Pitcher Yasuhiro Ogawa, who has been the starting pitcher for the Yakult professional baseball team for three years in a row, expressed his enthusiasm for the big role for the fourth consecutive year, saying, ``I'm going to be the first to aim for the starting pitcher.''
Pitcher Ogawa is nicknamed ``Ryan'' because he raises his left foot to the height of his face, similar to Nolan Ryan, a former fastball pitcher in the major leagues, and last season he started the season as the opening pitcher for the third consecutive year. It has started.
Despite a series of injuries to the pitching staff, he remained in the starting rotation throughout the season and achieved double-digit wins for the first time in three years with 10 wins and 8 losses.
On the 4th, he entered the bullpen for the second time in this camp and practiced pitching against a seated catcher.
Pitcher Ogawa, 33 years old and in his 12th year as a professional pitcher, has been searching for the form that best suits his current physical condition during the off-season, and during this camp he was conscious that his body would not open up quickly. It means that he is throwing the ball.
In addition, in order to improve the quality of his fastballs, he carefully differentiated between out-course and in-course pitches while listening to the catcher about the trajectory of the ball.He also threw breaking balls under 100km/h to make fastballs in the 140km/h range look faster. He was throwing a few pitches.
Pitcher Ogawa expressed his desire to play a major role for the fourth consecutive year, saying, ``Naturally, I want to be the opening pitcher, and if I'm going to do it, I want to be the first pitcher, so I want to adjust properly.''