NPB Japanese Professional Baseball Draft Guide

by Brandon Siefken, JapanBall.com

(This page to remain posted until just before 2010 season.)

For the first time in years the draft for the 2009 season subjected all amateur levels (high school, university, and industrial league) to the same draft.

Each team is ranked and graded using three criteria:

1. How a team met its needs;
2. What talent was drafted...and passed by; and,
3. The value received for the round.

A brief recap of team statistics are given before the analysis.

Looking at the rankings, the Lions have a lot of runs but a hard time stopping runs from going in. So it'd make sense to draft pitching, which they did. 

First Round:  Yuta Nakazaki from Nichinan Gakuen is a great young talent. However, they probably could have gotten him later in the draft. 

Second Round:  Ryoma Nogami from Nissan Motors is a 149-pound hurler from the industrial league who's not polished and probably not ready for a role at this level yet. 

Third Round:  Shortstop Hideto Asamura from Osaka Toin High School is a good hitter and a natural run producer, but also not ready yet, and the Lions don’t need run producers now. 

After that the Lions took a fielder, a catcher and a pitcher. Overall an uninspired draft with one nice gem in Nakazaki who might see time this year depending on how poorly the Lion starters play.