Senga Kodai (30), who signed a five-year contract with the메이저놀이터 New York Mets ahead of this season for a total of 75 million dollars (about 97.6 billion won), started his first bullpen pitching after the official team training started on the 17th (Korean time). did However, the ball did not go to Senga’s will.
Senga was the highest level pitcher in Japanese professional baseball. He can throw fast balls in the middle and late 150km per hour range, and he conquered the league with a forkball, which was evaluated as one of the strongest pitches in the league. No pitcher with bad pitches can leap to the top in any stage. Senga was a player with both pitch and control. The total contract amount of 75 million dollars came out of that evaluation.
However, in the bullpen pitching on the 17th, his pitching was shaken. On this day, Senga threw 52 pitches, experimenting with all the pitches he could throw, including a four-seam fastball, slider, and pokeball. However, it is a common assessment of the local media that he threw a lot of balls.
Senga met with reporters on the 17th and said that he had already recorded 96 miles (about 154.5 km) of speed during this training period. Restraint at this stage usually doesn’t mean much, but it shows how thoroughly Senga’s preparations were. Then why did the jegu shake? Mets officials and Senga cited the height of the mound as the reason.
In Japan and the United States, both the pitch and feel of the mound as well as the official ball are different. Senga said that there is no big problem with a small number of official balls. He’s just focused on finding what he feels like on the mound.
Although there are slight differences in each stadium, the American mound is relatively hard, and the Japanese mound is relatively soft. It can be seen as a big difference for pitchers. In addition, it is evaluated that the slope of the mound is also subtly different between the United States and Japan. It takes time to adapt to this, and Senga is going through that as well.
In a meeting with reporters after bullpen pitching, Senga said, “I don’t think the official ball had any effect on bullpen pitching. However, most of it (the reason why the ball fluctuated) was because of the steeper mound (than Japan).” As long as the body is in good condition, the only way is to keep throwing and find a sense.
John Heyman of the ‘New York Post’ conveyed the atmosphere of the Mets, saying, ‘The Mets are confident that Senga will adapt to the steep slope of the mound, even though Senga pitches eccentrically.’ Fortunately, adaptation in other parts is relatively smooth.
On the 16th, the first day of official training, Senga met with ‘Sport TV News’ and said, “There are a lot of veteran players on the team, and I am a rookie, so I have the idea to start by learning things clearly.” I want to recognize the differences and adjust the parts that need to be adjusted.” Senga eventually gave up participating in the WBC in order to adapt.
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