Top 5 Magic Pitches “Not Hit at All” in Professional Baseball in 22 Years of High Pitching and Low Hitting…!

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Although he was not included in the rankings, Hiroto Takahashi (Chunichi), a second-year player for Chunichi and the leading candidate for the Central League Rookie of the Year, pitched dominantly in July and August with a defense ratio in the 0-point range. He throws a sharp ball from a high center of gravity form with no sense of power by monoing a small takeback called a short arm, and his split has an xPV of 18.2 and an xPV advanced of 70, a high rating.

The ball, which falls at about 139 km/h, again almost a free fall in gravity, gets a lot of strikeouts and is rated as high quality. After all, many batters would strike out if they could achieve this much velocity and amount of change. So far, I have not found a way to deal with this.

The fork of Hiroto Saiki (Hanshin), who has been pitching well after recovering from Tommy John surgery, the split of the resurgent Ren Kajiya (Hanshin), and the forks of perfect game man Akinori Sasaki (Lotte) and baseball ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto (Orix) are other balls comparable to the top pitches. The fork of rookie Yuki Udagawa (Orix) is also top-level in quality, though not in quantity, and has become a part of the Orix’s strong relief lineup.

Hiroshima’s closer Yoshiori Kuribayashi also has a top-class fork, and although there were concerns about a “second-year jinx” due to fatigue from his long service after his first year in the Olympics, this did not affect him. After a slightly sluggish spring, Kuribayashi has regained his form from the middle of the season and has continued to pitch dominantly this year with a 1.49 earned-run average. Because he throws his fork overthrowing the ball from above, it is difficult to generate backspin and a good drop-off.

It might be easier to understand if we say that a right-handed pitcher throws the slider of Moinello or Hiroki Matsui. This Kuribayashi, after all, has a good straight, cut ball, curveball, and everything else besides the fork.

The reality is that a good pitcher eventually has all of his pitches good, and no matter what he throws, he cannot be hit by pitches. Another important factor is that he throws his fork about 30% of his pitches. This amount of pitches means that he throws one pitch to each batter, and batters cannot erase the falling pitches from their minds. Therefore, it becomes more difficult to deal with straight pitches and other pitches.

The next best pitch is Kota Senga’s haunted fork, Koya Fujii’s four-slider, and Taisuke Yamaoka’s vertical slider, but the top-ranked pitches that are a little smaller than the big ones, around 140 kilograms, and fall in free fall due to gravity are the best in the index. The top-ranked balls that change a little less than these larger changes, and change about 140 kilograms in free fall under gravity, are the best in the index.

In any case, the top ranking balls are more often the falling sliders and forks. The data also shows that the falling ball is superior, and the current trend of pitchers increasing the number of falling balls while raising the velocity of their pitches will continue. The way to throw, grip, and give rotation to the ball is also being elucidated, and we may see more and sharper breaking balls. It is important to throw multiple combinations of such balls.

In such a situation, quality straight pitches that can compete with the power of Osuna and Keller, and speedballs like Akinori Sasaki’s are also attractive. Baseball pitching is defensive, but with the ball in their hands and in their control, they are able to increase their dominance without limit, including defensive shifting, pitch distribution, and framing. Because of the imbalance in the game in this pitcher-dominated environment, measures have been put in place in the U.S. to encourage improvements to the hitting game, such as shift bans and pitch clocks. We look forward to seeing more success from pitchers in the future, and will also keep an eye on how hitters respond.