"After trying various things, I found that I could get more output, so I switched back to that. It's gradually increasing, so I hope to continue with it and increase it a little more."
Lotte's seventh-round draft pick, Taisei (Honda Suzuka), has returned to his leaning-body pitching form and is showing consistent pitch in the minor leagues.
During last year's corporate years, between the Intercity Tournament and the Japan Championship, he changed his pitch form, and at the November Japan Championships, he recorded his personal best of 161 km/h. Even after turning pro, he continued to pitch in the form he used in the Japan Championship, but after the April 1st The Giants second team game, he said, "After practicing a lot, I was discussing the quality of the pitch angles at the arm angle with the coach, so I was conscious of those aspects, and I think that's how it came to be." When runner wasn't around, instead of using a no-wind-up pitch, He began pitching from a set position, and his form, which had been prone to collapse during translational movements, also stopped collapsing.
After the Seibu Lions second-team game on May 23, when runner was absent, he returned to a form where he would tend to knock down his body with no-wind-up moves. fastball measured over 150 km/h, and on June 14 in the Nippon-Ham farm team game, he induced a 153 km/h inside course walk on the second pitch thrown from the first ball to Hiroki Tsuneya with two outs and no runner in the 7th inning 5-1, and ingot a 153 km/h walk on the second pitch with two outs and a runner on first in the 7th inning 5-1 fastball fastball It was wonderful.
"I think it was one of the better performances I've had recently, but I think I can still improve it a bit more. I hope that as my condition gets a little better, it will naturally improve," he said, reflecting on fastball against Nippon-Ham.
During an interview on May 8, he spoke about fork, saying, “It’s still not good at all, and I feel like we need to improve the accuracy much, much more.” However, in the second-team game on June 4 (Rakuten Eagles), leading off the 7th inning with the score 1–5, he faced Shion Otsubo with a 1-ball, 2-strike count and struck him out swinging struck out with a 140-kilometer fork pitch that was in the ball zone,In the 7th inning with a 1–5 count and two outs, with no runner, he threw a 138-kilometer-per-hour low pitch fork—the second pitch of a 1 strike—to Akira Shigenaga, inducing a swing-and-miss. That was a good pitch.
Regarding the accuracy of fork, he said he has gained confidence over the past month, stating, "I'm now able to do what I've been practicing, so I want to refine its accuracy. I think it would be good if I could practice more so that I can control that pitch properly."
When asked if he felt he was getting swings and misses with his fork following the trajectory he envisioned, he vowed to improve further, saying, "There's still some inconsistency, so sometimes the batter makes contact, and sometimes it bounce after being hooked. I'd like to work on that more to increase the precision and consistency."
cutter was also good in the game against Nippon-Ham on June 14th, when he threw a 138 km cutter on the fourth pitch to Tsuneya on a 2-ball, 1-strike count in the 7th inning with two runner and no runners on base, making the score 5-1. He said, "I was confident in my cutter, so I hope to be able to throw it with high precision."
Taisei's ERA in the minor leagues is 4.09, but since runs in a game against Seibu Lions' minor league team on May 23rd, closer six runs innings in six games so far, allowing only two hit, strike out three, BB only one.
"I believe that I need to be well-prepared until I'm called up, and that's what the coaches have told me. That hasn't changed, so I'll continue to do what I can while I'm in the farm system, and since results are important, I'll keep that in mind as I do what I can." He will work on eliminating his weaknesses and further improving his skills so that he'll be ready whenever he's called up to the first team.
Interview and text by Yuta Iwashita
