NPB Japanese Baseball Draft Analysis - John Clayton Unten - Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters
ByJohn Clayton Unten - Pitcher - Urashoko High School
DOB : 3/27/92 
age : 17
throws / hits : R / R
height cm : 180
weight kg : 70
height inch : 70.9 Nippon Ham Fighters
weight lbs : 154.3 round 4
John Clayton Unten can throw a 150km fastball at 17 years old and is a physically gifted young pitcher. He is a project, but has a ton of potential. He backs up his fastball with a slider that breaks well and baffles batters. Unfortunately at this point he does not have much else and will take time to develop if he is ever to contribute at the NPB level. His fastball lacks life, he does not have good off-speed pitches and he is very raw with no mental grasp of the game. He has room to develop these things and if he does he would be best suited to step in at relief or be a closer. At this point it is too early to project Clayton Unten because he is so raw and such a project that he will take some years to develop slowly.
Outlook: Nippon Ham has several holes projected at pitcher and picking Clayton Unten shows they are willing to take time and develop potential with some of their picks. Look for Clayton Unten to develop in the farm leagues for at least a few years. He needs to develop more pitches, develop the mental aspect of his game and develop into a pitcher instead of a thrower. If he can do all of this, Clayton Unten could be a middle reliever who can come in and eat innings in short spurts using his flame ball. If he can develop auxilliary pitches to go with his fastball and slider, he could become a dependable reliever in NPB.
Brandon Siefken can be contacted at brandon@japanball.com. Brandon has covered Japanese pro and amateur baseball since 1991. He is currently an intern for a Major League Baseball team and has been quoted in Bloomberg, The New York Times and The Seattle Times regarding Japanese baseball. Brandon is a regular writer for Bob Bavasi’s JapanBall.com site and has authored several articles including “The Kuroda Index” and “Yu Darvish: A 315 Pitch Scouting Report.”
