NPB Draft 2026

Wow, it's that time of year again, where I dust off the blog, translate the NPB draft (for the 21st year running), and say hi. Hi! It's been a crazy year. I'm still working at a robotics startup in the southeast corner of Tokyo for the time being. I made it to 65 baseball games this year (and like 25 basketball games last season, including a trip up to Hokkaido over Golden Week to see the Fighters AND to see Keisei Tominaga sink a bazillion 3-pointers for Levanga Hokkaido, and it was easier to get good Levanga tickets in my first year of fanclub membership than to get any Fighters tickets in my 20th). Probably the most fun was sitting in the outfield ouendan for a minor-league Fighters-Swallows game at Es Con in the middle of August, the most emotional was having the Swallows season bookended by Shingo Kawabata's retirement game in March and Masanori Ishikawa's retirement game in October. I also chased the Pokemon 30th Anniversary NPB event, going to 9 out of 12 stadiums across the country for it. (Anyone in Pokemon Go want to trade me a baseball Pikachu with the background from Fukuoka or Hiroshima or Toyama? I have all of the rest of them to exchange...) Honestly I thought I should probably write up my overall review of the Pokemon event since it spanned across several months and prefectures for me, and each stadium did it differently, but I've been too lazy. Some of my reviews are on Twitter.

Anyway, one irony is that this year I have basketball tickets tonight at 7pm, which we bought a few months ago before we knew the draft date, so I'll follow the draft for the first hour from 5-6pm, then go over to Toyota Arena, watch the Tokyo Alvark take on the Ibaraki Robots, and then by the time I get home from that the draft will be over and I can just translate stuff instead of freaking out about who went where.

Preparing the table though! Teams that have had consistent URLs for draft results, I'm also filling those in.

As always I'm following Nikkan Sports, also Yahoo Sports, also draft-repo for info on players.

Hmmm first round

Rakuten: Kai Watabe, C, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Dragons: Kai Watabe
Marines: Taisei Suzuki, P, Aoyama Gakuin Univ
Swallows: Ryosuke Fujisawa, OF, Tokyo Gas
Buffaloes: Futo Kakuta, P, Fuji Univ
Carp: Takara Yamasato, IF, Asia Univ
Fighters: Haruki Komoda, P, Yamanashi Gakuin HS
Baystars: Sena Hoshino, P, Osaka Shogyo Univ
Seibu: Keito Kawajiri, P, Asia Univ
Giants: Shoki Oda, P, Yokohama HS
Hawks: Taisei Suzuki
Hanshin: Nanato Sakakibara, OF, Meiji Univ

Not nearly as big a cluster as I was expecting... lotteries for the two Aoyama Gakuin boys basically. No competition for Komoda -- WTF?

Watabe goes to Rakuten (yay? at least I'll see him more) and Taisei Suzuki sadly goes to... the Hawks :(

Second first round, Marines and Dragons:
Oh, lol, they both named Ren Miyahara.. and he goes to Chunichi

Ok, third first round. Marines name Yuto Yonezawa. Hey, this looks unlucky but actually I was at the all-Japan collegiate championships this year where Yonezawa pitched Kansai to their first national victory there in over 50 years so he's actually pretty good.

status: I did the first two rounds and now I'm heading off to basketball (it's currently in the middle of the third round, whee).

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------

Eagles
1 Kai Watabe            C   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   08/20/2004   180/88
2 Keigo Okada           IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   05/07/2004   176/79
3 Shin Higuchi          P   Oji                     L/L   06/28/2002   178/85
4 Yoshiaki Hagihara     C   Toshiba                 R/L   04/06/2001   180/87
5 Yoshihiro Taka        IF  Oisix Niigata Albirex   R/R   05/31/2004   172/78
6 Miyato Watanabe       P   Kochi Fighting Dogs     L/L   07/10/2002   176/85

i1 Goki Nemoto          OF  Toyama GRN Thunderbirds R/R   10/14/2005   182/82
i2 Yu Fujihara          OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/S   06/15/2006   168/65
i3 Hangeun Kim          P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   L/L   04/07/2004   177/84
i4 Kodai Terai          IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   12/21/2006   185/95

Before anyone asks: Kim was born in Tokyo, not Korea.

