186/84
5 Taiki Narama          IF  Rissho Univ             R/R   05/08/2000   172/72
6 Haruki Miyauchi       P   Nihon Seishi Ishinomaki R/R   05/25/1996   176/75

i1 Taisei Fuijta        OF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/L   08/23/2004   187/84
i2 Terukazu Nakayama    P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   02/08/1999   188/90
i3 Ataru "AJ" Yamaguchi OF  Univ of Texas Tyler     R/R   05/28/1999   179/89
i4 Kodai Yamamoto       P   Shinano Grandserows     L/L   04/23/1999   186/88

Dragons
1 Reia Nakachi          P   Okinawa Univ            R/R   02/15/2001   177/80
2 Kaito Muramatsu       IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   01/06/2001   171/80
3 Akio Moriyama         P   Anan Hikari HS          L/L   01/11/2005   182/83
4 Ryunosuke Yamaasa     C   Seiko Gakuen HS         R/L   04/21/2004   175/82
5 Shonosuke Hama        IF  BCL Fukui               R/L   05/03/2000   181/81
6 Mikiya Tanaka         IF  Asia Univ               R/R   11/28/2000   166/64
7 Hiroki Fukunaga       IF  Nippon Shinyaku         R/R   09/16/1996   180/74

i1 Shinya Matsuyama     P   Hachinohe Gakuin Univ   R/R   06/23/2000   188/92
i2 Tento Nonaka         P   Meioh HS                L/L   02/05/2005   180/83
i3 Seishu Higuchi       IF  BCL Musashi Heat Bears  R/L   11/17/1998   177/75

Marines (ikusei)
x Kosei Shoji
1 Riku Kikuchi          P   Senshu Univ             R/L   06/13/2000   183/88
2 Atsuki Tomosugi       IF  Tenri Univ              R/R   11/07/2000   171/68
3 Haruya Tanaka         P   Nihon Bunri HS          R/L   06/06/2004   185/82
4 Shuta Takano          P   Nippon Express          L/L   08/13/1998   183/76
5 Yuta Kaneda           IF  Urawa Gakuin HS         R/L   02/12/2005   181/80

i1 Yuto Yoshikawa       P   Urawa Reimei HS         L/L   03/14/2005   185/82
i2 Kaiki Shirahama      P   Iizuka HS               R/R   07/05/2004   192/87
i3 Rui Katsumata        IF  Fujinomiya East HS      R/R   10/07/2004   188/78
i4 Kaisei Kurokawa      IF  Gakuhou Ishikawa HS     R/R   04/05/2004   178/75

Carp
1 Yuta Saitoh           P   Tomakomai Chuo HS       R/L   05/27/2004   189/90
2 Shodai Uchida         IF  Tone Shogyo HS          R/R   09/22/2004   183/85
3 Takehisa Masuda       P   Tokyo Gas               R/R   10/06/1998   175/86
4 Kanato Shimizu        C   Kendai Takasaki HS      R/L   07/06/2004   175/80
5 Kei Kawano            P   Osaka Gas               R/R   08/23/2001   176/80
6 Ginji Hasebe          P   Toyota                  L/L   07/29/1998   184/80
7 Shu Kubo              OF  Osaka Kanko Univ        R/R   09/29/2000   180/80

i1 Norihiko Nabara      OF  Aomori Univ             R/R   06/24/2000   182/82
i2 Takahiro Nakamura    OF  Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/L   04/09/2000   177/85
i3 Taiga Tsuji          P   Nishogakusha HS         L/L   08/29/2004   182/79

Eagles
1 Kosei Shoji           P   Rikkio Univ             R/R   10/13/2000   188/90
2 Ryuji Komago          P   Saginomiya Seisakusho   R/R   09/15/1997   179/85
3 Shota Watanabe        P   Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/R   10/29/2000   181/79
4 Mao Itoh              P   Nodai Hokkaido Okhotsk  R/L   11/19/2000   180/80
5 Ryuya Taira           OF  NTT West Japan          R/R   07/09/1998   170/76
6 Yuki Hayashi          P   Seino Transportation    L/L   10/29/2001   174/61

i1 Konosuke Tatsumi     IF  Seinan Gakuin Univ      R/R   11/24/2000   177/69
i2 Kosei Koga           P   Shimonoseki Kokusai HS  L/L   09/03/2004   181/83
i3 Akihiro Takeshita    P   Hakodate Univ           R/R   05/20/2000   185/75
i4 Sotaro Nagata        IF  Taiwan Nat'l Sport Univ R/L   10/11/2000   178/74

Giants (ikusei)
1 Shogo Asano           OF  Takamatsu Shogyo HS     R/R   11/24/2004   180/83
2 Masaya Hagio          OF  Keio Univ               R/R   12/28/2000   180/84
3 Chiharu Tanaka        P   Kokugakuin Univ         R/R   09/21/2000   189/85
4 Makoto Kadowaki       IF  Soka Univ               R/L   01/24/2001   171/73
5 Hiromasa Funabasama   P   Seino Transportation    R/L   10/16/1996   174/72

i1 Hayate Matsui        P   Meisei Univ             R/R   09/14/2000   178/83
i2 Tomoki Tamura        P   Sakata Minami HS        R/R   04/06/2004   184/80
i3 Yusef Yoshimura      P   Meitoku Gijiku HS       L/L   12/08/2004   182/75
i4 Ayumu Nakata         IF  Tooh Gijuku HS          R/R   06/27/2004   172/76
i5 Hakuto Aizawa        IF  Toin Gakuen HS          R/R   05/28/2004   178/82
i6 Rui Mitsuka          OF  Kiryu Daiichi HS        L/L   05/10/2004   182/92
i7 Gen Ohshiro          OF  Mirai HS Okinawa        R/R   07/12/2004   180/78
i8 Rio Kitamura         P   Kiryu Daiichi HS        R/R   02/20/2005   174/77
i9 Tessei Morimoto      P   Shiritsu Funabashi HS   L/L   09/03/2004   175/73

Lions
1 Takuya Hiruma         OF  Waseda Univ             L/L   09/08/2000   176/87
2 Yuta Furukawa         OF  Saiki Kakujo HS         R/R   05/25/2004   186/91
3 Kaito Noda            C   Kyushu Kokusaidai HS    R/R   03/18/2005   173/74
4 Minato Aoyama         P   Asia Univ               R/R   07/19/2000   182/84
5 Haruto Yamada         P   Ohmi HS                 R/R   06/09/2004   174/75
6 Ryosuke Kodama        IF  Osaka Gas               R/R   07/10/1998   166/64

i1 Kazuki Nomura        IF  Ishikawa Million Stars  R/R   06/07/2003   183/93
i2 Montell Higuma       OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   03/18/2000   186/86
i3 Daiki Miura          P   Chukyo Univ             R/L   04/07/2000   180/92
i4 Ryosuke Koresawa     C   Hosei Univ              R/R   04/19/2000   178/79

Tigers
x Shogo Asano
1 Shota Morishita       OF  Chuo Univ               R/R   08/14/2000   182/88
2 Keito Monbetsu        P   Tokaidai Sapporo HS     L/L   07/10/2004   182/82
3 Hinase Itsubo         OF  Kanto Daiichi HS        R/R   03/17/2005   177/86
4 Hidetoshi Ibaragi     P   Teikyo Nagaoka HS       R/R   06/08/2004   182/83
5 Reiji Toi             IF  Tenri HS                R/R   01/18/2005   180/85
6 Ren Tomita            P   Mitsubishi Okazaki      L/L   09/06/2001   175/72

i1 Kyosuke Noguchi      OF  Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/R   07/17/2000   180/88

Hawks
1 Itua Ikhine           IF  Homare HS               R/L   09/02/2004   184/83
2 Ryosuke Ohtsu         P   Nippon Steel Kashima    R/L   01/13/1999   176/68
3 Ikumi Kai             OF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   07/11/2000   182/85
4 Kazuo Ohno            P   Ohshima HS              L/L   08/06/2004   174/63
5 Haru Matsumoto        P   Asia Univ               L/L   02/24/2001   180/78
6 Kengo Yoshida         C   Toin Yokohama Univ      R/R   01/18/2001   180/92

i1 Ren Akaba            P   Kasumigaura HS          R/R   04/09/2004   187/80
i2 Kyogo Yamashita      IF  Fukuoka Univ Ohhori HS  R/R   07/07/2004   175/73  
i3 Hikaru Kimura        P   Bukkyo Univ             R/L   07/02/2000   173/72 
i4 Kaito Uchino         P   Takeda HS               R/R   07/28/2004   186/94  
i5 Junpei Okaue         P   Shikama Kogyo HS        R/R   07/10/2004   178/70  
i6 Akito Sasaki         P   Gakuho Fukushima HS     R/R   01/02/2005   184/79   
i7 Sota Minakuchi       P   Tohto Univ              R/R   08/09/1999   194/104  
i8 Hayato Miyazaki      P   Tokyo Nodai Univ        L/L   06/14/2000   180/85  
i9 Kaito Shigematsu     OF  Asia Univ               R/R   04/12/2000   186/92  
i10 Jun Maeda           P   Nihon Bunri Univ        L/L   06/04/2000   187/93  
i11 Kota Satoh          IF  Hachinohe Kosei HS      R/R   04/07/2004   183/75  
i12 Yusei Tobita        IF  Yokohama Kanazawa HS    R/L   03/13/2005   184/82 
i13 Ayuma Nishio        IF  Chukyo Gakuin Univ      R/L   06/20/2000   168/68  
i14 Ryota Morishima     C   Konan HS                R/R   05/27/2004   186/90  

Baystars
1 Shion Matsuo          C   Osaka Toin HS           R/R   07/06/2004   178/75
2 Teruki Yoshino        P   Toyota                  R/R   07/19/1998   176/78
3 Takuma Hayashi        IF  Komazawa Univ           R/L   08/24/2000   172/74
4 Ryudai Morishita      P   Kyoto Kokusai HS        L/L   09/19/2004   178/73
5 Tatsuya Hashimoto     P   Keio Univ               R/R   07/18/2000   182/86

i1 Ryota Joko           C   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   01/29/2001   184/90
i2 Ren Suzuki           IF  Shiga Gakuen HS         R/R   07/18/2004   183/86
i3 Ryuto Konno          P   Toritsu Shiojiri HS     R/R   07/13/2004   182/86
i4 Aki Watanabe         P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   01/29/2000   188/105
i5 Haruto Kusano        P   East Japan Shohei HS    R/R   06/07/2004   175/87

