Tomoya Inoue, who is in his fourth year in the professional baseball team and joined Softbank as the No. 1 draft pick, is attending a camp where he can use the bat to make use of the strength he worked on during his off-season to become a regular player.
Inoue, who is 21 years old and in his fourth year as a professional, has hit 50 home runs in total during his high school career.He joined the team as the No. 1 draft pick from Hanasaki Tokuei High School and hit his first home run as a professional last season.
This season, he will compete for the third position with Ryōya Kurihara, who was appointed as the starting No. 4 last year.
Inoue reportedly increased his weight by 5 kilograms during the off-season through strength training in order to improve his long-range hitting ability.
On the 8th, Inoue practiced batting against machines at the indoor practice range for about an hour before the start of general practice.
During the general practice that started after that, he was swinging the bat while other players were warming up.
Furthermore, on the 8th, he had his first actual batting practice at camp, and later swung the bat in practice against batting pitchers, and has been training energetically every day.
After practice, when Inoue showed me his palms, I noticed that his right hand in particular was covered with crushed blisters and blister marks, a testament to his tireless efforts.
Inoue said, ``My strength has increased and my swing speed has increased.I have to catch up with and overtake Kurihara, so I want to produce results and put pressure on him.''