Dragons
x Kai Watabe            C   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   08/20/2004   180/88
1 Ren Miyahara          P   Kinki Univ              R/R   01/24/2005   182/88
2 Masato Shibasaki      OF  Oji                     R/L   04/04/2002   173/83
3 Ran Maejima           C   Asia Univ               R/R   11/20/2004   174/86
4 Yugo Suzuki           P   Chukyo HS               R/R   07/16/2008   177/75
5 Kairi Nishida         P   Kyoto Kokusai HS        L/L   12/12/2008   178/76
6 Tomohiro Shimizu      C   Yamaha                  R/R   05/25/2002   181/95

i1 Ryo Naitoh           P   Ueda Nishi HS           R/L   06/09/2008   180/81
i2 Keito Nakanishi      OF  Osaka Toin HS           R/S   05/20/2008   172/80

Marines
x Taisei Suzuki         P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   05/28/2004   187/79
x Ren Miyahara          P   Kinki Univ              R/R   01/24/2005   182/88
1 Yuto Yonezawa         P   Kansai Univ             L/L   06/01/2004   180/80
2 Yuto Maeda            P   Takaoka Daiichi HS      L/L   01/23/2009   173/71
3 Shunta Nagaya         P   ENEOS                   R/R   02/13/2003   175/77
4 Yoshinobu Kuroda      OF  Higashi Nihon Intl Univ R/L   05/26/2004   180/82
5 Fuga Shinjo           P   Nara Univ HS            R/R   04/27/2008   190/85
6 Kosei Tanaka          OF  Nichinan Gakuen HS      R/L   05/10/2008   184/87

i1 Hisoka Wakatoh       IF  Takagawa Gakuen HS      R/L   01/10/2009   176/68
i2 Tohma Sasaki         P   Hanamaki Higashi HS     R/R   03/23/2009   182/80
i3 Shion Uchida         IF  Sekine Gakuen HS        R/R   06/15/2008   181/86

Swallows
1 Ryosuke Fujisawa      OF  Tokyo Gas               R/R   06/04/2002   187/90
2 Yuta Satoh            OF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   11/22/2004   181/87
3 Seiya Fukuhara        C   Meiji Univ              R/R   07/30/2004   168/75
4 Eidai Takada          IF  Miyakonojo HS           R/L   11/24/2008   172/70
5 Shinya Kawahira       P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   11/17/2003   187/94
6 Yamato Ishizawa       P   Muroran Sharks          L/L   08/21/2001   176/80
7 Shunsuke Watanabe     IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/S   03/21/2006   180/72

i1 Hyuga Nishino        UF  Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   08/08/2002   168/65
i2 Masahiro Takahashi   P   Soka HS                 R/R   03/16/2008   187/92
i3 Kanta Ozaki          P   Sega Sammy              L/L   04/20/2001   175/81

(I wrote UF because Nishino is listed as a "utility player IF/OF")

Buffaloes
1 Futo Kakuta           P   Fuji Univ               R/L   09/23/2004   178/79
2 Shin Nakai            P   Komazawa Univ           R/R   04/22/2004   177/83
3 Akito Haruyama        OF  Osaka Shogyo Univ       R/R   12/10/2004   177/90
4 Ruito Kondoh          P   Otaru Futaba HS         R/R   07/29/2008   184/83
5 Ryosuke Nomura        P   Bukkyo Univ             R/L   10/01/2004   178/90
6 Yuga Chiba            P   Honda                   L/L   06/02/2002   177/85

i1 Ryota Kurokawa       P   Hanasaki Tokuharu HS    R/R   04/11/2008   182/90
i2 Ryuto Ijiri          C   Sendai Univ             R/R   05/31/2004   170/83
i3 Kengo Yoshida        C   Tochigi Golden Braves   R/R   04/30/2002   181/93
i4 George Kawata        IF  Jobu Univ               R/S   12/04/2004   178/87
i5 Kashu Wakatoh        IF  Doho Univ               R/L   01/18/2005   174/64
i6 Daisuke Sugawara     OF  Sendo Ichiba            R/L   11/02/2001   188/95