Buffaloes
1 Ryuhei Sotani         P   Hakuoh Univ             L/L   11/30/2000   183/79
2 Hoh Naitoh            IF  JAL Ishikawa HS         R/R   10/05/2004   180/100
3 Kyosuke Saitoh        P   Morioka Chuo HS         R/R   11/18/2004   177/70
4 Ryu Sugisawa          OF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   06/02/2000   175/80
5 Atsumi Hidaka         P   Tomishima HS            R/R   09/06/2004   183/76

i1 Yusei Nishihama      P   Gunma Diamond Pegasus   R/L   11/23/2002   181/87
i2 Kaito Saiki          P   Osaka Economics Univ    R/R   06/10/2000   181/86
i3 Kaito Iriyama        P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   05/26/2000   178/78
i4 Tokumasa Chano       OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   08/04/1999   175/80
i5 Kyoichiro Murakami   C   Hosei Univ              R/R   12/01/2000   168/82

Swallows
1 Kojiro Yoshimura      P   Toshiba                 R/R   01/19/1998   183/85
2 Ruito Nishimura       OF  Kyoto Gaidai HS         R/L   07/01/2004   178/75
3 Ren Sawai             OF  Chukyo Univ             L/L   05/31/2000   180/100
4 Takumi Sakamoto       P   Hokkaido Shiriuchi HS   L/L   07/06/2004   180/85
5 Keigo Kitamura        IF  Chuo Univ               R/R   12/18/2000   182/87

i1 Seiya Hashimoto      C   Chuo Gakuin Univ        R/L   09/18/2000   178/85

NPB Draft 2021 blog post

My 16th translated draft, whee! I'll be adding some commentary at the bottom, though not too much this year because things.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Baystars
1 Kenta Kozono          P   Shiritsu Wakayama HS    R/R   04/09/2003   185/90
2 Soma Tokuyama         P   Waseda University       R/R   06/06/1999   183/83
3 Ryunosuke Aibara      IF  Tokyo Gakkan HS         R/L   02/22/2004   180/85
4 Ginji Miura           P   Hosei University        R/R   12/30/1999   175/80
5 Osuke Fukazawa        P   Senshudai Matsudo HS    R/R   11/05/2003   177/74
6 Koki Kajiwara         OF  Kanagawa University     R/L   09/19/1999   189/85

i1 Nagi Murakawa        OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   06/26/1998   174/63
i2 Naoya Higashide      C   Komatsu Ohtani HS       R/R   05/24/2003   173/72
i3 Takeru Ohashi        OF  Ibaraki Astro Planets   L/L   05/16/2001   178/74

Fighters
1 Kota Tatsu            P   Tenri HS                R/R   03/27/2004   194/88
2 Naoki Arizono         IF  Chiba Gakugei HS        R/R   05/21/2003   185/97
3 Tatsuki Mizuno        IF  JR Shikoku              R/L   07/30/2000   171/75
4 Uta Sakaguchi         IF  Gifu Daiichi HS         R/L   06/24/2003   187/90
5 Kyosuke Kuroyanagi    P   Chukyodai Chukyo HS     R/R   05/03/2003   180/85
6 Takehiro Hasegawa     P   Kanazawa Gakuin Univ    L/L   08/09/1999   178/81
7 Keito Matsuura        P   Osaka Toin HS           L/L   07/01/2003   186/95
8 Koki Kitayama         P   Kyoto Sangyo Univ       R/R   04/10/1999   182/80
9 Daigo Kamikawabata    IF  NTT East                R/L   01/12/1997   167/71

i1 Ren Fukushima        P   Hachinohe West HS       R/R   04/25/2003   190/70
i2 Takanari Hayamizu    C   Gunma Diamond Pegasus   R/R   07/28/1997   188/100
i3 Taisei Yanagawa      P   Kyushu Kokusaidai HS    R/R   08/21/2003   191/83
i4 Kazuhiro Abe         OF  Hiratsuka Gakuen HS     R/S   05/12/2003   170/65

Dragons
1 Kenta Bright          OF  Jobu University         R/R   05/07/1999   184/84
2 Kosuke Ukai           OF  Komazawa University     R/R   05/30/1999   182/100
3 Taisei Ishimori       P   Hinokuni Salamanders    L/L   12/03/1997   178/78
4 Taisei Miya           C   Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/L   06/14/2003   180/84
5 Mao Hoshino           IF  Toyohashi Chuo HS       R/R   12/01/2003   176/77
6 Yuma Fukumoto         OF  Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   12/01/1999   180/90

Lions
1 Chihiro Sumida        P   Nishinippon IT Univ     L/L   08/20/1999   177/76
2 Shunsuke Satoh        P   Tsukuba University      L/L   01/03/2000   182/83
3 Yuto Koga             C   Chuo University         R/R   09/10/1999   174/85
4 Shinnosuke Hada       P   Hachioji Gakuen HS      L/L   12/25/2003   191/85
5 Masaya Kuroda         P   Hachinohe IT #1 HS      R/R   01/24/2004   188/78
6 Seigo Nakayama        IF  Hakuoh University       R/L   05/09/1999   190/99

i1 Takeru Furuichi      C   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   06/15/2000   178/70
i2 Natsuo Takizawa      IF  Sekine Gakuen HS        R/L   08/13/2003   167/64
i3 Shinya Sugai         P   Yamamoto Gakuen HS      L/L   06/28/2003   182/75
i4 Keishin Kawamura     OF  Kokugakuin University   R/L   09/06/1999   173/83

note: Sumida is from the Nishinippon Institute of Technology and I couldn't make 
that fit.  Hada is from Hachioji Gakuen Hachioji HS, and I'm not familiar enough 
with it to know if the branch actually matters.  Kuroda is from the Hachinohe 
Institute of Technolgoy First HS (daiichi).

Carp

x Chihiro Sumida        P   Nishinippon IT Univ     L/L   08/20/1999   177/76
x Hikaru Yamashita      P   Hosei University        L/L   09/12/1999   188/95
1 Takumi Kurohara       P   Kansai Gakuin Univ      L/L   11/29/1999   173/77
2 Shohei Mori           P   Mitsubishi Juko West    L/L   01/01/1998   177/80
3 Kento Nakamura        OF  Toyota                  R/R   05/21/1997   183/90
4 Shunsuke Tamura       IF  Aikodai Meiden HS       L/L   08/25/2003   178/90
5 Ryuya Matsumoto       P   Honda Suzuka            R/R   09/18/1999   178/87
6 Shota Suekane         OF  Osaka Gas               R/R   05/27/1996   188/110
7 Shuto Takagi          C   Ken Gifu Shogyo HS      R/R   08/12/2003   188/90

i1 Sou Shinya           P   Tanabe HS               L/L   08/14/2003   182/80
i2 Seita Maekawa        IF  Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   04/04/2003   176/68
i3 Raisei Nakamura      P   Takaoka Daiichi HS      R/L   05/06/2003   190/76
i4 Rei Sakata           P   Chubu Gakuin Univ       R/R   09/13/1999   188/90

Hawks
1 Kyuta Kazama          P   Meioh HS                R/L   10/11/2003   182/79
2 Tomoya Masaki         OF  Keio University         R/R   11/05/1999   182/87
3 Taisei Kimura         P   Hokkai HS               L/L   09/12/2003   180/76
4 Isami Nomura          IF  NTT West                R/R   12/01/1996   175/80
5 Fuga Ohtake           P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   08/22/1999   185/83

i1 Keio Fujino          IF  Tobata HS               R/R   08/23/2003
i2 Yuto Kawamura        OF  Sendai University       R/L   08/13/1999
i3 Sanshiro Izaki       P   Fukuoka HS              R/R   02/09/2004
i4 Mizuki Miura         P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     L/R   09/02/1999
i5 Reiri Hammond Tanaka P   Teikyo Fifth HS         R/R   01/17/2004
i6 Koki Katoh           P   Takikawa Second HS      L/L   07/21/2003
i7 Takuma Yamasaki      P   Iwami Chisuikan HS      R/L   11/06/2003
i8 Takuto Sakuma        C   Tamura HS               R/R   07/17/2003
i9 Keita Yamamoto       OF  Meisei HS               R/L   08/06/1999
i10 Sora Katoh          C   Tomeikan Gakuen HS      R/L   04/28/2003
i11 Masaki Takimoto     P   Shiritsu Matsudo HS     R/R   07/29/2003
i12 Yoshiki Mishiro     IF  Oita Sangyo HS          R/R   03/29/2004
i13 Takuma Satoh        P   Niigata Health Univ     L/L   03/18/2000
i14 Keisuke Nakata      OF  Fukuoka University      R/S   07/25/1999

Giants
x Chihiro Sumida        P   Nishinippon IT Univ     L/L   08/20/1999   177/76
1 Taisei Ohta           P   Kansai Kokusai Univ     R/R   06/29/1999   181/88
2 Ryusei Yamada         P   JR East                 L/L   09/07/2000   183/82
3 Yuji Akahoshi         P   Nihon University        R/R   07/02/1999   175/78
4 Hayato Ishida         P   Tokaidai Sagami HS      L/L   04/05/2003   183/78
5 Yuki Okada            OF  Hosei University        R/L   01/19/2000   183/85
6 Yamato Shiroki        P   Meitoku Gijuku HS       L/L   09/08/2003   184/83
7 Yuki Hanada           P   Hiroshima Shinjo HS     R/L   06/25/2003   180/72

i1 Yamato Suzuki        OF  Hokkai Gakuen Univ      R/R   04/27/1999   173/73
i2 Ryusei Takata        P   Ishikawa Million Stars  R/R   08/19/2002   175/75
i3 Keita Kameda         C   Tokai University        R/R   04/09/1999   183/94
i4 Misaki Sasahara      OF  Ueda Nishi HS           R/R   02/09/2004   180/76
i5 Eiji Kamouchi        P   Soseikan HS             L/L   02/29/2004   195/88
i6 Taiki Kikuchi        P   Toin Yokohama Univ      R/L   06/02/1999   186/91
i7 Makoto Kyomoto       P   Meiho HS                R/R   02/06/2004   189/80
i8 Ryu Tomida           P   Shikoku Gakuin Univ     L/L   11/11/1999   179/78
i9 Haruto Kawasaki      P   Homare HS               R/R   11/01/2003   177/80
i10 Ryoya Ohtsu         C   Hokkai HS               R/R   05/28/2003   174/70

