June 22, 2019: Kyoto By Saruwatari Tsuyoshi, Kyoto Shimbun News

With the conclusion of the 2019 LRS First Year Player Draft let’s pull up a chair with Edo Scouting Director Hidemichi Shibata to get his read on the prospects selected. We sat down with him and here are his thoughts:

“Overall our farm system is in need of a major overhaul. This year we went looking to address that with a completely different approach to our player selection. We went out looking for guys who have demonstrated talent and could fill some role on our minor league club. We need to clean out the gaijin and start developing local talent. One thing we didn’t change was an eye towards sign-ability. We skipped over a lot of guys who were looking for more money or simply didn’t want to play here. We are in the business of coaching, not babysitting.”

Rnd Pick Pos Player

1       5      RF   Motoki Suzuki “Our note on him was ‘the right RF’ This was the guy we were hoping to grab in the first round round. Plus leadership, and smarts and a burn to win. His career minor numbers are strong and he’s shown an ability to dial it up in the postseason. He posted a 1.086 OPS in his minor career over 796 AB. He wanted to play for us and frankly we wanted him too.”

2       5       C     Kichibei Hayashi “He’s in for a shock. We were shocked to find him playing behind the plate. He’s no catcher. He’s probably going to be in left field. We already know he can hit. He posted a minor career 1.107 OPS and in a breakout 2019 season showed he may have some more pop to come. He’s another guy that has seen some postseason time and performed well.” 3       6     CF    Katsuhiko Araki “Araki was our first big gamble. His work ethic is suspect but he’s another player who’s shown good bat skills and a decent eye. We liked his speed and defense. In the end we needed a CF badly and were willing to gamble on a guy with good upside. Time will tell on this one.”

3     13     RF   Shirai Matsuura “We actually had meant to pick him sooner. At the draft his name on our sheets was covered when one of our scouts put his laptop on the table. We realized the mistake after we picked Araki. A few poker faces and tense picks later we were able to correct the situation and grab him. He’s more what we call an ‘Edo grinder’ sort of player. We love these guys, these baseball rats. Just had to grab him.”

4       5     LF    Yodo Ishikawa “He won’t swing at anything out of the zone. Really makes pitchers work. Needs to work on his contact skills. A good chemistry guy with strong leadership skills. Hopefully he’s the sort who can help us get more out of guys like Araki.”

5       5     1B    Sosuke Yoshino “Another gamble. Might be a tough sell to get him to sign. His batting skills set reminds us of Horiuchi Arai. He’ll need to better Arai and develop some glove if he wants to succeed. He’ll probably be learning a new position, depending on the needs of the club. His OBP skills were strong enough to warrant a gamble as we got nearer the shallow end of the draft pool. At this point we start looking for role guys more than skill guys.”

6       5     2B    Tokimasa Sato “We needed to get some skill position guys and loved his defense. His bat might limit him but his glove will get him a shot to nail down a position. His motivation is plus plus but he’ll need to translate that to doing the preparation work. He’ll be backing up second while he works on his hitting.”

7       5     RF    Jun’ichi Memoto “We’d have picked Memoto sooner but were a little OF heavy by the time his name came up on our lists. Another baseball rat and guy we want to move, he’ll probably spend a fair amount of time in the infield. Depends on the teams needs and what he does with his opportunities. Projects to be starting 2B on our A level club.”

8       5     2B    Mitsuhide Taketo “Another baseball rat. The kind of guy who can spark a team. A high energy guy who never quits. He puts the caffeine in coffee. He’ll fill a skill position most likely. He gives us a lot of flexibility and will get plenty of time to improve his batting skills.”

9       5     3B    Nobuhiko Ohara “Utility infielder type. No great expectations here. Just wanted a guy who can fill in a number of places and give the club some options.”

10     5     LF    Kimi Tsuchiya “A guy who walks the walk and busts his tail to improve. He’ll get some chances in a crowded outfield and will need to leverage them and learn fast if he hopes to stick around.”