Oh Sadaharu (Wang Jeong-chi), chairman and special advisor of the Softbank Hawks, who led the Japanese team to the championship in the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC), prayed for the success of his juniors at the end of last month and said, “The pitching staff is the best in the world in Japan.” Rogi was encouraged. Japan National Team = Strongest mound. That’s a hard fact to deny.
An ideal harmony was achieved between the prestigious overseas group and the rapidly growing domestic group.
Shohei Ohtani (LA Angels), Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres), and other overseas players led by Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte), who achieved a ‘perfect game’, Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix), left-hander Shota Imana (Yokohama), who won four pitchers for two consecutive years. ) and other fastball pitchers are lined up as starting candidates. The bullpen is also strong.
The core of the recent gap between Korea and Japan lies in the pitching staff. Japanese pitchers are getting faster and hitting the ball harder.
Even pitchers in their 1m70s to early 1m80s throw fast balls with good ball points with a stable mechanism reaching an average distance of 150km. The best pitchers in the league, equipped with the power of the ball, movement, and control, have joined the national team one after another.
The second practice match between Samsung Lions and Chunichi Dragons was held at Chatan Stadium in Okinawa on the 12th.
The starting pitcher on the mound was Hiroto Takahashi (21), a young gun that Chunichi boasts. It is a fireballer that throws a light-speed ball with an average speed of 151 km and a maximum speed of 160 km.
Takahashi, who took his first steps in the first team last year, his second year as a player, started 19 games and recorded 6 wins and 7 losses with an ERA of 2.47. He finished third in strikeouts in the Central League with 134 strikeouts, over one per inning, in 116⅔ innings.
Based on this performance, he was selected as the youngest player on the WBC Japan team in March. He is scheduled to join the national team on the 17th. The Samsung match is a condition check before joining the national team. Takahashi started as scheduled and easily digested 3 innings with just 41 pitches. He took the바카라사이트 WBC official ball and shot a whopping 154km from the first pitch he threw to Samsung lead batter Kim Sang-min in the first inning. It was speed enough to kill Singdaegi.
It was a tough opponent for Samsung’s other lineup, which focused on promising players. 1 hit, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, no score in 3 innings. Pressed tightly In the 3rd inning, lead batter Jo Min-seong’s slightly missed right-handed hit was the only hit against Takahashi.
After Takahashi went down, Toshiya Odaka (32), Shinji Kombu (34), Yoshiki Sunada (28), Yuichiro Okano (29), Ren Kondo (25), Hiroto Mori (25) took the mound one inning after Takahashi went down. Against five other pitchers, including only three hits, he struggled.
In the end, they lost 0-7 in an empty space with 4 hits. All three practice matches against the Japanese team were lost.
During the three games, Samsung scored only one point. On the 9th, in the first camp practice against Nippon Ham, he lost 0-3 with 2 hits. On the 11th, against Chunichi, they lost 1-18. He scored 7 hits, but only scored 1 run. The superiority solo home run Kim Tae-hoon scored against Chunichi left-hander Hashimoto was the only score Samsung scored in all three games against Japan.
No matter how promising the lineup is, even if it is the beginning of the camp, where the batter’s sense of hitting has not yet risen, it is a series of empty balls that make you tilt your head.
Is it really a Samsung problem? It is difficult to erase the anxiety that may be the growing difference between Korea and Japan baseball, especially the height difference of the mound.
Then, is the first round of the WBC held in March really good? Will it be able to compete on an equal footing with Japan, the ‘rival of destiny’? Even for the national team, the difference in average is a precondition that is difficult to ignore.
Of course, there are specialties. There was always a difference in level between Korea and Japan, but the Korean baseball team, which consisted of a small number of elites, was not easy. Above all, he did not back down easily in his mental armament and fighting spirit. It produced unexpected results by confronting evil with can. Will it be possible this time too?
Samsung will play practice matches against Hanshin on the 19th and Yomiuri on the 4th of next month. Attention is focusing on the results of the Yomiuri match, in which the best members will appear. If Samsung’s best member, who will increase the batting cycle ahead of the demonstration game, is crushed by Yomiuri pitchers again on this day, the WBC Korea-Japan match to be held at Tokyo Dome six days later may also be difficult to give a bright prospect.