Eagles
1 Soshi Yoshino         OF  Shohei HS               R/R   10/27/2003   185/78
2 Yuma Yasuda           C   Aichi University        R/L   03/03/2000   185/105
3 Ginji Maeda           OF  Mishima Minami HS       R/R   11/19/2003   182/98
4 Katsutoshi Tai        P   Kamimura Gakuen HS      L/R   11/11/2003   172/83
5 Tomotaka Matsui       P   Kanazawa Gakuin Univ    R/R   10/11/1999   190/86
6 Masaya Nishigaki      P   Waseda University       R/L   06/21/1999   184/87
7 Kazuki Yoshikawa      P   JFE West                R/R   12/12/1996   167/81

i1 Satoshi Miyamori     P   Kochi Fighting Dogs     R/R   05/28/1998   193/93
i2 Ohzora Yanagisawa    OF  Nichidai Fujisawa HS    R/R   05/31/2003   182/79
i3 Sho Ohkawara         OF  Tokaidai Yamagata HS    R/R   08/17/2003   183/95

Tigers
x Kenta Kozono          P   Shiritsu Wakayama HS    R/R   04/09/2003   185/90
1 Daichi Moriki         P   Kochi HS                R/R   04/17/2003   184/90
2 Yuto Suzuki           P   Soka University         L/L   03/17/2000   174/83
3 Takuma Kirishiki      P   Niigata Health Univ     L/L   06/20/1999   178/90
4 Ukyo Maegawa          OF  Chiben Gakuen HS        L/L   05/18/2003   176/88
5 Hidetaka Okadome      P   Asia University         R/R   11/07/1999   180/87
6 Hiroshi Toyoda        OF  Hitachi                 R/R   04/28/1997   177/85
7 Hayato Nakagawa       C   Kyoto Kokusai HS        R/R   01/27/2004   172/72

i1 Ryo Itoh             P   Chukyo University       L/L   11/08/1999   178/86

Marines
1 Koh Matsukawa         C   Shiritsu Wakayama HS    R/R   10/20/2003   178/98
2 Raito Ikeda           IF  Kokushikan Univ         R/R   12/11/1999   180/95
3 Atsuya Hirohata       P   Kurashiki Oceans        R/R   12/03/1997   175/83
4 Seiun Akiyama         P   Nishogakusha HS         L/L   04/29/2003   174/77
5 Akira Yagi            P   Mitsubishi Juko West    R/R   05/26/1997   180/94

i1 Fuki Tanaka          P   Asahikawa Jitsugyo HS   R/R   08/23/2003   180/75
i2 Shota Hayamizu       IF  Toyama GRN Thunderbirds R/R   10/26/2000   174/67
i3 Kirato Nagashimada   P   Tachibana Gakuen HS     R/R   11/30/2003   180/85
i4 Ryosuke Murayama     C   Makuhari Sogo HS        R/R   11/12/2003   186/108

Swallows
x Chihiro Sumida        P   Nishinippon IT Univ     L/L   08/20/1999   177/76
1 Hikaru Yamashita      P   Hosei University        L/L   09/12/1999   188/95
2 Kazuya Maruyama       OF  Meiji University        L/L   07/18/1999   174/78
3 Daichi Shibata        P   Nippon Tsuun            R/R   11/07/1997   180/93          
4 Kotaro Komori         IF  Ube Kogyo HS            R/R   04/30/2003   172/83
5 Hyuga Takeyama        P   Kyoei HS                R/R   11/02/2003   182/85

i1 Yukihiro Iwata       OF  Shinano Grandserows     L/L   07/31/1997   178/77

Buffaloes
1 Ren Mokunoki          P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   01/22/2000   179/84
2 Tomoya Noguchi        IF  Kansai University       R/L   09/20/1999   181/86
3 Sho Fukunaga          C   Kokugakuin University   R/R   07/28/1999   175/87
4 Haruto Watanabe       OF  Keio University         L/L   09/02/1999   170/67
5 Ryoma Ikeda           OF  Osaka Toin HS           R/R   08/24/2003   172/85
6 Kaede Yokoyama        P   Sega Sammy              R/S   12/28/1997   181/91
7 Atsuya Kogita         P   TDK                     R/R   10/10/1998   173/83

i1 Takayuki Yamanaka    OF  Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   03/10/1999   183/96
i2 Keita Sonobe         IF  Fukushima Red Hopes     R/R   08/24/1999   177/88
i3 Kosei Ohsato         IF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   07/07/1999   178/76

note: Hirohata actually from Mitsubishi Kurashiki Oceans (can't fit)

First round lottery:
Baystars: Kenta Kozono, RHP Shiritsu Wakayama HS
Fighters: Kota Tatsu, RHP Tenri HS
Dragons: Kenta Bright, OF Jobu University
Lions: Chihiro Sumida, LHP Nishinippon Institute of Technology
Carp: Sumida
Hawks: Kyuta Kazama, RHP Meioh HS
Giants: Sumida
Rakuten: Soshi Yoshino, OF Shohei HS
Tigers: Kozono
Marines: Koh Matsukawa, C Shiritsu Wakayama HS
Swallows: Sumida
Orix: Ren Mokunoki, RHP Tohoku Fukushi University

Lottery for Kozono goes to the Baystars
Lottery for Sumida goes to the Lions

Second first round:

Carp: Hikaru Yamashita, RHP Hosei University
Giants: Taisei Ohta, RHP Kansai Kokusai University
Tigers: Daichi Moriki, RHP Kochi HS
Swallows: Yamashita

Lottery for Yamashita goes to the Swallows.
Carp choose LHP Takumi Kurohara with their "third" first round pick.

Actual first round results are:

Baystars: Kenta Kozono, RHP Shiritsu Wakayama HS
Fighters: Kota Tatsu, RHP Tenri HS
Dragons: Kenta Bright, OF Jobu University
Lions: Chihiro Sumida, LHP Nishinippon Institute of Technology
Carp: Takumi Kurohara, LHP Kansai Gakuin University
Hawks: Kyuta Kazama, RHP Meioh HS
Giants: Taisei Ohta, RHP Kansai Kokusai University
Rakuten: Soshi Yoshino, OF Shohei HS
Tigers: Daichi Moriki, RHP Kochi HS
Marines: Koh Matsukawa, C Shiritsu Wakayama HS
Swallows: Hikaru Yamashita, RHP Hosei University
Orix: Ren Mokunoki, RHP Tohoku Fukushi University

I had the depressing thought that we have now started drafting players that were born AFTER I went to my first NPB games in 2003.

And for the first time ever, I think I saw a leap year birthday kid? Eiji Kamouchi, Giants Ikusei #5? In all the time I've been doing the draft I haven't seen a leap year birthday, and it's been 16 years, so it's not like I haven't had a few chances at it. But leap year birthdays are SUPER rare chance for baseball players anyway, since the kids tend to have more April/May/June birthdays at the beginning of the school year anyway (since they'll be the bigger taller kids that do better at sports); birthdays in Jan/Feb/March are usually a little bit more rare to begin with, let alone getting an actual leap year one.

Actually, Kamouchi seems to be the FIRST ever leap year player in the NPB! Wow! I found some resources like this page and also did a few other searches, and while there were soccer players, it didn't find any baseball players...

Tokyo Big 6: The I-Lost-To-Todai Club, ten years later

I've been a giant fan of Japanese college baseball since 2007, and when I was living in Japan I pretty much spent every weekend at the Tokyo Big 6 games, sitting in the front row taking photos with some friends, going outside and chatting up players after the games, getting photos with them and getting the photos I took of them autographed, and also bringing snacks for the players and jokingly offering to be everyone's English teacher.  This resulted in things like several years in a row, I had actually been out drinking with guys who got drafted, and other shenanigans.

Somewhere along the line I became somewhat obsessed with actually being there in person for a Tokyo University win again.  (I was there when they won a game in 2008, and I was there for a few ties.)  So I started prioritizing those games, and somehow my allegiance shifted from being well-known as a Hosei/Keio fangirl to a Todai fangirl.  It means I am not buddy-buddy with guys in the pros so much anymore, but the Todai guys are always the nicest, smartest, and most interesting ones anyway. Plus, since I've been working for Google for over seven years now, and we have a LOT of Todai grads, it has also been a running joke with a lot of my coworkers in the Tokyo office.

So a decade ago I wrote a post on here called The I-Lost-To-Todai Club pointing out that, since Todai basically can go whole years without winning a game, when they DO actually win, it's a big deal (the slogan on the Fall 2016 posters literally said "We make the news just by winning one game") -- but the pitchers who lose to them aren't generally crappy pitchers -- they're the ones who often end up going into the pros.

