Softbank Hawks pitcher Naoyuki Uwasawa, currently participating in the Miyazaki training camp, pitched in the first real game of the year in an intrasquad game, closer only two hit and no runs in the first inning as a starter. "I hope I can take things step by step. I think I'm moving in the right direction. The rest is just a matter of my own intuition," he reflected.

Softbank Hawks Last season, his first year with the club, he won 12 games. with Arihara, who opened pitcher the season for the second consecutive year, moving to Nippon-Ham and ace Moinello having adjustment concerns due to his representation of Cuba in the WBC, Uesawa is seen as a strong candidate for the opening pitcher season. The main concern is that he is a slow starter. I'm not good at the beginning of spring. But this year, I would like to try to perform well from the beginning of the spring so that I can have a stable performance for the whole year. How I spend the precious time before the season opener is important. In March and April of last year, he pitched four games and went 2-1, ERA 3.27. He started to improve in August and finished the season with six straight wins.