The 2023-24 Australian Baseball League will kick off tomorrow (or today if you're in Australia or Japan) and it will have a little bit of a different look this year. The league has reverted back to six teams as neither Geelong-Korea nor the Auckland Tuatara were able to continue. The two teams were added before the 2018-19 season but were only able to field teams in three of the five seasons since then due to COVID. Once again there are a number of players that NPB teams have sent Down Under for this season (or at least the first part of the season). The Baystars have sent two players (Junpei Azuma and Souma Tokuyama) to the Canberra Cavalry, the Marines have sent three players (Raito Ikeda, Ryotaro Mori and Shunsuke Nakamori) to the Sydney BlueSox and the Buffaloes have sent four players (Sho Fukunaga, Yuito Mae, Ryu Sugisawa and Kaede Yokoyama) to the Melbourne Aces.
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| 2022 BBM Baystars #DB41 |
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| 2022 Epoch NPB #212 |
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| 2022 Topps NPB #20 |
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| 2022 BBM Marines #M31 |
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| 2023 BBM 2nd Version #451 |
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| 2022 Topps NOB #144 |
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| 2022 BBM Buffaloes #B18 |
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| 2023 Epoch NPB #035 |
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| 2022 Epoch NPB #251 |
In addition to these players, there are five other Japanese players on rosters including three who have NPB experience. Former Giant and Fighter Toru Murata and former Carp Oscar Nakaoshi were teammates last season in Auckland and have been reunited this season with Adelaide. Former Eagle and Baystar Kodai Hamaya will join the other Baystars in Canberra.
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| 2021 BBM Fighters #F13 |
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| 2018 BBM Carp #C27 |
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| 2020 BBM Baystars #DB27 |
I do not have any cards of the other two Japanese players - Yuhi Sako of Canberra and Mizuki Akatsuka of Perth.
A couple KBO teams have also dispatched players to the ABL. The Samsung Lions have sent four players to Adelaide, the Kia Tigers have sent five players to Canberra and the NC Dinos have sent three players to Brisbane.
There's a handful of other NPB players who've been sent to various Caribbean Winter Leagues. Actually the first one of them has already returned to Japan - Dragons pitcher Kotaro Ueda appeared in three games with the Gigantes de Cibao of the Dominican Winter League.
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| 2022 BBM Fusion #608 |
The Baystars have sent players to Yaquis de Obregon of the Mexican Pacific League in several of the past few years and they're back again with three players - Daita Miyagi, Taishi Ohta and Taiki Sekine. It's the second straight year that Sekine has wintered in Obregon.
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| 2019 Baystars Team Set #100 |
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| 2023 BBM 1st Version #207 |
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| 2023 Epoch NPB #283 |
The Baystars have sent a player to a third team in a third league as Haruhiro Hamaguchi is playing for Cangrejeros de Santurce in the Puerto Rican Winter League.
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| 2023 Calbee #038 |
The Hawks have also sent a couple players to Puerto Rico. Yuot Kawamura and Sota Tanoue have joined the Gigantes de Carolina. Tanoue played for the team last winter as well.
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| 2022 BBM Rookie Edition #093 |
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| 2021 Epoch Pacific League Rookies #05 |
Once again I am indebted to the Twitter account @WinterLeagueJP for all this information. There's a website associated with the account now that puts everything nicely in one place.
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