Shinnosuke Ogasawara, who is aiming for the Majors, talks about his admiration for Daisuke Matsuzaka and potential destinations.

Shinnosuke Ogasawara (27) of Chunichi has officially decided to move to Major League Baseball this offseason. Ogasawara said through the team,

The new manager (Kazuki Inoue) has given me his understanding. There are many uncertainties, but I will take on the challenge.

Ogasawara commented, “There are many uncertainties, but I will take on the challenge. He has already signed a contract with a major U.S. agent and is preparing for the move.

Ogasawara, a native of Fujisawa City in Kanagawa Prefecture, was a member of the prestigious Shonan Boys in junior high school, winning the All-Japan Junior High School Baseball Championship Giants Cup in the summer of his junior year. He went on to Tokai University Sagami High School, where he won the national championship at Koshien in the summer of 2003. I wanted to play here.

He is cool no matter what he does.

Among such Japanese who have played in the Majors, Daisuke Matsuzaka (44) is probably the one Ogasawara feels most “close to the same place. He is the ace and Koshien champion pitcher at Yokohama High School, also in Kanagawa Prefecture.’ After joining the Boston Red Sox in November 2006 through the posting system, Matsuzaka won 15 games in his first year with the team in ’07, helping them win the league championship. He won the World Series championship in the same year. He returned to Japanese baseball in 2006 and joined Chunichi, where he and Ogasawara were teammates for two years.

In August 2006, FRIDAY interviewed Ogasawara, who was in his third year with the team and had emerged as Chunichi’s ace, pitching the season opener that year and winning his first complete game. What he had to say about Matsuzaka is available at …….

No, he’s cool. He’s cool, isn’t he? How do you say it? …… I used to watch the Red Sox when I was little, and I thought he was so cool. I was in the same locker as the guy I used to think was cool before I thought the ball was great. He was cool no matter what he did. I was thinking how cool he was even before baseball.

The world is so different…”

When asked about Daisuke Matsuzaka, who has been his teammate since the ’18 season, all that came out of Ogasawara’s mouth was, “He’s so cool. What was the most memorable conversation with Matsuzaka?

When I told Matsuzaka that my pitching form changed depending on the type of pitch, he said, ‘Why don’t you start being more conscious of catching the ball?　He said, ‘Why don’t you start being aware of it from the catch ball? He talks to me as if he is guiding me, rather than telling me what to do. He has experience in both baseball and baseball, and he is different from managers and coaches, which is something new for me. I would like to ask him more questions in the future.

His eyes lit up. As for the key difference between Matsuzaka and himself, he said, “He practices silently.

He practices silently. The other day in a game, I allowed a run to score on a series of ground balls, but he was totally calm. His mound handling was totally different. It was like I was in a different world.

When I asked him how he felt about the “professional baseball wall,” which was different from high school baseball, where he was hitting out one batter after another, he replied, “The mound at the Koshien championship game was a different world,

I don’t think I will ever be able to stand on the mound and win a championship at Koshien. Even so, I’m having more fun now. I have become the professional baseball player of my dreams. Of course, I am not satisfied with my current situation, and I think I need to “learn more about baseball,” such as pitch distribution and the psychology of hitters. I just want to do my best to be as close as possible to Yoshimi (former Chunichi pitcher Kazuki Yoshimi) and Matsuzaka.

He said.

The baseball team that wants Ogasawara is ……

Ogasawara is just one step away from the Major League Baseball world experienced by Matsuzaka, the Koshien winning pitcher and the first pitcher to use the posting system to move to the Majors. However, there are many reports that scouts in the major leagues do not think highly of Ogasawara, and many are cautious about him. Will he make it to the major leagues? Nachi Tomonari, a sportswriter, analyzes, “There are teams that would be a good match for Ogasawara.

This year, the success of Shota Imanaga (31) of the Chicago Cubs and Yusei Kikuchi (33), who has since joined the Houston Astros, have boosted the reputation of left-handed pitching in Japan. Ogasawara is still young at 27 years old and has a beautiful pitching form without any peculiarities. He is also considered to have no mental problems. He has five wins this year, but his 3.12 earned-run average is an appreciable figure. I don’t think there are many baseball teams that would want him as a fifth starter or so.”

So which team is the best match for him?

The New York Mets. The New York Mets. This season, they went all the way to the championship game and lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but their executives have not given up on the idea that if they can fill in the missing pieces, they will be able to compete for the world championship next year. Even if he can’t be a starter, they think he can be used as a long reliever. It is not clear whether he can sign a long-term contract, but there is a possibility that he could be acquired together with Tomoyuki Sugano (35) of the Giants, who has announced his intention to move to the Majors after exercising his overseas FA rights.

If he becomes a world champion in his first year with the team, he will have exactly the same fate as Matsuzaka, whom he admires so much. First of all, I would like to wait for the good news.