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Monday, January 8, 2024

Nine seasons later: Grading the 2014 Seibu Lions draft class

 


It's officially that time of the year to look back at the last NPB Drafts by the Saitama Seibu Lions and see how they aged. 

Coming into the 2014 NPB Draft, the Lions came off a forgettable season where manager Haruki Ihara resigned ib 

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First round: P Kona Takahashi (Maebashi Ikuei HS, Gunma)

Kona Takahashi won the 2013 Koshien tournament as a junior and was taken by the Lions without opposition in the first round. A big difference of opinion ended up favoring the Lions to land his rights.

In his first two years, he threw two shutouts and already reached three complete games. He suffered some setbacks in 2017-2018 with poor condition and injury, but rebounded in 2019 with his biggest workload yet of 123.2 IP before being hurt in September. 

He put in three consecutive 10-win seasons from 2021 and established himself as the team's ace in 2022. With some strong performances, he will likely reach his desire to be posted to MLB after the 2024 season. 

Producing someone to make it to the Majors is always a strong grade. 

Grade: A-

Hindsight: The Baystars won the rights to Yasuaki Yamasaki as a second choice, where they had a 50-50 chance of landing him against the Hanshin Tigers. Kohei Arihara was the consensus best player available, which the Fighters won a four-way drawing for his rights. Kazuma Okamoto was taken without opposition by the Giants. Sachiya Yamasaki was taken by Orix unopposed. 

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Second round: P Yasuo Sano (Heisei Kokusai Univesrsity, Saitama)

Sano was given a spot start in 2015 and had some time in the bullpen for 2016, where he earned a win. His role expanded in 2017 as he became the sixth starter and the Lions were tight, giving him strictly four to five innings at most. He showed good progress as the starter and earned plenty of run support, but a knee injury in June ended his season. 

After a short ichi-gun season in 2018, he had his biggest workload yet in 2019 with 67.2 IP. The Lions used him as a spot starter, but mostly in middle relief when the team was trailing or tied. He registered a 4.39 ERA for 2019. 

Sano's role continues to diminish as a mop up pitcher and he was let go at the conclusion of the 2022 season.

Grade: D

Hindsight: The Hanshin Tigers drafted Tsuyoshi Ishizaki in this round. Kenta Ishida was drafted by the Baystars. Kazuki Yabuta was taken by the Carp. Yuma Mune was taken by the Buffaloes. Hawks took Ryoya Kurihara. Rakuten took Fumiya Ono

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Third round: IF Shuta Tonosaki (Fuji University, Iwate)

Tonosaki started off as a pinch runner and defensive replacement as he earned ichi-gun playing time by the end of his rookie year 2015. His role diminished under Norio Tanabe in 2016, but he spent the entire 2017 at the ichi-gun level. 

Hatsuhiko Tsuji initially had him as a defensive replacement, but some poor hitting in the outfield made Tonosaki start in left field and later right field, a position he held for the rest of the year. He was a starting right fielder in 2018 until his injury prevented him from playing a full season. For 2019, he switched back to the infield at 2B and played every game, reaching the 20+ HR milestone for the first time. 

With an .846 OPS while batting sixth in the lineup, he has been a reliable starter with 22 stolen bases and has shown to be a better athlete than his predecessor Hideto Asamura.

Tonosaki has battled injuries and regressed since his peak 2019 season. 

He's been a reliable 2B on defense despite his offense and power hitting regressing recently. Finding a starting player is always a plus.

 Grade: B+

Hindsight: None. The Lions were drafting near the end of this round and couldn't take many options. 

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Fourth round: P Yusuke Tamamura (Tsuruga Kehi HS, Fukui)

Tamamura graduated high school a year before and likely dropped out of Asia University, but it didn't prevent the Lions from taking him as a 19 year old. He's become a regular starter at the ni-gun level, but he came off a poor 2017 with a 8.39 ERA in 39.2 innings of work. He had a double-digit ERA down in ni-gun for 2018, which told the Lions they had enough of him. Tamamura was cut at the end of the year as part of the seryokugai. 

 Grade: F

Hindsight: Naoya Ishikawa was taken by the Fighters. 

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Fifth round: IF Haruka Yamada (Saga Kogyo HS, Saga)

Yamada was called up briefly to the ichi-gun as an emergency infielder in 2017 for a week. However, he didn't play a game and has been a regular ni-gun starter. He earned a call up in 2018 and even hit a solo HR as his only hit. He only appeared in four ichi-gun games in 2019 with others leaping him on the depth chart. 

Yamada was a defensive replacement at best more known for his dugout celebrations and funny antics shown on air. He was traded after the 2022 season to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for Ryusei Sato after controversy from his wife causing problems with other players' families.  The Fighters let him go after the 2023 season and he is currently on an ikusei contract with the Rakuten Eagles.

If we're going by the trade itself, it's looking like a win for the Lions with what Ryusei Sato has done, but this pick is all but nothing for production. 

Grade: D-

Hindsight: Kai Ueda was drafted by the Tigers

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Ikusei: OF Daisuke Togawa (Hokkai HS, Hokkaido)

Togawa earned a promotion to the 70-man roster one year after being drafted when the 2015 season ended.

 

His first callup to an chi-gun game was in 2019 and he hit an important home run during that span. He even earned a hero interview after that win. 

The Lions had a brief revolving door in right field and he appeared in only 10 games, hitting .174/.240/.348. Togawa saw only a handful of ichi-gun games per season since that 2019 debut and was senryokugai after the 2022 season.

Any ikusei working their way up is always a positive, though his time was short.

Grade: C-

Hindsight: None 

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Overall: 

The Lions found an everyday starter in Tonosaki while also having a starting pitcher in Kona Takahashi. Two players is better than none and despite Takahashi soon to leave, having a front end rotation pitcher makes this a positive class as really good, not great. 

Grade: B+

Hindsight: Takahashi has proven to the best first round pitcher in this class.  Getting him with no opposition with other teams distracted by Kohei Arihara? It's a win. 

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Other drafts in series:

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