Now, part of this is just the luck of the draw, but part of it is also the fact the guys who go pro are usually the ace pitchers who are just pitching more games anyway, so that makes it more likely for them to be up there when Todai happens to have a really good day (and they have a really bad day).  My post a decade ago looked at 2000-2010, so I'm going to take a second here and look at 2010-2020 since it's been a decade.  Here are the games Todai won in the past decade since:

            Win  Loss  Tie   Opponent   WP                 LP
2010 Autumn  1    10    0    Waseda     Shota Suzuki       Yuki Saitoh  
2011 Spring  0    10    1
2011 Autumn  0    10    0
2012 Spring  0    10    0
2012 Autumn  0    10    1
2013 Spring  0    10    0
2013 Autumn  0    10    0
2014 Spring  0    10    0
2014 Autumn  0    10    0
2015 Spring  1    10    0    Hosei      Akihiro Shibata    Shuya Kanno
2015 Autumn  1    10    0    Hosei      Kohei Miyadai      Takuya Kumagai
2016 Spring  3    10    0    Meiji      Akihiro Shibata    Hiromasa Saitoh
                             Rikkio     Kohei Miyadai      Keisuke Sawada
                             Hosei      Kohei Miyadai      Shoichi Tamakuma
2016 Autumn  1    10    0    Rikkio     Kohei Miyadai      Seiya Tanaka
2017 Spring  0    10    0
2017 Autumn  3     8    0    Keio       Kohei Miyadai      Yuki Takahashi
                             Hosei      Kohei Miyadai      Shuya Kanno
                             Hosei      Naoki Miyamoto     Yuya Hasegawa
2018 Spring  0    10    0
2018 Autumn  0    10    1
2019 Spring  0    10    0
2019 Autumn  0    10    0
2020 Spring  0     5    0
2020 Autumn  0     9    1

Total:       10  202    4

That is a slightly less impressive list of losers than the other one was, but not by much. Yuki Saitoh is now on the Fighters, Hiromasa Saitoh is now on the Lions, Keisuke Sawada is now on the Buffaloes.

And that 2010 game? Yuki Saitoh pitched 6 innings and lost and the closer after him was Tatsuya Ohishi who also went pro with the Lions.  The Meiji game in 2016, the starter was Tomoya Hoshi who now plays for the Yakult Swallows.  The Rikkio game in the fall of 2016, the starter was Ichiro Tamura who now plays for the Seibu Lions.

Another funny piece of trivia about the pitchers credited with the wins for Todai: Shota Suzuki was one of the rare Todai players to go on and play in the industrial leagues after graduation, playing for JR East, and now Akihiro Shibata, who won a handful of the 2015-2016 games, also plays for JR East.  (They didn't overlap; Suzuki was on the team for three years 2014-2016 and Shibata joined the team in 2018.)  

Naoki Miyamoto, who was credited with the win in the awesome Oct 8th 2017 game which got Todai their first season win point since 2002, quit baseball and went on to work for one of Japan's largest insurance firms.  

And Kohei Miyadai went on to be the 7th pro baseball player in history to come out of Tokyo University, and he's still playing for the Fighters, and he's currently my favorite Fighters player and definitely one of my all-time favorite Todai players.

Now, you might be wondering: what does this have to do with the draft?  Well, a few weeks ago I was watching the Keio-Todai game featuring Iizawa vs Kizawa -- the Kizawa that just got drafted in the first round by the Yakult Swallows.  And booooooy did he look like crap out there.  I mean, he still pitched 6 shutout innings, but that was mostly Todai shooting themselves in the foot.  At one point I'm pretty sure he'd thrown more balls than strikes.  And unfortunately this was the only game I saw him pitch this semester, so when Kozo asked me what I knew about Kizawa, I was like ... I think he's a fairly consistently good pitcher but he couldn't seem to throw a strike against Todai a few weeks ago!

And since he didn't actually lose a game to Todai, he doesn't actually get to join this club.

Also, last time I got to say that they won 15 games in the 2000-2010 decade.  This time they won only 10 in the following decade (9 if you don't count that I split up the 2010 season between posts).

You really have to understand the context under which Miyadai can be considered one of the greatest in his team's history with a 6-13, 4.26 ERA record.  Takahiro Matsuka (Baystars/Fighters) was 3-17 with a 4.64 ERA, and Ryohei Endoh, who is also one of my favorite people (and current assistant GM for the Fighters), was 8-32 with a 3.63 ERA during his time at Todai.  That 8 wins put him in a tie for 5th-most wins by a pitcher in Todai history.  Itaru Kobayashi managed to get drafted by the Chiba Lotte Marines and the team had a 70-game losing streak while he was playing for them, so he never even got a win.

Anyway, I guess it's been an interesting decade.  Who knows if I'll revisit this in 2030?

Draft 2020 blog post

Yup, literally a year has gone by since I posted in this. This has been such a frustrating year that it shouldn't surprise any of you that I almost overslept the draft, too.

I ordered draft magazines that showed up last week, though, and it's hard to let old habits die, since this is my 15TH YEAR IN A ROW TRANSLATING THE DRAFT so I can't imagine NOT doing it. I'll add to this post as it goes. 

I'll be following along live on Sports Bull assuming it continues to work, and my goto for the text version of what's up pretty much forever has been Nikkan Sports.  And whoa, is this a change from the normal stuff.  Just a bunch of conference rooms with a bunch of masked men in there looking way more somber than they usually do for this event.

Status: DONE.  I don't think I intend to touch this table again unless something needs to be fixed. The first round commentary and some other notes are below.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Buffaloes
x Teruaki Satoh
1 Shunpeita Yamashita   P   Fukuoka Univ Ohhori HS  R/R   07/16/2002   189/93
2 Kendai Gen            OF  Chukyo HS               R/R   05/17/2002   186/85
3 Ryoto Kita            OF  Akashi Shogyo HS        R/L   10/16/2002   178/78
4 Hayate Nakagawa       P   Rikkyo Univ             R/L   10/10/1998   184/80
5 Takuma Nakagawa       C   Toyohashi Chuo HS       R/R   07/17/2002   177/86
6 Shota Abe             P   Nihon Seimei            R/L   11/03/1992   178/78

i1 Kento Kawase         P   Oita Shogyo HS          R/R   06/18/2002   183/85
i2 Takara Tsujigaki     P   Shoin Gakuen Fukushima  L/L   06/10/2002   182/83
i3 Yuki Udagawa         P   Sendai Univ             R/R   11/10/1998   184/94
i4 Jui Tsuri            C   Kyoto Kokusai HS        R/R   06/30/2002   181/87
i5 Yukikazu Sano        OF  Sendai Univ             R/L   09/02/1998   174/80
i6 Taku Kochoh          IF  Fukushima Red Hopes     R/R   08/05/1994   164/67

Swallows
x Takahisa Hayakawa
x Shota Suzuki
1 Naofumi Kizawa        P   Keio Univ               R/R   04/25/1998   183/85
2 Taichi Yamano         P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     L/L   03/24/1999   172/77
3 Soma Uchiyama         C   Seiryo HS               R/R   06/30/2002   172/72
4 Hiyu Motoyama         IF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   12/04/1998   180/76
5 Hidetaka Namiki       OF  Dokkyo Univ             R/R   03/23/1999   170/70
6 Sota Katekaru         P   Japan Aviation Ishikawa R/R   12/16/2002   191/106

i1 Shinnosuke Shimo     P   Takasaki Kenko Fukushi  L/L   06/18/2002   183/87
i2 Yoshihiro Akahane    IF  Shinano Grandserows     R/R   06/29/2000   178/78
i3 Sho Matsui           C   Shinano Grandserows     R/L   05/29/1995   176/78
i4 Shota Maruyama       P   Nishinihon Kogyo Univ   R/L   08/22/1998   192/80

Fighters
1 Hiromi Itoh           P   Komazawa Univ Tomakomai R/L   08/31/1997   176/80 
2 Ryota Isobata         OF  Chuo Univ               R/L   11/27/1998   172/67
3 Yudai Furukawa        C   Jobu Univ               R/L   06/19/1998   182/86
4 Ryohei Hosokawa       IF  Chiben Wakayama HS      R/L   04/25/2002   174/75
5 Haruka Nemoto         P   Tomakomai Chuo HS       L/L   03/31/2003   173/78
6 Yuma Imagawa          OF  JFE East                R/R   01/25/1997   176/84

i1 Ryodai Matsumoto     P   Hanamaki Higashi HS     R/R   05/17/2002   187/96
i2 Shinji Saitoh        P   Tokyo Joho Univ         R/R   06/13/1998   181/83

Carp
1 Ryoji Kuribayashi     P   Toyota                  R/R   07/09/1996   177/80
2 Daisuke Moriura       P   Tenri Univ              L/L   06/15/1998   175/70
3 Haruki Ohmichi        P   Hachinohe Gakuin Univ   R/R   01/20/1999   178/78
4 Tatsuto Kobayashi     P   Chiben Wakayama HS      R/R   01/16/2003   182/79
5 Shun Namiki           P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   01/08/2000   183/75
6 Masaya Yano           IF  Asia Univ               R/L   12/16/1998   173/71

i1 Shoichi Futamata     C   Iwata Higashi HS        R/R   10/21/2002   180/76

Eagles 
1 Takahisa Hayakawa     P   Waseda Univ             L/L   07/06/1998   179/72
2 Koichi Takata         P   Hosei Univ              R/R   06/03/1998   183/88
3 Masaru Fujii          P   ENEOS                   L/L   10/03/1996   175/78
4 Takuma Uchima         P   Asia Univ               R/R   11/21/1998   179/84
5 Daiki Irie            IF  Sendai Ikuei HS         R/R   06/06/2002   185/82
6 Seiryu Uchi           P   Riseisha HS             R/L   04/24/2002   190/88

i1 Shun Ishida          P   Tochigi Golden Braves   R/R   05/27/1997   180/74

Baystars
1 Taisei Irie           P   Meiji Univ              R/R   08/26/1998   187/84
2 Shugo Maki            IF  Chuo Univ               R/R   04/21/1998   178/81
3 Ryunosuke Matsumoto   P   Yokohama HS             L/L   07/31/2002   186/76
4 Daichi Kobukata       IF  Riseisha HS             R/L   03/25/2003   176/87
5 Sota Ikeya            P   Yamaha                  L/L   08/02/1999   174/76
6 Takuto Takada         P   Shizuoka Shogyo HS      L/L   09/18/2002   177/74

i1 Tatsuya Ishikawa     P   Hosei Univ              L/R   04/15/1998   178/73
i2 Dai Katoh            P   Yokohama Hayato HS      R/R   04/24/2002   177/81

Lions
x Takahisa Hayakawa
1 Kento Watanabe        IF  Toin Yokohama Univ      R/R   12/26/1998   176/113
2 Takeru Sasaki         P   NTT East                L/L   05/13/1996   179/85
3 Takayoshi Yamamura    IF  Tokaidai Sagami HS      R/L   09/28/2002   180/85
4 Gakuto Wakabayashi    OF  Komazawa Univ           R/R   04/13/1998   177/75
5 Ren Ohmagari          P   Fukuoka Univ            R/R   05/21/1998   179/78
6 Brandon Taiga Tysinger IF Nodai Okhotsk Univ      R/R   06/14/1998   178/84
7 Yuta Nakamigawa       OF  Osaka Toin HS           R/L   10/22/2002   180/94

i1 Yuto Akagami         P   Tohoku Koeki Univ       R/R   02/10/1999   177/80
i2 Shinya Hasegawa      OF  Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   05/17/2002   183/80
i3 Joseph Ken Miyamoto  OF  Nagoya Gakuin Univ      R/R   03/21/1999   175/86
i4 Taishi Mameda        P   Urawa Jitsugyo Gakuen   R/R   01/15/2003   173/80
i5 Yoshinobu Mizukami   P   Shikoku Gakuin Univ     R/R   07/13/1998   176/81

Tigers
1 Teruaki Satoh         IF  Kinki Univ              R/L   03/13/1999   186/92
2 Masashi Itoh          P   JR East                 L/L   05/08/1996   178/85
3 Ren Satoh             P   Jobu Univ               R/R   04/11/1998   188/102
4 Yuki Sakaeda          C   Ritsumeikan Univ        R/R   05/16/1998   179/79
5 Shoki Murakami        P   Toyo Univ               R/L   06/25/1998   174/75
6 Takumu Nakano         IF  Mitsubishi Okazaki      R/L   06/28/1996   172/67
7 Nozomu Takatera       IF  Ueda Nishi HS           R/L   10/17/2002   178/68
8 Daichi Ishii          P   Kochi Fighting Dogs     R/R   07/29/1997   175/81

i1 Masaki Iwata         P   Kyushu Sangyo Univ      L/L   06/16/1998   178/83

Marines
x Takahisa Hayakawa
1 Shota Suzuki          P   Hosei Univ              L/L   09/07/1998   175/81
2 Shunsuke Nakamori     P   Akashi Shogyo HS        R/L   05/29/2002   181/79
3 Ryusei Ogawa          P   Kokugakuin Univ         R/L   04/05/1998   172/82
4 Tokito Kawamura       P   Seisa Dohto Univ        R/R   06/18/1997   192/85
5 Ryosuke Nishikawa     OF  Tokaidai Sagami HS      R/R   04/19/2002   186/92

i1 Yuito Tanigawa       C   Risshodai Shonan HS     R/R   05/27/2002   178/72
i2 Kenta Onuma          P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   06/11/1998   189/86
i3 Daito Yamamoto       OF  Kaisei HS               R/R   08/09/2002   180/90
i4 Shoma Satoh          P   Senshu Univ             L/L   06/02/1998   177/78

Dragons
1 Hiroto Takahashi      P   Chukyodai Chukyo HS     R/R   08/09/2002   183/84
2 Hiroto Mori           P   Nittai Univ             R/R   05/25/1998   177/80
3 Ryuku Tsuchida        IF  Ohmi HS                 R/L   12/30/2002   180/77
4 Shota Fukushima       P   Kurashiki Kogyo HS      L/L   10/24/2002   177/88
5 Tsubasa Katoh         P   Teikyodai Kani HS       R/R   12/14/2002   179/76
6 Hironori Miyoshi      OF  JFE West                L/L   09/28/1997   180/82

i1 Ren Kondoh           P   Sapporo Gakuin Univ     L/L   09/22/1998   180/87
i2 Kotaro Ueda          P   Kyoei HS                L/L   09/06/2002   184/95
i3 Yuta Matsukihira     P   Seika HS                R/R   02/24/2003   178/70

Hawks
x Teruaki Satoh
1 Tomoya Inoue          IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   01/28/2003   181/88
2 Yoshiyasu Sasagawa    OF  Yokohama Shogyo HS      L/L   05/31/2002   193/86
3 Kota Makihara         C   Nichidai Fujisawa HS    R/L   07/13/2002   176/82
4 Junpei Kawarada       IF  Aomori Yamada HS        R/R   05/21/2002   170/72
5 Sota Tanoue           P   Riseisha HS             R/L   11/26/2002   185/83

i1 Hiroki Satoh         P   Keio Univ               L/L   02/18/1999   180/80
i2 Yuya Nakamichi       P   Hachinohe Gakuin Univ   L/L   09/04/1998   182/75
i3 Shuji Kuwahara       P   Kamimura Gakuen HS      R/R   05/29/2002   175/80
i4 Shinnosuke Haya      OF  Kyoto Kokusai HS        L/L   09/11/2002   178/78
i5 Riku Ogata           IF  Komazawa Univ           R/L   09/22/1998   175/70
i6 Shoma Itani          C   Meiho HS                R/R   12/30/2002   177/77
i7 Shinno Ohshiro       P   Ginoza HS               L/L   11/24/2002   170/67
i8 Ryota Nakamura       P   Nodai Okhotsk Univ      R/R   05/18/1998   185/76

Giants
x Teruaki Satoh
1 Ryuta Heinai          P   Asia Univ               R/R   09/07/1998   186/90 
2 Iori Yamasaki         P   Tokai Uinv              R/L   10/10/1998   181/72
3 Raito Nakayama        IF  Chukyodai Chukyo HS     R/L   04/12/2002   181/81
4 Yusuke Itoh           P   Mitsubishi Power        R/R   01/14/1997   178/83
5 Yuto Akihiro          IF  Nishogakusha HS         R/L   09/17/2002   200/95
6 Itsuki Yamamoto       P   Chukyo Univ             L/L   06/28/1998   181/87
7 Tetsu Hagiwara        C   Soka Univ               R/L   05/18/1998   174/82

i1 Hiroto Okamoto       IF  Yonago Higashi HS       R/R   09/12/2002   190/92
i2 Ryusuke Kita         C   Kyoto Adv. Sci. Univ    R/R   08/25/1998   180/83
i3 Naoki Kasashima      P   Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   12/07/2002   178/78
i4 Motoya Kinoshita     P   Yokohama HS             R/R   05/01/2002   185/88
i5 Kenki Maeda          C   Komazawa Univ           R/L   12/13/1998   180/85
i6 Hayato Sakamoto      C   Karatsu Shogyo HS       R/R   04/15/2002   177/83
i7 Natsuki Toda         P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   07/22/2000   172/70
i8 Kenyu Abe            P   Sapporo Ohtani HS       L/L   05/17/2002   200/98
i9 Riku Naraki          P   Tsukuba Univ            R/R   04/16/1998   182/90
i10 Yusuke Yamasaki     P   Fukuyama Univ           R/R   05/02/1998   178/80
i11 Koichi Hoshina      OF  Soka Univ               L/L   06/03/1998   187/92
i12 Ren Katoh           IF  Tokai Univ Marine Sci.  R/L   01/12/1999   181/80

Here's what happened in the first round and lotteries (moved from above)

Orix: Teruaki Satoh (Kinki Univ IF)

Yakult: Takahisa Hayakawa (Waseda RHP)

Fighters: Hiromi Itoh (Komadai Tomakomai RHP)

Carp: Ryoji Kuribayashi (Toyota RHP)

Eagles: Hayakawa

Baystars: Taisei Irie (Meiji RHP)

Seibu: Hayakawa

Hanshin: Satoh 

Chiba Lotte: Hayakawa

Dragons: Hiroto Takahashi (Chukyodai HS RHP)

Hawks: Satoh

Giants: Satoh

First lottery is for Satoh, and Hanshin wins.

Second lottery is for Hayakawa, and Rakuten wins.

Consolation picks (for the Hayakawa and Satoh lottery losers):

Orix: Shunpeita Yamashita (Fukuoka Ohhori HS P)

Yakult: Shota Suzuki (Hosei Univ P)

Seibu: Kento Watanabe (Toin Yokohama Univ IF)

Lotte: Suzuki

Hawks: Tomoya Inoue (Hanasaki Tokuharu HS OF)

Giants: Ryuta Heinai (Asia Univ P)

And the Suzuki lottery goes to... Chiba Lotte!

Yakult gets to make a 1st-round pick that nobody can challenge and they take... Naofumi Kizawa from Keio!  That's exciting, I've seen him pitch quite a bit recently.

So the actual first round is:

Buffaloes: Shunpeita Yamashita (Fukuokadai Ohhori HS RHP)

Yakult: Naofumi Kizawa (Keio RHP)

Fighters: Hiromi Itoh (Komadai Tomakomai RHP)

Carp: Ryoji Kuribayashi (Toyota RHP)

Eagles: Takahisa Hayakawa (Waseda RHP)

Baystars: Taisei Irie (Meiji RHP)

Lions: Kento Watanabe (Toin Yokohama Univ IF) <-- looks like another Okawari-kun

Tigers: Teruaki Satoh (Kinki Univ IF) 

Marines: Shota Suzuki (Hosei Univ LHP)

Dragons: Hiroto Takahayashi (Chukyodai HS RHP)

Hawks: Tomoya Inoue (Hanasaki Tokuharu HS OF)

Giants: Ryuta Heinai (Asia Univ P)

Whee.

Some more comments:

1) This is the first year EVER that every single team took players in the Ikusei draft.  The Fighters in general did not do ikusei contracts at ALL until the 2019 season; you can see our draft record and that our first ever ikusei draftee was Kazuyoshi Ebihara in the fall 2018 draft.  But in 2019 the Swallows and Baystars didn't take any ikusei players and in 2018 the Dragons didn't.

2) It's really interesting that without a standard Koshien and set of high school hype events, there wasn't a huge fight for some high school kid in the first round for a change.  Chunichi named one but that was the only original first-rounder (but there were three after the post-lotteries dust settled)

3) I had no idea the Ibaraki Astro Planets even existed.  It sounds like they joined the BCL in 2019 for their first season.  (I haven't made it to a BCL game in person in a few years, it just rarely works out these days.  I do look at the schedule every year and which former pro players are where)

4) Yes, the romanization of タイシンガー・ブランドン大河 is "Brandon Taiga Tysinger".  His father's American, he was born in Okinawa, and his Twitter confirms the name.

5) Lions ikusei #3, Joseph Ken Miyamoto, his father is from Ghana (scout comments say he inherited his father's bright personality).

