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Thursday, November 18, 2021

Eight years later: Grading the Seibu Lions 2013 draft class

 

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The 2013 NPB Draft was the beginning of a new regime for the Saitama Seibu Lions. Hisanobu "Nabe-Q" Watanabe stepped away as a manager and Haruki Ihara came in. Nabe-Q moved to the front office as a senior director/adviser to eventually be the successor for GM Haruhiko Suzuki. 

First round: C Tomoya Mori (Osaka Toin HS, Osaka)

Mori was viewed as an undersized catcher with a powerful bat. The battery mate of Shintaro Fujinami, Mori was a Koshien champion in 2012 during his junior year, but teams still passed on him due to character concerns and size. The Lions didn't care and took him during the first reveal.

Early on, Mori hit several home runs in 2014, his first eligible season and was the DH for most of 2015. His bat has been good and is still growing. Norio Tanabe used him in right field on occasion and has been a part time catcher with the hope he can be a starter in the future. He's capable of hitting extra base hits and can mash despite his short stature. 

After a shortened 2017 season due to injury, Mori has been the starting catcher and thrived under Hatsuhiko Tsuji's leadership. He became a batting champion and MVP in 2019 while having an OPS above .900. He remains the starting catcher today.  Grade: A

Hindsight: The Carp won a three-way drawing for P Daichi Osera. Yuki Matsui was taken by the Eagles after a five-way drawing. The Marines took Ayumu Ishikawa when winning a coin flip drawing for his rights. C Seiji Kobayashi was drafted by the Giants as a fallback option. P Yuta Iwasada was taken by the Hanshin Tigers.  

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Second round: IF Hotaka Yamakawa (Fuji University, Iwate)

Yamakawa saw a handful of ichi-gun games in his first two years, but played more in 2016 where he initially made the opening day roster. After being sent down to ni-gun two weeks removed from Opening Day, Yamakawa hit more than 20 HRs on the farm and was called up to spark a second half where he had 14 HRs at the ichi-gun level.

A similar season happened in 2017, where he was farmed in April, but called up for the second half and won two monthly MVP awards for August and September. 

Yamakawa won the Pacific League MVP award in 2018 and has been the home run king in back-to-back seasons for 2018-2019. He has mostly been the team's cleanup hitter in this time. 

 Grade: A- 

Hindsight: Yuito Mori was taken by the Softbank Hawks. Katsuki Matayoshi was drafted by the Dragons. 

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Third round: P Takuya Toyoda (TDK, Akita) 

The Lions took a shakaijin with the third round pick and Toyoda initially took some medium leverage innings in 2014, where he appeared in 34 games with a 4.54 ERA on a bad team. He only played in three games for 2015 and saw mop up duty in 2016. With Toyoda failing to play at the ichi-gun level in 2017, his time is running out. After almost no activity in 2018, he was cut after the year as a senryokugai. Grade: F

Hindsight: IF Kosuke Tanaka was taken by the Carp. OF Hiromi Oka was drafted by the Fighters. P Kazuto Taguchi was drafted by the Giants. P Ryo Akiyoshi was drafted by the Swallows. 

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Fourth round: IF Kazuki Kaneko (Nichidai Fujisawa HS, Kanagawa)

Kaneko saw a brief stint at the ichi-gun in 2018 where he hit well for six games in place of an injured Takeya "Okawari-kun" Nakamura. After taking several years to make the ichi-gun, he fell out of favor in 2019 with rookie Ryusei Sato passing him on the depth chart.  His 2019 ni-gun slashline of .152/.244/.176 made him expendable and he was cut after the season as a senryokugai. Grade: D-

Hindsight: P Hirotoshi Takanashi was taken by the Fighters. OF Seiji Uebayashi was drafted by the Hawks. C Ryutaro Umeno was taken by the Tigers.  

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Fifth round: P Takayuki Yamaguchi (Toyota East, Iwate)

Shakaijin Yamaguchi played for two industrial league teams prior to being drafted. He failed to play a single ichi-gun game for his career and was cut after the 2016 season, finishing his third year with the team. His final ni-gun season had him play nine games, pitching a combined seven innings with a 15.43 ERA.  Grade: F

Hindsight: P Yuta Nakamura was taken by the Carp. 

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Sixth round: C Masatoshi Okada (Osaka Gas, Osaka) 

Okada is remembered for being the battery teammate of Sho Nakata while at Osaka Toin, as Nakata himself was a pitcher besides a slugger. Drafted as a shakaijin, the Lions were able to play Okada immediately as a backup catcher.

Okada has been the backup catcher since being taken and has been adequate behind Mori and Ginjiro Sumitani in the past. He could also come in as a pinch bunter if necessary. Okada reached domestic free agency in 2021. Grade: B

Hindsight: Akihiro Hakumura was drafted by the Fighters. Kota Futaki was drafted by the Marines and is a rotation starter. P Suguru Iwazaki was taken by the Tigers and has been a mainstay at the ichi-gun level where he recently became a middle reliever. 

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Seventh round: P Kentaro Fukukura (Daichi Kogyo University, Kagoshima) 

Fukukura had a productive 2015 season in ni-gun, but only saw one ichi-gun game that year as his reward. In 2017, he saw a handful of ichi-gun games as the Lions mop up pitcher where he recorded a 6.00 ERA in 18 innings. Fukukura fell out of favor in 2018 and stayed in ni-gun, resulting in him being part of the senryokugai when the year was over. Grade: D-

Hindsight: P Shuta Ishikawa was taken by the Hawks as an ikusei pick. 

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Overall

This class found three ichi-gun regulars, making this grade easy.  Multiple MVP awards and another who served plenty of time at the top.  Grade: A

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Other years:

2012

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

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