Thursday, August 22, 2013

Koshien Hitter Scouting Reports

With the Summer Koshien now wrapped up, and four separate posts written by me on the pitchers in the tournament, I wanted to take a look at some of the hitters. This can be a little bit more difficult, because it is a little harder to evaluate a hitter over one or two games than it is a pitcher over an outing. I only wrote about a handful of hitters that played in the quarterfinals, semifinals, and the final game, but hopefully this post will be helpful anyway.

The school name is in italics and the player name is in bold. Next to the player name is his height and weight, converted from centimeters and kilograms to feet and pounds. Instead of converting the feet to feet plus inches, I left it in decimal form, which was just easier. The centimeters and kilograms came from the rosters I used throughout the tournament, the ones I had linked to in the past. As always, some players have more notes than others, both in quantity and quality.

Naruto Tokushima

Kawano Yuuto 5.61 159

His swing is a little long and he got jammed.  The plate discipline seemed solid.

Ise Hayato 5.97 192

A little bit of a crouch in his stance, but you still see his impressive size (especially compared to the other players in the tournament). His frame gives him some room to fill out. If he doesn't, he shouldn't be stuck on first base, though he doesn't appear to be notably athletic or a very good runner.

His swing needs some work, as he has a little bit of a bad angle on the swing, and kept hitting grounders off the end of his bat, whether foul or fair. He can pull the ball, but he was not getting under the ball.

Hanamaki Higashi

Chiba Shouta 5.12 cm 123 KG
He has an extreme chokeup on the bat, making him a slap hitter. He crouches heavily in stance. Very aggressive with two strikes, but will take if it is clearly out of the zone. Good contact tool, can use foul balls to have long at-bats. Bat gets through zone quickly.

Kishisato Ryousuke 5.94 165

He can pitch, but the left-handed batter hit a home run to dead center. Up in the order hitter, could have long at-bats and shorten stroke to make contact on pitches thrown just abut every where.

Oota Ryousuke 5.91 176

Seems to have a flat swing, can make contact on high pitches. It isn't smooth or quick though, making him foul off pitches that were good pitches to hit.

Meitoku Gijuku

Kishi Jyunichirou 5.74 159

Listed as pitcher (wears number 1, which most teams' aces do). Other way swing, but showed power on outside pitches. Does not appear to be a plus runner.

Maebashi Ikuei (winners of the tournament)

Tsuchiya Keisuke 5.71 159

Shortstop that has range and good athleticism but his arm had problems at times. He has a real potential to be a really good defender, though he will have to learn to control his body a little better. At the plate, he stayed back on a curveball pretty well, but is probably a groundball hitter.

Arai Kaito 5.77 165

Just missed a homer pulling the ball. Can, and will go the other way, though I don't love his standing point when he does so, as he robs himself of power.

Ogawa Toshiki 5.68 183

Quick bat, good control of it (though he doesn't have very good control of his body), tends to sacrifice power for contact in a pretty extreme way. Tough to strikeout and can hit everything but probably not going to walk.

Itagaki Fumiya 5.41 143

Chokes up on bat and holds it high over his head. Showed the ability to lay off the breaking balls, had some problems getting around fastballs.  Good swing plane, though it is pretty violent, swinging hard and losing some control of his body. Other way hitter, though he had some propensity to whiff.

Kusonoki Hiroki 5.94 148

Hit an inside pitch well, getting around on it quickly. He seems to have some authority behind the swing.

Takahashi Tomoya 5.58 150

Showed some athleticism at 2nd base, though his motions are still a little awkward.

Kudou Youhei 5.54 146

Can uppercut low pitches and get under the ball. A slight jailbreak in his swing mechanics.

Tamura Hayato 5.74 161

Showed some pull power on a low pitch, driving it out of the park.

Joso Gakuin

Uchida Yashuhito  6.07 192
Big swing to go with size, but had patience at the plate.

Nihon Yamagata

Shouji Yukata 6.07 165

Long and slender looking. Seemed really antsy at the plate and had some problems waiting back on balls. Sometimes the swing got really uncontrolled and too violent.

Okumura Hiromu 5.81 159

Violent left-handed swing. Struggled with contact and chased pitches out of the zone. He somewhat runs out of the box with the swing, though not the exaggerated sprint while swing that you see in some slash/speed players (which he is not).

Nobeoka Gakuen

Watarai Akihiro 5.64 157

A bit of knee bend in stance, but not a full crouch, sweeps leg like he might jailbreak or leg kick, but doesn't. Seems to swing with some authority.

Matsumoto Masaya 5.81 154

Very good bat control and contact skills. Perhaps got a little long with swing, made him unable to get around on low and inside pitches well. Can really uppercut swing. Would lay off pitches at times, showing good plate discipline.

No comments:

Post a Comment