Samurai Japan's Atsuki Taneichi (Lotte) took the mound in the 4th inning of the "Ragzas Samurai Japan Series 2026 Nagoya Samurai Japan vs Chunichi Dragons" held on February 27th, throwing 11 pitches in 1 inning, allowing 0 hits hit, 1 strike out, no runs, and a personal fastest 156 km on Bosler's first pitch, which was perfect pitch He showed off.

Looking back on this appearance, it seemed to me that he had made the best preparations possible during the off-season, including adjusting to the WBC ball. Taneichi himself answered simply, "I started moving early during the off-season, so I was able to enter the Ishigakijima training camp without any worries," but he has the same "ambition" and "spirit of inquiry" as he did as a rookie, and he must have used his head to think ahead to the WBC, and worked more carefully than usual to incorporate what he had learned into his body.

One thing that caught my attention was whether, while he was also preparing for the WBC, he had time during the off-season to do the training he wanted to do and his daily routine training.

"During my off-season I was always practicing all day, so it's a bit strange to say I wasn't relaxed, but I think I spent almost all of January focused on baseball."

With a desire to improve, he was always thinking about baseball. Perhaps he spent more time thinking about baseball than usual.

"Every year I've focused mainly on physical fitness, but I took a step back in that area because the WBC is so fast. I focused mainly on mechanics and technique."

Looking at the video, it looks like pitch form has changed. As expected, I hesitated to ask him about it in detail before the actual game, so I asked him a vague question about whether he had changed anything about pitch form. Taneichi revealed, "There are a lot of things. Rather than what I can say, I've been thinking about the finer details, studying the structure of the human body, and other aspects like that, and thinking about my form in various ways."

Is that perhaps to cope with the WBC ball and the hard mound?

"That's right, because it's a slippery ball, if you put your elbow forward, you can't put any pressure on the ball, so I studied a lot in America, including with Senga, about how to throw it in that situation."

Did Taneichi receive any advice from Kodai Senga (Mets), a senior player whom he has looked up to since his youth, about how to deal with the WBC ball?

"Most of it was the mechanics. I spent almost two months working on things like how to get a form that wouldn't slip."

He has thrown a strong fastball since last August, and in a sendoff game against Chunichi on February 27, he threw a WBC pitch that was as close to WBC ball as he has thrown since last summer.

However, while he said, "I think my speed was really good," he also mentioned his challenges, saying, "I think I need to hit the ball more like I did in the second half of the season (last year) and create more movement.The ball is big, so it feels like it's moving away from me in front, so I need to be able to put more pressure on the ball."

Last season, when fastball was good, he felt that all of his pitches, including fork and vertically dropping slider, worked well together. "Because fastball is good, I think I can see breaking ball well too," he said.

breaking ball What is interesting in fork is that in . 24 years, in May 29 of the same year, against Yakult, there were many cases of taking struck out with fork of the sinker series to right-handed hitter the in-course sinker series, including fork of the in-course 143 km series that took struck out Osuna swinging from 0 ball 2 strike without runner a single out in the 4th inning of 0-1. However, last year, rather than taking struck out with an in-course sinker series fork, there were many cases of taking fork with a large stoned drop-off to take a strikeout.

When asked if he plans to avoid throwing sinker type fork very often, he replied firmly, "Right now, I'm not thinking about (sinker type fork). I feel like I'm thinking about dropping them straight down."

With several players selected for Samurai Japan, such as Kaima Taira (Seibu Lions), Daichi Ishii (Hanshin Tigers), and Yuki Matsui (Padres), withdrawing due to injury, expectations for Taneichi in the tournament have risen considerably. He will be representing Japan against hitter from all over the world, but of course, he also has the determination to represent The Marines. "Since I'm the only one (from Lotte), I want to pitch in a way that makes people think, 'Chiba Lotte Marines players are good,'" he declared.

Finally, when asked if he was ready to make the name "TANEICHI" known to baseball fans around the world, he gave a reassuring reply: "I've been adjusting well, so I think all that's left is to perform to my full potential."

With less than a week until the start of the WBC, Atsuki Taneichi has been preparing to give his best performance this offseason, and even since becoming a professional baseball player, he has been steadily working on his progress, always striving to improve. All that's left now is for him to show off his dominating pitch in the actual game.

Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita