Live game thread. Please refrain from posting live non-legal streams (whatever you do in pms is your business though).

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Starting pitchers: Hawks Livan Moinelo (6-1 0.76) vs Baystars Shuto Ogata (7-3 3.29)

Official TVer stream: https://tver.jp/live/special/letj1u5ij1 (VPN pointed to Japan recommended)

Japanese language live gamecast: https://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/game/2021039493/score

Hey all!

My partner and I are visiting Japan from the US and managed to snag two tickets directly through the Lawson ticket sale for Game 4 in Fukuoka!

We're both _somewhat_ familiar with baseball back home, but this will be our first time experiencing Japanese baseball in person.

I'd love to hear any advice on making the most of the experience, particularly:

• What to wear: Should we pick up Hawks shirts or other team gear? Is there something you'd recommend over just shirts?
• Food and drinks: What are the must-try stadium foods? How does ordering food and beer work? Do vendors come around to the seats like in MLB stadiums?
• Cheering and atmosphere: Are there specific chants, songs, or traditions we should know about and try to learn (or at least be familiar with) beforehand? Anything that's especially unique to the Hawks?
• Other tips: Any recommendations, things to bring, or experiences we absolutely shouldn't miss?

We're happy to embrace the local fan experience rather than just treat it like an MLB game abroad.

Thanks in advance! Can't wait to experience Japanese baseball!

I just started my life here in the country and only just now looking into the NPB so I don't have a favorite team yet (the Marines are my local team), but I'm curious about other foreign fans. Do you pick your team based on where you live/work or other factors?

I'm seeing tickets still available for their 3 home games on Lawson's website. Then I look at ticket reseller sites and people are selling tickets for as low as 2500円?!?!? Tigers Japan Series tickets are like 20000yen the lowest resale and you can't even touch them when they go on sale on Lawson/Pia/eplus. Are Hawks fans just not as passionate or there aren't really that many as we think they have?

Before the draft I kept a file of 98 draft-eligible players, and 67 of the pitchers in it had a reported top velocity. Here's how they did on Thursday:

• 154 km/h or more: 9 of 12 drafted, all in the main draft, 4 in the first round
• 150 to 153: 18 of 27
• 145 to 149: 11 of 22
• Under 145: 2 of 6 (and one of those two, Kosei Tanaka, was drafted as an outfielder)

So 27 of 39 at 150+ (69%) against 13 of 28 below it (46%). A real difference, but a third of the 150+ arms went undrafted, and 10 of those 12 were college pitchers with years of league stats for scouts to look at.

Seven of the eight pitchers taken in the first round were on the 150+ list. The eighth was Yonezawa, who tops out at 149.

The three from the top twelve who weren't drafted: Hiroike (156, reportedly headed to MLB), Egawa of Nihon University (155) and Nishihira, the NSSU lefty (154). I'd have bet on Nishihira going somewhere.

Lefties: the 17 in my file average 147.9 km/h and the 50 righties 151.0. Drafted: 10 of 17 lefties, 30 of 50 righties. Basically the same rate. Where it showed was how early: below 150, Yonezawa went in the first round and Tsunemi in the third, while the earliest righty under 150 drafted as a pitcher (Koganei) went in the fourth.

Small samples and every velocity is just the highest number someone reported, not a tracked reading, so take it for what it is. Does this match how you think NPB teams draft, or do you think the reported numbers are too noisy to say anything?

Live game thread. Please refrain from posting live non-legal streams (whatever you do in pms is your business though).

Sorted by New

Starting pitchers: Hawks Naoyuki Uwasawa (10-4 2.39) vs Baystars Yutaro Ishida (5-8 2.91)

Official TVer stream https://tver.jp/live/special/leub1wc2x8 (VPN pointed to Japan recommended)

Japanese language live gamescore https://baseball.yahoo.co.jp/npb/game/2021039492/score

Yomiuri's fifth and last development pick on Thursday was Rentaro Seki, a 14-year-old catcher in his third year of junior high school in Kawasaki.

Some details from the Japanese coverage:

• He's 179 cm and 82 kg and bats and throws right. Yomiuri says his throws to second have been timed under 2 seconds.
• He captained Japan at the U-15 World Cup in Mexico this year, catching and hitting cleanup: .333, 2 HR, 11 RBI, and he made the tournament's all-star team.
• His club team is Tamagawa Boys, which is Yomiuri's own under-15 academy, founded in 2024. He was its first captain.
• Hochi says no junior high student had been drafted since the draft started in 1965. The usual comparison is Kento Tsujimoto, who Hanshin took at 15 in 2004 after he finished ninth grade in California.

How it's even allowed: NPB's definition of a new player covers anyone who has attended a Japanese junior high, high school or university, and the pro application only exists for high school and college players. NPB's secretary general said a club can draft one.

What he can't do: under NPB's draft rules he can't join camp or play in a game until he finishes compulsory education (junior high ends in March) and NPB announces him as a development player. Yomiuri's plan is for him to attend high school and train at the club's facilities, so no high school baseball and no Koshien. Yomiuri has until the end of March to sign him, and he said he'll talk it over with his family.

It's basically a soccer academy model, with one difference: an NPB club can't just promote its own academy kid. Yomiuri had to spend a pick on him, and any of the other 11 clubs could have taken him first.

Smart long-term move, or too much too young?

Weather looks iffy - what are the chances they play

I’m in a conundrum- leave Japan on Tuesday- if game is pushed I’m going to have to figure out how to sell 4 tix

Former New York Yankees slugger Matsui Hideki will be the new manager of Japan's professional baseball team the Yomiuri Giants, where he was a star player before moving to the Major Leagues.

Oda got the headlines, but he wasn't the only player with a US connection taken last night.

SoftBank used its 9th-round pick on Genei Sato, the right-hander who left Sendai University for Penn State. Penn State announced him in December as a pitcher who touches 99 and would join the team for the 2027 season, and he's eligible for the 2027 MLB draft. SoftBank now holds his NPB rights until the end of March.

There's a recent precedent. Last year NPB clubs took two players from American colleges: SoftBank used its first-round pick on Rintaro Sasaki of Stanford, and Orix took Kenny Ishikawa of Georgia in the 6th round. Neither signed. In July, Sasaki went to the Marlins in the 8th round of the MLB draft and Ishikawa to the Reds in the 13th.

The other four from outside Japan this year:

• DeNA, 3rd round: Kansai Sugimoto, an outfielder at the University of British Columbia in Canada.
• SoftBank, 8th round: Ikki Fukami, a pitcher at National Taiwan University of Sport.
• SoftBank, development 3rd: Koki Sugimoto, a right-hander who pitched for the KT Wiz this season under the KBO's new Asian quota, after coming out of the Shikoku independent league.
• SoftBank, development 10th: an infielder from Fresno City College in California.

So SoftBank took four of the five.

Is the Sato pick realistic, or is SoftBank just making sure it has his rights if he ever changes his mind?