NPB draft

Shoki Oda, a pitcher at Yokohama High School, is at the center of baseball draft talk in Japan, with NPB clubs watching him closely ahead of the draft. Nippon-Ham officials have planned a meeting with the first-round candidate, while former star Atsunori Furuta said he would not select Oda given his stated ambition to pursue Major League Baseball, though he wishes him well. Coverage also notes the challenges of the US minor-league development system.

Japanese baseball circles are debating the future of amateur pitcher Shoki Oda, who faces a choice between joining the Yomiuri Giants in the draft or skipping NPB entirely to pursue a major league career straight out of high school. Former player Takagi Yutaka weighed in on what advice he would give as a parent, suggesting Oda's absence from a customary post-draft greeting could signal hesitation, and questioned when Giants management will step in.

Japanese baseball news is dominated by NPB announcing that its current-player draft will be held on December 9, with a change this year to the criteria for which players are excluded. Alongside that, retired pitcher Katsuki Matayoshi spoke about his Koshien trauma and a message from Yu Darvish, and the Climax Series matchup between Seibu and Nippon-Ham is drawing live coverage.