6) The NPB abolished the "Tazawa Rule" this year but everyone declined to draft Junichi Tazawa anyway.  I don't think this is that crazy -- first, he's 34 years old and would easily be the oldest person ever drafted.  I read an article this morning where a scout literally said "Drafting him seems contrary to the purpose of the draft, and we wouldn't want to use a slot on him.  He has an agent, he can figure out what to do next."  But, I dunno, I had a friend who was really expecting him to get taken.  I'm unclear on what this actually means, whether he can still join an NPB team if one wanted him, signed outside the draft, since nobody drafted him when he went into the draft?  The NPB outlawed outside-draft signings in 1990 (the last person to do it was Joe Furukawa, since his family moved to CA when he was six, and he played college ball at Berkeley and UC Irvine and they made an exception for him in 1992.  You might recognize his name as first Marty Brown's interpreter in Japan and then Yu Darvish's interpreter in the US) and these days returnees just go into the draft like Shuhei Fujiya did a few years ago.  So, I think he's still not allowed, but I honestly don't know if there's a loophole.

I'm actually making a separate post about my next point since it started getting long.  Whoa, two posts in a year.  Am I allowed?

Draft 2019 Blog Post (not liveblogging! sorry!)

Hello blog land! I know, I don't write here anymore. If you want to see my photos and stuff from when I'm in Japan doing the ridiculous baseball circuit, basically, follow me on Twitter. This year's Fighters spring training in Arizona was so frustrating I couldn't write about it (although a newspaper writer there decided to write an article about me); I spent my usual spring and fall back in Japan, and I might go see the Fighters do fall camp in Arizona if they ever post more details about it in time to make travel arrangements.  Who knows.  This summer they also absolutely broke my heart when they traded Kagiya and Fujioka to the Giants; my fall trip definitely had a lot of people saying "So sorry about the trade, you must have been devastated.  At least you still have Miyadai."

I was in NYC for a work conference this week, so since the draft was at an even MORE awkward time for me than expected, I just translated everything in the morning/afternoon.

Here's my table.

Status: Done, except for the fact that EVERY YEAR the Hawks don't bother making all of the information available about their players, so I may or may not fill in height/weight for them later.

I will also fill in the actual draft round 1 lottery info below, despite that I wasn't liveblogging, and I have a few comments about a few players in here as well.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Giants
x Yasunobu Okugawa      P   Seiryo HS               R/R   04/16/2001   183/84
x Tetsu Miyagawa        P   Toshiba                 R/R   10/10/1995   177/80
1 Kenshin Hotta         P   Aomori Yamada HS        R/R   05/21/2001   185/80
2 Ryu Ohta              P   JR East                 R/R   11/15/1998   190/94
3 Hirokazu Kikuta       IF  Joso Gakuin HS          R/R   07/23/2001   182/93
4 Haruto Inoue          P   Maebashi Shogyo HS      L/L   05/13/2001   175/72
5 Shinnosuke Yamase     C   Seiryo HS               R/R   05/04/2001   177/82
6 Kaito Itoh            OF  Sakata Minami HS        L/L   04/02/2001   187/88

i1 Hayato Hirama        IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   12/16/1996   173/75
i2 Sota Katoh           OF  Musashino Heat Bears    R/L   04/15/1998   187/89

Seibu
x Roki Sasaki           P   Ofunato HS              R/R   11/03/2001   190/86
1 Tetsu Miyagawa        P   Toshiba                 R/R   10/10/1995   177/80
2 Shota Hamaya          P   MHPS (Mitsubishi Power) L/L   01/26/1999   175/77
3 Koki Matsuoka         P   Musashino Heat Bears    R/R   08/31/2000   180/81
4 Ryota Kawano          IF  Kyushu Gakuin HS        R/S   06/28/2001   178/78
5 Sena Tsuge            C   Honda Suzuka            R/R   06/03/1997   174/83
6 Hiroki Inoue          P   Nichidai Sanko HS       R/R   07/17/2001   181/82
7 Towa Uema             P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   01/31/2001   180/79
8 Junichiro Kishi     IF/OF Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   12/08/1996   175/78

i1 Toshihiro Idei       P   Kanagawa Univ           R/R   04/29/1997   185/70

Baystars
1 Keito Mori            IF  Toin Gakuen HS          R/L   01/28/2002   175/75
2 Yuya Sakamoto         P   Ritsumeikan Univ        L/L   07/28/1997   180/83
3 Hiromu Ise            P   Meiji Univ              R/R   03/07/1998   181/90
4 Junpei Azuma          C   Chiben Wakayama HS      R/R   07/03/2001   172/77
5 Hayato Tanabe         IF  Kaisei HS               R/R   12/22/2001   185/83
6 Tatsuo Ebina          OF  Aomori Univ             R/R   09/20/1997   185/88
7 Sota Asada            P   Ariake HS               R/R   04/23/2001   182/84

Hawks
x Takaya Ishikawa       IF  Toho HS                 R/R   06/22/2001   185/90
1 Naoki Satoh           OF  JR West                 R/R   09/03/1998   177/78
2 Takashi Umeno         C   Tokai Univ              R/R   07/15/1997   173/83
3 Yuki Tsumori          P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   01/21/1998   177/78
4 Jui Kobayashi         IF  Tokaidai Sapporo HS     R/R   05/07/2001   183/86
5 Tatsuru Yanagimachi   OF  Keio Univ               R/L   04/20/1997   180/72

i1 Soichiro Ishizuka    C   Kurosawajiri HS         R/R   06/07/2001   181/83
i2 Tomohisa Ohzeki      P   Sendai Univ             L/L   12/14/1997   186/95
i3 Daisuke Itoh         IF  Hachinohe Kosei HS      R/R   07/27/2001
i4 Haruki Katsuren      IF  Konan HS                R/L   04/30/2001
i5 Hidetora Funakoshi   OF  Johoku HS               R/R   08/23/2001
i6 Shota Araki          IF  Chiharadai HS           R/R   04/05/2001
i7 Shun Murakami        P   Yamagata Chuo HS        L/L   11/01/2001

Tigers
x Yasunobu Okugawa      P   Seiryo HS               R/R   04/16/2001   183/84
1 Junya Nishi           P   Soka Gakuen HS          R/R   09/13/2001   184/85
2 Kota Inoue            OF  Riseisha HS             R/R   08/12/2001   187/97
3 Masaki Oyokawa        P   Yokohama HS             L/L   04/18/2001   183/74
4 Joh Endoh             IF  Tokaidai Sagami HS      R/L   09/19/2001   178/84
5 Kento Fujita          C   Chukyodai Chukyo HS     R/R   10/18/2001   173/73
6 Ippei Ogawa           P   Tokai Univ Kyushu       R/R   06/03/1997   182/80

i1 Dan Onodera          OF  Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   03/17/1998   183/82
i2 Kota Okuyama         OF  Shizuoka Univ           R/R   09/03/1997   186/93

Eagles
x Roki Sasaki           P   Ofunato HS              R/R   11/03/2001   190/86
1 Hiroto Kobukata       IF  Osaka Gas               R/L   09/28/1995   168/69
2 Fumiya Kurokawa       IF  Chiben Wakayama HS      R/L   04/17/2001   182/85
3 Taisei Tsurusaki      P   Keio Univ               R/R   10/10/1997   177/85
4 Atsuki Mutoh          OF  Miyakonojo East HS      L/L   06/15/2001   178/73
5 Yohma Fukumori        P   Kyushu Sangyo Univ      R/R   09/27/1997   178/87
6 Ryota Takinaka        P   Honda Suzuka            R/R   12/20/1994   180/93
7 Kei Mizukami          C   Akashi Shogyo HS        R/R   07/05/2001   172/73

i1 Yuto Egawa           C   Oita HS                 R/R   06/29/2001   177/81
i2 Shinri Komune        P   Kagoshima Johsei HS     R/L   12/01/2001   189/88
i3 Maaki Yamazaki       IF  Hawaii Univ             R/L   09/26/1995   182/84
i4 Kiyoharu Sawano      IF  Homare HS               R/L   03/09/2002   184/84

Carp
1 Masato Morishita      P   Meiji Univ              R/R   08/25/1997   180/73
2 Koki Ugusa            OF  Hosei Univ              R/L   04/17/1997   185/81
3 Hiroto Suzuki         P   Kasumigaura HS          R/R   10/07/2001   186/79
4 Yuya Nirasawa         IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/L   05/20/2001   178/80
5 Tomoki Ishihara       C   Tenri Univ              R/R   02/03/1998   173/75
6 Shogo Tamamura        P   Fukui Kenritsu Nyu HS   L/L   04/16/2001   177/75

i1 Taiki Mochimaru      C   Asahikawadai HS         R/L   10/26/2001   177/80
i2 Motohide Kinoshita   OF  Tsuruga Kehi HS         L/L   07/25/2001   183/83
i3 Takamasa Une         P   Kagawa Olive Guyners    R/S   09/09/1995   177/83

Marines
1 Roki Sasaki           P   Ofunato HS              R/R   11/03/2001   190/86
2 Toshiya Satoh         C   Toyo Univ               R/L   01/27/1998   180/77
3 Akito Takabe          OF  Kokushikan Univ         R/L   12/11/1997   178/72
4 Rikuto Yokoyama       P   Senshudai Matsudo HS    R/R   08/05/2001   179/76
5 Koki Fukuda           IF  Hosei Univ              R/L   11/16/1997   176/80

i1 Fumiya Motomae       P   Hokusho Univ            L/L   10/02/1997   175/76
i2 Shota Ueda           C   Keio Univ               R/R   12/18/1997   180/83

