Japan to field youngest team at World Baseball Classic

Japan will be fielding its youngest team at the upcoming World Baseball Classic, with the 30 member squad averaging 26.3 in age.

The average age of the pitchers is 24.9, nearly two years younger than the mound staff at the previous tournament in 2017.

Manager Hideki Kuriyama stressed at a press conference on Thursday that his team selection was solely based on ability.

Kuriyama said that the mission is to win. I never thought about picking players because they were young. The roster is filled with young pitchers who established themselves last season, such as the Orix Buffaloes Yuki Udagawa, the Hanshin Tigers Atsuki Yuasa and the Chunichi Dragons Hiroto Takahashi, who is 20 years old as Masahiro Tanaka when he was the youngest member of the 2009 team.

The team carried 13 pitchers in the four previous editions of the tournament.

Two additional pitchers were added, bringing the number to 15 with the expansion of the roster limit from 28 players in total to 30.

Kuriyama explained that our way will be to focus on pitching and win by holding the lead and playing a game of patience.

Kuriyama pointed out that if the inning ends, pitchers must face at least three batters in order to have only one left-handed reliever on the roster in the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles stopper Yuki Matsui.

He said there was no need to leave a roster spot for a specialized pitcher.

I picked those who can serve as both a starter and a reliever. The closer to the point remains undecided.

This year s squad includes five record-tying American players, with Lars Nootbaar, the first Japanese American player to appear as a member of Samurai Japan at the WBC.

Kuriyama said he has a strong arm, plays all out and quickly picks things up.