Spoiler - discussion thread

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Dec 2015

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RoKrish said:

The thing is that even if ono is out for the Summer (which is what it looks like, taking balls to the bare hand unprepared hurts like crazy at best) I would maybe let them catch a few innings in the early rounds, but I would do everything in my power to avoid using them in a clutch situation. The things is that Pitchers are, normally, supposed to switch around. It's quite common for a pitcher in professional baseball to only pitch 6 innings and then have the bullpen come in for the rest of the game to finish it. Catchers generally speaking, start and finish games. Its the most physically demanding position in baseball. Catchers are the only player whom are supposed to put his body on the line to stop runs. Thats why, generally speaking, catchers have shorter careers than most position players because a single significant injury any where can end their careers. They rarely get switched out unless they are specialists like personal catchers which are really rare, and only catch for one pitcher, generally speaking either the Ace or a Knuckleballer. Yui and Okamura are the catchers of the future, but they are not going to be ready by the summer. Ono being healthy would have released a lot of the pressure on Miyuki.

Sawamura, if the world of DnA worked by the normal rules of logic instead of the twisted logic of the in-universe characters, has been Seidou's most trusted pitcher for a long time. See the thing is that after the ace of a pitching staff (which he should be in any case based on just the numbers so in reality would also have been Sawamura, but terajima made it the least reliable pitcher in seidou Furuya), the most trusted pitcher is the closer or fireman (it depends on how teams use them) the number 1 relief pitcher on the team. For example, Andrew Miller of the Cleveland Indians, is a fireman, he basically carried them to the world series two years ago, the New York Yankees had Mariano Rivera, whose cutter is the basis for Sawamura's Cutter Kai, was a closer or a set up man, he only pitched in either the 8th or 9th inning, but carried them to victories against great teams in the last inning. Managers look to these guys to pull rabbits out of a hat, or to stop their opponents from generating a rally to take the game back. In the last summer who was it that Kataoka would put in the firing line to shut down a line up when things were looking problematic? Was it furuya, tanba, or kawakami? nope, it was Sawamura. Kataoka, for all of his faults (and there are many), has always believed that Sawamura had more raw talent than any of his other pitchers. The problem for Sawamura was never getting attention from authority figures, it was keeping it, which is a shame, because Seidou may have had a shot of winning the Meiji Jingu (shown off screen) had Sawamura been the ace. If he becomes the ace now, and is permitted to lead them to the koshien (no easy task two other members of the top 5 pitchers in Japan stand in his way to get there) it will pay off well. If Terajima pulls some half-thought out, dual aces thing wherein Furuya gets to keep the ace number despite being significantly worse of a pitcher than Sawamura, I won't understand it. This is his actual last shot at it, so they had better give him the number.

Also Sakaki and yura have never been seen after that one time. Current thinking is that they will be the dark horse in this summer. They would have been stomped on by Inajitsu last fall.

I sure hope Ono didn't break his finger, it seems like his finger bent in a weird way. Thanks for telling me about catcher, now I realize that usually, catcher is the one who sees batter and knows their characteristics and they create a game call for pitcher.. so their place is important. Then, Ono is getting hurt will boost up both 1st-year catcher like what happens during Tanba last time?

Yess, that's the thing, I meant usually you put your best men behind, or save your hidden card and use it later, Kataoka used Sawamura mostly as closer showing he trust Sawamura, but yet..., I have no idea what is in his mind.

If Sakaki is teaching in West Tokyo, is it the same area as Seido? Cant find information regarding whether Seido is East or West.. I think it's West..

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Jan 31, 2018 10:25 PM

#153

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Dec 2015

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RoKrish said:

lisyaoran2009 said:

If he teach in WestTokyo, then they gonna meet Teitou, right? Then if they did win, they going to be together in Koushien..?

Teitou is in East Tokyo, Seiodu, Ichidaisan, Yakushi, and Inajitsu are in West Tokyo. So they won't meet in the Koshien.

Thanks, Yura Tech seriously gonna be a dark horse this time..

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Jan 31, 2018 10:33 PM

#154

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89

GDV said:

lisyaoran2009 said:

BTW, I have read before saying that iF sawamura didn't get to be ace now, (during 2nd year), the possibility for him to get ace in 3rd year is slim since usually, they kept the same ace as before to honour(?) them. Is that true?

