Kazumi Saito, Softbank’s new 4th team manager, reveals “Why we were 15.5 games behind the Orix”.
Special Interview] The "Legendary Ace" who won the Sawamura Award twice is now working to rebuild the team!
It’s not my fault that I couldn’t protect the young pitchers.
I never expected this life. ……
I guess he really meant what he said in front of the stormy Genkainada Sea in winter.
One of the trump cards SoftBank played to win back the championship in 2011 was to appoint the “legendary ace” with a .775 winning percentage and two Sawamura Awards as first-team pitching coach.
However, SoftBank finished in third place, 15.5 games behind the defending champion Orix.
What was the cause of defeat as seen by the “ace who never loses” on the front line, and what was the difference with the Orix?
What was the difference between the Orix and the winning team? It is impossible to win them all. The first thing I thought was, ‘Even if we lose the same way, the way we lose is important. This season, the number of innings pitched by the Hawks starters was the worst in the league. The Hawks relievers are young and still inexperienced, but they are solid enough. I thought that by training them further, I could get the starters to pitch longer innings. If the relievers are solid, we can expect a late-inning comeback, so we can pull the starters even if we have a bit of a lead. I didn’t care if we made a few mistakes or suffered an upset loss, so I drew up a plan to strengthen the relievers.