Dragons
1 Takaya Ishikawa       IF  Toho HS                 R/R   06/22/2001   185/90
2 Yuki Hashimoto        P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       L/L   01/08/1998   180/71
3 Yuichiro Okano        P   Toshiba                 R/R   04/16/1994   180/85
4 Yuya Gunji            C   Keio Univ               R/R   12/17/1997   180/83
5 Yuki Okabayashi       P   Komono HS               R/L   02/22/2002   177/74
6 Ryushin Takeuchi      P   Sapporo Sosei HS        R/L   12/11/2001   178/77

i1 Hiroaki Matsuda      P   Nagoya Univ             L/L   05/16/1997   176/80

Fighters
x Roki Sasaki           P   Ofunato HS              R/R   11/03/2001   190/86
1 Ryusei Kawano         P   JFE West                L/L   05/30/1998   174/82
2 Kazuaki Tateno        P   Tokai Rika              R/R   04/03/1998   181/82
3 Kyohei Ueno           IF  Kyoto International HS  R/R   04/26/2001   172/68
4 Kenya Suzuki          P   JX-ENEOS                R/L   12/11/1997   176/82
5 Daiki Mochizuki       P   Soka Univ               R/R   02/01/1998   187/85
6 Yuki Umebayashi       C   Hiroshima Bunka Univ    R/R   03/14/1998   173/85
7 Shoto Kataoka         OF  East Japan Intl Univ    R/L   11/16/1997   184/78

i1 Hokuto Miyata        OF  Fukuoka Univ            R/S   12/02/1997   177/69
i2 Ryunosuke Higuchi    IF  Niigata Albirex         R/R   07/04/1994   168/84
i3 Ryota Hasegawa       P   Niigata Albirex         R/L   11/08/1995   188/98

Swallows
1 Yasunobu Okugawa      P   Seiryo HS               R/R   04/16/2001   183/84
2 Daiki Yoshida         P   Nittai Univ             R/R   07/27/1997   175/75
3 Koki Sugiyama         P   Soka Univ               R/L   06/25/1997   182/84
4 Hiroki Ohnishi        P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   11/08/1997   175/83
5 Hideki Nagaoka        IF  Yachiyo Shoin HS        R/L   09/26/2001   175/74
6 Ryusei Takeoka        IF  Hachinohe Kosei HS      R/L   05/28/2001   178/77

Buffaloes
x Takaya Ishikawa       IF  Toho HS                 R/R   06/22/2001   185/90
x Ryusei Kawano         P   JFE West                L/L   05/30/1998   174/82
1 Hiroya Miyagi         P   Konan HS                L/L   08/25/2001   172/80
2 Kotaro Kurebayashi    IF  Suruga Sogo HS          R/R   02/07/2002   186/82
3 Ryota Muranishi       P   Kinki Univ              R/L   06/06/1997   174/76
4 Yuito Mae             P   Tsuda Gakuen HS         R/R   08/13/2001   182/88
5 Shoki Katsumata       IF  Kokusai Budo Univ       R/L   07/20/1997   178/84

i1 Kazuma Satoh         P   Yokohama Hayato HS      L/L   04/16/2001   189/88
i2 Fuuta Tanioka        P   Takeda HS               R/R   08/29/2001   176/82
i3 Yuito Nakata         P   Osaka Toin HS           R/R   09/13/2001   181/90
i4 Yamato Hirano        OF  Nissho HS               R/R   08/07/2001   177/78
i5 Ryoya Tsurumi        C   Tokiwadai HS            R/R   11/22/2001   174/75
i6 Seiichiro Ohshita    OF  Hakuoh Univ             R/R   11/03/1997   171/89
i7 Yugo Satoh           OF  Sendai Univ             R/R   04/02/1997   182/90
i8 Masayuki Matsuyama   P   Toyama Thunderbirds     R/R   08/18/2000   174/76

Draft 2018 Liveblogging

Hello and welcome to my 13th annual anguish over hoping the Giants don't draft my favorite college players, also known as Marinerds NPB Draft Liveblogging!

[liveblog stuff moved to underneath draft chart stuff -- Draft chart is 99.9% finished as of 6pm California time on the 25th. I just don't have birthdays for Hawks ikusei players because their website is useless.]

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Eagles
x Kyota Fujiwara
1 Ryosuke Tatsumi       OF  Ritsumeikan Univ        R/L   12/27/1996   180/72
2 Hikaru Ohta           C   Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   10/14/1996   177/75
3 Shuichiro Hikiji      P   Kurashiki Shogyo HS     R/R   06/03/2000   188/84
4 Hayato Yuge           P   Subaru                  L/L   04/06/1994   193/105
5 Tomoki Satoh          P   Yamagata Chuo HS        L/L   06/05/2000   184/82
6 Yoshiaki Watanabe     IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   01/08/1997   180/79
7 Yuya Ogoh             OF  Rissho Univ             R/L   08/03/1996   178/85
8 Sora Suzuki           P   Fuji Univ               L/L   08/19/1996   184/77

i1 Kotaro Seimiya       P   Yachiyo Shoin HS        R/L   05/26/2000   190/85
i2 Yoshiki Norimoto     P   Yamagishi Logisters     R/L   05/14/1994   174/76

(lol at this kid whose name LOOKS like "Kotaro Kiyomiya" but is actually Seimiya)

Tigers
x Kyota Fujiwara
x Ryosuke Tatsumi
1 Koji Chikamoto        OF  Osaka Gas               L/L   11/09/1994   170/72
2 Ryuhei Obata          IF  Nobeoka Gakuen HS       R/L   09/21/2000   181/73
3 Seiya Kinami          IF  Honda                   R/L   06/15/1994   178/80
4 Yukiya Saitoh         P   Honda                   R/L   01/05/1995   184/90
5 Riku Kawahara         P   Souseikan HS            L/L   12/12/2000   184/80
6 Atsuki Yuasa          P   BCL Toyama Thunderbirds R/R   07/17/1999   183/88

i1 Yuya Katayama        C   Fukui Miracle Elephants R/L   06/18/1994   177/83

Marines
1 Kyota Fujiwara        OF  Osaka Toin HS           L/L   05/06/2000   181/78
2 Yusuke Azuma          P   Nittai Univ             R/R   04/04/1996   172/80
3 Kazuya Ojima          P   Waseda Univ             L/L   07/07/1996   177/81
4 Koki Yamaguchi        OF  Meioh HS                R/R   08/18/2000   182/85
5 Toshiya Nakamura      P   Asia Univ               L/L   07/08/1996   177/86
6 Takuro Furuya         P   Narashino HS            R/R   04/21/2000   182/76
7 Shin Matsuda          IF  Honda                   R/R   08/29/1994   188/95
8 Hideto Doi            P   Matsuyama Seiryo HS     R/R   04/02/2000   191/84

i1 Mizuki Kamata        P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   09/06/1995   180/91

Dragons
1 Akira Neo             P   Osaka Toin HS           R/L   04/19/2000   177/80
2 Kodai Umetsu          P   Toyo Univ               R/R   10/24/1996   187/90
3 Akiyoshi Katsuno      P   Mitsubishi Juko Nagoya  R/R   06/12/1997   183/89
4 Kota Ishibashi        C   Kanto Daiichi HS        R/R   12/07/2000   180/87
5 Kenshin Kakikoshi     P   Yamanashi Gakuin HS     L/L   04/03/2000   184/96
6 Kaname Takino         OF  Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/L   07/08/1996   185/76 

Buffaloes
Kaito Kozono
1 Ryo Ohta              IF  Tenri HS                R/R   02/14/2001   181/76
2 Yuma Tongu            C   Asia Univ               R/R   11/17/1996   181/97
3 Yudai Aranishi        P   Honda Kumamoto          R/R   08/25/1992   178/83
4 Ryoga Tomiyama        P   Toyota                  L/L   05/03/1997   178/82
5 Sho Gibo              P   KBC Mirai Okinawa HS    R/L   11/26/2000   174/67
6 Yu Hidarisawa         P   JX-ENEOS                L/L   12/28/1994   171/76
7 Keita Nakagawa        IF  Toyo Univ               R/R   04/12/1996   180/75

i1 Taisei Urushihara    P   Niigata Iryo Fukushi U  R/L   09/10/1996   182/83

(Tongu was a catcher at Asia-dai but the Buffaloes are listing him as IF for some reason)
(Aranishi is listed with an 8/25 birthday everywhere EXCEPT the Buffaloes site)

Baystars
Kaito Kozono
1 Taiga Kamichatani     P   Toyo Univ               R/R   08/31/1996   181/83
2 Yukiya Itoh           IF  Rissho Univ             R/R   08/30/1996   182/95
3 Shinichi Ohnuki       P   Sumitomo Metal Kashima  R/R   02/03/1994   181/75
4 Atsushi Katsumata     P   Nichidai Tsurugaoka HS  R/L   05/22/2000   180/80
5 Kyosuke Mashiko       C   Seirantaito HS          R/R   12/27/2000   176/90
6 Naoto Chino           IF  BCL Niigata Albirex     R/R   02/16/1999   181/81

i1 Daita Miyagi         P   Shiga Gakuen HS         R/R   07/15/2000   181/73

Fighters
x Akira Neo
1 Kosei Yoshida         P   Kannano HS              R/R   01/12/2001   175/84
2 Yuki Nomura           IF  Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   06/26/2000   185/90
3 Tsubasa Nabatame      P   Nippon Tsuun            R/R   02/19/1995   176/86
4 Chusei Mannami        OF  Yokohama HS             R/R   04/07/2000   190/90
5 Ren Kakigi            P   Osaka Toin HS           R/R   06/25/2000   181/88
6 Yua Tamiya            C   Narita HS               R/L   06/13/2000   174/77
7 Suguru Fukuda         P   Seisa Dohto Univ        L/L   12/14/1996   170/75

i1 Kazuyoshi Ebihara    OF  BCL Toyama Thunderbirds R/L   09/13/1995   188/92

Giants
x Akira Neo
x Ryosuke Tatsumi
1 Yuki Takahashi        P   Hachinohe Gakuin Univ   L/L   02/01/1997   178/82        
2 Riku Masuda           IF  Meishu Hitachi HS       R/R   06/17/2000   178/80
3 Daisuke Naoe          P   Matsusho Gakuen HS      R/R   06/20/2000   184/77
4 Kai Yokogawa          P   Osaka Toin HS           L/L   08/30/2000   190/90
5 Yoshiya Matsui        IF  Orio Aishin HS          R/L   06/18/2000   191/90
6 Shosei Togoh          P   Seishin Ursula HS       R/R   04/04/2000   184/70

i1 Kota Yamashita       OF  Kendai Takasaki HS      R/L   11/15/2000   176/80
i2 Kaisei Hirai         P   Gifu Daiichi HS         R/R   09/12/2000   184/73
i3 Shohei Numata        P   Asahikawadai HS         R/R   06/24/2000   175/64
i4 Hibiki Kuroda        IF  Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   07/21/2000   184/75

