Having brought home their second Neo-Tokyo Cup Trophy in team history, the Akira had every reason to be content with last year’s roster. But, even with the highest-ranked minor league system in the League of the Rising Sun, they have already begun to look to the future. SP Tadashi Fujimoto, MR Kichibei Murata, 1B Koto Murakami, and former #1 draft pick 2B Katsumi Hayashi have all made the big league roster out of spring training and are playing significant roles on this year’s team. What’s more, #6 prospect Toshikazu Yamauchi has also been brought up as an injury replacement early this season.

The organization came within a few wins of completing an impressive trifecta last season. While Neo-Tokyo topped Fushigi Yugi to capture the crown in the LRS, their class AAA affiliate – the Niigata Gigans – were the Minarai Doumei champions. The class A Nagano Olympians, while posting their second straight 77-19 regular season, were upset in their bid for a second consecutive title.

 Bringing in so many new, young faces to the big league club seems like more of an effort to   keep the young talent progressing and happy than an effort to to fill gaping holes in the Akira lineup. In fact, Koto Sekiguchi and his $10,000,000 salary were shipped of to Naha to clear space for the young arms. Yet having lost star pitcher Hirohisa Narita for the year to an elbow injury may cause NeTo to regret shipping off Sekuguchi and his 1.98 ERA.

The team has struggled early this young season, but that is to be expected which such a young squad. Hopes are that the team will gel quickly and make a run at a second consecutive title.