Just before the October 24 Draft! The Big 3 “Golden Egg” Pitchers Reveal Their Determination and Confidence

Left arm called “lover of tigers

In the baseball club of Kansai University, one of the most prestigious universities in the West, there is a left arm who is called “the tiger’s lover.

I am happy that Hanshin fans and the Kansai media are paying attention to me like that, but I myself will just try to play an active role for the team that nominated me,” he said.

The man who beamed as he said this was Yumeto Kanamaru, 21, born in Hyogo, the home town of the Hanshin baseball team, and with a maximum speed of 154 km/h, is sure to be a contender for the No. 1 pick in the October 24 draft meeting.

I started baseball because I wanted to be a professional baseball player, but I was small and didn’t have any experience. I am thrilled to think that my dream, which I gave up once in high school, might come true, and I am also looking forward to it. I am glad that I never gave up and worked hard.

His father, Yuichi, who named him “Yumeto” with the hope that he will become a child who strives for his dreams, is a high school baseball umpire in Hyogo Prefecture who handled games and was the first base umpire in the quarterfinals of this summer’s Koshien tournament. He has worked hard at baseball, dreaming of the day when he would be on the same stage at Koshien.

I have been a pitcher since I was in the lower grades of elementary school,” he said. I hated to lose, and I always went at my own pace. My fastball wasn’t very fast, but I never had trouble controlling it. I was told by my coaches that if I grew physically, I would become a good player, so I was looking forward to my physical growth.

His father’s position of being able to see the top high school ballplayers at Koshien from a closer distance than anyone else must have been useful in guiding his son.

He taught me the characteristics of the high-level pitchers who pitched in the games I officiated, such as the mound handling of Kosei Yoshida (Orix, 23), who created a whirlwind in the summer of 2006, and his impression of a straight ball that extends out of the batter’s hands,” he said.

It is not unusual for top draft prospects to be called prodigies in their hometowns from the time they are in elementary and junior high school. However, no strong schools in the Kinki region were willing to recruit Kanemaru, who was just over 160 cm tall when he graduated from junior high school, and he chose Jinko Tachibana as his school of choice because “the training environment was good among public schools.

Although he grew quickly in height, the Koshien Tournament was cancelled in the summer of his junior year due to the COVID-19 crisis.

Kanemaru grew to 177 cm, and in the spring of his second year at university, he emerged as a standout and ranked first in the Kansai Student Baseball League in defensive rating. In March of this year, he joined the ranks of NPB players as a member of the Samurai Japan team and started a game against the European team, pitching two perfect innings.

He said, “I was able to play baseball with top-notch pitchers like the ones I see on TV, and I was able to absorb a lot of things from them. Daiya Miyagi (Orix, 23) and Chikichiro Sumida (Seibu, 25), who also pitched to my left, taught me how to grip the breaking ball and how to feel my fingertips when releasing.

After that, days of not being able to pitch continued due to a bone spur in his lower back, but he returned this fall and has continued his “zero earned runs” streak of 69 consecutive innings in league games.

His idol is Shota Imanaga (31) of the Cubs. I want to learn from him when he strikes out swinging with a straight ball.

As Hirokazu Ibata, 49, the manager of the Samurai Japan team, told me, I want to become a left fielder representing Japan in the future.