On the 16th, Lotte's Yusuke Azuma did some standing throwing in bullpen at Lotte Urawa Baseball Stadium, throwing his signature pitches such as two seam fastball, slider, and fork, as well as a lot of fastball.

In recent years, Higashizuma has been two seam fastball mainly pitch and has not thrown fastball much, but he revealed, "When I have practiced since the fall, I have been getting pretty good numbers with my straight line. two seam fastball is just a weapon for breaking ball, so if I don't have a straight line, I will be waited breaking ball. When I worked on my straight line, I got good numbers, so I thought I would work on that, and I threw more straight lines today, too," he explained.

◆ Changes in take-back

Watching him catch during his voluntary training at Lotte Urawa Baseball Stadium, I noticed that he had changed his take-back technique from last season. When I asked him about it, he told me, "For me, timing is more important than power. In order to adjust it, I'm doing it within my control."

"Since last fall, I've been practicing how to place my left foot on the ground, and I've been working on applying force after my left foot places the ground. I've been doing single-legged training all this time. I've been focusing on timing and balance since fall, so I'm currently in a trial period where I'll be able to throw with good balance as we head into spring, and if my power output increases naturally, then the ball will probably get stronger. I don't know if it will improve or worsen, but that's the state I'm in now."

If he feels that something is not right, will he go back to a form similar to last year?

"I think it will be quite difficult to go back to the way it was. We are still creating new ways of making adjustments, and since we haven't made any drastic changes, I think we can go back to the way it was, but I hope we can make changes in a good direction."

Why did you decide to change it?

"Honestly, my output has declined compared to when I was a rookie, and I'm not as young physically anymore. I haven't had any serious injuries, but I think they'll start to haunt me from now on. With that in mind, I wanted to make sure I could get through the year without getting injured. I think that if I suffer one serious injury, it's all over, given my age. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen, and I wanted to play without regrets until the end, so I made that switch."

Approach to left-handed hitter

At the time of his contract renewal on November 28th last year, he said, "My numbers against left-handed batters are bad. I think the data shows that I need to approach that and create a pitch that they don't have in mind, so I think I'll try to create a pitch that will deflect the data." But what about his "approach to left-handed hitter"?

"Even during fall practice, he had a pretty good approach, and from around the end of last year's farm practice, he was able to practice inside slider, outside slider, and fork really well in the fall, so when I looked at the numbers on my iPad, I saw some good numbers. We'll see how far he can go when he's put into practice this spring, but if he can throw fork, I think it will become even more of an advantage."

Regarding slider, in an interview on May 29th of last year he said, "Usually after camp ends in April and May I'm able to throw slider well, but from here on out I start to get tired and my body starts to change, so I think the way it curves will probably change, so the challenge from here on out is whether I can keep it that way." So was he able to throw slider in good shape throughout last season?

"My condition is getting worse, with the amount of curve and speed. As the speed drops, I think I'm losing my sharpness, and as the second half of the season progresses, I'm having trouble getting strikeouts. I think the opposing batters are also thinking that Higashizuma equals slider, but even so, I'm getting hit by it too many times, so even if I don't get a hit, it feels really uncomfortable when I'm trying to hit it. It's a bit strange to say that I've been trying to fool them until the end this year, but I think I can get strikeouts with slider, even if it just makes them think that I have other balls. I hope I can keep using that kind of pitch."

There are just under two weeks left until spring training begins on February 1st. "I want to avoid getting injured. I'm getting to a good age now, so I want to go in and avoid getting injured, and then I want to be able to pitch well from the second half of the training games. If I'm told to pitch faster from above, there are ways to improve my adjustments, so I'll respond to that and do what I'm told."

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita