At the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, I bumped into two people I knew, Waseda University manager Satoru Komiyama, and Hideaki Okubo, who is returning to manage corporate league team Eneos after a spell as Keio University’s manager.
Jump to 1 year as a scout page
I am keen to interview them and learn how they find and evaluate players.
The challenge is to stop trying to do everything by myself, but rather learn to ask for help from people who are willing to give it, and there are an amazing number of those people.
So today’s target is reaching out to six people: My teacher, Dan (for advice), the baseball editor of one of Japan’s major sports dailies, Komiyama and Okubo, and my two best NPB front office contacts.
Assignment 2: Pitcher Scouting Report
This time a pitcher. Since I’m a Swallows fan who focuses on pro ball so much, I was happy to find every pitch Yasunobu Okugawa threw in a 14-inning complete game at Koshien last year.
Again pressed for a physical description, I struggled until I say Kyle Hendricks.
I love Okugawa. The Swallows are one of the teams that do strength training so there’s a chance he won’t flat-line like Shintaro Fujinami.
