Japanese Baseball Draft Analysis NPB - Keiji Nakahara - SoftBank Hawks

Keiji Nakahara - SoftBank Hawks

Keiji Nakahara - Outfielder - Asia University

  DOB : 7/10/87  
  age : 22  
  throws / hits : R / R  
  height cm : 183  
  weight kg : 86  
  height inch : 72.0                SoftBank Hawks 
  weight lbs : 189.6                  round 4

Keiji Nakahara has great size and a fabulous arm. He plays defense well, has good speed and is a fair hitter for average and power. Overall, he is a very rounded player who will eventually be successful at the pro level in NPB. If he develops properly, he has the potential to become all-star material with his defense and arm. I do not think he will ever be a long-ball power hitter, but he should be able to develop into a dependable 280+ hitter in NPB.  Nakahara is a lock to play in NPB and is a great pick at this spot. He is very close to being game-ready already.

Outlook: Nakahara is SoftBank’s future left-fielder, look for Nakahara to start there as soon as 2011 or 2012. He is a very solid player and will hold the spot down for the Hawks for years. If he needs to work on anything, he needs to be more consistent with his batting and he also could work on bulking up without losing foot speed. This will add to his power numbers. He has developed into too much of a technician, and would benefit from a “grip it and rip it” style once he bulks up. He won’t be a 30HR guy, but he will be a near 300 hitter with 25 HRs and golden glove level fielding and throwing.

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.