Yes. There are really 3 scenarios where Sawamura can get the Ace Number from now until the last year of his career.
- 1st. Before Summer. This is the most realistic and most likely scenario where he can get the Ace No. Furuya has only been the Ace for half of his first year; hence, the inexperience and poor result he record is enough evidence to give Sawamura the Ace No. With Sawamura doing considerably better than Furuya in all sabermetrics and Seidou's desperate needs of a reliable Ace in Summer (a pitcher that won't break down from one game after another like Furuya), there are no more reasons not to appraise Sawamura into this position. Note: To show evidences why I claim Furuya's stats are much worse than Sawamura, Furuya's ERA up until this game is about 3.2 on the other hand, Sawamura's ERA is 1.17 in all the practice matches and his ERA was a big fat 0 in the Spring Tournament.
- 2nd. Between Summer Qualifier and Koshien. 0%, never happen. The Summer Qualifier and the Koshien takes place almost back to back. There's really no chance for the Ace number to switch its owner in between Tournament. Like with the Fall Tournament, Furuya didn't play better than Sawamura, he still remained as the Ace for the remaining part of the year. It's how it is. People who's counting on this 2nd scenario to happen can forget it.
-3rd. After Summer Tournament. This is the 2nd least likely scenario. If he can prove himself better than Furuya in Summer, he'll be crown the Ace after Summer. However, the unfair notion of DNA's universe is that when Furuya is the Ace, every thing he does will has its glory multiplied by a factor of 10 while whatever Sawamura does will only be considered as its true worth so the same scenario will happen again, Sawamura does better than Furuya but he's still considered worse than Furuya due to unfair plot-force so his chance of remaining as the relief pitcher is much higher than the 1st scenario.

You can rule out the Ace in his 3rd year option because no coach will ever demote a guy who'd been the Ace of the team for over 2 years. Plus, if Sawamura isn't reasonably considered to be better than Furuya NOW with all this stats posted (by Terajima himself), there's no realistic way his situation will change in his 3rd year by which with accumulated glory to his name as the Ace, Furuya will look like the overwhelming favorite by a large margin.

Usually, when they play for Summer Qualification game, they already get their number or this number is given after Miyuki's coming back from Japan-USA game?

Talking about Japan-USA game, I do hope Terajima sensei will draw Sawamura joining Japan-USA game next time. Since Sawamura Eijun is based on Sawamura Eiji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Sawamura) who pretty much strike out four batters including Babe Ruth, I am so excited to see what Eijun gonna do in Jap-USA game. (hope there's gonna be Babe Ruth based off character too)

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Jan 31, 2018 11:00 PM

#155

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Jan 2018

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lisyaoran2009 said:
Usually, when they play for Summer Qualification game, they already get their number or this number is given after Miyuki's coming back from Japan-USA game?

Talking about Japan-USA game, I do hope Terajima sensei will draw Sawamura joining Japan-USA game next time. Since Sawamura Eijun is based on Sawamura Eiji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Sawamura) who pretty much strike out four batters including Babe Ruth, I am so excited to see what Eijun gonna do in Jap-USA game. (hope there's gonna be Babe Ruth based off character too)

Yes they'll need the roster finalized before the Summer Qualifier starts or at least when they do the lottery for the draws. Although it's called Summer or Koshien Qualifier, it's an official and proper Tournament as well, which was what Tetsu and Co. played in before losing to Inajitsu. Inajitsu then went on to Koshien and became the runner up. So it's the starting Tournament of Summer so of course, it will require all team to have their roster registered with the Tournament (they'll have 20 members on the roster).

No they probably won't have the roster done by the time Miyuki comes back from Tokyo Senbatsu because it'll only take Miyuki 1-2 days to play these games. The roster will be finalized in about 1-2 weeks in-universe.

Yes Sawamura was based on Eiji Sawamura and his Babe Ruth opponent was no other than Raichi in the Fall Tournament. Why did you think Terajima made Raichi a make-shift pitcher out of nowhere? Because Babe was also a pitcher turned famous batter. Raichi is a famous batter turned pitcher. So there you go.

