This article is part of our DFS NPB series.
Day two of the 2020 NPB season was another low-scoring one, with all six Pacific League teams and two Central League sides being held to three runs or less. Only the Giants and Carp had big offensive days, scoring 11 and 10 runs, respectively. Gerardo Parra launched his first homer for the Giants in their 11-1 win over the Tigers, while Seiya Suzuki went deep twice in the Carp's 10-5 victory over the BayStars. Elsewhere, Tetsuto Yamada hit his second homer of the year as the Swallows defeated the Dragons, 6-2. On the pitching side, Michael Peoples and Tsuyoshi Wada each struck out seven batters while allowing just one run, though neither pitcher recorded a win. Saturday's slate should presumably see scoring pick up as we move towards the middle of each team's rotation.
Pitchers
Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($13,000) won't come cheap, but it's hard to argue with his price. The 21-year-old has already spent three seasons with the Buffaloes, finishing with a remarkable 1.95 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP last year. He backed those numbers up with a strong 23.0 percent strikeout rate and a 6.5 percent walk rate. With a fastball that sits in the mid-90s and a track record of success at a very young age, he's one to watch for MLB fans as a player who could eventually make the jump overseas. He'll face a Golden Eagles lineup which ranked a respectable fifth in scoring last game, but he has the talent to dominate any matchup.
Manabu Mima's ($9,700) 4.01 ERA last season doesn't look particularly good on the surface, but there are reasons to believe in him this year. The rest of his statline was solid, as he finished with a 1.18 WHIP, a decent 18.7 percent strikeout rate and a very low 4.0 percent walk rate. Ideally, you'd prefer a bit more strikeout upside, but the 2013 Japan Series MVP is a good bet to keep the defending champion Hawks' bats quiet in this one, as they finished a modest eighth in scoring last season.
Angel Sanchez ($8,100) has a small amount of MLB experience under his belt, making eight relief appearances for the Pirates back in 2017. He's spent the last two seasons in Korea, recording a strong 2.62 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP in 28 starts for the Wyverns last year on the back of a 22.1 percent strikeout rate and a 6.1 percent walk rate. He's an unknown at the NPB level, but he comes quite cheap in this one and gets to face a Tigers lineup which scored the fewest runs in the league last season.
Top Targets
Seiya Suzuki ($8,100) hit a pair of bombs in the Carp's 10-5 victory over the BayStars on Saturday. The 25-year-old is one of the best all-around hitters in Japan, hitting .335/.453/.565 last season. There isn't an offensive skill he lacks, as he has power (28 homers), speed (25 steals) and an excellent eye for the strike zone (103 walks to just 81 strikeouts). He could be in for another big day against righty Kentaro Taira, who finished with a mediocre 4.11 ERA last season.
Neftali Soto ($8,000) hit his first of what should be many homers yesterday in the BayStars' loss. His power isn't in any doubt, as he hit 84 homers over his first two seasons in Japan. He saw his batting average dip from .310 in 2018 to .269 last year, though even that latter mark is solidly above league average. He'll face the completely unproven Masato Morishita on Sunday, a 22-year-old who will be making his NPB debut.
Bargain Bats
Tomotaka Sakaguchi ($3,400) features here for the second straight day. He leads off for a Swallows team which has scored 13 runs already this season after finishing third in the league in scoring last year. He's gotten off to a hot start, going 4-for-7 with a pair of walks while scoring three runs. He barely played last season, struggling to a .125 batting average in just 64 at-bats, but he was a solid contact hitter in each of the three previous seasons, hitting .290 or better in all three. It's too early to conclude whether he's gotten back to that form this year, but the fact that the Swallows have installed him at the top of their strong lineup indicates that they have plenty of faith in the veteran.
Zoilo Almonte ($4,100) has started his third season for the Dragons on the right foot, going 4-for-9 and scoring three runs. He was a strong contact hitter in his first two seasons in Japan, posting batting averages of .321 and .329. He's not a total zero in the power department, either, hitting 22 homers in 181 games. The switch hitter should bat third against veteran lefty Hiroki Yamada, who posted a mediocre 3.90 ERA last season.
