Celebrate the opening of the season! Pro baseball team watchdog reporters reveal “blurbs and expectations that can never be written”.

Ball Spring has arrived!　With three new managers, a return to a 12-inning extra inning system instead of a 9-inning system, and many foreign assistants being able to compete from the opening day of the season, the way of competition is completely different from last year. 202 2-year pennant race. Leaving the standings predictions and power analysis to the experts, we bring you behind-the-scenes stories from the reporters of the six Central and South American baseball teams.

Swallows’ Reporters

He would give them clear assignments and send them off to the second team. He would give them clear-cut assignments and send them down to the second team.

An interesting member of the pitching staff is Yuma Oshita (29). In the middle of last year, he switched to a low elbow sidethrow like Takatsu did in his playing days, and in this year’s camp, Manager Takatsu taught him a sinker, which he threw for the first time in an open game against Softbank on March 13, and got a strikeout from Kenta Imamiya (30).

And Yugo Umeno (23), who was used as a reliever in his first year and showed great promise. This year, however, manager Takatsu said he would use him as a starter, and in fact, he started in an open game against Rakuten and held them to a no-hitter in three innings. Last offseason, Yakult did little to reinforce its lineup, so it will be tough to win consecutive championships unless more and more of Takatsu’s children emerge.

Speaking of Takatsu Children, Keiji Takahashi (24), whom the manager has nailed to the wall, saying, ‘Don’t write about his wife, Tomomi Itano. Director Takatsu adores and expects her so much that he has even guaranteed her marriage, so he probably has a strong rejection of being told mainly about his wife, who was a famous idol, rather than Takahashi himself. It will be interesting to see when the wife story will be lifted (laughs).”

Tiger Watch Reporter.

I see nothing but uncertainty,” he said. First of all, manager Yoyohiro Yano (53) plans to assign Keller (28) as stopper, but according to data from his time in the U.S., he has a lot of walks. Last season, in 33 1/3 innings pitched, he had 22 walks, 36 strikeouts, and a 6.48 earned run average. At his press conference, he said something like, “Call me Mr. KK,” but the team’s alumni laughed and said, “Isn’t he Mr. BB? There is nothing but fear in the Keller Theater …….

By the way, I don’t think Yano’s announcement that he will retire at the end of this year will have a positive effect on the team. The players wore T-shirts teasing him about his retirement, Yoshio Itoi (40) and Yuki Nishi (31) raised the manager’s body in celebration, and Yano himself said he was happy about it. …… There are some, but if you ask me, they are loose and there is not a trace of tension in them.

There is no atmosphere that says, “I’m going to make the manager a man. Tsuyoshi Shinjo, 50, the manager of Nippon Ham, seems to be very serious. The Hanshin team is busy with the managerial appointments that are made throughout the season, regardless of the results. If the season starts and the team starts to lose, the manager would normally play the “rest” card and run away, but since the manager himself has already said that he will quit after this year, that is not possible. What will he do?

DeNA’s reporter.

One day I saw a scene in the DeNA bullpen that worried me. Three pitchers came in, but there was only one catcher. I thought to myself, “Oh, come on,” and to my surprise, the two pitchers were left waiting for 2 or 30 minutes. ……The bullpen had a lazy atmosphere, the opposite of an efficient practice session. They call it a left arm kingdom, but it’s not so sweet because the ace Shota Imanaga (28) is out and we’re talking about the hopelessness of the opening day of the season. However, the fielders have changed with the arrival of Coach Takuro Ishii (51). I feel that each and every one of them is now aware of the need to get to the next base.

Last year, when Banchcho (Daisuke Miura) became the manager, he said he wanted to attack using the legs, but we didn’t have a coach who could teach that kind of baseball. But there were no coaches who could teach that kind of baseball, and we kept doing things like stealing bases in unimportant places and making mistakes. So, in the end, we went back to the Ramirez-era baseball of going for home runs.

However, with the addition of Coach Ishii, we became more aware of the need to take advantage of small mistakes by the opponents and aim for the next base. When I talked to second-year player Shugo Maki (23), he often mentioned Coach Ishii’s name, saying, “Coach Ishii said ……,” and I felt he was respected by the players. I think they are very impressed. By the way, newcomer Taiji Ota (31) If I had to play center, it would be in the outfield, but the team is very solid in the outfield. I wonder why they took him. When Austin (30) and the others return from injury, I’m wondering if I can stay on as a substitute or a defensive replacement in the right field.

Lotte’s reporter.

Rookie Torao Matsukawa, 18, is good. He’s fresh out of high school, but he’s solid, calm, and a good catcher. Ayumu Ishikawa (33) praised him highly. The reason he started with the first team was as a “trial” to get a feel for the professional level, but when he was on the field, he said, “He’s very useful. His batting was also good,” and his reputation grew rapidly.

Also, Lotte has the “background” to give him a chance. Manager Shihito Iguchi (47) doesn’t seem to like Tatsuhiro Tamura (27) very much (laughs). (Laughs.) I heard that the reason is that his predecessor Tsutomu Ito (59) has a strong color, and that he is a fan of professional player Kazuya Fukuura. …… That’s why they keep getting more and more catchers in the draft, and this year it was Matsukawa.”

Rakuten’s reporter.

I’m worried about the atmosphere on the team. The game on March 11 was symbolic. We are a team from Tohoku. Fans and the sports media were expecting Ginji (34), a native of the disaster-stricken area, to play the leading role that day.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, when the opposing pitcher was right-handed, manager Kazuhisa Ishii (48) sent out Ginjiro Sumitani (34), a right-handed hitter, when he had the perfect opportunity to substitute Ginji, who was left-handed. Ginji was brought in to start the 8th inning, but he was put in to bat in the 7th, and with three outs in the 8th, an infield single in front of Ginji, who was in the next batter’s circle with two outs in the 9th, allowed a runner to score on a ground out to right field, giving the game to the right fielder. The game was now a game set. At that time, Ginji was swinging three times inside Next. It was after the game had been set. He must have been frustrated. We were frustrated, too.

In this game, it was Sumitani, but Ishii, who is also the GM, tends to give priority to players he has acquired. Ishii has been called an “alien” since his working days, so maybe he doesn’t intend to read the atmosphere at all. …… By the way, I don’t hear any criticism of Director Ishii. What will happen if we criticize the leadership? Perhaps it is because everyone has seen how Motohiro Shima (37), who was a leader who could speak his mind, was forced to leave the team.

Seibu’s top reporter.

The first-round rookie in the draft, Chikichiro Sumida (22), had a good reputation, with scorers from other teams saying he was ‘as good as his reputation. He is still a work in progress, but I feel that he has a lot of potential. What I am more interested in is Mitsunari Takahashi (25), who has changed his pitching form. It is the kind of energy-saving form that has become popular since Yoshinobu Yamamoto (23) of the Orix, or to put it better, a “hybrid type” of form.

At the camp, scorers from other teams said, “This is not good enough for us. We’re going to have to change it back. At the moment, I’m holding my own. I think he is a physically strong player to begin with, so maybe he has adapted well, but it will be interesting to see what will happen once the season starts.

Last season, the last-place team from the previous year won the championship in both the Sepa and the Pacific. What drama awaits us this season?