Local tournaments for participation in the summer Koshien will begin in various places, and in July, the “Midsummer Festival” and “Intercity Baseball Tournament” will begin. The scouts of each team will start full-scale careful selection work from the list for the draft meeting to be held in the fall, but what kind of players are they paying attention to and what are they looking at? We asked Mr. Kazuya Yano, who marked a total of 14 wins as a pitcher for Yakult and lived a scouting life for 11 years after retiring from active duty.
Mr. Katsuya Nomura who built the Yakult Golden Age in the 90’s
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What is a “professional player”?
Like Masanori Ishikawa (Yakult) and Hisashi Iwakuma (former Kintetsu and others), “Mind” is not emotional even in a pinch and can be played without changing facial expressions. Like Shinnosuke Abe (former giant) and Akinori Iwamura (former Yakult, etc.), you can get results in the “here” scene. It is the players who “grow professionally” who have them.
However, professional scouts cannot talk directly to amateur players. So you have to look at your play and actions to find out what your players think.
For example, in front of the doug out, the position of the eyes when all the teammates formed a circle saying “I’m going to reverse!” Many of the players who are looking forward are strong players. After striking out again, what kind of expression will you take to the defensive position? Whether or not you can switch your feelings is also an important factor. I pay particular attention to such routine work.
That Ichiro player was moving together with both hits and strikeouts. He left a comment saying, “I want to stick to the number of hits rather than the number of at-bats and the batting average that fluctuates depending on the number of walks.” That’s why I can concentrate on my play in any situation.
Technically speaking, is the pitcher’s elbow position high at the top of the takeback? And whether the shoulder blades have turned around in the follow-through after throwing. If it doesn’t turn around, he will hurt his shoulder. After that, it is also a factor to judge whether the stepping foot is firmly oriented in the throwing direction so that the body does not open. Players who are worried about injury will hesitate to win, no matter how much the ball is thrown.
