Japanese Baseball NPB Draft Analysis - Ryuta Ogawa - Chunichi Dragons

Ryuta Ogawa - Pitcher - Chiba Eiwa High School

Ryuta Ogawa

  DOB : 9/3/91  
  age : 18  
  throws / hits : L / L  
  height cm : 182  
  weight kg : 70  
  height inch : 71.7                Chunichi Dragons 
  weight lbs : 154.3                  round 2

Ryuta Ogawa is a lanky lefty much like Chunichi #1 pick Okada, but very different in style. Ogawa has an arm of steel and flames balls by batters. He is aggressive and goes after batters without hesitation. Ogawa has a quirky motion that hides the ball from batters so they rarely know what he is throwing. Ogawa has a beautiful breaking slider and throws 145km fastballs. Ogawa still has a lot of room to improve, especially in the ares of command and developing a reliable off-speed pitch. If he could add an aspect of controlling a game to his aggressive, go-after-the-batter style he would improve as a pitcher and not just a thrower. He will develop these things and eventually should be a starter in the Chunichi rotation.

Outlook: Chunichi selected Ogawa with every intention of putting him in their rotation with Okada at #1. These young guns, along with last year closer-in-waiting Junki Ito will make the future of Chunichi’s awesome pitching corps. Ogawa will take a little more time to develop, but I do see him in the Chunichi rotation with Okada and Yoshimi in 2012 or 2013. He is a very raw talent with loads of potential. Learning from Yoshimi, Chen and Iwase will be a big plus for Ogawa, and he certainly has the basic tools to succeed and be a reliable starter in NPB. How long it will take is the only question left to answer.

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.