🇯🇵⚾️ Covering Japanese baseball in English. Editor-in-Chief, @JapanBall. Contributor, @JustBB_Media, @WorldBaseball_. 日本の野球を英語でお届けしてます。
Joined December 2022
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🚨 New Talking Yakyu Podcast ⚾️
🇯🇵 NPB Draft & Japan Series Preview
👉 Looking at the top prospects ahead of this week’s draft and predicting who will prevail between the juggernaut Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and red-hot Yokohama DeNA BayStars
youtu.be/aNW8qBuf6V8?si=YbC6…
Another solid crop of NPB 🇯🇵 players participating in the ABL 🇦🇺 this year.
Tomosugi: Plus defensive SS (14 DRS since 2025)
Ueda: Good platoon bat (134 OPS+ vs. RHP)
Hirayama: Promising young corner OF (126 OPS+ before getting hurt)
Hanada: SP prospect (could debut in 2027)
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
With the NPB Draft coming up next week, here’s my interview with Gaku Arima from this summer.
The Ritsumeikan southpaw is one of the top college pitchers of the class and has a chance to go in the 1st round.
japanball.com/japanese-baseb…
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
🎙️ I will be doing a live X Space on Thursday, October 22 for English commentary on the first round of the 2026 NPB Draft.
🇯🇵 4:30 pm Japan Time
🇺🇸 3:30 am Eastern Time
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
🇯🇵 My Final Top Prospects Ranking for the 2026 NPB Draft
1. TWP Haruki Komoda (Yamanashi Gakuin HS)
2. C Kai Watabe (Aoyama Gakuin)
3. RHP Taisei Suzuki (Aoyama Gakuin)
4. RHP Keito Kawajiri (Asia)
5. LHP Yuto Maeda (Takaoka Daiichi HS)
6. OF Ryosuke Fujisawa (Tokyo Gas)
7. OF Akito Haruyama (Osaka Commerce)
8. RHP Ren Miyahara (Kindai)
9. TWP Masanori Honishi (Japan Aviation HS Ishikawa)
10. OF Nanato Sakakibara (Meiji)
11. RHP Futo Kakuta (Fuji)
12. LHP Gaku Arima (Ritsumeikan)
13. LHP Yuto Yonezawa (Kansai)
14. LHP Kazuhiro Watanabe (Keio)
15. RHP Reito Hirata (Oita Commercial HS)
16. LHP Sena Hoshino (Osaka Commerce)
17. RHP Shin Nakai (Komazawa)
18. RHP Takumi Baba (Nippon Sport Science)
19. LHP Mahiro Sugimoto (Chiben Gakuen HS)
20. 2B Keigo Okada (Meiji)
21. LHP Yusuke Sawayama (Yamaha)
22. RHP Seiya Kakimoto (Panasonic)
23. RHP Fuga Shinjo (Nara University Affiliated HS)
24. C Ran Maejima (Asia)
25. C Keiya Nishino (Ritsumeikan)
👉 RHP Shoki Oda would be No. 2 if he wasn’t pursuing MLB/NCAA
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
🇯🇵 My Final 2026 NPB Mock Draft - 1st Round Nominations
SoftBank: TWP Haruki Komoda
Seibu: RHP Taisei Suzuki
Ham: TWP Haruki Komoda
Orix: RHP Taisei Suzuki
Lotte: RHP Keito Kawajiri
Rakuten: C Kai Watabe
Hanshin: C Kai Watabe
Yomiuri: OF Ryosuke Fujisawa
DeNA: TWP Haruki Komoda
Hiroshima: RHP Ren Miyahara
Yakult: TWP Haruki Komoda
Chunichi: LHP Yuto Maeda
Former NPB and KBO lefties bringing their splitters to the world
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
Enzo Sawayama looked great in the WBC. He was Brazil’s best arm in the tournament.
He led Brazil in IP, K, WHIP, and didn’t allow a single run in two starts. 🇧🇷🇯🇵
The Hiroshima Carp are reportedly leaning towards Asia University IF Takara Yamasato with its first round nomination.
Yamasato is projected as a 2nd round on most public draft boards, but could immediately help Hiroshima as their new shortstop.
nikkansports.com/m/baseball/…
Former Chunichi Dragons outfielder Kenta Bright has made an X account where he will share updates about his life.
Bright retired from baseball this month due to his battle with depression.
皆様初めまして！
この度Xを始めました。
Xでは私生活の様子や僕が書いているnoteの告知をする予定です！
体調が悪く投稿できない時もありますがよろしくお願いします！
note.com/kentabright
SoftBank Hawks RHP Ryosuke Ohtsu will miss 4-5 months with right shoulder surgery.
hochi.news/articles/20261021…
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
I have significantly changed the NPB cards:
You now have a compact card. Z-COn% per pitch type is added. You can find an overall tool summary on the bottom left, and the radar visualisation to understand the player at a glance!
Aim: More professional, more shareable.
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
「ドラフト候補」としてまだメディアに名前出てない選手だと思うのでぜひ！
台湾大学球界に「隠し玉」のドラフト候補 最速151キロを投じる日本人右腕を複数球団がリストアップか - スポーツナビ sports.yahoo.co.jp/column/de…
#ドラフト会議 #ドラフト会議2026
The NPB Draft tomorrow night is shaping up to be very interesting, as no team has announced its first round nomination before draft night.
2022: 9 teams publicly announce pick before draft night
2026: 0 teams publicly announce pick before draft night
🇯🇵 2026 NPB Mock Draft
👉 A quick look at each team's needs and what direction I think they will go in the first round tomorrow night
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
Best prospect of the 2026 NPB Draft class?
(Not counting Genei Sato or Shoki Oda)
59%TWP Haruki Komoda
15%RHP Taisei Suzuki
20%C Kai Watabe
6%Other
152 votes • Final resultsNaoyuki Uwasawa will start Game 1 for the and Livan Moinelo will start Game 2 for the SoftBank Hawks in the Japan Series.
news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/4b…
Yakyu Cosmopolitan retweeted
Update-The Hawks announced that developmental hurlers Keishin Nagamizu, Kaito Uchino & Yusei Tobita are the three heading to Gigantes this winter.
Per sources, the SoftBank Hawks are at the moment planning to send three pitchers to Gigantes de Carolina this upcoming #LBPRC🇵🇷❄️season.
This will bump up to a total of 8 contracted NPB players that are going to be active in Puerto Rico.
Teruaki Sato and Shugo Maki embraced during their series last week as Sato revealed to him that he would be going to MLB next season