Japanese Baseball NPB Draft Analysis - Shota Koseki - Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
ByShota Koseki - Catcher - Higashichikushi Gakuen HS
DOB : 9/6/91 
age : 18
throws / hits : R / R
height cm : 182
weight kg : 81
height inch : 71.7 Rakuten Golden Eagles
weight lbs : 178.6 round 3
Shota Koseki is a project, but has the potential to develop into an above average catcher at the NPB level. His fielding is more developed than his hitting, but he is not a liability at the plate. Koseki can hit for average as well as go long on occasion. His biggest weapon is his throwing. He can fire lasers to second base and get runners out as well as an average pro catcher. He is not a great runner and he makes an error here and there, but with time to develop Koseki can be a dependable fill-in or spot starter. Koseki is probably a year or two away from seeing real action in the pros, but I feel he will be an average to slightly above average NPB catcher.
Outlook: Catcher is actually a strength for Rakuten. Motohiro Shima is one of the better catcher in NPB and he is still only 26 years old. However, the Golden Eagles have absolutely nobody to back him up and taking a high school catcher with a pro throwing arm is not a bad move. I think Koseki is a year or two away from seeing action, but he has the potential to develop into a very dependable fill-in starter at the pro level. Koseki needs to work on his hitting and make less errors, but I think in time he will overcome his weaknesses and eventually play for the Golden Eagles come 2011 or 2012.
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.
