NPB Draft 2024

STATUS: Normal part of draft is translated; I'm adding team links now. I'm getting on a plane back to Japan shortly and will do the ikusei draft tomorrow. :)

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   178/88
3 Shoma Karyu           P   Saiki Kakujo HS         R/R   12/25/2006   185/72
4 Kuanchen Lin (?)      OF  Japan Econ Univ         R/R   12/30/2002   195/105
5 Hibiki Shinohara      P   Fukui Kodai HS          R/R   09/20/2006   177/72
6 Haruki Tatsuyama      C   Enagic Sports HS        R/R   05/13/2006   172/76
7 Teruki Koga           IF  Chikumagawa Club        R/L   08/25/2000   176/76

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

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   176/77
3 Shunta Mori           IF  Toko Gakuen HS          R/L   12/25/2006   187/84
4 Yuta Ishii            C   Nihon Seimei            R/R   08/18/2000   178/83
5 Kosuke Takahashi      P   Hokusho HS              L/L   12/31/2006   178/80
6 Keito Arima           P   St Catherine HS (Ehime) R/R   09/20/2006   190/78

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   179/80
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   193/95
4 Ryoma Yamanaka        OF  Mitsubishi Juko East    R/L   12/14/2000   177/77
5 Reiji Higashiyama     P   ENEOS                   R/R   05/05/2000   179/85
6 Raiku Katayama        P   NTT East                R/L   10/07/2002   177/84

Swallows
1 Yuto Nakamura         P   Aichi Tech (Aikodai)    R/L   02/08/2003   176/80
2 Nikita Moiseyev       OF  Toyokawa HS             L/L   11/29/2006   182/82
3 Kota Shoji            P   Sega Sammy              L/L   05/22/2000   172/85
4 Haruto Tanaka         IF  Kendai Takasaki HS      R/L   06/25/2006   181/81
5 Taijiro Yano          C   Ehime Mandarin Pirates  R/R   05/22/2002   179/80

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   175/77
4 Masahiro Ehara        P   Nippon Stainless Steel  R/R   08/03/2000   184/88
5 Tsubasa Yoshinoh      OF  Waseda Univ             R/L   08/16/2002   180/85
6 Po-Hsiang Yang        IF  Ibaraki Astro Planets   R/L   01/23/2005   173/64

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   177/77
2 Ryunosuke Satoh       P   Fuji Univ               L/L   11/01/2002   179/83
3 Shun Okamoto          P   Konan Univ Okamoto      R/L   06/12/2002   185/82
4 Yuto Watanabe         C   Fuji Univ               R/R   07/07/2002   181/97
5 Harun Kikuchi         P   Chiba Gakugei HS        R/R   01/21/2007   200/103

Marines
1 Misho Nishikawa       OF  Aoyama Gakuin Univ      R/R   03/25/2003   182/81
2 Ryusei Miyazaki       IF  Yamaha                  R/L   12/09/2000   173/85
3 Rikima Ichijoh        P   Toyo Univ               R/L   02/10/2003   189/82
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   177/84

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   180/82
4 Naoki Wakamatsu       P   Kochi Fighting Dogs     R/R   05/10/2000   183/82
5 Manato Tanai          IF  Okayama Sanyo HS        R/R                178/75
6 Kasuga Sakaguchi      P   Kokugakuin Univ         R/R   09/21/2002   178/80

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   186/85
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   186/84
4 Daiki Shimizu         P   Maebashi Shogyo HS      R/R   07/17/2006   190/82
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

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   170/75
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   183/87
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

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

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

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