In the first round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), 스포츠토토 Yu Darvish (San Diego), who is known to be a strong starting pitcher for the Japan national team against Korea and Japan, joined the Miyazaki national team camp in Japan and pitched in the bullpen for the first time, eliciting admiration from team officials.
According to Internet articles on the 19th of Japanese sports media such as ‘Full Count’ and ‘Sankei Sports’, Darvish started warming up in earnest by throwing 35 pitches in the camp bullpen on the 18th.
What the Japanese media paid attention to was Darvish’s movement at the tip of the ball that day. The content of Darvish’s pitching was precisely measured through the ‘TrackMag’, a measuring device installed at the national team camp.
National team catcher Takuya Guy (Softbank) praised the ball, saying, “This is a ball I have never received before.”
Among them, national team pitching coach Kazuyuki Atsuzawa, who is also the Orix Buffaloes pitching coach, said, “There was an ‘abnormal number’ as if two other people had thrown it,” based on the results obtained through the Trackman data.
Coach Atsuzawa also had a history of coaching Darvish at Nippon Ham in 2010, and explained the background of that expression with the words “the ball came alive”. According to this, Darvish threw sliders, curveballs, and two-seams that day, and the results were measured as if two pitchers of different types put together.
In fact, Darvish’s main weapon is the slider. However, even when the slider is thrown overhand, a number that seems to change violently to the side like a sidearm throw comes out, and a general number that flows like a bell comes out.
This is also what happens when Darvish’s pace is very good. Coach Atsuzawa said Darvish threw a similar ball during his Nippon Ham days, where he played until 2011, before advancing to the United States, but he couldn’t look into the ball’s trajectory with a specific device. However, on this day, Darvish’s value was reconfirmed through ‘Trackman’, and his trust seems to have grown.
Among many Japanese pitchers, it is news worthy of attention for the Korean national team, which must pay attention to preparing for Darvish.