Japanese Baseball Draft Analysis NPB - Koji Toyofuku - SoftBank Hawks
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Koji Toyofuku - Shortstop - Tosu High School
Koji Toyofuku - SoftBank Hawks
DOB : 5/17/91
age : 18
throws / hits : R / L
height cm : 180
weight kg : 76
height inch : 70.9 SoftBank Hawks
weight lbs : 167.6 round 5
Koji Toyofuku does not have much going for him except his speed, and even that is not upper-class. I am not sure why Toyofuku was picked, there are far too many aspects he needs to work on. He has decent size and at best has a small chance to develop into a sub-average to average shortstop. Perhaps he has a chance to make a name for himself as a pinch-runner, but he is not fast enough in my opinion. I feel this was a wasted pick, Toyofuku is a bad hitter and does not seem to have the basics to develop hitting or fielding to the point he can be a regular at the pro level.
Outlook: I do not know what to say about this pick. Shortstop is a solid position for SoftBank, as Kawashima is good and still only 29 years old. Even if they needed a shortstop, Toyofuku will take at least three years to develop, and his skill set is far too low to develop into anything special. Perhaps SoftBank was thinking of developing Toyofuku into a pinch-runner, but he might not even be good enough or fast enough for that. This pick confuses me. Do not expect to see Toyofuku in NPB.
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.
