"In the end, I was able to throw the ball in a way that I liked, and I've always thought that it's better to stop properly and then lift your foot, rather than moving and then throwing."

On January 28th, Lotte's Atsuya Hirohata practiced pitch in bullpen at Lotte Urawa Baseball Stadium, throwing from a set position.

At the Miyazaki Phoenix League held in October last year, he threw with a windup-like form, saying, "As for my form, I wasn't going to stick to that, but I tried it out because it's something I can do in Phoenix, and I talked with my coach about how that style might be good, and I tried out a lot of different things."

During his voluntary training this off-season, Hirohata said, "I thought about winding up, but I thought it would be okay to compete there a little later, so I thought I would do the set position with confidence," indicating his intention to pitch play the set position even when runner is not available.

In the Phoenix League, "The strength of fastball was to throw more than speed throughout the Phoenix, and that's what my coach told me. If you can't throw fastball well, breaking ball won't come alive either. breaking ball fastball I was told to throw it as if it was a good straight pitch, so I focused on that." After a period of voluntary training, he said, "Especially in December, I was going to crush that only firmly and enter Mr. Aoyagi's voluntary training. Today (January 28), I threw at bullpen, and I felt pretty good.

While training on his own with Yakult 's Akihiro Aoyagi, he has received tips such as "70 points is good enough," "When releasing the ball, catch the line and throw it, not the ball," and "Basically, don't throw with all your might."

"It was my fourth year, so they said I was finally starting to get better. I think that's a sign of my growth, and that what I'm thinking and what I've done in my personal training are starting to connect. I thought that was a really good feeling."

In addition to "not throwing with all his might," when he was doing morning stretching with Kenta Kurihara, who was then the farm team's batting coach and is now the first-team batting coach, at the end of 2012, he asked him what kind of pitcher hitter dislikes, showing that he has been conscious of "tactics with hitter," but I wonder if the tactics aspect is starting to make a difference.

"Especially the fact that I don't throw with all my might. As far as tactics go, he's a different type of pitcher, so the types of pitches he throws are different, and all pitcher are different types. But even though he doesn't throw with all his might, I've been able to interpret and understand in my own way how to throw a strong ball, so I think I've gotten a lot better."

It has been a year and a half since Coach Kurihara first gave me advice on how to negotiate with hitter.

"Don't let them get their timing right. Batters hit the ball based almost entirely on timing, so I think that's the key for any batter. If you can break that down, then, for example, your fastball will look faster than the speed gun would suggest, or you can throw breaking ball with the same trajectory as a fastball, which is what pitcher should aim for. I've come to understand this in my own way and have been working on it for about a year and a half, so I hope I can show that this year."

On the pitch side, he built a struck out mountain in fork at the beginning of last season. "fork is also a ball that I can throw with confidence. I think it was good that I thought it was low and one bounce, but I'm thinking of using a different breaking ball to devise a little more of my own grip. fork I want to throw it so that it can be seen straight."

I wonder if the second type of fork is fork that drops like sinker.

When asked for hints when watching the video, Hirohata grinned and said, "It's a trade secret, but it's an interesting ball." He told us, "There's a ball that I think I could throw, so if I can practice a little more and get it to work, I'll use it in a game." According to Hirohata, if you watch the video of practice games and exhibition games, you can immediately tell which ball it is.

Last year, the camp was held in Miyakonojo, but this year's spring camp will start with the Ishigaki group. This will be the first time in two years that the camp will be held in a warm location. "I've been playing in Ishigaki since the first year, so I know the climate and I think it will be good to be able to adjust there. I'll start with the second team, but it's just a start, so I'm just aiming to make the opening day first team, so I'll do my best there." In preparation for the opening day first team, he will first be preparing on Ishigaki Island so that he can produce results when he gets the chance to pitch in practice games and exhibition games for the first team.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita