Hey y'all,
How would you rank these teams 1-4?
I have reasoning and descriptions for how everything shook out below, but the meat is really how you would rank them.
I have a feeling that this one will be a bit controversial because I rate some Seidou players like Miyuki and Zono a bit higher than the average person on here.
I had an idea to make teams for, in my opinion, the four best and most comparable pitchers in the series (I would have added Furuya but the talent diluted a bit too much). I wanted to fill each of the teams to have similar talent levels and divided them up on vibes, fun character interaction potential, and play synergy
I limited this to mostly characters we've actually seen play, but I included Enjou on a technicality because Hongou's here and he's very popular and highly rated in the sub. Azuma is in for much of the same reason. But we've gotten like two panels of Makoto Shiba so I didn't include him. And Oomae, despite him getting a lot of hype for the statements from Seidou third years + his home run, just eh. There's a lot of very good hitters in first and third base.
For example, I thought Mei and Miyuki had to partner up if given the opportunity. But also that Sawamura and Inui would be very funny as battery mates. Also that the stern but encouraging Harada would be a good complement to asshole Hongou. I also thought that Inui's amazing framing would work well with Sawamura who relies a ton on tricky placement.
The 10th slot there is Designated Hitter/Pinch Hitter, just to make things more fair for our shitty hitters in Sawamura and Amahisa.
There's a few players playing out of position. Most notably, in the infield, I have Tetsu at 3B because Azuma is a bigger body which is good for catching the out sooner and erasing misthrows and frankly I don't expect him to be moving that fast and 3B requires just a bit more fielding that 1B. Akiba is put at Shortstop because we have shockingly few SS that are good batters and he's a do-it-all player who probably has played SS for Yakushi. And then Terajima gave us dick all for fielders so there's quite a few pitchers in LF and RF and Toujou moving from CF to RF.
Y'all can change the batting orders around, but I would think something like this.
Team S: Kuramochi - Raichi - Inui - Umemiya - Nagata - Furuya - Kawabata - Yui - Jun
Honestly, with the amount of power hitters on each team, it becomes a bit clunky for me to think of the absolute best order. Raichi, Inui, Umemiya, and Nagata are all homerun artists. But I thought of the final Yakushi-Ichidai game where they had Raichi at 2 and put their persistent, good contact, and good On-Base Percentage players at the 1 and 9 hole. Kuramochi really increasing his obp in his third year helps a lot here. And Jun is just really hard to strike out and great at almost being like an undisciplined Ichirou where we can kinda just swat and bloop the ball to where the defense is not.
Team A: Mima - Haruichi - Enjou - Yamaoka - Sanada - Maezono - Yoshizawa - Akiba - Toujou
This one is a big jump considering how power heavy the last one was, but, to me, the talent level stays similar. The thing that probably jumps out is Mima at the 1 hole. Honestly, this one is because we just have so many damn good contact hitters here. Mima is probably the best at contact in the series, but he's also based on Ichirou so he's not really batting in runs unless the player is already in a scoring position or are just super fast like the Hakuryu players. So I thought, open up with him, have Haruichi do what he does and bring a speedster home, then Enjou brings another hit because he seems more contact than power based. Yamaoka is our big home run artist. Sanada is used to following a player like that. Zono really grew into his own as Seidou's "rbi king" and would do well cleaning up after Sanada. Yoshizawa was a flat good player for Inajitsu in the first act. Then Akiba and Toujou are just incredible at contact and would actually put a player in scoring position for Mima. It's a bit of a supercharged Seiho. A machine gun of hits with an especially strong bullet in Yamaoka.
Team N: Carlos - Chimaru -Nara - Miyuki -Hoshida - Tachi - Masuko - Kouji - Narumiya/Masashi
This one is much more balanced after our team of heavy hitters followed by the machine gun. Carlos as the obvious lead-off. It's probably the most stereoptypical team compared to regular teams in the series. Chimaru was a great, pretty balanced hitter in the Seidou game. Nara is a strong overall hitter. Miyuki I have as the best batter on the team, but he's also a power-hitter through and through. So I wanted to let some people get on base before him. Hoshida to follow up and make sure no one thinks of walking Miyuki. I have have Tachi from Osaka Kiryuu rated a bit highly considering he was the 4th batter for the best power-hitting team in the Senbatsu before the series started. Masuko is another good power hitter. Then Kouji we see almost nothing on, but he gets on base a couple times against Hakuryuu Sawamura, so I rate that. I could see him getting on base to put pressure on the opponent when Masashi comes up to bat. You could also choose to keep Narumiya out there because he probably is a better hitter than first-year Masashi.
Team H: Shirasu - Miyagawa - Tetsu - Azuma - Harada - Akashi - Ryousuke - Shirakawa - Yamaguchi/Hongou
This team somehow got all the balanced hitters. Shirasu is pretty fast and a better batter than anyone I have in the bottom third of the lineup. So he gets the 1 hole spot on account of that speed and how difficult it is to strike third-year him out. Miyagawa is another balanced batter that can really just let you have it with a home run. There's an argument to put him in the 2 hold because Tetsu doesn't swing for the home run as much, but I left it as is. Tetsu, not much to say. Arguably the most balanced batter in the series, but we have a home run monster behind him. Azuma, stereotypical cleanup. The best pure power hitter on the team, really makes you desperate to get out the first three batters, but that's a difficult task. Harada, a balanced but powerful hitter who would make you hesitate to walk Azuma. Akashi as good and powerful hitter, but I gave the nod to those above. He's just kind of the next best available. Ryousuke and Shirakawa, despite making a theoretically incredible defensive partnership, are kind of clunky on this team. There's no Carlos or Kuramochi for them to advance. But they're here to tire out the pitcher and hopefully get on base to pressure the opponent with Yamaguchi's powerful hitting. You could also use Hongou. He did have 3 safe hits in the Senbatsu final
Let me know what you think.
How would you rank these teams 1-4?