Before Michael asks me, "George Evan Hauwel Kawata" is his listed name at Jobu University.

Carp
1 Takara Yamasato       IF  Asia Univ               R/R   10/23/2004   174/78
2 Keiya Nishino         C   Ritsumeikan Univ        R/R   07/15/2004   180/78
3 Genki Nohara          P   Kyoto Sangyo Univ       R/R   09/20/2004   184/85
4 Ryohei Yoshikawa      P   Chiba Shokadai Univ     R/R   07/16/2004   186/93
5 Hotaka Mitsuhiro      IF  Meiji Univ              R/L   04/23/2004   178/85
6 Kodai Mori            P   NTT East                R/R   10/01/2005   184/92

i1 Jin Kurumatani       IF  Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/R   02/03/2003   177/80
i2 Asahi Tashiro        C   Tsukuba Univ            R/L   04/06/2004   180/86
i3 Kaito Minayoshi      IF  Nagasaki Kokusai Univ   R/L   08/13/2004   169/77

Fighters
1 Haruki Komoda         P   Yamanashi Gakuin HS     R/R   12/21/2008   195/102
2 Sho Mure              OF  Kyushu Kokusai HS       R/R   07/14/2008   182/92
3 Ryosuke Sueyoshi      P   Okinawa Shogaku HS      L/L   11/28/2008   176/92
4 Sora Katoh            P   Meisei Univ             R/R   12/29/2004   185/92
5 Shoto Okamoto         P   Korigaoka HS            R/L   06/29/2008   180/75

i1 Kohei Okada          OF  Osaka Kogyo Univ        R/L   01/11/2005   184/90
i2 Yuki Fujii           P   Shingu HS               R/R   04/02/2008   197/105
i3 Sota Hangui          IF  Tokyo Nodai Niko HS     R/R   06/25/2008   176/83
i4 Shinya Ojima         IF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   05/18/2004   174/84
i5 Keisuke Imazu        IF  Keio Univ               R/S   11/03/2004   178/78

Baystars
1 Sena Hoshino          P   Osaka Shogyo Univ       L/L   06/14/2004   179/78
2 Masanori Honishi      IF  JAL Ishikawa HS         R/R   11/18/2008   190/93
3 Kansai Sugimoto       OF  Univ British Columbia   R/L   07/31/2003   188/105
4 Ryosei Koganei        P   Aomori Univ             R/R   09/16/2004   191/89
5 Eito Kiguchi          P   Jobu Univ               R/R   04/21/2004   186/92
6 Riku Kamizato         C   ENEOS                   R/L   05/03/2002   169/77
7 Wataru Sakaguchi      OF  Honda                   R/R   12/06/2002   185/97

Lions
1 Keito Kawajiri        P   Asia Univ               R/L   10/23/2004   189/93
2 Seiya Kakimoto        P   Panasonic               R/R   05/09/2002   183/80
3 Yusuke Sawayama       P   Yamaha                  L/L   10/15/2003   187/90
4 Ryo Tanaka            C   Nichidai Sanko HS       R/R   11/06/2008   180/105
5 Yamato Nakatsu        OF  Nihon Seimei            R/L   10/02/2002   178/80

i1 Ryodai Miura         P   Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/L   01/02/2006   177/82
i2 Kenshin Kawashima    P   Ryukokudai Heian HS     R/R   05/20/2008   185/77
i3 Koki Gotoh           C   Numazu Shogyo HS        R/R   05/09/2008   181/87

