The Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters will roll the dice and select fireballer Shohei Otani in the first round of Thursday's amateur draft even though the high school phenom has already stated he wants to play in the major leagues.
"I know he wants to go to the majors, but we're making him our No. 1 pick," Fighters general manager Masao Yamada said Wednesday.
Otani, the 18-year-old from Iwate Prefecture's Hanamaki Higashi High School with a fastball touching 160 kph on the gun, announced on Sunday that he will bypass Nippon Professional Baseball to sign with one of several major-league teams who are in pursuit of the 193-cm right-hander.