SENGA Koudai

Japan
Baseball/Softball
30 Jan 1993
28
Male
1.87/6'1''

Events and Medals

Discipline Event Rank Medal
BSB Baseball/Softball Baseball
JPN
Japan
 1 Gold Medal

Schedule

Change
Start Time Location Event Status
Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium
Baseball Opening Round Group A
#1
DOM
Dominican Rep.
3
JPN
Japan
4
Finished
Yokohama Baseball Stadium
Baseball Opening Round Group A
#5
JPN
Japan
7
MEX
Mexico
4
Finished
Yokohama Baseball Stadium
Baseball Round 2
#10
USA
United States
6
JPN
Japan
7
Finished
Yokohama Baseball Stadium
Baseball Semifinal
#13
KOR
Republic of Korea
2
JPN
Japan
5
Finished
Yokohama Baseball Stadium
Baseball Gold Medal Game
#16
USA
United States
0
JPN
Japan
2
Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

:
World Baseball Classic
RankEventYearLocation
3Baseball2017
:
Watching cartoons. (sanspo.com, 2019)
:
Athlete
:
Two children
:
Japanese
:
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks [Japan] since 2012
:
Kimiyasu Kudo [club], JPN; Atsunori Inaba [national], JPN
:
Pitcher (npb.jp, 01 Jan 2019)
:
Bats left, throws right (npb.jp, 01 Jan 2019)
:
NPB [JPN] (hochi.news, 25 Nov 2019)
:
He began playing in grade two of primary school. (asahi.com, 01 Jul 2017)
:
He was influenced by his father, who also competed in the sport. He was initially a third baseman before switching to pitcher following the advice of his high school coach. (asahi.com, 01 Jul 2017; baseballking.jp 07 Oct 2019)
:
To play Major League Baseball [MLB]. (japantimes.co.jp, 30 Jan 2019)
:
During the 2018/19 winter off-season he travelled to the United States of America to train with Japanese pitcher Yu Darvish, who plays for the Chicago Cubs. "I was very conscious about really improving this year [2019]. I changed how I train. The big thing was Darvish inviting me to train with him. I went to his home in Dallas. There we spent time together and trained together. As a baseball player, that time was an amazing eye-opener, raising my consciousness of what was possible. I came home so motivated, because he's the kind of ballplayer I want to be, and now I'm much stronger. The numbers I put up last year were, for me, rather lame. It was incredibly frustrating. Because of that, I wanted to completely change this season [2019], and that's what I spent my off-season doing." (english.kyodonews.net, 20 April 2019)
:
In 2020 he received the Highest Earned Run Average [ERA] Award and the Most Wins Award from Nippon Professional Baseball [NPB]. (softbankhawks.co.jp, 26 May 2021)

In 2019 and 2020 he received a Golden Glove Award in Japan, and received a Pacific League Best Nine Award from NPB. (softbankhawks.co.jp, 26 May 2021)

He received the Best Strikeout Pitcher Award for the 2019 and 2020 seasons from NPB. (nikkansports.com, 26 Nov 2019; softbankhawks.co.jp, 26 May 2021)

He was named to the All-Tournament team for the 2017 World Baseball Classic. (usabaseball.com, 22 Mar 2017; mlb.com, 2018)

General Interest

General
MLB DREAM ON HOLD
He signed for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks out of high school after being selected in the fourth round of the 2010 NPB Draft, and began playing for the club in 2012. The club has a policy of not making players available to Major League Baseball [MLB] teams via the posting system, meaning players cannot leave their contracts until they obtain free agency status. For Senga, this will not occur until after the 2022 season, meaning he has put on hold his dream of playing in the MLB. In early 2019 he met with the club's president to ask to be made available for a move to the MLB, but was refused. "There's not a lot I can do about it. This doesn't mean they are so dead set against it that they won't listen. Progress can be made. It [meeting with the club president] was time well spent and I could speak my mind." (english.kyodonews.net, 20 Apr 2019; jballallen.com, 30 Jan 2019; japantimes.co.jp 30 Jan 2019)

Legend
:
Gold Medal
:
Gold Medal Event
:
Silver Medal Event
:
Bronze Medal Event
Content 1 (removed through CDN)
Content 2 (removed through CDN).
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