Giants (and ikusei)
1 Shoki Oda             P   Yokohama HS             R/R   06/03/2008   186/82
2 Reito Hirata          P   Oita Shogyo HS          R/R   07/05/2008   188/80
3 Shoma Ikeda           IF  Yokohama HS             R/L   06/26/2008   176/78
4 Mahiro Sugimoto       P   Chiben Gakuen HS        L/L   07/08/2008   177/87
5 Kaito Itoh            IF  Chuo Univ               R/R   09/30/2004   178/87
6 Kaisei Matsudaira     P   Kanagawa Univ           R/R   12/24/2004   192/93

i1 Eito Tanibuchi       C   Osaka Toin HS           R/L   06/14/2008   178/83
i2 Kyuta Yanai          IF  Ube Kogyo HS            R/L   02/04/2009   178/88
i3 Takehito Shima       OF  Hokuetsu HS             R/R   10/31/2008   188/93
i4 Rikuto Matsuda       IF  Matsugen Minoshima      R/L   12/11/2001   175/74
i5 Rentaro Seki         C   Kawasaki Mukaigaoka JHS R/R   12/26/2011   179/82

Yes, that 2011 birth year is not a typo, the Giants have drafted a 14-year-old from their U-15 team.

Hawks
1 Taisei Suzuki         P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   05/28/2004   187/79
2 Gaku Arima            P   Ritsumeikan Univ        L/L   07/29/2004   175/78
3 Kazuhiro Watanabe     P   Keio Univ               L/L   05/28/2004   180/80
4 Kojun Fujimori        OF  Hosei Univ              R/L   08/10/2004   170/68
5 Shunta Inomata        P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   09/08/2004   185/90
6 Aoto Kotsubo          P   Yanagawa HS             L/L   10/18/2008   183/85
7 Taiga Nakagawa        IF  Shigakkan Univ          R/L   06/15/2004   171/67
8 Ikki Fukami           P   Taiwan Sports Univ      R/R   09/25/2005   183/78
9 Genei Satoh           P   Penn State              R/R   12/17/2004   180/85

Fukami was born in Japan but has lived in Taiwan for half his life and went to college there.

Genei Satoh went to Penn State (yes, in the US) to try to become MLB eligible, bet this was a surprise

i1 Ryosuke Niwa         P   Shiritsu Wakayama HS    R/R   02/10/2009   184/77
i2 Hyuga Kanda          P   Tsuruga Kehi HS         L/L   09/02/2008   177/80
i3 Koki Sugimoto        P   KT Wiz (KBO)            R/R   05/19/2000   182/85
i4 Shoki Tamoto         P   Komazawa Univ           R/L   07/13/2004   190/83
i5 Yujiro Kameda        P   Yamamura Gakuen HS      L/L   04/22/2008   183/93
i6 Eiji Kinoshita       P   Takagawa Gakuen HS      R/R   05/20/2008   179/85
i7 Taiga Tsujimura      OF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   04/30/2004   180/70
i8 Yuta Murayama        P   Kansai Kokusai Univ     R/R   11/28/2004   183/83
i9 Musashi Nagayama     IF  Wellness HS Okinawa     R/L   05/24/2008   182/??
i10 Fudai Nerei         UF  Fresno City College     R/R   01/08/2008   175/90
i11 Toranosuke Kamiya   OF  Chiba Sky Sailors       R/R   10/07/2006   180/80
i12 Akira Tsurukawauchi P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   01/31/2005   182/76
i13 Koki Matsubayashi   P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   07/23/2004   177/82
i14 Shugo Murakumo      C   Tsuruga Kehi HS         R/R   08/06/2008   178/73
i15 Mamoru Hirayama     C   Tochiku HS              R/R   04/05/2008   175/85

OMG they drafted Yuji Nerei's kid out of an American college, that is so appropriate

