As Deanna Rubin, proprietor of the website Marinerds and an avid follower of high school and college baseball in Japan, pointed out Tuesday, Shun Takayama, the Hanshin Tigers' rookie outfielder, didn't just come out of nowhere.
He was a hit machine as a high schooler at Tokyo's Nichidai Daisan, for whom he homered and drove in five runs in the 2011 Summer Koshien final, and in college for Meiji University. There was, after all, a reason the Tigers were so pleased to have acquired him in the 2015 draft, and that Swallows manager Mitsuru Manaka was so outwardly excited when he thought Yakult had won Takayama's rights.
So, with that in mind, it's not too surprising to see Takayama have early success.