Hawks
x Kaito Kozono
x Ryosuke Tatsumi
1 Hiroshi Kaino         P   Toyo Univ               R/R   11/16/1996   185/83
2 Kazuki Sugiyama       P   Mitsubishi Hiroshima    R/R   12/07/1997   192/86
3 Daiju Nomura          IF  Waseda Jitsugyo HS      R/R   09/10/2000   172/82
4 Yugo Bandoh           P   JR East                 R/R   12/27/1995   181/76
5 Shun Mizutani         OF  Iwami Chisuikan HS      R/R   03/09/2001   192/94
6 Keisuke Izumi         P   Kanazawa Seiryo Univ    R/R   03/02/1997   187/82
7 Masato Okumura        P   Mitsubishi Pwr Systems  R/R   08/14/1992   177/80

i1 Riku Watanabe        C   Kamimura Gakuen HS      R/L                185/80
i2 Naoya Okamoto        P   Nodai Okhotsk Univ      L/L                180/72
i3 Tomoaki Shigeta      P   Kokushikan Univ         R/R                185/77
i4 Takamasa Nakamura    OF  Nishinihon Tankidai HS  R/R                183/87

Swallows
x Akira Neo
x Taiga Kamichatani
1 Noboru Shimizu        P   Kokugakuin Univ         R/L   10/15/1996   180/84
2 Shota Nakayama        IF  Hosei Univ              R/R   09/22/1996   185/95
3 Yuta Ichikawa         P   Meitoku Gijuku          R/R   03/29/2001   185/75
4 Taiki Hamada          OF  Meiho HS                R/R   09/04/2000   178/80
5 Koshiro Sakamoto      P   Sumikin Hirohata        L/L   09/09/1994   180/70
6 Yuta Suzuki           P   Nihon Bunri HS          R/R   08/02/2000   182/87
7 Takuma Kubo           P   Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ    L/L   07/27/1996   175/75
8 Taisei Yoshida        IF  Meiji Yasuda Seimei     R/L   03/07/1995   174/78

i1 Taishi Uchiyama      C   Tochigi Golden Braves   R/R   04/21/1996   172/77
i2 Yu Matsumoto         IF  Fukui Miracle Elephants R/L   02/05/1995   180/82

Lions
1 Wataru Matsumoto      P   Nittai Univ             R/R   11/28/1996   176/83
2 Yutaro Watanabe       P   Urawa Gakuin HS         R/R   09/21/2000   190/90
3 Kakeru Yamanobe       IF  Mitsubishi Okazaki      R/R   05/24/1994   170/72
4 Kaito Awatsu          P   East Japan Int'l Univ   R/R   03/01/1997   180/80
5 Shoya Makino          C   Yugakkan HS             R/L   03/04/2001   178/77
6 Ryosuke Moriwaki      P   Sega Sammy              R/R   07/13/1992   175/70
7 Ryusei Satoh          IF  Fuji Univ               R/R   01/15/1997   173/81

i1 Aoi Tohno            P   Nihon Keizai Univ       L/L   11/30/1996   183/75
i2 Jiyu Ohkubo          P   Hokkai HS               R/R   08/02/2000   198/88
i3 Daichi Nakaguma      C   Tokuyama Univ           R/L   08/27/1996   176/84

Carp
1 Kaito Kozono          IF  Hotoku Gakuen HS        R/L   06/07/2000   178/79
2 Sotaro Shimauchi      P   Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ    R/R   10/14/1996   180/76
3 Kota Hayashi          IF  Chiben Wakayama HS      R/L   11/16/2000   181/87
4 Takuto Nakagami       IF  Gifu Shogyo HS          R/R   05/29/2000   175/85
5 Norihiko Tanaka       P   Komono HS               R/R   10/19/2000   173/80
6 Yuya Shozui           OF  Asia Univ               R/R   08/31/1996   181/90
7 Ryutaro Hatsuki       IF  Kamimura Gakuen HS      R/L   04/19/2000   167/70

i1 Minoru Ohmori        OF  Shizuoka Sangyo Univ    R/L   08/31/1996   179/70

This year's draft is on Thursday the 25th in Japan at 5pm; which means Thursday morning at 1am here in California.

I've got my usual set of draft magazines, a whole ton of industrial league info, various high school stuff, and yet I still have no idea what will happen on draft day.  This year I don't actually have all that many favorites in the draft, believe it or not -- I mean, there's the usual assortment of college guys I've been watching for a while (I expect Yoshiaki Watanabe from Meiji and Shota Nakayama from Hosei and Kazuya Ojima from Waseda to get drafted anyway, as well as the Toyodai Trio (Umetsu, Kamichatani, and Kaino, all pitchers) and I know a lot of my friends are huge fans of Wataru Matsumoto from Nittaidai.  But unlike most years, I don't think I have anyone in this draft who I know all that well personally (infact the only one I've met is Nakayama).  This is probably partially because I've dedicated more of my time to the Fighters when I'm over in Japan, and partially because it rained a LOT this year when I was visiting, and partially because I shifted over to cheering for Todai more in the last few years :)

Also I apologize that this is literally the first post I've made in a year; if you've followed me for a while you know that I do still tweet a lot when I'm in Japan.  I started writing a post about Fighters spring training this year but it was very frustrating and I ended up never posting it.  Sorry!

HEY! Guess what, the Sports Bull stream actually seems to be working in the US! And I've even got it on my Pixel so I can use my laptop for typing in names/info!

Otherwise I'll still be watching the picks come in on various news sources such as Nikkan Sports as usual.

1am: And it's starting!  Wheee!  (I am such a Todai fangirl that I was almost more excited to see Endoh-san walking in behind Kida-san and the main posse.)

1:15am: I take it back.  Sportsbull works but it keeps randomly coming with ads in the middle of everything.  Well, we're getting underway with the first round...

Rakuten: Kyota Fujiwara, OF, Osaka Toin HS
Hanshin: Fujiwara
Marines: Fujiwara
Dragons: Akira Neo, IF, Osaka Toin HS
Orix: Kaito Kozono, IF, Hotoku Gakuen HS
Baystars: Kozono
Fighters: Neo
Giants: Neo
Hawks: Kozono
Swallows: Neo
Lions: Wataru Matsumoto, RHP, Nittai Univ
Carp: Kozono

WOW that is even more of a cluster than most years.  4, 4, 3, and the Seibu Lions just get Wataru Matsumoto uncontested (DAAAAAAAAAANG).

1:20am: First runoff is for Fujiwara, and he goes to the Chiba Lotte Marines!  Whee.

1:23am: Next runoff is for Neo, and he goes to Chunichi.  I don't actually know how I feel right now -- I almost expected Kida to pick him at this point, believe it or not...

1:27am: Next runoff for Kozono, and he goes to Hiroshima.  Well, okay then.

Now people get to choose their second first round, and I start entering stuff into my chart.

Rakuten: Ryosuke Tatsumi, OF, Ritsumeikan Univ
Hanshin: Tatsumi
Orix: Ryo Ohta, IF, Tenri HS
Baystars: Taiga Kamichatani, RHP, Toyo Univ
Fighters: Kosei Yoshida, RHP Kannano HS
Giants: Tatsumi
Hawks: Tatsumi
Swallows: Kamichatani

1:35am: And now lottery for Tatsumi... and he goes to Rakuten!

1:38am: Lottery for Kamichatani, and... he goes to Yokohama.  Huh...

And now we are on to the THIRD FIRST ROUND!!

Hanshin: Koji Chikamoto, OF, Osaka Gas
Giants: Yuki Takahashi, LHP, Hachinohe Univ
Hawks: Hiroshi Kaino, RHP Toyo Univ
Yakult: Noboru Shimizu, RHP Kokugakuin Univ

And that's that.  Going to take a little break to tabulate this all at 1:44am now.

Oh, wait.  So.  ACTUAL FIRST ROUND IN FULL:
Rakuten: Ryosuke Tatsumi, OF, Ritsumeikan Univ
Hanshin: Koji Chikamoto, OF, Osaka Gas
Marines: Kyota Fujiwara, OF, Osaka Toin HS
Dragons: Akira Neo, IF, Osaka Toin HS
Orix: Ryo Ohta, IF, Tenri HS
Baystars: Taiga Kamichatani, RHP, Toyo Univ
Fighters: Kosei Yoshida, RHP Kannano HS
Giants: Yuki Takahashi, LHP, Hachinohe Gakuin Univ
Hawks: Hiroshi Kaino, RHP Toyo Univ
Yakult: Noboru Shimizu, RHP Kokugakuin Univ
Lions: Wataru Matsumoto, RHP, Nittai Univ
Carp: Kaito Kozono, IF, Hotoku Gakuen HS

I'm probly going heads-down into the grid from now on...

btw just a note: the FIGHTERS ARE ACTUALLY PARTICIPATING IN THE IKUSEI DRAFT THIS IS A HISTORIC FIRST WE HAVE NEVER DONE THIS BEFORE.

Another funny thing: at the end of the 8th round they were like "Okay, all the teams are finished choosing... wait, our bad, sorry, Rakuten isn't finished.  Rakuten?" and Rakuten was like "We're finished choosing."

I don't have a ton of commentary other than to say at least the 6 players I named as "will get picked" all got picked.  I guess that's not too difficult though.  Surprised that Watanabe went as late as he did, to be honest.

Actually that's a lie. As I've been entering these I noticed that there are a LOT more position players than pitchers, or at least, way more than I would expect normally in the draft. Also it felt like for a while there was a lack of lefties, and that we have a surprising number of kids at the far ends of the age spectrum, ie, a lot of March and April birthdays.

It's 4:44am right now and I've just finished the main chart (aside from a few birthdays I couldn't dig up).  I'm going to briefly peer at Ikusei and see how many there are and I might put that off until the morning, so if this post doesn't have ikusei yet, that's why.