Hayato Sakamoto  In , Sakamoto became the first player in Giants franchise history to start a season opener while under the age of 20 since Hideki Matsui. Sakamoto was born in Itami, Hyōgo, and began playing baseball while in the first grade at Koyanosato Elementary School for the Koyanosato Tigers (a Little League team) alongside current New York Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka. Ironically, Sakamoto was the team's ace pitcher, and Tanaka his batterymate on the team. Both Sakamoto and Tanaka went on to attend Itami Municipal Matsuzaki Junior High School, but Sakamoto opted to join Itami Senior, while Tanaka chose to play for the Takarazuka Boys. Upon graduating from junior high, Sakamoto attended Kosei Gakuin High School in northern Aomori Prefecture, a baseball powerhouse in the Tōhoku region. He became the team's starting shortstop by the fall of his first year (the equivalent of tenth grade in the United States) at Kosei Gakuin High. Sakamoto was hitting cleanup by the summer of his second year (eleventh grade), and led his team to runners-up in the Tohoku Regional Tournament that fall, earning a berth in the 78th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament that would be held at Koshien Stadium the following spring. He attracted the attention of scouts when he hit .813 (13-for-16) with four home runs in the Tohoku Regional Tournament later that spring, and hit a total of 39 home runs during his high school career. The Yomiuri Giants picked Sakamoto in the compensatory first round of the NPB high school player draft after losing to the Chunichi Dragons in the lottery that was held for fellow shortstop Naomichi Donoue, the most coveted high school position player, and presented Sakamoto the uniform number 61. In 2007, Sakamoto spent most of his rookie season () with the Giants' "nigun" team (Japanese for "minor league" or "farm team"). He played 77 games in the Western League, hitting .268 with five homers and 28 RBIs. Sakamoto saw his first call-up to the "ichigun" (major league) team in July and made his professional debut as a pinch runner on July 12. He recorded his first career base hit and RBI on September 6, knocking in the game-winning run in a game against the Dragons. In 2008, Manager Tatsunori Hara had high hopes for Sakamoto in the season, playing him in all 15 pre-season (spring training) games at either shortstop or second base.