Friday, January 29, 2016

Reviewing the projected field - Hanasaki Tokuharu (Saitama)/Nishogakushadai Fuzoku (Tokyo)

I forgot to cover the Tokyo/Kanto flex bid which seemingly will go to Hanasaki Tokuharu instead of Nishogakushadai Fuzoku because I just can't see the JHBF choosing a team to go for the 2nd straight year on a floating bid - even though their resume is much stronger:

Hanasaki Tokuharu

  • Quality wins - Kasukabe Kyouei
  • Quality losses(?) - Urawa Gakuin, Kisaradzu Sougou
  • Questionable games - Waseda Honjyou (won 5-3), Kitoku (won 4-2)
Nishogakushadai Fuzoku
  • Quality wins - Waseda Jitsugyou, Nichidai-san, Toukaidai Takanawadai (to a lesser extent)
  • Quality losses - Kanto Dai-ichi (again)
  • Questionable games - None

But I'll cover both just in case. Hopefully the JHBF proves me wrong and chooses the better team (in my opinion).

Hanasaki Tokuharu's ace Takahashi Kouya (高橋 昂也) pitched at Koushien last summer with a good level of success giving up just 1 run in 8 innings of work, striking out 8 and walking just 2. He appears to be able to hold his own against better competition, but it would help if he had good defense behind him. He throws in the low 140s with a slider/curve/fork combo.

The counterpart, Nishogakushadai Fuzoku's Ooe Ryuusei (大江 竜聖) has put up strong numbers at Koushien and has a repertoire similar to Takahashi. He also seems to have gained a couple ticks on the fastball though his numbers are not as strong as at Koushien.

In terms of offense, I'm searching for more detailed game info from Tokyo as box scores are hard to come by (for some reason), but it's certainly promising that against Kanto Dai-ichi (for the umpteenth time), down the lineup almost everyone collected a hit - this compared with Hanasaki Tokuharu and their main guy Okazaki Daisuke (岡崎 大輔).

I'll need to do some extra research (when I'm not at work) to find more batting/pitching details, but pitching being equal the results for Nishogakushadai Fuzoku look much better.

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