Daily Sports has comments from Yusei Kikuchi suggesting that he’s decided on beginning his pro career in Japan: “It’ll be after I consult with my parents and manager, but I’m thinking domestic. In the future I think I’ll go to the Majors if I can, but after building my strength domestically.”
There were some hints on Kikuchi’s direction in yesterday’s news, but it seemed like observers basically took his comments and interpreted what the wanted to hear (Gen comments on this as well). If this most recent revelation is true, I think it’s the right choice for Kikuchi. I’ll go into once the story is confirmed.
Kazuhiro Kiyohara made his first appearance in a Seibu uniform in a while, swinging through the ceremonial first pitch on August 22.I’m not sure what Kiyohara’s been up to since retiring, but it looks like it involves getting a tan.
Hanshin is scouting Korea, reportedly looking at Kim Tae-Gyun of Hanwha and Lee Taek-Keun of the Heroes as potential acquisition targets for this offseason. Lee Bum-Ho and Kim Dong-Ju are also drawing interest from NPB teams. Someone who knows better should check my Romanization of these names.
Yakult’s Norichika Aoki, in the midst of his worst season as a pro, had his first four-hit game of the year, bringing his average up to .278. Yakult lost the game 7-3 to the Giants.
Draft Reports has a list of the hardest-throwing pitchers in this year’s Koshien Tournament.Yusei Kikuchi, Takumi Akiyama, and Kenta Imamiya.
Non-baseball item du jour: researchers at Tokyo University have developed tangible holograms. Graphics are the area of computer science that I find the most challenging so I’m quite impressed by this.
If you follow NPB Tracker on Twitter, you might have already seen that Yusei Kikuchiwon at Koshien again yesterday.
I was watching the game on Justin.tv and availed myself of the site’s watch later feature, so you can check out the game from the beginning by following this link. You can also check out the previous game, Chukyo’s 15-5 drubbing of Nagano here.
I wrote a bit about Kikuchi last spring, but this was my first chance to really see him in a game. He definitely has a live arm, with a heater that maxed out 154 kmph (~96 mph) but mainly seemed to range between 140-148 kmph (86-92mph).  He went to his secondary stuff quite a bit, showing a slider with good movement, and a slow curve that appears to be more of the get-me-over variety at this point. He still has work to do on commanding his breaking pitches, but the movement is there and he changes speeds well.
Kikuchi has gotten public attention from just about every NPB, with Hanshin and Yomiuri reportedly very interested in selecting him. I wrote about the MLB teams that watched in spring as well, notably the Rangers and the Mets. More MLB scouts have been watching him this summer, though I’ve learned to take that kind of news with a grain of salt. Daily Sports reported that the Cubs and Twins were in attendance for his August 17 game, but surprisingly I didn’t see any reports of MLB scouts at yesterday’s game.
Yusei Kikuchi’s Hanamaki-Higashi is facing off against Tohoku at Koshien today. You can bet a few MLB scouts will be on hand for this game. Check it out live below:
While Hosei University righthander Kazuhito Futagami has gotten some attention from MLB scouts, apparently the pitcher isn’t reciprocating the interest. Futagami addressed the issue in a brief Q&A wite Livedoor.
-It seems like Hanshin is very keen on you.
“I’m from Kochi, and I go to Hanshin’s camp (in Aki, Kochi), so that’s a team that’s near to my heart.”
-Major League teams have interest in you.
“I don’t have much intrest in the Major Leagues. You know, I like Japan (laughter). I think it’s off to go to America without succeeding in Japan.”
-Do you have a team that you would like to go to?
“There isn’t any team that I especially want to go to. But I’m paying attention to the Pacific League teams. Pitchers in my age group like Yu Darvish (Nippon Ham), who is one year older than me, and Masahiro Tanaka (Rakuten), who is one year younger, are competing and maturing there.”
It’s officially Draft Week here in the United States, so it’s a great time to take a look inside the NPB Draft.
The NPB Draft occurs at the end of season in October and two different types of draft take place: the regular draft where teams select high school graduates, college graduates and industrial league players; and the ikusei player draft, for players for the Ikusei System.
