◆Preseason match Hiroshima 1-3 Softbank (23rd, Mazda Stadium)
Softbank manager Hiroki Kokubo gave a pep talk to the young hitter. After the game, he himself expressed his dissatisfaction, saying, "There's talk of Yanagida being a DH, but with those numbers, he can't be a regular." This season, the team is hoping to increase Yanagida's use as a DH, which will lead to the birth of a new regular outfield, but throughout the exhibition games, his appeal was lacking.
In mid-March, Masaki hit Home Run in two consecutive games and it seemed like they were leading the way, but in the end, he was hitless in 12 at-hit, giving him a batting average of .192 in the exhibition games. With Kurihara out with pain in his right side, the manager considered selecting him as the fifth batter, but he said with a stern look, "I tried, but I'm going to withdraw this batting order. I'll think about it again until the opening. I thought about it and it may have turned out like this, but I couldn't find a 'start with this' in the exhibition games."
He bluntly stated, "It's not enough. I don't think we've taken advantage of the opportunity at all," including Yanagimachi, who announced his demotion to the second team after the game. He predicted that the competition would continue, saying, "If there are good players, including those on the second team, we'll call them up right away. To put it in extreme terms, if (development player) Yamamoto hits well in the farm team, we'll register him as a regular player right away and use him. There are open outfield slots."
As the manager was about to leave, he added, "I'll go further." "DH Akira Nakamura will be able to score more runs. To be honest, it will be fine if Akira is the 5th batter and DH. Why not do that? It's to create an environment for building a long-lasting, strong team in the future. How do the younger players feel when they see Akira like that?" The veteran, who has been selected as a pinch hitter, had one At Bat in two hit and two base hits on the day, giving him a batting average of 40% in the exhibition games. Still, he is thinking about building a long-term team and encouraging the younger players to step up.
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