Lotte Misho Nishikawa outfielder declared on December 31, "My goal is, without a doubt, to play every game and finish first hitter" for the 2026 season.
After graduating from Ryukoku University Heian and Aoyama Gakuin University, he joined the team as the first pick in the 2012 draft, and in his first year he played in 108 games with a batting average of .281, sixth Pacific League and won the Rookie of the Year award. "The batting hitter is the one I want to win the most. Playing in every game and being the batting hitter are high goals, but if you don't always set your goals high, you become satisfied, so I want to prepare so that I can reach them properly," he said, narrowing his goals for his second year to "playing in every game" and "being the batting title hitter."
"To achieve that, in 2013 my performance was poor in the early part of the season but I recovered and improved my batting average towards the end, but in my second year in 2014 I think it will be important to maintain a high batting average consistently from the start in order to become the batting hitter. During the off-season I will be looking back at the basics, including my swing, to see how I can reach my lofty goal of becoming the batting hitter, and I would like to make use of what I experienced in my first year in my second year. I will be looking back at everything - the stamina, physical aspect, and swing to continue playing in every game. By doing so, I think I will naturally see the realization of my goal coming into sight," he said, spending his off-season with this strong awareness.
He has also begun to improve his bat. "I rebuilt it during the offseason, making it a little lighter from 890 grams to around 880 grams. I started to feel tired from the middle to the latter half of the season, and the bat was getting heavier, so this was also a way to counter that," he explained. "In my first year, I was able to see the ball trajectory of many pitcher and get some information. But the same goes for my opponents. I think they'll be studying me, so I want to prepare well and study before each match so that I can surpass them. And of course, a full swing from the first pitch is one of my strengths. I'm not going to change that when I step up to the plate," he said, earning the Batman's medal with a sure-footed full swing.
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