[Archive] CARNEXT Samurai Japan Series 2024 VS EUROPE : Collegiate Players Brief Review

byRiko - 0 تعليقات

Recently Samurai Japan released a new breakdown of the team's roster for the incoming match against Europe's representative team on 6-7th March. And as predicted long ago, four collegiate players were selected to join with pro players as Samurai Japan representatives.

But some NPB fans might feel unfamiliar within those names, so I'll help to explain as briefly as I could so you can know about them more in just a slight reading. Well, if you want to search more about them, I'll leave their kanji's name for you to search later.

Disclaimer : this insight is combined with my own opinions which means it's not always accurate, and someone might have a different opinion with mine, so it's okay to give your own opinion in reply, or questions as well about them or college baseball.

Muneyama Rui (宗山塁)

He's a SS from Meiji University and a captain starting this year. Has been debuting since first year and became a regular SS since then until now. Have a good bat control & tight defense, and strong arms, which make him stay regularly as clean-up batter.

He's been leading on the league's most hit record by active player (Tokyo Big 6) with 95 H per October, more than the latest record by Ueda Kyuto (Chiba Lotte 1st pick 2023) which is Meiji's former captain with only 96 H total.

His batting was much decreasing than his peak season in second year (from .400 to .289) but his fielding is much better than before. The speed of his fielding momentum when handling grounder balls is so fast, and combined with strong arms, making his fielding look more efficient.

Fun fact : he's called "Meiji Prince" which you may have heard before from Morishita Masato (Hiroshima Carp, formerly Meiji's captain).

Nakamura Yuto (中村優斗)


He's a RHP from Aichi Institute of Technology (Aikoudai). He topped 157 km/h & averaged 150 km/h, a type of pitcher that combines the balance of his power and control consistently.

Other than the powerful fastball, he also had variation of slider, change-up, cutter and splitter. Thanks to his bothersome form of set-up timing, he often makes batters difficult to adjust their own timing with his timing.

In my opinion, after looking through his pitch highlight, he really had good control, even when he threw a speedy ball. Not only that, his slider also becomes one interesting point as this pitch breaks sharply before cut-off right in front of batters. Still, he might stand out as a reliever in this roster but who knows. I hope I can see him more this spring soon. (He might be equivalent enough with Hosei's Shinogi Kentarou in terms of avg velocity imo).

Kanemaru Yumeto (金丸夢斗)

A LHP & ace from Kansai University. Debuting since first year and became an ace since second year. Had a good control and much a potential starter for this roster. Topped at 153 km/h, varies with slider, change-up, cutter & splitter in his arsenal.

Latest career stats from Fall 2023 : 0.99 ERA-9W 0L (12 G)-136 K-0.85 WHIP. Well, as you can see he is also such a hard-to-hit type of pitcher with a high K% of 36,4% (accumulated) which keeps his ERA always less than 2.00 for three years in a row.

He has good control for both fastball & breaking ball—especially with his change-up & splitter, which helps him make a better command for both out & in-course. Other than that, he's really good at quick & pick-off which often messes up the batter's timing & even for runners too.

Fun fact : When he was interviewed by Sanspo and asked which pro teams he was interested in, he answered 'would be Hanshin Tigers or Orix Buffaloes, since they belong in Kansai...' (He was born in the Kansai region)

Nishikawa Misho (西川史礁)

A regular LF in Aoyama Gakuin University's team. He's a highly valued slugger prospect for this year's draft soon. Last season (Fall 2023) he recorded 10 RBI 3 HR and a total of AVG.364 & SLG.614. Had a powerful full-swing and good batting control.

He was Aogaku's key point in offense when winning both Spring & Fall season and both tournaments in 2022. Along with his good bat control, he also has a powerful swing, and could face any pitches and any pressure, which is admitted by Ibata himself.

Being a regular clean-up slugger both in his team & samurai jp (univ), he's really showing the quality of a power hitter himself to Ibata. Slightly a chance he'd show up as PH but still he's a future potential player in the Draft 2024 highest rank pick soon.

And that's my review about these four players. Some might have inaccurate points or statistics so feel free to correct it as well. And there are some of many collegiate players which are eligible for draft prospects, too.

And so, after this event ended, I hope this will turn out to be a good sign for college baseball to grow more interests to new fans out there and a good appealing point for those players to show as a draft candidate soon.

If you have any questions or critiques, feel free to add your opinion below in reply. I'll also put more updates together in this thread so there might be new information regarding these players or Samurai Japan updates soon. Thank you for reading!


Source :

- https://japan-baseball.jp/jp/news/press/20240214_2.html

- https://sponichi.co.jp/baseball/news/2024/01/22/kiji/20240122s00001004052000c.html

- http://baseball.omyutech.com

Thread Link :

https://twitter.com/yknk_623/status/1764963066146586860

Riko

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