2009 Draft: What’s in a Name?
My draft coverage outside of Yusei Kikuchi has been pretty weak this year, but I have a week to catch up. I’ll start by pointing out how awesome Kazuhito Futagami’s and Masato Kiyashiki’s names are in Japanese.
二神一人 (Futagami Kazuhiro): “two gods, one person”
鬼屋敷æ£äºº (Kiyashiki Masato): “demon estate, correct person”
Futagami is a top college pitcher and should be drafted in the first round after the Kikuchi fallout takes place. Kiyashiki is a high school catcher who appears on some teams’ high pick list, and could sneak in to the first round as well.
21/10/2009 at 3:15 pm Permalink
While not involved in the draft, I think one of the more interesting names I’ve seen, just because of the kanji used is:
P, 一二三慎太 (Hifumi Shintarou), Tokaidai Sagami HS
If nothing else because his last name is 一二三. Admittedly, I can’t make sense of the first name though.
21/10/2009 at 4:05 pm Permalink
Interesting. I hadn’t heard of him. 慎太 is just “Shinta”, btw. If he has a “rou” it wasn’t in that Kanji.
21/10/2009 at 4:34 pm Permalink
Futagami’s name is totally on purpose (to look like a proverb), from what I’ve heard.
Hosei also has a freshman kid named Kazuki Mishima who is from Kyushu, and his name means “three islands, one light” (三嶋一è¼). You’ll probably hear a lot more about him in 3 years assuming every ball that comes out of his hand continues to do so at 95 mph.
But actually the best name in the college draft, period, is Isoroku Yumoto (湯本五åå…) from Senshu University. His first name is 56!
I really should write about the draft sometime, since I’ve inhaled all of the Shube issues about it and watched a ton of HS, college, and industrial league ball this year, but I think I’m too attached to the players to be able to look at it objectively (like, if a team I hate takes a player I like, it’ll make me really sad). A lot of the guys I like in the Big 6 league actually already have companies they’ll “work” for next year, though. And most of the guys I like aren’t seniors this year anyway. NEXT year will be an INSANE draft year for college players, especially pitchers, and I don’t even mean Saitoh, but more the Tohto League, like the double aces at Chuo and Toyo.
21/10/2009 at 6:06 pm Permalink
Ha! I was wondering how you pronounce 56’s name.
And at least you know a player you hate (Chono) is going to a team you hate (Kyojin). But let’s not dredge up that discussion…