Jan 31, 2018 11:31 PM

#156

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Jan 2018

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lisyaoran2009 said:

RoKrish said:

The thing is that even if ono is out for the Summer (which is what it looks like, taking balls to the bare hand unprepared hurts like crazy at best) I would maybe let them catch a few innings in the early rounds, but I would do everything in my power to avoid using them in a clutch situation. The things is that Pitchers are, normally, supposed to switch around. It's quite common for a pitcher in professional baseball to only pitch 6 innings and then have the bullpen come in for the rest of the game to finish it. Catchers generally speaking, start and finish games. Its the most physically demanding position in baseball. Catchers are the only player whom are supposed to put his body on the line to stop runs. Thats why, generally speaking, catchers have shorter careers than most position players because a single significant injury any where can end their careers. They rarely get switched out unless they are specialists like personal catchers which are really rare, and only catch for one pitcher, generally speaking either the Ace or a Knuckleballer. Yui and Okamura are the catchers of the future, but they are not going to be ready by the summer. Ono being healthy would have released a lot of the pressure on Miyuki.

Sawamura, if the world of DnA worked by the normal rules of logic instead of the twisted logic of the in-universe characters, has been Seidou's most trusted pitcher for a long time. See the thing is that after the ace of a pitching staff (which he should be in any case based on just the numbers so in reality would also have been Sawamura, but terajima made it the least reliable pitcher in seidou Furuya), the most trusted pitcher is the closer or fireman (it depends on how teams use them) the number 1 relief pitcher on the team. For example, Andrew Miller of the Cleveland Indians, is a fireman, he basically carried them to the world series two years ago, the New York Yankees had Mariano Rivera, whose cutter is the basis for Sawamura's Cutter Kai, was a closer or a set up man, he only pitched in either the 8th or 9th inning, but carried them to victories against great teams in the last inning. Managers look to these guys to pull rabbits out of a hat, or to stop their opponents from generating a rally to take the game back. In the last summer who was it that Kataoka would put in the firing line to shut down a line up when things were looking problematic? Was it furuya, tanba, or kawakami? nope, it was Sawamura. Kataoka, for all of his faults (and there are many), has always believed that Sawamura had more raw talent than any of his other pitchers. The problem for Sawamura was never getting attention from authority figures, it was keeping it, which is a shame, because Seidou may have had a shot of winning the Meiji Jingu (shown off screen) had Sawamura been the ace. If he becomes the ace now, and is permitted to lead them to the koshien (no easy task two other members of the top 5 pitchers in Japan stand in his way to get there) it will pay off well. If Terajima pulls some half-thought out, dual aces thing wherein Furuya gets to keep the ace number despite being significantly worse of a pitcher than Sawamura, I won't understand it. This is his actual last shot at it, so they had better give him the number.

Also Sakaki and yura have never been seen after that one time. Current thinking is that they will be the dark horse in this summer. They would have been stomped on by Inajitsu last fall.

I sure hope Ono didn't break his finger, it seems like his finger bent in a weird way. Thanks for telling me about catcher, now I realize that usually, catcher is the one who sees batter and knows their characteristics and they create a game call for pitcher.. so their place is important. Then, Ono is getting hurt will boost up both 1st-year catcher like what happens during Tanba last time?

Yess, that's the thing, I meant usually you put your best men behind, or save your hidden card and use it later, Kataoka used Sawamura mostly as closer showing he trust Sawamura, but yet..., I have no idea what is in his mind.

If Sakaki is teaching in West Tokyo, is it the same area as Seido? Cant find information regarding whether Seido is East or West.. I think it's West..

Ono's finger looks pretty much broken. The catchers real strength is as a defensive game-manager. Ono is basically everything you need in a catcher, great defensively (back picks for example are notoriously difficult to pull off), and can carry their own weight offensively as well. Catchers like Miyuki are rarities, most catcher barely hit over the Mendoza line (.215 BA) which is why great hitting catchers are so valued. Ono is going to have to take the Chris route and train the other two to get good enough to play at the first string level behind the plate.

