A really cool article about Driveline Baseball’s expansion into the Japanese market and how Kodai Senga helped the word about their services to other NPB players
February 2, 2024
A really cool article about Driveline Baseball’s expansion into the Japanese market and how Kodai Senga helped the word about their services to other NPB players
1 comment
> “When I went to SoftBank, I met up with Kodai Senga and Shuta Ishikawa, which was also random, but they’re like, ‘we heard a Driveline guy was coming, and we want to train, we want to do the Driveline stuff.’
> “OK, you guys are doing online training too. Then Senga was, ‘I’m down to spread this thing…
> “Senga throwing 102 mph for the first time in his career, and all these guys having All-Star caliber seasons opened the door. It was, this thing works, it’s done in Japanese and these players are actually getting better…
> “He really wanted to move the game forward in Japan, and that kind of tied us together,” Minamino said. “He wasn’t just like, I want to do it for me. He was like, this is going to be good for Japan and the players that are involved, so let’s get this thing going. He was definitely a huge, huge advocate and somebody that was already looking into American training.”
This is why I hated a narrative about Senga owing his career to SoftBank because they took a chance on him as a development player. No, he put in the damn work and more to become a special player, and he’s willing to share his wisdom with other Japanese players.
Senga has done way more to advance Japanese baseball during his time as a pro than Softbank has in that same span.
1 comment
> “When I went to SoftBank, I met up with Kodai Senga and Shuta Ishikawa, which was also random, but they’re like, ‘we heard a Driveline guy was coming, and we want to train, we want to do the Driveline stuff.’
> “OK, you guys are doing online training too. Then Senga was, ‘I’m down to spread this thing…
> “Senga throwing 102 mph for the first time in his career, and all these guys having All-Star caliber seasons opened the door. It was, this thing works, it’s done in Japanese and these players are actually getting better…
> “He really wanted to move the game forward in Japan, and that kind of tied us together,” Minamino said. “He wasn’t just like, I want to do it for me. He was like, this is going to be good for Japan and the players that are involved, so let’s get this thing going. He was definitely a huge, huge advocate and somebody that was already looking into American training.”
This is why I hated a narrative about Senga owing his career to SoftBank because they took a chance on him as a development player. No, he put in the damn work and more to become a special player, and he’s willing to share his wisdom with other Japanese players.
Senga has done way more to advance Japanese baseball during his time as a pro than Softbank has in that same span.