Tigers
1 Nanato Sakakibara     OF  Meiji Univ              L/L   07/15/2004   173/76
2 Takumi Baba           P   Nittai Univ             R/R   12/20/2004   184/88
3 Sota Tsunemi          P   Osaka Keizai Univ       L/L   07/19/2004   177/82
4 Kanta Aiba            IF  Yamaha                  R/R   09/21/2002   178/85
5 Riku Matoba           P   Tenri Univ              R/R   11/23/2004   186/81
6 Kaito Koshikawa       C   Tokyo Gas               R/L   06/05/2002   174/83
7 Koki Ishii            P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   03/15/2003   177/85

i1 Kenshin Yamashita    P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   11/14/2003   182/87
i2 Seiya Araki          P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   09/03/2002   182/83

NPB Draft 2025

Hey everyone, welcome to my 20th year of translating the NPB draft.

STATUS: Done except Hawks ikusei player height/weight, as always.

As always this is also my "hi, what's up" post. Hi, what's up? Last year at this time I had just come back to Japan with my shiny new HSP engineering visa, and now I've been working as an engineer at an industrial robotics startup here in Tokyo for the last year. I only made it to 50 baseball games this year, although I watched a TON more on TV at home - it's crazy how when I was an English teacher and could leave work at 4:50pm every day I went to 100+ games per year, but my job is in the office M-F 9am-6pm (or more, lol) to be on-site with the robots, so leaving at 5pm to make first pitch at 6pm means I have to stay another time to make it up. Most of my games were on weekends, but also Japan is way more brutally hot now than it was back in the day, and I have to admit I probably skipped going to some games just because I didn't want to deal with the weather and I'm definitely more tired now than I was in my 20's. I finally went to my first Kamagaya game in September and several staff (and players!) saw me like "Hey! Long time no see! Where have you been?" and I sheepishly admitted "It's my first time here this year..." and they're like "It's been really hot, huh?" Also, the reserved seating everywhere has kind of killed a lot of the social groups that formed out of seat-saving necessity once upon a time.

But I did go to Okinawa for Fighters spring training back in February for a change, and that was pretty cool; I hope I can do that again next year. Another highlight of the year was finding a price loophole and staying for a weekend at the Tower 11 hotel in Es Con Field and getting to watch some minor-league ball from my room (including that I saw all 3 Hokkai Gakuen Univ draftees!). I made it to the new Giants and Tigers ni-gun stadiums, and also was at the Toshitaiko finals for a change and even sitting over the Oji championship team's ouendan.

As in recent years, I expect to mostly just translate as it comes in over the usual news sources. I bought a draft magazine but mostly for the lulz. 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.

I made most of my commentary about various players on Twitter as I was going, though I have a few notes in here as well. I'm not bothering to recap the lottery except to say the Fighters were the unluckiest team this year.

Name                   Pos  HS/Univ/Company         T/B   DOB          Ht/Wt  
--------------------   ---  ---------------         ---   ----------   -------
Swallows
1 Ayuto Matsushita      IF  Hosei Univ              R/R   04/14/2003   181/85
2 Reo Matsukawa         IF  Josai Univ              R/L   03/26/2004   183/81
3 Taiyo Yamazaki        P   Soka Univ               R/R   07/06/2003   193/87
4 Shota Masui           P   Toyota                  L/L   05/25/2000   173/74
5 Rengo Suzuki          P   Tokaidai Kofu HS        L/L   08/18/2007   177/70
6 Takumi Ishii          IF  Chuo Univ               R/R   03/02/2002   180/81
7 Ryuto Iida            P   ENEOS                   R/R   06/24/1999   187/100

i1 Yume Komiya          P   Kawasaki Sci&Tech HS    L/L   06/08/2007   180/70

Ishii is Kazunari Ishii's little brother (from the Fighters)