Also Sawamura wasn't strictly speaking a closer. He wasn't always deployed in the last one or 2 innings, and was instead used in high leverage situations to get his team out of a jam. However I think you sort of misinterpreted what I said (its fine, this part of baseball stuff is actually kind of confusing). When I said that the most trusted pitcher was often the closer or the Fireman, it really just means that the Manager of the team trusts them with getting 3-9 outs at the end of the game after the starter gets knocked out or is struggling, or you just need to win the game. The best pitcher are starting pitchers. Put it like this who do you trust more, the guy who can get you 27 outs or the guy who can get you 9 outs max? Kataoka was trying to blood Sawamura, protecting him from the risk of over pitching him early in his career and waiting for him to develop some other pitches. The minute he did, what happens? He gets a CG under his belt.

lisyaoran2009 said:

GDV said:

Yes. There are really 3 scenarios where Sawamura can get the Ace Number from now until the last year of his career.
- 1st. Before Summer. This is the most realistic and most likely scenario where he can get the Ace No. Furuya has only been the Ace for half of his first year; hence, the inexperience and poor result he record is enough evidence to give Sawamura the Ace No. With Sawamura doing considerably better than Furuya in all sabermetrics and Seidou's desperate needs of a reliable Ace in Summer (a pitcher that won't break down from one game after another like Furuya), there are no more reasons not to appraise Sawamura into this position. Note: To show evidences why I claim Furuya's stats are much worse than Sawamura, Furuya's ERA up until this game is about 3.2 on the other hand, Sawamura's ERA is 1.17 in all the practice matches and his ERA was a big fat 0 in the Spring Tournament.
- 2nd. Between Summer Qualifier and Koshien. 0%, never happen. The Summer Qualifier and the Koshien takes place almost back to back. There's really no chance for the Ace number to switch its owner in between Tournament. Like with the Fall Tournament, Furuya didn't play better than Sawamura, he still remained as the Ace for the remaining part of the year. It's how it is. People who's counting on this 2nd scenario to happen can forget it.
-3rd. After Summer Tournament. This is the 2nd least likely scenario. If he can prove himself better than Furuya in Summer, he'll be crown the Ace after Summer. However, the unfair notion of DNA's universe is that when Furuya is the Ace, every thing he does will has its glory multiplied by a factor of 10 while whatever Sawamura does will only be considered as its true worth so the same scenario will happen again, Sawamura does better than Furuya but he's still considered worse than Furuya due to unfair plot-force so his chance of remaining as the relief pitcher is much higher than the 1st scenario.

You can rule out the Ace in his 3rd year option because no coach will ever demote a guy who'd been the Ace of the team for over 2 years. Plus, if Sawamura isn't reasonably considered to be better than Furuya NOW with all this stats posted (by Terajima himself), there's no realistic way his situation will change in his 3rd year by which with accumulated glory to his name as the Ace, Furuya will look like the overwhelming favorite by a large margin.

Usually, when they play for Summer Qualification game, they already get their number or this number is given after Miyuki's coming back from Japan-USA game?

Talking about Japan-USA game, I do hope Terajima sensei will draw Sawamura joining Japan-USA game next time. Since Sawamura Eijun is based on Sawamura Eiji (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eiji_Sawamura) who pretty much strike out four batters including Babe Ruth, I am so excited to see what Eijun gonna do in Jap-USA game. (hope there's gonna be Babe Ruth based off character too)

As @GDV has pointed out Sawamura is a namesake of Sawamura Eiji, and Raichi is the Ruth analog (seriously Ruth was probably a good enough pitcher, he only pitched a few seasons for the Red Sox and none for the Yanks, that he would probably have been in the HOF regardless of hitting 700+ HRs). However if you asked me which pitcher was the most like Sawamura Eiji I would say Hongou (Righty with a high velocity fastball). Sawamura is a totally different type of pitcher, equally dominant, but different. Eiji was a power pitcher according to guys whom played against him in that game like Ruth, Gehrig, and most interestingly Moe Berg (he was the catcher and would later become a spy, there's a movie that just came out The Catcher was a Spy starring Paul Rudd, which is about him during WWII after he had been a spy, in fact he had been working as one during this tour of Japan), who had and rode a great fastball with great control. Eijun on the other hand is a finesse pitcher, which is just as good, but attacks the plate and looks for outs either from Groundballs, Flyballs, or Strikeouts, and are not as reliant on a four-seamer as power pitchers were.

