Stars of Senbatsu
Tomorrow’s professional baseball stars have to come from somewhere, and in Japan more often than not a young ballplayer will cut his teeth with a top high school team. The best kokoyakyu (high school baseball) teams are featured in two annual national tournaments, known colloquially as Spring and Summer Koshien. The spring tournament, or Senbatsu, is an invitational competition involving 32 teams. This year’s champion, Tokaidai Sagami, was crowned on Sunday. Here’s a look at some of the top individual performers from the just-concluded event:
Shuuto Takajo, C, Kyushu Kokusaidai Fuzoku
Though his team fell short in the final game, Kyukou’s catcher put on one of the best hitting shows of the tournament. He batted 12-for-19 (.632) over 5 games and had a stretch of 8 consecutive hits. His talent was best on display when he batted 5-for-5 with a double against Hokkai.
Yoshinao Kamata, RHP, Kanazawa
Though his team lasted only one game, it was clear from the outset that Kamata was the best professional pitching prospect this tournament had to offer. His fastball reached 150 kph, but more importantly he has good command and movement of an excellent slider and change-up. He started out fooling batters with a terrific ability to change speeds and locate his pitches. His pitch selection was intelligent.
His defense failed him, however, and by the 5th inning seemed to either run out of gas or let frustration get the better of him. His team had very little offense as well and it all lead to a 4-0 loss in which he allowed 8 hits but struck out 11. He needs to improve his stamina, but should be an exciting player to look out for this summer.
Tokaidai Sagami hitters: Hirotsugu Satoh (C) Shunta Tanaka (IF) Tetsuya Usuda (CF), Masaru Watanabe (RF)
I’m cheating a bit on this one. I had wanted to select one player to represent how powerful this team’s offense was, and I couldn’t. The team banged out a tournament record 74 hits and outscored their final two opponents by a combined score of 22-3 (46-9 overall). These four players alone, who comprise the top of the lineup, went 21-for-42 (.500) with 11 extra base hits over just those two games! In the championship game, Watanabe also played outstanding defense, making two difficult catches in deep right field and the team ran the bases very aggressively. It made a huge difference as their offensive machine steamrolled the competition.
Takumi Miyoshi, RHP, Kyushu Kokusaidai Fuzoku
It’s hard to get through Koshien without an ace, and Kyukoku had Miyoshi to lean on. The right hander started out the tournament like gangbusters, striking out 23 batters and allowing only 12 hits over his first 18 innings pitched. As the competition became tougher, his numbers dipped, but he was still able to maintain a 3.00 ERA for the tournament despite taking a 14 hit, 6 run pounding in the final game. While he didn’t hit for much average, Miyoshi clubbed two home runs of his own.
Sho Azegami, CF, Nichidai-san
The only player to outdo Takajo in a single-game performance, Azegami’s highlight game was a 6-for-6 day in a 13-2 win over Kakogawa Kita. Over the entire tournament he batted .688 (11-for-16) for his strong Tokyo team. He knocked in 6 runs while adding 3 doubles and a triple to his ledger. Over his four game stint, it added up to a 1.000 slugging percentage. Unfortunately, his team was done in by Kyukoku in the semifinal round.
Ryoma Matsuda, RHP, Hasami
Lastly, it wouldn’t be right to conclude without mentioning the stellar individual effort of Ryoma Matsuda. He was able to stifle a traditionally strong Yokohama High School in his opening game, allowing no earned runs. He showed a similar effort in the second round, surrendering two runs (1 earned). Despite this, his team bowed out of the competition by not providing him any run support that day, and Matsuda finished the tournament 1-1 with a 0.50 ERA.
** I would like to thank my friends Edwin Dizon (who can be found on Twitter as @RealEdwinDizon) and Shin for their input and insight during these past two weeks. I could not have compiled this list without their help.
A special thank you goes to Michael Westbay for once again providing all the Koshien fans a free online space to interact, watch, chat, and learn together during Senbatsu.
03/04/2011 at 6:50 pm Permalink
…wait a minute, you just pretty much listed all the players I wouldn’t shut up about (except Tokaidai Sagami, I wasn’t pulling for them). I picked Takajo on the first day of the tournament as being awesome (the only other catchers who came close in my eyes were Sanko’s Suzuki and Chiben’s Michibata). Watching Kamata’s game from behind the Kanazawa dugout was pretty painful — I think the only other two equally painful things I saw during my time there were 1) Nichidai San’s Suzuki taking a ball to the mask and coming back to the dugout with a bleeding split lip and 2) Kokugakuin Kugayama losing on that sayonara wild pitch after they made such a strong surge to tie up the game.
I’m still trying to decide if Kentaro Yoshinaga is actually better than Sachiya Yamasaki was or if I’m just biased. I really liked the entirety of Nichidai San’s team, they had a lot of good players overall. My biggest surprise was by how little Yokoo hit during this tournament, honestly (because he seemed to scare the hell out of the HS players in the Tokyo region, and he hit like 20 homeruns last year or something).
For the record, in the Shube Senbatsu book, the “Featured” players in the front are Yoshinaga, Kamata, Miyoshi, Takajo, and Ogaki Nichidai’s Kassai (who apparently didn’t impress people as much as he was expected to).
Also, Meitoku Gijuku had a pretty good team! They just got unlucky to face Sanko in the first round and to lose (barely). This was apparently the first time in 20 years (and in 20 appearances) that they went to Koshien and lost their first game there. Crazy, huh?
03/04/2011 at 7:43 pm Permalink
There were more players that could have been added but you have to cut it off at some point.
And yes, you were on to Takajo really early on, well before he starting hitting everything in sight. I have told you before that you have an eye for scouting talent. You certainly get to enough games!
03/04/2011 at 7:54 pm Permalink
it was impressive seeing the way Tokai players just rip into the ball like that (and is it ever a joy to watch amidst all the risk averse approaches), though going into the pros those hitters may face Nakata Sho type adjustments against tougher pitching.
04/04/2011 at 5:45 pm Permalink
To me, the “face” of this Koshien tournament was Suzuki-kun’s fat lipped and gaping hole grin on second base after hitting the game winning gyakuten double against Meitoku in the first round. After he was taken into the dugout, someone had come out and started searching around the home plate area, then picked something up and ran back to the dugout. I commented, “did he just pick up a tooth?” And that appears to have been what it was.
Sorry I couldn’t hang out in the chat room more often. As fun as it is, it’s a serious productivity killer, and I still have a lot to do.
05/04/2011 at 2:45 am Permalink
I’ve been fascinated by the Koshien tournaments since I first read about them in Adachi Mitsuru’s manga and was finally able to see it first-hand while studying abroad here in Hirakata City. Verdict: amazing (but cold). I have to agree about the Tokaidai hitters; I saw them twice and was pretty impressed with the remarkable difference in approach at the plate compared to the other teams.
I was also tremendously impressed with Yoshinao Kamata when I watched him pitch. Even from the odd angle I was at up in the third base alps, it was obvious that his stuff was great and completely overmatched the hitters through the first three innings; I believe he was pitching against Kakogawa Kita, whose huge cheering section seemed completely dazed by the fact that their hitters couldn’t make good contact.
I caught Takumi Miyoshi in his semifinal game; his pitching was still good, but I was more impressed with his power-the first inning homerun he hit was loud off the bat and he had another flyball out later that looked like a homerun, but I think was blown down by the strong wind from right blowing across the field.
Also, I can’t remember his name, but KyuKosai’s first baseman put on quite the show defensively at first. I think he did something like four splits on throws from short and second, which I’m not sure whether he needed to do or just did because he could.
05/04/2011 at 6:56 am Permalink
Hirakata-shi? You must be at Kansai Gaidai. I went there back in 2000.
05/04/2011 at 6:55 pm Permalink
Yup, I’m at Kansai Gaidai right now. It’s a pretty awesome experience so far and that’s crazy that you went here also–small world; I suppose that makes you my Senpai.
06/04/2011 at 12:21 pm Permalink
Almost like a dai-sempai, it was over 10 years ago. Is Prof Kenney still there? I quite liked her. If she is, ask her if she remembers a time in Nov 2000 or so when a student showed up late, and then left immediately because there was nowhere to sit, ensuing in hilarity. That was me.
07/04/2011 at 2:00 am Permalink
Azegami continued his onslaught during the Spring Tokyo tourney today — 2 hits, 4 RBI, including a solo homer. He’s a machine. Yoshinaga didn’t even pitch or appear in the game — Tanaka (5.1 innings) and Nakano (.2 innings) pitched it all, with Sanko winning 12-2 in a 6-inning called game.
I wasn’t there though — instead I was at Hosei’s ground again watching them play Toyodai. I took pictures of your (Ken’s, that is) Shinko Gakuen Ryosuke Itoh though. He played well too.