DFS NPB: Sunday Cheat Sheet

The bats finally came alive across the league on the eighth day of the NPB season, with teams scoring an average of 6.3 runs. The Golden Eagles led the way, exploding to an 18-4 victory over the Fighters, with Hideto Asamura homering and driving in an incredible seven runs. Tetsuto Yamada also had a huge day for the Swallows, hitting a grand slam as part of a three-hit, five-RBI performance to help his side to a 9-6 victory over the Giants. Quality pitching performances were hard to find on a high-scoring day, but Atsuki Taneichi led the way, helping the Marines to a 2-1 victory by outdueling the Buffaloes' Daiki Tajima, striking out eight while allowing just one run on three hits in seven innings. Sunday's slate will see mid-rotation starters take the hill across the league. The contest will be just five games, with the Tigers-BayStars game again not included as it will start later than the rest. Three games will begin at midnight ET, with two more following one hour later.

Pitchers

Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($13,500) is the most expensive pitcher on the slate, but that certainly seems to be deserved. The 21-year-old is already starting his fourth career NPB season and is coming off a remarkable age-20 campaign in which he led the league with a 1.95 ERA. That figure doesn't seem like a fluke, as it came with a strong 23.0 percent strikeout rate and a 6.5 percent walk rate. He started this year strong as well, striking out 10 Golden Eagles in eight scoreless innings in his first turn in the rotation. He'll face a Marines team which leads the entire NPB with a 7-1 record but which ranks a modest sixth in scoring.

On the opposite side of that same contest, Manabu Mima ($10,500) is also worth a look, primarily because he gets to face a Buffaloes side which has scored the second-fewest runs in the league, beating only the Tigers, who aren't a part of this slate. Mima isn't terribly exciting, but the 33-year-old lefty is at worst an adequate arm. His 4.01 ERA last season was merely decent, as was his 18.7 percent strikeout rate, but when combined with a very low 4.0 percent walk rate, it adds up to a pitcher who should be reliable at worst. He looked far better than that in his first start of the season, striking out nine while allowing one run in five innings against the Hawks.

Masato Morishita ($9,200) looked excellent in his first career start, striking out eight and allowing just four hits and two walks in seven scoreless innings against the BayStars. It won't cost all that much to see if he can repeat that performance against the Dragons, who have scored the third-fewest runs per game thus far this season. Morishita obviously has just about as small a track record as possible, but as the third-overall pick in the 2019 NPB draft, he has the pedigree to back up his excellent debut.

Top Targets

Kazuma Okamoto ($8,000) has been on a tear to start the season for the Giants, who lead the Central League in both winning percentage and runs per game. The cleanup hitter launched his third homer of the season as part of a four-hit day Saturday, giving him a .438/.486/.813 slash line through eight games. A strong start is hardly a surprise for the 23-year-old, who's hit a combined 64 homers over the last two seasons. It will be interesting to see if he can maintain a high batting average, though, as he hit .309 in 2019 but dropped to .265 in that category last year.

Yuki Yanagita ($7,800) hit his second homer of the season Saturday, raising his slash line to .250/.400/.577. Injuries limited him to just 38 games last season, but he's back to being a force at the heart of the Hawks' lineup. A high level of performance certainly isn't a surprise for the 31-year-old outfielder, as he hit .352 with 36 homers and 21 steals in his most recent full season back in 2018. He'll get the platoon advantage against Lions righty Kaito Yoza, who's making his second career start.

Bargain Bats

Yanagita's teammate Ryoya Kurihara ($4,200) will also get the platoon advantage against Yoza. He's been a recurring name in this column, though there's little reason to go away from him as long as he keeps batting in one of the top two spots in the defending champions' lineup while remaining this cheap. His low price makes sense given that he'd made just 57 rather uneventful plate appearances prior to this season, but it's already risen $1,200 since Opening Day and will continue to do so as long as he maintains anything close to his .371/.436/.600 slash line.

