On the 4th, the Lotte team announced that Kota Futaki will be retiring from active play at the end of this season.

Niki was drafted sixth overall in the 2013 draft, and in his third year, 2004, he won seven games, including his first win as a pro, and reached the regulation innings pitched mark for the first time in the following year, 2005. 20 years later, he won a season-high nine games, and the following year he started pitcher the season, but he did not make an appearance in the first team in 2011 and 2012.

In recent years, he has been experimenting with pitch form. "From 2011 to the beginning of 2012, I tried to shorten the time I held the ball horizontally to make the ball stronger, but although the ball speed itself increased, the batters' reactions were not good. I thought it was important to compete using my own unique pitching form," he said, pitching with his unique pitch form last year.

During his voluntary training after fall practice last year, he changed to a form with his elbow lowered, saying, "Ultimately, my goal wasn't to lower my elbow, but to start with a position where I could throw a strong ball, and I thought it might be better to lower my arm.After fall practice ended, I tried out various things on my own in December and January."

fastball At the Ishigakijima Spring Camp on February 2, he said, "I think I'm not quite there yet," and after practice on February 15, he got advice from coach Yoshinori Tateyama at the indoor practice field, catch ball in a much lower elbow position.

After practice on February 15th, I asked Futaki if he was experimenting with angles to throw strong balls. He replied, "Yes, I'm working on it together with strong balls and thinking about how they look to the batter." When asked what hitter thought of it, he said, "It's not that it's easy for the batter to see, but it didn't seem to make much difference, so I thought I could try throwing it a little more exaggeratedly."

When asked if lowering his elbow would allow him to throw moving balls like shoots or two seam fastball, he said, "Ultimately, it would be great if I could throw a shoot to the inside corner to the right, but I have a lot to practice, so I think I'll do that after other things start to take shape."

He was hoping to make an appeal during his trip to Okinawa in order to move up to the first team mound, but he pitched in a practice game against Hiroshima on February 19, but only one inning runs. He also pitched in a practice game against Hanhwa in Korea on February 23, but only one inning runs. He did not pitch in any open games and started the season as a farmer.

Watching the video of the second-division game against Seibu on March 21, it appears that Futaki's pitch form on mound has returned to a form similar to that of last season. Could the reason for his return to pitch form be related to the fact that he said during the spring training camp in Ishigaki Island that the way he sees batters hasn't changed?

"Yes, of course the way the batters saw the ball didn't change, but my output didn't improve at all, I wasn't throwing balls that I was satisfied with, and I couldn't control the ball at all, so yes."

Although he gave up on trying a new form, he continues to aggressively attack the inside pitches of right-handed batters, saying, "I've always had trouble with pitches to right-handed hitter, so if I can overcome that and be able to throw properly, I think it will broaden the range of my pitching, and that's what I'm consciously working on right now."

Regarding the shot he practiced during spring training, he said in an interview on April 4th, "Even I can't tell unless I see the numbers, and it's hard to tell just from the video.I don't need it to curve like crazy, I just want it to curve a little bit, so I throw it with that in mind."

In the Oisix game on June 4th, the pitch of breaking ball was like a ball with a small percentage of fastball and a fastball. In the Oisix game on August 28, when the fifth inning was closer to 1 runs, the percentage of breaking ball was large, saying, "To be honest, the straight was not good, so I talked to Toyama and talked about doing my best with a little breaking ball, and it happened."

While fastball are primarily pitch pitches and fork, he has had many appearances during this time in which he has thrown fewer fastball. "I've added more pitches, so it's not a practice, but I wanted to try throwing some more, so I've been throwing more slider than usual, which is why I think I'm throwing fewer straight pitches."

In a game against Yakult second team on September 6th, in which closer seven runs innings, he appeared to be showing a variety of pitch speeds, with curveballs in the 110 km/h and 120 km/h range, and slider in the 120 km/h and 130 km/h range. Futaki said, "I've started throwing two slider, so my curveball hasn't changed much."

He also enthusiastically said, "I'm throwing shots. When I first started throwing, I was pretty good, but recently I've been throwing in the mid to late 130s, so I'd like to throw faster shots."

He was promoted for the first time this season on September 24. I want to pitch with confidence, and I've been working hard in the farm to pitch well in the first game. Softbank I hope I can show what I have done in the farm to the first team," he said, but on October 5, his first appearance for the first team since September 24, 2010, he was hit by a grand slam pitch in a game against Softbank (Zozo Marine Stadium) and Hotaka Yamakawa. It was a frustrating result after a long absence from his home base Zozo Marine Stadium, and this was his last mound appearance in active duty.

"I didn't do any training at all in high school, so I really started from the basics. Before I started running, I tried to make sure I had good running form, so I started with the most basic of basics" (interviewed June 16, 2019), said Futaki, who worked hard to build up his physique to compete as a professional baseball player during his rookie years. Over his 12 years as a professional, he pitched in 131 games and 752 innings, finishing with a record of 41 wins and 50 losses and an ERA of 4.18. He will be retiring from active play at the end of this season, and will support The Marines as a team staff member from now on.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita