The Japanese baseball team first unveiled the 12 key members who will participate in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) to be held in March.
According to Japanese media reports such as ‘Sports Hochi’ and ‘Sports Annex’, the Japanese national team consists of 12 key players, including three major leaguers: Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres), and Seiya Suzuki (Chicago Cubs). It is expected that the members will be announced first, followed by an entry for 30 members at the end of this month.메이저사이트
First of all, looking at the pitching staff, Ohtani, who won the American League unanimous MVP in 2021, and Darvish, a veteran with a career of 95 wins in the big leagues, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix Buffaloes), who won the Sawamura Award, the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) best pitcher award for two consecutive years, and 164 km/h Rocky Sasaki (Chiba Lotte Marines), a pitcher with a fastball, perfect pitcher, No-run lefty Shota Imana (Yokohama DeNA Baystars), and Central League strikeout king Shosei Dogo (Yomiuri Giants) were named on the roster.
The batters include major leaguer Suzuki, unanimous MVP Murakami Munetaka (Yakult Swallows), who hit 56 homers last year, second baseman Maki Shugo (Yokohama DeNA Baystars), who hit 20 homers for two consecutive years, catcher Guy Takuya, a member of the Tokyo Olympics gold medal, Outfielder Kensuke Kondo (Softbank Hawks) and shortstop Sosuke Genda (Seibu Lions) were selected.
In addition to the members announced on the day, the Japanese national team will be joined by overseas players such as Yoshida Masataka (Boston Red Sox), Senga Kodai (New York Mets), and Japanese major leaguer Lars Nuba (St. Louis Cardinals) who succeeded in entering the major leagues this winter. Is expected. Japan is aiming for the WBC championship title, which has been cut off after winning two championships in a row in 2006 and 2009 based on its mighty power.