Japanese High School Baseball Prospects To Watch 

 With the 2010 Senbatsu invitational Japanese high school baseball tournament just around the corner, it is time to look at the players to watch for this year. The following is a list of Japanese high school baseball top prospects appearing in the March 21 tournament.

1. Yosuke Shimabukuro- Konan high School (Okinawa), pitcher
10/24/92, 172cm, 68kg

Shimabukuro struck out 19 batters at Koshien last year in one game at 17 years old. He does not flame it, but he has a knack for getting Ks and can not be ignored.

2. Shinta Hifumi- Tokai University Sagami High School (Kanagawa), pitcher
9/29/92, 185cm, 84kg

Hifumi has great size and is the darling of the Japanese scouts right now. He is a very good pitcher and I am looking forward to seeing him at Senbatsu in March.

3. Tomoya Matano- Hokusho High School (Hokkaido), pitcher
10/9/92, 186cm, 82km

Great size and currently dominating in Hokkaido. Hokkaido pitchers have a pattern of withering against national cometition so Senbatsu will be a good test to see if Matano si for real.

4. Daisuke Gomyo- Hanasaki Tokuei Hogh School (Saitama), pitcher
10/16/92, 181cm, 78kg

Gomyo is very talked about but I have not seen him dominate. Saitama is fair competition so March will be a good time to see him on a bigger stage.

5. Akinori Nagatomo- Tokai University Boyo High School (Chiba), pitcher
3/7/93, 173cm, 81kg

Nagatomo is fairly inexperienced but impressive in the snippets I have seen.

6. Haruki Nishikawa- Chiben Wakayama High School (Wakayama), SS
4/16/92, 180cm, 70kg

Nishikawa is talked about as being the #1 high school player taken in the 2010 draft in Ocotber. This is hsi first chance to play national competition.

7. Yoshitaka Isomura- Chukyodai Chukyo High School (Aichi), catcher
11/1/92, 178cm, 78kg

The best catcher prospect in Japan, Isomura is a rounded player who is dependable behind the plate and can go long with the bat as well.
The rest in no particular order:

Kohei Arihara - Koryo High School (Hiroshima), pitcher
8/11/92, 186cm, 90kg

Michiori Okabe - Teikyo High School (Tokyo), OF
6/4/92, 178cm, 80kg

Junpei Moritomo - Chukyodai Chukyo High School (Aichi), pitcher
3/13/93, 177cm, 74kg

Ken Okamoto - Kobe Int’l University High School (Hyogo), pitcher
10/29/92, 177cm, 76kg

Sachiya Yamasaki - Nihon University 3 High School, 1B
9/9/92, 185cm, 82kg

 

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.