Comments on: NPB Draft Notes http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/10/npb-draft-notes/ Baseball in Japan & Around the World Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:09:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Hiro http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/10/npb-draft-notes/comment-page-1/#comment-10804 Hiro Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:32:29 +0000 http://www.npbtracker.com/?p=4010#comment-10804 Nakata has eaten 100-150 pieces of Karaage in one sitting. haha This is not irrelevant to baseball itself, though. :) Nakata has eaten 100-150 pieces of Karaage in one sitting. haha
This is not irrelevant to baseball itself, though. :)

]]> By: Patrick http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/10/npb-draft-notes/comment-page-1/#comment-10802 Patrick Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:39:52 +0000 http://www.npbtracker.com/?p=4010#comment-10802 Yeah, I liked Hiroshima's draft too. They also got Hisashi Takeuchi, who I think can help them in the bullpen this year. I read that Shoji is going to start his career as an infielder with the Carp, and I believe that Dobayashi is going to play the outfield for them. I think the Carp made a great pick getting Imamura uncontested in the first round. As for Nakata, I'm still not a big fan of his. He has all that weight on a short frame. 171cm -- that's like Norihiro Akahashi or Eishin Soyogi. Think about that. And yeah, he can sprint, but he obviously looked winded at the end of that clip, so I think it's reasonable to expect him to have some stamina problems until he actually gets into shape. But he is a character, and I'll give Ochiai the benefit of the doubt -- he really seems to get the best out of his players. So best of luck to him. You know, I love karaage too. Yeah, I liked Hiroshima’s draft too. They also got Hisashi Takeuchi, who I think can help them in the bullpen this year. I read that Shoji is going to start his career as an infielder with the Carp, and I believe that Dobayashi is going to play the outfield for them. I think the Carp made a great pick getting Imamura uncontested in the first round.

As for Nakata, I’m still not a big fan of his. He has all that weight on a short frame. 171cm — that’s like Norihiro Akahashi or Eishin Soyogi. Think about that. And yeah, he can sprint, but he obviously looked winded at the end of that clip, so I think it’s reasonable to expect him to have some stamina problems until he actually gets into shape.

But he is a character, and I’ll give Ochiai the benefit of the doubt — he really seems to get the best out of his players. So best of luck to him. You know, I love karaage too.

]]> By: Hiro http://www.npbtracker.com/2009/10/npb-draft-notes/comment-page-1/#comment-10797 Hiro Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:27:08 +0000 http://www.npbtracker.com/?p=4010#comment-10797 I'm a Hiroshima Carp fan and this year's draft was a lot better than we'd hoped for. For a club like Carp, it's almost impossible to get super star amateur players, but this year we were very lucky to get three Koshien heroes, Takeru Imamura, Shota Dobayashi and Hayato Shoji. Especially, the first two players are widely known by high school baseball arena and its fans, and it's good that they'll make Carp in the spotlight in terms of media coverage. Without Kikuchi's popularity among other clubs, Carp couldn't have gotten the two. One of the players I was interested in in this years draft was Ryoji Nakata, Doragon's third pick. He is from the same university (Asia uni) with Carp's last years first pick, Takahiro Iwamoto. He is fat as you mentioned in this entry but the fact that he runs 50m at 6.4 seconds and can backflip is amazing. I read somewhere that he asserts that his proper and best weight is 115kg, which is his current weight and he has no intention of shedding some weight. I think as long as he's quick, he doesn't have to lose weight but I suspect the manager, Ochiai and coaches will order him to lose some weight. Now that the first baseman of the Dragons is Tony Branco, Nakata has no chance of replacing him as a first baseman. He'll need to change position and that probably will force him to lose some weight. I hope losing weight doesn't damage his hitting. He was up against Hideaki Wakui, this year's winner of Sawamura Award when they were high school students at Koshien, and Nakata went 3-4 against him including a homerun and a triple (double plus error and he advanced to 3rd base) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1BQS_Av7vo Perhaps you and your readers may have seen the video but I put a link for your reference. Wakui wasn't what he is now back then, which is of course, but still I was impressed with Nakata's batting. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmf42nwbyOo This is a footage from NHK's sports porgram. If you're interested, check it out. He loves "karaage" or fried chicken! It's said that a Sumo stable master came to him to ask him if he's interested in becoming a sumo wrestler. That's really funny and I think his looks, sort of humorous figure and his character will gain a lot of popularity among baseball fans. (This is my second post. I think I've posted before. I'm Japanese and thank you for your reply to the first post. Yes, reading something you're interested in in a target language, in my case in English, must be good for language learning.) I’m a Hiroshima Carp fan and this year’s draft was a lot better than we’d hoped for. For a club like Carp, it’s almost impossible to get super star amateur players, but this year we were very lucky to get three Koshien heroes, Takeru Imamura, Shota Dobayashi and Hayato Shoji.

Especially, the first two players are widely known by high school baseball arena and its fans, and it’s good that they’ll make Carp in the spotlight in terms of media coverage. Without Kikuchi’s popularity among other clubs, Carp couldn’t have gotten the two.

One of the players I was interested in in this years draft was Ryoji Nakata, Doragon’s third pick. He is from the same university (Asia uni) with Carp’s last years first pick, Takahiro Iwamoto. He is fat as you mentioned in this entry but the fact that he runs 50m at 6.4 seconds and can backflip is amazing.

I read somewhere that he asserts that his proper and best weight is 115kg, which is his current weight and he has no intention of shedding some weight. I think as long as he’s quick, he doesn’t have to lose weight but I suspect the manager, Ochiai and coaches will order him to lose some weight.

Now that the first baseman of the Dragons is Tony Branco, Nakata has no chance of replacing him as a first baseman. He’ll need to change position and that probably will force him to lose some weight. I hope losing weight doesn’t damage his hitting.

He was up against Hideaki Wakui, this year’s winner of Sawamura Award when they were high school students at Koshien, and Nakata went 3-4 against him including a homerun and a triple (double plus error and he advanced to 3rd base)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1BQS_Av7vo

Perhaps you and your readers may have seen the video but I put a link for your reference. Wakui wasn’t what he is now back then, which is of course, but still I was impressed with Nakata’s batting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmf42nwbyOo
This is a footage from NHK’s sports porgram. If you’re interested, check it out.
He loves “karaage” or fried chicken!

It’s said that a Sumo stable master came to him to ask him if he’s interested in becoming a sumo wrestler. That’s really funny and I think his looks, sort of humorous figure and his character will gain a lot of popularity among baseball fans.

(This is my second post. I think I’ve posted before. I’m Japanese and thank you for your reply to the first post. Yes, reading something you’re interested in in a target language, in my case in English, must be good for language learning.)

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