Marines
1 Genki Ishigaki        P   Kendai Takasaki HS      R/S   08/16/2007   180/78
2 Kaito Mohri           P   Meiji Univ              L/L   09/14/2003   177/77
3 Raito Okumura         P   Yokohama HS             L/L   09/08/2007   179/84
4 Yuya Sakurai          IF  Shohei HS               R/R   06/30/2007   180/87
5 Hayato Fuji           P   Nippon Express          R/R   03/10/2002   180/86
6 Ryoju Okamura         C   Tomishima HS            R/R   05/03/2007   173/77
7 Yamato Tanaka         P   Honda Suzuka            R/L   01/29/2002   178/92

i1 Yuto Nakayama        P   Mito Keimei HS          R/L   04/18/2007   182/65
i2 Kaishu Takahashi     P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   12/21/2005   178/80
i3 Ryo Sugiyama         OF  Aichi Gakuin Univ       L/L   11/22/2003   171/65

Yuya Sakurai is of Thai descent, born in Japan, he took his grandmother's married
name right before high school. His mom runs a Thai restaurant in Nasu-Shiobara :)

Carp
x Masahiro Tateishi     IF  Soka Univ               R/R   11/01/2003   180/87
1 Ren Hirakawa          OF  Sendai Univ             R/S   03/31/2004   187/92
2 Taichi Saitoh         P   Asia Univ               R/R   12/07/2003   182/90
3 Naru Katsuda          IF  Kinki Univ              R/L   06/21/2003   163/72
4 Taiki Kudoh           P   Hokkai Gakuen Univ      R/R   09/29/2003   175/88
5 Seiya Akagi           P   Bukkyo Univ             R/R   10/05/2003   190/86
6 Atsuma Nishikawa      IF  Kamimura Gakuen Iga HS  R/L   12/28/2007   183/76
7 Hayato Takagi         P   Chukyo Univ             R/R   03/19/2004   180/80

i1 Yuta Kobayashi       C   Josai Univ              R/L   02/15/2004   177/82
i2 Daiki Kishimoto      IF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   01/01/2002   169/71

Lions
1 Taiga Kojima          C   Meiji Univ              R/L   10/27/2003   179/83
2 Hakua Iwaki           P   Chuo Univ               L/L   09/17/2003   182/92
3 Shun Akiyama          OF  Chukyo Univ             R/L   04/20/2003   183/86
4 Keita Horikoshi       P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   07/15/2003   184/96
5 Sohwa Yokota          IF  Yamamura Gakuen HS      R/L   10/24/2007   180/88
6 Yushin Kawada         IF  Shikoku Bank            R/L   02/20/2002   174/69

i1 Yuito Arai           IF  Hachioji Gakuen HS      R/L   11/11/2007   183/77
i2 Takumu Imaoka        IF  Kamimura Gakuen         R/R   09/05/2007   180/80
i3 Keishin Saitoh       P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/L   03/16/2003   181/89
i4 Sota Hamaoka         P   Kawawa HS               L/L   10/10/2007   176/87
i5 Hiroto Hiraguchi     P   Nihon Keizai Univ       L/L   04/15/2003   179/82
i6 Yuma Masaki          P   Sophia Univ             R/L   11/19/2002   179/83
i7 Ginto Andoh          OF  Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   02/04/2003   198/110

Dragons
1 Masaki Nakanishi      P   Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   12/18/2003   182/92
2 Yorinosuke Sakurai    P   Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/R   07/21/2003   175/68
3 Kunitada Shinozaki    P   Tokushima Indigo Socks  R/R   06/12/2005   193/105
4 Kiramu Noto           OF  Meishu Hitachi HS       R/L   05/15/2007   183/80
5 Mao Shinpo            IF  Tohoku Fukushi Univ     R/L   11/29/2003   183/76
6 Asahi Hanada          OF  Toyo Univ               R/R   04/23/2003   187/87

i1 Kenshin Masano       P   Oisix Niigata Albirex   L/L   09/19/1999   181/91
i2 Taiga Ishikawa       IF  Kakekawa Nishi HS       R/R   08/01/2007   187/92
i3 Aisuke Mikami        OF  Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   06/14/2004   173/73

