The "Big Three" drew the spotlight with the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters winning the rights to negotiate a contract with Tokai University flamethrower Tomoyuki Sugano in a surprising turn of events at the Japanese baseball draft on Thursday.
The Yomiuri Giants were expected to exclusively name Sugano, who is Giants manager Tatsunori Hara's nephew, but Fighters club president Toshikazu Tsuda rewrote the script by naming the right-hander before drawing the winning ticket.
Sugano, who clocks a 157-kph fastball, declined to comment on the Fighters winning the negotiation rights, simply saying, "My college baseball career isn't over yet, so I want to win the championship in the end."