Japanese Baseball NPB Draft Analysis - Kenji Tomura - Rakuten Golden Eagles

Kenji Tomura - Pitcher - Rikkio University

   DOB : 10/20/87  
   age : 22  
   throws / hits : R / R  
   height cm : 185  
   weight kg : 77  
   height inch : 72.8 Rakuten Golden Eagles 
   weight lbs : 169.8 round 1

Kenji Tomura is a wild pitcher who lacks command on his pitches. He is a flame thrower who has little control. Over the later part of his college career, he started to develop the skill of honing in his velocity. I saw Tomura give up far too many 6-run and 5-run innings to say this is a good pick. Tomura benefited from playing in the Tokyo 6 University league, so he has years of facing top competition and could be considered game-ready by some. Tomura throws 153km and adds a vertical slider and a forkball to his arsenal. He needs to work on being more consistent and pitching instead of throwing. I do not like this pick at this spot.

Outlook: The Rakuten Golden Eagles really did not have any glaring weakness except middle relief. The rumors are they envision Tomura as their future closer. Kazuo Fukumori (2.18ERA 1.24WHIP 10 saves) filled the role well in 2009 and looks to expand his role in 2010. Tomura is far too erratic to pitch middle relief for extended innings, but could carve a role out for himself as a set-up man in short spurts. The Golden Eagles are talking of giving Tomura a role as early as 2010 or 2011 in spot appearances. Be prepared to see some outright ugly innings if Tomura is thrust into the lion’s den that early. NPB batters will send out 153km fastballs better than college students did.

Brandon Siefken 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 other publications 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.”

Each year Brandon publishes the “Japan Baseball News Weekly” ( http://www.japanbaseballnews.com/?page_id=1543 ) with updated weekly stats for every player from April to October. Brandon can be contacted at brandon@japanball.com.