Eagles
1 Sota Fujiwara         P   Hanazono Univ           R/R   11/20/2003   178/73
2 Tatsuki Itoh          P   Waseda Univ             R/R   08/24/2003   177/84
3 Akira Shigenaga       IF  Chuo Univ               R/R   04/25/2003   175/86
4 Toshiya Ohsakae       C   Gakuho Ishikawa HS      R/L   04/23/2007   178/85
5 Taisei Itoh           P   Reimei HS               L/L   10/27/2007   174/76
6 Ryu Kutani            P   Oji                     R/L   11/05/1999   177/80
7 Shoya Sakaue          OF  Kinki Univ              R/L   11/01/2003   180/90

i1 Daita Horomura       OF  Toyama Thunderbirds     R/L   08/08/2004   177/73
i2 Shion Ohtsubo        OF  Ishikawa Million Stars  R/R   02/02/2004   190/110
i3 Takuma Nagazawa      P   Hakuoh Univ             R/L   08/06/2003   183/80
i4 Kyonosuke Kaneko     IF  Kanagawa Univ           R/R   01/18/2004   186/95
i5 Taiga Shimahara      C   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/L   02/22/2002   183/92

Giants (and ikusei)
1 Kazuyuki Takemaru     P   Saginomiya              L/L   02/26/2002   179/75
2 Ren Wada              P   Waseda Univ             R/R   05/02/2003   183/87
3 Kyohei Yamashiro      P   Asia Univ               L/L   09/20/2003   174/70
4 Gakuto Minakawa       OF  Chuo Univ               R/L   04/30/2003   182/88
5 Yuto Kohama           IF  Okinawa Electric        R/R   10/05/2001   180/86
6 Kensho Fujii          IF  Urawa Gakuin HS         R/R   08/15/2007   181/96

i1 Eijiro Tomishige     P   Kanagawa Future Dreams  L/L   06/01/2001   178/82
i2 Kira Hayashi         P   Rissho Univ             R/R   04/22/2003   183/85
i3 Rentaro Matsui       C   Toyohashi Chuo HS       R/L   08/03/2007   176/79
i4 Yusaku Kohno         P   Aichi Gakuin Univ       L/L   07/03/2003   180/90
i5 Taisei Chinen        OF  Oisix Niigata Albirex   L/L   04/27/2000   181/86

Buffaloes
x Genki Ishigaki        P   Kendai Takasaki HS      R/S   08/16/2007   180/78
1 Atsuya Fujikawa       P   Nabeoka Gakuen HS       R/R   10/23/2007   183/88
2 Haruki Mori           P   Osaka Toin HS           R/L   08/01/2007   190/88
3 Ryuga Satoh           P   Kendai Takasaki HS      L/L   07/13/2007   173/75
4 Yosuke Kubota         OF  Sapporo Nichidai HS     R/R   07/31/2007   185/88
5 Shu Takaya            P   Hokkai Gakuen Univ      R/R   07/27/2003   179/83
6 Kenny Ishikawa        P   University of Georgia   L/L   04/07/2004   180/85
7 Shikira Nogami        C   Meishu Hitachi HS       R/R   05/23/2007   170/83

i1 Haruto Mikata        OF  Tochigi Golden Braves   R/R   03/31/2003   190/97
i2 Matthew Ichiro Shapiro P Toyama Thunderbirds     R/R   03/18/2003   193/105
i3 Sota Nakanishi       IF  Nissei HS               R/R   12/30/2007   180/81
i4 Issei Watanabe       P   Sendai Univ             L/L   12/12/2003   172/71

Crazy, I saw Kenny Ishikawa play for Asia Univ a bunch but lost track of him :)
Also Matthew Shapiro at Kokugakuin. (And his name breaks my table format dammit)

