Professional baseball, Hiroshima announced at the draft meeting to be held on the 20th of this month that they will nominate Yuta Saito, a right-handed pitcher from Tomakomai Chuo High School in Hokkaido, as the first draft pick.

On the morning of the 13th, Hiroshima held a scout meeting at Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima City with the participation of team executives and others, and discussed the draft meeting to be held on the 20th of this month.



After the meeting, Yoshihisa Shiratake, the scout director, responded to the press coverage and announced that Tomakomai Chuo High School pitcher Saito would be selected as the first draft pick.



Pitcher Saito is a full-fledged pitcher who has a strong straightness that can throw down from a height of 1.89 cm at a maximum speed of 150 km, and won the best 4 at the South Hokkaido tournament this summer.



Shiratake Scout Manager said about Saito, "I evaluated the future potential of pitcher Saito as a material type pitcher. He is a full-fledged pitcher and has an angle on the ball. I think he is a player who fits the carp. I think he will be the next generation ace. I decided on it."



In addition, for the third consecutive year, Hiroshima has nominated a university and adult pitcher as a ready-to-use pitcher in first place.



Shiratake, the head of the scout, explained the reason for appointing a high school student as number one, saying, "I've been appointing people who are ready to fight for a long time, so I thought about the next generation."



In addition, he said about the reason for announcing, "Other teams have also announced, and I thought it would be better to announce it in the sense of checking it."

What is pitcher Yuta Saito?

Yuta Saito is a right-handed, left-handed pitcher.



He throws powerful straight balls with a maximum speed of over 150 kmph from his 1.89 cm physique, as well as curveballs, sliders and four-balls.



Pitcher Saito lost in the semi-finals of the South Hokkaido tournament this summer, which he entered with the ace number 1, and could not reach Koshien.



Even so, he was attracting attention as one of the top picks at the draft conference, with several scouts visiting him to observe the game.