The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters grabbed the negotiating rights to Waseda University ace Kohei Arihara, the most sought-after player in Nippon Professional Baseball's amateur draft on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles walked off with the nation's most coveted high school pitcher, Tomohiro Anraku. This comes a year after the team won the rights to marquee high school lefty Yuki Matsui.
Four clubs wanted Arihara in the first round, in which the rights to a player selected by multiple teams are assigned by lot. Anraku was selected by two clubs.