2014 Draft

Here is a look back at the Hanshin Tigers’ 2014 NPB Draft picks. How have their careers gone? How has the draft panned out for the team? Which other stars came out of the same draft in the same round as our guys?

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Round 1 – #15/115/91 Yuya Yokoyama (LHP)

Yokoyama was chosen out of industrial leagues after we lost out on the lottery for Kohei Arihara (Fighters) and then Yasuaki Yamasaki (BayStars). Clearly the team would have been better off with one of the guys they missed out on. Yokoyama has shown some promise but also a glass body, missing large parts of nearly every season since he has gone pro. He was made a development player, and only got one mound after winning back two-digit status. He got released at the end of the 2020 season.

Round 2 – #30 Tsuyoshi Ishizaki (RHP)

Ishizaki was teammates with Yokoyama in industrial league play, and the Tigers jumped at the chance to keep them on the same team as pros. Ishizaki was hoping to become a reliever in the vein of Kyuji Fujikawa, and showed some promise – he was one of the important parts of the 2017 super-bullpen – but he also came to the team in the same FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE box as Yokoyama. Before the 2019 season, he was shipped off to the Chiba Lotte Marines in exchange for Keisuke Takano. Neither fared any better in his new home – both got released within a couple of years.

Round 3 – #25 Taiga Egoshi (OF)

Egoshi came to us as one who had the potential of being a five-tool guy. He has shown flashes of that brilliance in nearly all of his seasons since being drafted, but has yet to put together an entire season. Case in point: he led the team in home runs on the farm in 2019 – his age-26 season. Though his speed, his glove and his bat are really attractive pieces, the wind he generates from his strikeouts could power Koshien for years. Used mostly as a pinch runner and defensive replacement under manager Yano, Egoshi got traded to the Nippon-Ham Fighters after the 2022 season.

Round 4 – #43 Koki Moriya (RHP)

Most had given up on Moriya when he made no appearances on the top squad at all in 2015, struggled a bunch in the next two years (even on the farm), and really did not play much in 2018, either. In fact, he had 13 innings of top squad experience with a 10.38 ERA entering the 2019 season. And then… something happened. He figured out how to strike guys out (8.83/9). He got the team out of a number of bad places. He added 57 innings to his career total, all from the bullpen, posting a very respectable 3.00 ERA. Unfortunately after that, he dealt with injuries and even a tabloid scandal (the charges of domestic abuse were proven false). He did not make it up to the top squad much in the three seasons following his breakout year, and was released by the team in 2022.

Round 5 – #62 Kai Ueda (IF)

Ueda seemed like an afterthought in this draft, and was mostly regarded for his speed and defense. He saw his first top squad action in 2016, attempting a stolen base on the last day of the season. From then, he has gotten sporadic chances at short and second, and is primarily used as a pinch-runner. His SB% is pretty high, but he has made his share of baserunning mistakes. He hit perhaps the most unexpected home run of the year in June against the SoftBank Hawks… from the left side of the plate (his unnatural side). He’ll need to show a little more power (2 XBH, .035 RISP through 2019) if he wants a shot at regular playing time. Still, those wheels…

Overall Grade: D

Virtually nothing from the top three, other than a good 2017 out of Ishizaki and a good 2019 from Moriya. Egoshi had some good moments but never put together a solid season despite high hopes from fans and coaches alike. As of the end of 2022, only Ueda remains with the team, and even his role is quite minimal.