In a draft where several teams had targets in the first round, the Saitama Seibu Lions avoided a drawing and selected P Wataru Matsumoto in the first round out of Nippon Taiiku University.
Matsumoto, who will turn 22 in November, is a hard thrower and can hit a max velocity of 155 kilometers per hour (96 mph).
His college career has the 7th most amount of strikeouts in University baseball history, right behind Tomoyuki Sugano, who is currently with the Yomiuri Giants. He is capable of using a splitter, cutter, curve and slider.
He bills in at 176 cm and 85 kilograms and has a 3/4 arm slot style of pitch.
Matsumoto might have been viewed as the best college pitcher in the 2018 NPB Draft and the Lions were able to nab him before anyone could fall back after losing. Senior Director Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe mentioned how the team was debating between pitcher and infielder Akira Neo. They chose to take the safe path of pitcher after seeing their staff show vulnerability all season last year.
In his college career, he has a combined 1.63 ERA with a 30-18 record in 375.2 innings of work. He reached 343 career strikeouts. Matsumoto won MVP honors in the Spring 2016 season.
It's possible that Matsumoto can make an immediate impact if his control is decent and impresses the coaches early. There are holes in both the rotation and bullpen for 2019.
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We will have more analysis on each draft pick later after further research. Stay tuned.
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