Five Lions named to Samurai Japan for Asia Professional Baseball Championship

Five players from the Saitama Seibu Lions were announced as players for Samurai Japan for the Asia Professional Baseball Championship on Thursday night.

Katsunori Hirai, Hotaka Yamakawa, Sosuke Genda, Shuta Tonosaki and Shinsaburo Tawata will be representing Japan among the Lions. To be eligible, a player had be born after January 1, 1993 or be with their professional team for three years or less. This counts as a U24 baseball event.

Genda and Tawata are both 24 while Hirai and Tonosaki were drafted in 2016 and 2014, respectively. Samurai Japan was also allowed to have three older players who can fit the overage bracket. Yamakawa would be one of the three as he was drafted in 2013 and will turn 26 in November.

Yamakawa, Genda and Tonosaki all received significant playing time with the ichi-gun in 2017. Genda was second in stolen bases with 37 and had tremendous defense. Tonosaki became a starting outfielder for majority of the season and also had his share of stolen bases while maintaining that he belongs with the ichi-gun. He is the only player on this list to spend the entire 2017 season at the ichi-gun level.

Tawata spent the first half of this season with an injury, but came on well in the second half as a starter. Hirai would be a medium leverage pitcher to take innings in middle relief. Yamakawa had the strongest season of the bunch, where he hit 23 home runs after being called up in the second half.

Nien Ting Wu will also be participating in this tournament representing Taiwan. With the Lions, he appeared in 15 ichi-gun games batting .231/.295/.333. He practiced playing multiple positions, including the outfield at the ni-gun level. 

The APBC begins on November 16 with all games taking place in Tokyo Dome. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are the three participants as they'll play each other in a round robin format. The top two countries after all the games will play a championship deciding game, meaning a team will play three games at most.

Best of luck to all Lions players involved next month.

Here is the remainder of the Samurai Japan roster:

Pitchers:

Taisuke Yamaoka (Buffaloes)
Katsuki Matayoshi (Dragons)*
Yasuaki Yamasaki (Baystars)
Taisuke Kondo (Buffaloes)
Shota Imanaga (Baystars)
Kazuki Yabuta (Carp)
Tsuyoshi Ishizaki (Tigers)
Mizuki Hori (Fighters)
Kazuto Taguchi (Giants)

Catchers:

Kensuke Kondo (Fighters)
Tatsuhiro Tamura (Marines)
Shingo Usami (Giants)
Takuya Kai (Hawks)*

Infielders:

Yota Kyoda (Dragons)
Shogo Nakamura (Marines)
Ryoma Nishikawa (Carp)
Go Matsumoto (Fighters)

Outfielders:

Louis Okoye (Eagles)
Masayuki Kuwahara (Baystars)
Seiji Uebayashi (Hawks)

*Overage bracket


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