SoftBank was one of the first in the baseball world to establish the “3rd Team” in 2011, and from 2023 it has been putting extraordinary effort into developing young players, including introducing the “4th Team” of the 12 teams. In addition to the players registered under control with a maximum of 70, the team is working to strengthen its team through its own unique route, with over 50 development players.
One of the unparalleled efforts is the “3rd Army Korean expedition” that has been running since 2012.
He went on a “Korea expedition” during the season
Since there are no league games like the first and second teams in the third team, the team themselves must find an opponent and make matchmaking. Softbank, as well as the Giants and Seibu currently play in third-team games, and have gained practical experience by comparing their strengths with independent league teams, their selected teams, adult baseball teams, and university baseball teams. Other teams also sometimes play practice games with the second team.
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However, SoftBank is the only one who has gone out of his way to send his team overseas.
In the past, Chiga Kodai (now the New York Mets), Kai Takuya (now the Giants), Makihara Taisei, and Ishikawa Shuta (now the Lotte), who were once a development player, also trained. Even under his control, Takeda Shota, Kurihara Ryoya and Matsumoto Yuki have participated in the roles, and Maeda Yugo, the first draft pick rookie on last year’s Korean expedition, has been on the mound as his first professional starter.
During the Korean expedition, he plays a match against the second-team team of KBO, a professional baseball team in the country. This year, Wakataka and his friends left Japan on May 22nd, and from the next day they fought nine games in a total of 10 days with the Han Faigurus, KTWIZ and Kia Tigers each, and returned to Japan with a record of 6 wins and 3 losses.
General Manager Mikasa Sugihiko (GM), the front desk and the center of SoftBank team, also visited the site and once again recited the significance of this.
“The core of developing young players is to create a real-life situation. Even among them, we want to play against as strong opponents as possible. Even in the second team, the KBO team is at a high level. In addition, players at the first team level may play for adjustments, etc.
17-year-old Almonte is a big hit
In fact, an infielder named Patrick Wisdom played in the recent match against the Kia Tigers. He is a member of the Chicago Cubs in the Major League Baseball League, and has been playing in Korean baseball since this season, having hit 88 major home runs, including hitting 20 or more home runs for the third year in a row since 2021, but he left with back pain just before SoftBank’s third team expedition, and he happened to be in the middle of adjusting the second team.
