The Daiei Hawks' top draft pick, Hayato Terahara, said Monday he will join the Pacific League club, which won the right to negotiate with the most sought-after player in the Nov. 19 amateur draft.
Terahara, who has drawn interest from nearly a dozen clubs on both sides of the Pacific Ocean, revealed his decision at his Nichinan Gakuen high school in Miyazaki Prefecture and said he will do his best to live up to expectations.
"I've made up my mind to play for Daiei. I was away from baseball the last three days and that helped me think things over," Terahara said. "I'm ready to give everything to build my career after all the attention I got."
Terahara, whose fastball clocked 154 kph at the high school national championship this summer, drew bids from Daiei, the Yomiuri Giants, Yokohama BayStars and Chunichi Dragons in the first round of the draft.
Daiei won the lottery to claim the right to the hard-throwing right-hander. Team owner Tadashi Nakauchi and manager Sadaharu Oh visited him at the high school the following day.
Terahara, who was a member of the national team at the World Cup tournament held earlier this month in Taiwan, had also attracted the interest of major league ballclubs, including the Los Angeles Dodgers and Atlanta Braves, before the draft.
Under the rules of this year's draft, five of Japan's 12 professional teams had no picks in the first round after working out pre-draft deals with university and company team players.
The Tigers used the pre-draft limit of two players to obtain national team member Yuya Ando and Hosei University catcher Ryo Asai.