Tomotaka Sakaguchi ($4,100) is quite cheap for a leadoff man, especially one who's opened the season hitting .357/.500/.500. His inexpensive price tag (which has risen $900 since Opening Day) is a reflection of the fact that he hit a miserable .125 in a small sample of just 77 plate appearances last year, but that seemingly wasn't the end of the line for the 35-year-old. He hit a strong .317/.406/.394 over a full season in 2018, so it's believable that he could approach that level this year. He'll get the platoon advantage in a key lineup spot against Giants righty Angel Sanchez, who only allowed one run in his NPB debut but walked four while striking out just one.

Stacks To Consider

Lions vs. Akira Niho: Hotaka Yamakawa ($7,600), Tomoya Mori ($5,700), Shuta Tonosaki ($5,100)

Niho threw just 38.1 innings last season and failed to impress. His 3.99 ERA was perfectly acceptable, but it came with a 9.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.7 percent walk rate. Those numbers weren't much different than his career numbers in 137.1 innings spread out over parts of six seasons, as he owns a lifetime 4.19 ERA and a higher walk rate (11.1 percent) than strikeout rate (10.7 percent). That should spell trouble against a Lions team which led the league in scoring last season.

The stocky Yamakawa is one of Japan's premier power threats. It took several years for him to emerge as an everyday player, but he's gone on to hit a total of 90 homers over his last two seasons. He's well on his way towards another big season in that category, as his home run Saturday was already his fourth of the year. He's hitting .320 with 12 RBI through his first eight games.

Mori has yet to get going this season, hitting .222/.323/.259 through seven games. Still, his track record suggests he'll heat up soon and do so in a big way, making him quite a bargain. He won the Pacific League MVP last year on the back of a .329/.413/.547 slash line and 23 homers, numbers that are all the more impressive when considering he's a catcher. With the platoon advantage against an unreliable righty Sunday, he'll have a good shot to break out of an early-season slump.

Tonosaki typically follows Mori and Yamakawa in the order, batting out of the number five spot. He doesn't have quite the same reputation as that pair, though that's reflected in his price. That's not to say he's anywhere close to a poor hitter, either, as he's coming off a season in which he hit .274/.353/.493 with 26 homers and 22 steals. He's hitting just .240 through eight games, but six walks and three extra-base hits have helped him to an .886 OPS.

Fighters vs. Ryota Ishibashi: Sho Nakata ($6,400), Haruki Nishikawa ($6,000), Taishi Ohta ($5,400)

The Fighters' bats have yet to really wake up this season, as they sit ninth in runs per game so far. A matchup with Ishibashi could be what they need, however. His 3.82 ERA last season was perfectly adequate, but it came with a very low 13.3 percent strikeout rate, so he's far from an intimidating arm. He allowed four runs on eight hits in just four innings in his season debut against the Buffaloes, who have scored even fewer runs than the Fighters so far this year, which would seem to bode well for the visitors in this contest.

While most Fighters hitters have gotten off to slow starts, the same can't be said for cleanup man Nakata, who's hit four homers and driven in five runs so far this season. He's oddly yet to single in any of his eight games, as his other two hits this year were both doubles, giving him a rather lopsided but strong .207/.303/.690 slash line. The 31-year-old is a lifetime .252 hitter, but he has seven 20-homer seasons in his last eight years and is already well on his way to another.

Leadoff hitter Nishikawa has also gotten off to a fine start, hitting .313/.405/.438. He's not a power threat, never hitting more than 10 homers in a season, but he's a career .284 hitter who's averaged 86.7 runs over the last three seasons. He's also a threat to steal, as he's cleared the 40-steal mark on three separate occasions, though he stole a modest 19 bases last season, his lowest full-season tally. With the platoon advantage against an unreliable righty in this one, he should have plenty of chances to score.

Ohta follows Nishikawa out of the number two spot. He's struggled in his first eight games this season, going just .194/.194/.361 at the plate, though he's a decent bet for a bounceback performance at his very reasonable price. He's by no means a star at the plate, but he's been a productive enough hitter in recent seasons, hitting a career-high 20 homers last year to go with a .289 batting average.