Musashi Fuchu wins Japan, Heads to Williamsport

EDITORS NOTE: Fumio Ishii, our Japanese Little League correspondent, covered the Japanese Little League Tournament for us this week and did an amazing job bringing words and images to us from games that we never get to hear about. Here’s his recap of the national championship game and a scouting report on Musashi Fuchu, the team which will represent Japan in Williamsport, Pennsylvania for the Little League World Series.



Just got back from the Japanese Little League Tournament (Zavas Cup) and as I predicted, Musashi Fuchu Little League will be taking their third trip to Williamsport and gunning for their second Little League World Series title since 2003. Please bear with me as all the Japanese Little League programs are in Japanese so I might get the names wrong because there are so many ways to pronounce the characters.

Musashi Fuchu has been known for their potent offense in the past. The first four hitters in their lineup include right fielder Kazuteru Ishida (石田和輝), shortstop Sho Miyao (宮尾将), third baseman Shunpei Takagi (高木俊平), and left fielder Takuma Gomi (五味卓馬). From the Zavas Cup tournament, most of the runs were scored by these top four players, but they also have good hitters in the bottom of the order too.

On defense, there are four players returning from last year’s Musashi Fuchu team which was the Tokyo runner up to the 2012 Little League World Series Champions Kitasuna Little League. They are Miyao, Gomi, second baseman Dai Okada (岡田大), and first baseman Kensuke Tsuchida (土田健輔). Their defense is very solid. Miyao looked like Ozzie Smith at times, he has very good range.

Like Kitasuna last year, they do have a big team, but their big boys are mostly on the bench. I can’t trust the measurements from the Little League program, because last year, they listed Kotaro Kiyomiya as 5-foot-9 and 176 pounds. I stood next to him and I’m 5-foot-11 and weigh over 200 pounds. Kiyomiya is bigger than me, so I knew his measurements had to be wrong unless I really shrank. It was ESPN who got his measurement right of 6-foot-1 and over 200 pounds. Fuchu has six players over 5-foot-6. The biggest player is (TKO) Ryutaro Takeo (竹尾竜太朗).  I never stood next to him, like I did with Kiyomiya, but I know he weighs more than 200 pounds and is 5-foot-9. He is a backup catcher and a closer. He throws in the low to mid 70’s. Then, there is another player, Ryu Nagano (永野龍李), who is around 6-feet, 140 pounds. I see him being used as a middle reliever, but he’s mostly on the bench. Keita Saito (齊藤恵太) is around 5-foot-8,  150 pounds and used as backup left fielder and middle reliever. Shinya Nishino (西野清也) looks like their starting left handed pitcher who is 5-foot-10, 130 pounds. I don’t see him playing other positions besides pitcher. Toru Kobayashi is 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds and he was a middle reliever.

 The pitching is kind of erratic. When I mean erratic, I mean wild. It seems like their manager Masumi Ohmae wanted his big kids to pitch regardless of control. Their ace seems to be Shinya Nishino who is a south paw, he seems to throw in the high 60’s to low 70’s, but he has control problems and easily rattled when someone hits the long ball off him. Their other pitcher is their leadoff hitter Kazuteru Ishida. He seems to throw in the low 70’s too, but also has control problems. Then they have Saito who has heat, but control problems as well as middle reliever Nagano. He has heat, but control problems too. TKO is their closer, but I know that Ohmae does not want to use him for more than an inning. He closed a bases loaded no out jam in the 1st round of the tournament. He seems to have a pretty good velocity too.

Overall, this is no Kitasuna of last year. They are always known for their hitting, but I don’t think they are as good as the team in 2003 when Yutaro Tanaka caused havoc with his bat and on the mound to win the Little League World Series. This reminds me much more like the 2000 team which got beaten in the International Finals against Venezuela. I think they will be playing in the Little League World Series Finals, because their offense is better than the 2000 team and compares well against the 2003 team. Maybe the Japanese hitters were good this year which made the pitching staff look bad. I’m not sure. This team is beatable compared to last year’s Kitasuna team but that was the best team I’ve ever witnessed.

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