Baystars
x Rintaro Sasaki        IF  Stanford Univ           R/L   04/18/2005   184/113
1 Koichiro Oda          IF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/L   08/15/2003   173/85
2 Shunya Shimada        P   Toyo Univ               R/R   04/30/2003   185/95
3 Asahi Miyashita       IF  Toyo Univ               R/R   01/26/2004   182/88
4 Hiromi Katayama       P   Honda                   L/L   10/31/1998   175/84
5 Shuto Naruse          IF  NTT West                R/R   05/23/2001   175/75

i1 Uta Shimizu          IF  Kyoto Kokusai HS        R/R   09/27/2007   181/75

Fighters
x Masahiro Tateishi     IF  Soka Univ               R/R   11/01/2003   180/87
x Ren Hirakawa          OF  Sendai Univ             R/S   03/31/2004   187/92
1 Jay Okawa             P   Meiji Univ              R/L  10/28/2003    180/75
2 Kane Edokpolo         OF  Osaka Gakuin Univ       R/R  07/02/2003    190/101
3 Ruan Ohtsuka          IF  Tokai Univ              R/L  10/26/2003    169/74
4 Minato Handa          IF  Nichidai Fujisawa HS    R/L  05/10/2007    176/76
5 Kaito Fujimori        C   Keio Univ               R/L  06/27/2007    182/74

i1 Hiroki Tsuneya       IF  Hokkai Gakuen Univ      R/R  01/18/2004    180/85
i2 Towa Yokoyama        P   Aomori Chuo Gakuin Univ R/L  04/16/2003    178/80

I used "Jay Okawa" because he spelled his name that way on the board at Jingu.

Tigers
1 Masahiro Tateishi     IF  Soka Univ               R/R   11/01/2003   180/87
2 Shogo Tanibata        IF  Nihon Univ              R/R   03/17/2004   178/80
3 Kaisei Okashiro       OF  Tsukuba Univ            R/R   06/23/2003   183/83
4 Saku Hayase           P   Kamimura Gakuen         R/L   08/30/2007   185/79
5 Shuto Noto            P   Oisix Niigata Albirex   R/R   09/29/2001   184/88

i1 Ryosuke Jingu        P   Nodai Okhotsk Univ      R/R   05/27/2003   178/81
i2 Shoei Yamasaki       OF  Hyogo Bravers           R/L   12/01/2002   174/67

Hawks
1 Rintaro Sasaki        IF  Stanford Univ           R/L   04/18/2005   184/113
2 Ryuta Inagawa         P   Kyushu Kyoritsu Univ    R/R   02/25/2004   183/90
3 Gota Suzuki           P   Osaka Sangyo Univ       R/R   08/31/2003   174/82
4 Masato Sagara         P   Gifu Kyoritsu Univ      R/R   09/24/2003   184/79
5 Takanori Takahashi    IF  JR East                 R/R   12/21/2001   186/94

i1 Kanta Ikeda          C   Sekine Gakuen HS        R/R   05/12/2007
i2 Ayumu Ezaki          IF  Fukui Kogyodai HS       R/L   09/18/2007
i3 Ryusei Ohya          P   Chukyo Univ             R/L   06/28/2003
i4 Reo Ohhashi          IF  Oisca Hamamatsu HS      R/R   07/02/2007
i5 Takahiro Suzuki      OF  Club Rebase             R/R   04/17/2001
i6 Renta Nagsaki        P   Shiga Gakuen HS         R/R   06/11/2007
i7 Emil Plensa          OF  Happy Science HS        R/R   11/07/2007
i8 Hokuto Ohyama        P   Chuo Univ               R/R   03/10/2004

Note: Emil Plensa is Domingo Guzman (former Chunichi player)'s son

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 Kuan-chen 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 Ratanayake     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 Okem Mei Umebinyuo   OF  Asahikawa Shiho HS      R/R   04/10/2006   185/77

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?