NPB Juniors

Watched many of the NPB Juniors games, and compared with last year one can see the general improvement in play. They seem to have more children playing and there were many girls on the teams. Last year I remember there being some grade 5ers playing, but this year I saw only grade 6ers.

The final was very interesting with a 178cm. tall boy named Yamara (I think) pitching into the later innings of the 7 inning game for the Swallows. It will be interesting to see if this boy will come up in the future for a high school or more professional team, and if he continues to grow so tall. The Fighters won the final, yet both teams had good hitting and pitching.

My rough taking of the average pitch speed was around 95-114 kph. One closer went as high as 120-125, but didn't have much control.

For those with children playing ball I would recommend watching this yearly event, as it is a good high level of play to compare with say the little league championships.