Players eligible for the regular drafts are…
Graduating from a school in Japan the March after the draft
Graduating from a college the March after the draft (only seniors are eligible for the draft)
High School players who registered to enter the draft by notifying the Japan High School Baseball Federation
College players who registered to enter the draft by notifying the Japan University Baseball Federation
For industrial league players: If the player entered the league as a junior high or high school graduate, three years after entering they will be eligible for the NPB Draft. All other players are eligible two years after starting industrial league careers, unless the team is discontinued for financial reasons
For independent league players: Players will be treated equally to industrial league players unless the player declares intent for NPB, in which case they will be eligible anytime during their independent league career
There’s also a new regulation known as the Tazawa Rule…
Players who refuse to enter the NPB Draft and elect to play overseas will not be eligible for the draft for three years if going overseas after high school, two years for all others
How the draft works…
The first round is lottery-based, where every team may select the same player. In the event that more than one team selects the same player, the right to negotiate with that specific player will be determined by a drawing (Scene from 1989 Draft: Hideo Nomo) (Scene from 1992 Draft: Hideki Matsui)
After the first round, the draft continues in the waiver style, which is based on the final standings from the previous season. The last place teams will select first and so on. The last place team from the league which won the All-Star series will select first. If the All-Star series was a split by the two teams, who gets the first pick will be determined by the run difference in the two games.
The Draft is complete when 120 players total have been selected or if every team indicates they are finished selecting players. However foreign players and independent league players being drafted will not be included in the 120 players… So one team may end up with more players selected than another, usually depending on financial reasons or the strength of the draft class. Many changes are waiting to happen with the restrictions of the draft and we shall see what will really be the impact of Junichi Tazawa opting out of the NPB Draft in 2008.
Yusei Kikuchi really knows how to pack ’em in. He pitched in a practice game against Yokohama High School, drawing about 300 spectators, 30 of whom were scouts. Seven Japanese teams were on hand, as were scouts from the Rangers, Mariners, Mets and Yankees. Kikuchi did his part, going six innings and allowing one run on four hits with five strikeouts, while hitting 93 on the gun.
Some reactions to Kikuchi’s performance…
Mets Scout Russ Bove: “I can’t go into details, but he’s a good player.”
Yankees Scout Shoichi Kida: “Going forward we need to see him player a lot more games. I want to see more.”
Kikuchi himself: “Recently I’ve gotten to where I can relax and throw (in front of pro scouts). I was able to hold the other-wordly Yokohama to one run in six innings, so it feels like I’m maturing.”
Kikuchi is showing up in the media as a number of teams’ intended first-round pick in this year’s draft. It’ll be interesting to see what happens if this MLB interest escalates, or if Kikuchi reciprocates.
According to Nikkan Sports, the Rangers had two scouts watching high school lefthander Yusei Kikuchi on May 21st. Kikuchi didn’t appear in his team’s game, the first of an Iwate Prefectural tournament, but the Rangers watched him work out with a long toss excercise. Kikuchi was quoted as saying, “I’m happy to get this attention but I can’t consider how to proceed until the end of summer”. The Dodgers had assistent GM Logan White watch Kikuchi in a practice game in March, and he appears on the draft lists of all 12 NPB teams.
Kikuchi is among the consensus top class of this year’s draft candidates. Brandon Siefken has brief profile of him in English, and Draft Reports has more on him in Japanese. The Nikkan Sports Draft Guide gave him a “BA” rating, a rating that we would normally denote in English as “a/b”, saying that his fastball is good but he can work on his delivery to get a more movement on his pitches.
It may be a little early to start this kind of talk, but here’s a new story to watch: Hosei University pitchers Kazuhito Futagami and Hisashi Takeuchi are attracting attention from MLB scouts, fueling speculation that this could turn into another MLB/NPB arms race. Futagami and Takeuchi are candidates to go in the first round of this year’s NPB draft.
Nikkan Sports reports that Rangers Pacific Rim scout Jim Colborn is planning on taking in a Hosei exhibition game, and SF Giants scout John Cox is planning a visit in March.The Dodgers and Mariners have already seen the pair. On the NPB side, Hiroshima, Orix, Lotte, and Rakuten are reportedly interested.
According to the wonderful Draft Report site, Takeuchi and Futagami both have power arsenals with fastballs that top out at about 150 kmph (93mph). Takeuchi can reach 153 kmph (95mph) and also has a slider and forkball. Futagami maxes out at about 150 kmph, and sits in the mid-140’s (90-ish) as a starter, but dials it up in relief. His featured breaking pitch is his slider. Here is some very low-quality video of Futagami and Takeuchi.
Patrick » 05 November 2008 » In kbo, npb, npb draft » Comments Off on Japan Series Game 3
Update: I got to watch a little bit of the game last night, and was pretty impressed by justin.tv. I’d definitely recommend checking it out if you’re up. The Giants won the game, 6-4, taking a 2-1 lead in the series. Giants starter Tetsuya Utsumi looked pretty good when I was watching, he was able to throw all his pitches for strikes.
You can check out Game 4, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
Game 3 of the Japan Series is today starting at 6:15pm JST. If you’re a night owl like me you can perhaps check out this channel on justin.tv to watch it on and chat with the community at JapaneseBaseball.com.
If you miss it, Baseball Reference has a wiki page devoted to this year’s Series.
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