Major League Baseball's Blue Jays pitcher Yusei Kikuchi entered the bullpen for the second time at a training camp in Florida and worked on improving his changeup, which is his theme.
On the 18th, Blue Jays pitcher Kikuchi practiced pitching in the bullpen for the second time at the training camp in Dunedin, Florida, and threw 35 pitches.
Pitcher Kikuchi's theme for this camp was to improve his changeup, and he seemed to be checking the feel of the changeup during pitching practice today.
Regarding his changeup, Pitcher Kikuchi is working on his goal of lowering the ball speed to the mid-130km/h range and increasing the speed difference between his fastball and his fastball to about 16km/h.
Pitcher Kikuchi's changeup pitch last season averaged approximately 143 km/h, and the percentage of his pitches was 9.7% of all pitch types.
Pitcher Kikuchi said, ``In addition to sliders and curveballs that enter the strike zone, the minimum goal is for the changeup to remain in the batter's mind even a little, so that the fastball that hits the middle becomes a miss shot. "I'd like to create a ball that, ideally, can strike out," he said of his intentions for making improvements.