Kazumi Saito, Softbank’s new 4th team manager, reveals “Why we were 15.5 games behind the Orix”.

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.

Since the closer who pitches in the 9th inning is a non-starter, the winning pitchers who pitch in the 7th and 8th innings are rested. Instead, the young pitchers who take the mound are the ones who start preparing around the middle of the game and pitch in the second position in games with a big lead or as a losing pitcher.

I wanted them to pitch in tense games won by two or three runs so that they could gain experience. If they gain confidence, the relievers with winning patterns will have more energy left over in the fall.
There was one day when the winning relievers were pitching a lot and couldn’t pitch. It was a good opportunity, so I decided to “pull as many starters as possible and let the youngsters take care of the rest. I told rookie Ryosuke Otsu (24), ‘If I get into a save situation today, it’s you. I was so tickled, but I was also very nervous. I was excited, saying, ‘Let’s make it a close game, let’s make it a close game. In the end, the score was even, but I wanted to give him an opportunity to pitch in a game like that.

However, the team, which was under strict orders to regain the championship, could not afford to do so. In order to win a close game, early inning relievers were used more and more, and relief pitchers who had a winning pattern were overworked.

The youngsters’ pitching opportunities were drastically reduced or they were dropped to the second team if they gave up a few runs. It was heartbreaking to see youngsters such as Yuki Tsumori, 25, who pitched well, and Fumimaru Taura, 24, a southpaw who had no trouble against right-handed hitters, lose confidence. The same goes for Otsu. He doesn’t stand out that much in the bullpen, but once he gets into a game, he transforms. He has mound guts and pitches in an aloof manner that makes us gasp. Even so, around the middle of the season, he started to get scared and began to get hit by pitches, but everything, including that, is an experience. I couldn’t protect them and said to them, “Tsumo (Tsumori), your performance dropped after the interchange games last season, so if you can make it a full year, you’ll grow from last year,” or “Otsu, let’s aim to make it a full year without injury. If you can do that, there will be nothing but positive things this year, no matter what happens. As the pitching coach, I am not strong enough.”

There is no difference in strength between Orix and

The biggest gap between my impression as a critic and the pitching staff was the strength of the pitching staff. Saito said, “If we have such a good pitching staff, we can win the championship.

The Hawks’ relief pitchers have the highest earned-run average in the Pacific League. The Hawks relievers have the No. 1 defense ratio in the Pacific League,” Saito said. So, where is the difference? The Orix use players with an eye on the future. For example, they use a relief pitcher who has been hit in the opposite field in a tough situation in the next game. ORIX shows its trust and expectations by the way it uses pitchers. Orix’s closer is veteran pitcher Hirano (Yoshihisa Hirano, 39), and while giving him a rest, he also allows him to get a solid save. Timing is important when refreshing, and it is no good giving him a rest after he is down. He is able to manage the team in total.

Carter Stewart, 24, was a first-round pick of the Braves in the Major League Draft, but was not signed by the Braves and joined the Hawks.

Stewart is a 24-year-old right-hander who was drafted in the first round by the Braves in the Major League Baseball draft but was not signed by the Hawks. But I managed to get an opportunity to start against Hanshin in the interleague game, and Oyama (Yusuke Oyama, 28), the No. 4 pitcher, started right away. I told him, “Even if they run, they have to go as far as second base. Stealing bases and fielding are OK! But you have to control the rest of the bases. Then something interesting happened. One day, when he was pitching well in the first team, I measured his quick time and found that it was 1.2 seconds, which was at the average level for the first team. I told him, ‘This is the result of your effort. But the ball rate when quick is high. When you throw quick pitches, throw them in the strike zone about as far as you can. If it’s your ball, they won’t hit it that hard,’ and my strike rate went up. My pitching changed.”

Over the past year, he has continued to stress the importance of “playing in the strike zone” to young pitchers who are desperate to pitch. It is natural to fail. What is important is what you learn from your mistakes.

I was looking forward to the day when I would be able to have such a conversation with these young people, who told me that they were not yet at the level of anger. However, that dream did not come true.

Starting next season, Mr. Saito will be watching the players at an even lower level.

As the fourth team manager….

I asked the team to give me a few days when I received the offer, because I couldn’t picture the 4th Army at all. But in talking to the people who had helped me, they said, ‘You should give it a try because you don’t have a clear image of what you want to do. I was strangely convinced. I was stuck with ……, even though I was the one telling the little guys in the baseball class, ‘You won’t get anything if you don’t challenge yourself. ‘ At that point, my mind was made up.”

The schedule was only set one or two months in advance, and it was not until the end of March that he knew for sure which players would be coming to the fourth team. The only thing we know is that there will be about 60 games, and that we will be taking an eight-hour bus ride to Shikoku,” said the new manager with a wry smile.

We may use a player who used to play the No. 4 position in the lineup at the No. 9 position. A player who used to play the No. 4 position may be used at the No. 9 position, and there may be other defensive positions for him. If the No. 1 pick in the draft, Yugo Maeda (18, Toin Osaka), comes to the fourth team, I would like to start with him. I think it would be interesting to have all the pitchers start (laughs).”

With the bitter experience he had in the first team this season, there may be no better way to rebuild the team than to have the “legendary ace” play a key role in the fourth team, the foundation of the team, at his disposal.

From the December 29, 2023 issue of FRIDAY