Thinking stopped for a moment at that amount.
Last season, he pitched in 33 games mainly as a middle pitcher, leaving 5 wins including his first professional win and a career high number. Rakuten’s Naoto Nishiguchi, who was offered an annual salary of 18 million yen (estimated) more than three times the previous year at the time of contract renewal negotiations, inspired his feelings.
Rakuten, Naoto Nishiguchi, who marked five career high wins last season
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Professional baseball players have dreams-yes, because I was able to recognize them again.
“I got a lot more money than I had imagined, so I thought,’I have to do my best (in 2022).’ When I joined the team, I was at the bottom, but when I retired from baseball, my classmates My goal is to make the most money among the members of the same period. It is one of my motivations to play an active role from here and raise my annual salary steadily. “
The lowest draft from an unnamed school
The same grade as Nishiguchi, born in 1996-97, is a “rich harvest generation” that has been famous since the amateur era and has many professional players who are steadily accumulating achievements.
In high school, his teammate Tomohiro Anraku became the driving force behind the second place in Senbatsu as Saibi’s second-year ace, and in the summer, Maebashi Ikuei’s Mitsunari Takahashi (Seibu) became the winning pitcher in his second year. In addition, I was envious of the heroes such as Ryoya Kurihara (Softbank) and Kazuma Okamoto (giant) moving in Koshien.
It’s no wonder they look like inhabitants of another dimension. After all, Nishiguchi was from an unnamed public school called Yamamoto High School (Osaka), and in the summer of his third year, he lost cold in the first game and did not produce any results.
After graduating from high school, he relearned baseball from the basics at the Koka Health and Medical College (currently Lunez Autumn Leaves Sports Softening College), which produced Yoshinori Tateyama (former Nippon-Ham Fighters) and Atsushi Fujimoto (former Hanshin Tigers). Performance is improved by doing so. He came to the attention of professional scouts and was nominated by Rakuten in the 2016 draft, but was the last 10th place under the control of 12 teams.
This is, so to speak, the origin of the professional west exit.
“Because I was at the bottom, I’m always looking up and saying,’I won’t fall anymore.’ In high school, I can think of playing baseball as a team with Anraku. I didn’t, but now I feel like I don’t want to lose. “