Stacks To Consider
Giants vs. Onelki Garcia: Hayato Sakamoto ($8,500), Kazuma Okamoto ($7,100), Yoshihiro Maru ($7,500)
The Giants stack worked out quite well Saturday, as they scored 11 runs, and there seems to be little reason not to go right back to them Sunday. Garcia made five appearances at the MLB level for the Dodgers and Royals before heading overseas prior to the 2018 season. While he was quite good in his first year in Japan, cruising to a 2.99 ERA and a 1.29 WHIP for the Dragons, he couldn't maintain that level of performance after moving to the Tigers last season. The lefty struggled to a 4.69 ERA and a 1.57 WHIP, striking out a modest 16.7 percent of opposing batters. The Giants, who led the Central League in scoring last season, could be in for another big game here.
Sakamoto paid off as the leader of Saturday's stack, finishing a homer shy of the cycle while scoring twice and driving in a run. The veteran shortstop won the Central League MVP award last season after hitting .312 with 40 homers. That power may not be sustainable, as he averaged 17.1 homers over 13 seasons heading into this year and has only cleared the 20-homer threshold three times, but his floor is as a strong contact hitter with respectable power, as he owns a career .293 batting average. He'll get the platoon advantage batting out of the second spot against Garcia.
Okamoto also performed well for those who selected him for the previous slate, going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs and a pair of RBI. Like Sakamoto, Okamoto will get the platoon advantage against Garcia while batting out of a key lineup spot (cleanup, in his case). He's a strong power threat, hitting 64 homers over his previous two campaigns. His batting average dropped from .309 in 2018 to .265 last year, but at age 23, there's still plenty of time for him to develop into a reliable all-around hitter.
As was the case with this stack Saturday, we're faced with the problem that the Giants' lineup is very lefty-heavy at the top outside the two bats discussed above. If you're willing to deal with the platoon disadvantage against a mediocre opposing starter, though, Maru remains a solid choice. While he's gone hitless in the first two games this season, there's plenty of reason to believe he'll get hot soon, even against a southpaw. The 31-year-old outfielder won back-to-back Central League MVP trophies with the Carp in 2017 and 2018 and didn't see his performance level dip much last year, his first with the Giants, as he hit .292 with 27 homers.
Marines vs. Akira Niho: Brandon Laird ($6,500), Takashi Ogino ($7,100), Leonys Martin ($4,800)
The Marines haven't gotten their bats going against the three-time defending-champion Hawks so far this season, scoring a total of just four runs in their first two games. That should change with Niho on the mound in the series finale, however. Niho has bounced between the majors and minors with the last two seasons, through just 30.1 innings at the highest level in 2018 and 38.1 innings last year. His 3.99 ERA and 1.46 WHIP last season weren't terrible, but his underlying numbers were quite poor. He gave up 1.4 HR/9 while striking out just 9.1 percent of opposing batters and walking 9.7 percent.
Laird didn't accomplish much in 53 big-league games for the Yankees and Astros in the first half of last decade, but he's carved out a solid career in Japan. He's never been able to hit for average, only once breaking the .250 mark, but he averaged 32.6 homers and 87.6 RBI in his first five seasons in the league. He opened his account with a homer as part of a two-hit day in Saturday's win and could go deep again with Niho on the mound Sunday, a pitcher who had trouble with the long ball last year.
Ogino has hit third and first in the Marines' first two games, going 3-for-9 thus far in the young season. He probably fits better in the leadoff role, as he's never hit more than 10 homers in a season. The 34-year-old is something of a late bloomer, as he managed that career-high last season while also hitting .315/.371/.470, full-season personal bests in all three categories. He still has plenty of speed at his age, as his 28 steals last season were yet another career high.
Number five hitter Martin has gotten off to a strong start this season, going 2-for-6 with a pair of walks in his first two NPB games. He looked pretty good in 52 games for the Marines last year, hitting .232/.342/.495 with 14 homers. While his 25.0 percent strikeout rate means he can't be relied upon to hit for average, he's shown good power and has a good chance to clear the fence Sunday with the platoon advantage against a homer-prone righty.
