After Norio Tanabe's era was finished, Hatsuhiko Tsuji stepped in as manager and the front office would have Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe earn more power in the front office. Nabe-Q even had more say on the Tsuji hiring when they were looking for a fresh face.
Here's the early update on the first class in the Tsuji era:
Once again, this class is too early to write anything in stone, it's all penciled in.
First round: P Tatsuya Imai (Sakushin Gakuin, Tochigi)
The Lions did not go for the hyped up Seigi Tanaka and all six B-class teams took a different player as a way of punishing those who did. There was no opposition for Imai's rights.
Imai's first season of professional baseball was cut short due to injury, where he suffered a shoulder problem in spring training camp. He saw a handful of ichi-gun games in relief and participated in the Fresh All-Star game (equivalent of futures all-star game) last summer. The Lions shut him down early before he could make his ichi-gun debut. Personally, we still had Imai as the best high school pitcher available. Grade: B
Hindsight: Taisuke Yamaoka has paid early dividends for Orix. Haruhiro Hamaguchi is a starter for the Baystars.
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Second round: P Shunta Nakatsuka (Hakuoh University, Tochigi)
Nakatsuka was sick in the first month of the season and saw most of the year in ni-gun. As with any young hard-throwing pitcher, Nakatsuka struggled with control with several walks. His ichi-gun debut came in September where the Lions looked to close out a blowout win. After retiring his first two batters faced, he threw 12 consecutive balls which led to the bases being loaded.
He also received a workload in Australia with the Melbourne Aces and again struggled with control out of the bullpen. In Australia, he was known as "The Big Man" due to his size. Nakatsuka is still young and has plenty of upside, but control needs to get better in order to make progress. Grade: B
Hindsight: Yuta Kuroki is a back end reliever for Orix. Yota Kyoda won the Central League rookie of the year award for the Chunichi Dragons. Tomohito Sakai and Taiki Ono have earned starts with the Marines and Tigers, respectively. Kazunari Ishii has been a regular fielder for the Fighters.
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Third round: IF Sosuke Genda (Toyota Motors, Aichi)
The Lions took a shakaijin in the third round and he played every single inning at the ichi-gun level for 2017. Genda became the fourth player in NPB history to accomplish this feat and he won the 2017 Pacfic League rookie of the award. From his defense at shortstop and speed on the base paths, Genda helped propel the Lions to a second place finish. His future looks bright. Grade: A
Hindsight: None for now
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Fourth round: OF Shohei Suzuki (Shizuoka HS, Shizuoka)
The Lions took a HS outfielder to be the heir to the current crop on the team. Suzuki made good progress in ni-gun and the Lions like what they're seeing him, hoping he can develop into a potential leadoff hitter. Suzuki said his personal goal would be to have a season hitting .300 and 30 stolen bases in the future.
He received frequent playing time in ni-gun by hitting .280/.364/.332 with 15 stolen bases. While it's unlikely he'll do anything in 2018, he looks good in the long run. Grade: B+
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Fifth round: P Katsunori Hirai (Honda Suzuka, Mie)
Hirai was one of the oldest players taken in the class as he was a shakaijin playing in Mie prefecture. He cracked the ichi-gun level in May and didn't have to look back, earning innings in medium leverage. Last year, he looked like a perfect candidate to be a righty specialist after Tatsuya Oishi missed most of the season with injury. He isn't flashy, but was solid for a rookie. Grade B-
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Sixth round: P Ichiro Tamura (Rikkyo University, Tokyo)
The Lions took only their second Tokyo Big6 player on the roster in Tamura and he struggled for most of the year. He was called up to the ichi-gun early on for mop up duty, but was lit up by several opposing hitters who had some tape measure home runs. \He's a very raw pick who still needs to develop. Grade: D
Hindsight: Rakuten took Yuhei Takanashi in this round.
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Overall:
It's too early to say what this class is on anyone, even for Genda as he was the league's best rookie. One hit wonders happen all the time, as Tomoya Yagi has shown. If everything goes right, Genda and Imai will be starting players while Nakatsuka can be a hard throwing reliever out of the bullpen. Hirai can take some innings in middle relief, Tamura develops into a better middle reliever and Shohei Suzuki's bat makes progress for the long term. All six players on this list still have potential to do something.
Thanks again for reading along to this draft series. Not sure when we'll review draft classes again. It could be two years or even one year from now on what to do next. Time will tell, but the classes from 2008-2011 are all but written in stone.
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Other years:
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
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