Feb 1, 2018 6:59 PM

#157

Apolloneer

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Jan 2018

8

RoKrish said:

kuramasrose said:
I don't know if I've missed it or... how did you all predict that Ono was going to get injured? I binge-read Act 2 so I don't know if I skipped a chapter or not, or didn't pick up on any clues. Could someone elaborate?

As @GDV said its basically his trope. I had hoped that he wouldn't do it. But its terajima so the same tropes come out most of the time. Another thing is the way the seidou cathcers setup to catch the ball is (with the exception of Okamura) somewhat off. Yui and Miyuki set up with their glove hand sideways (you are supposed to hold it perpendicular to the ground) and Ono keeps his throwing hand outside of the frame of his crouch. In professional Baseball, most catchers keep their throwing hand behind their right leg specifically so that the thing that happened to Ono (getting hit with a foul tip) won't happen.

Speaking of @GDV
Thanks for the translation. Its a shame that Ono got injured right now, it'll be up to the first years to pull a rabbit out of their hat, to keep Furuya in this game, and actually be able to catch Sawamura. It'll be interesting to see what strategies they come up with.

It was a guy stealing from first. He had no choice but to bring his throwing hand out. Hope it's not a major injury tho.

Feb 1, 2018 8:10 PM

#158

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Jan 2018

146

Apolloneer said:

RoKrish said:

As @GDV said its basically his trope. I had hoped that he wouldn't do it. But its terajima so the same tropes come out most of the time. Another thing is the way the seidou cathcers setup to catch the ball is (with the exception of Okamura) somewhat off. Yui and Miyuki set up with their glove hand sideways (you are supposed to hold it perpendicular to the ground) and Ono keeps his throwing hand outside of the frame of his crouch. In professional Baseball, most catchers keep their throwing hand behind their right leg specifically so that the thing that happened to Ono (getting hit with a foul tip) won't happen.

Speaking of @GDV
Thanks for the translation. Its a shame that Ono got injured right now, it'll be up to the first years to pull a rabbit out of their hat, to keep Furuya in this game, and actually be able to catch Sawamura. It'll be interesting to see what strategies they come up with.

It was a guy stealing from first. He had no choice but to bring his throwing hand out. Hope it's not a major injury tho.

Even then proper technique says catch the ball first, then move your feet to get a clear throw, and then dig the ball out of the glove and throw. Ono moved his right hand too soon. If you look at miyuki for example he looks to catch the ball first then begins to throw. Its better to give up a single stolen base than give up a stolen base and a base on an error because instead of giving up a base, you might give up a run. That said its an understandable mistake. I forgot that the hit and run was on.

Feb 1, 2018 8:42 PM

#159

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Yes, Ono's injury was due to a technical error in judgement. Regardless it's understandable because Ono was clearly bothered about being stolen due to his past error in the Meiji Jingu Tourney so he was in a haste to try to pick off the runner. It was mostly unfortunate though; yet, with Terajima, this is a purely planned out development for the sake of inserting the 1st year catchers so there's really no coincident about this...

Feb 3, 2018 12:01 AM

#160

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Jan 2018

146

Speaking of catchers:
I'll wrap this next part in a spoiler tag since it is a bit spoilery and off topic

Feb 4, 2018 12:48 AM

#161

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RoKrish said:
Speaking of catchers:
I'll wrap this next part in a spoiler tag since it is a bit spoilery and off topic

Sorry for the late response on the RL related stuffs since I've been wrapped up in tennis lately. This time of year is when I take off my baseball cap and put on my RF headband XD

Still in a celebrating mood

GDVFeb 4, 2018 12:55 AM

Feb 4, 2018 4:15 AM

#162

cameltr

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Jan 2018

12

Guys, I was thinking about how other Aces in the manga will think when they see this kind of or even more dominant and flawless pitching from Eijun at the final of West Tokyo, or further on the road. For example, Mei had taken an interest in Eijun from his first year at Seidou already. Hongo does not have a clue who's coming for him. He only knows about Furuya. The more I think, the more i get goosebumps because the insights on Eijun will be great. If Seidou wins the national championship, do you think there is a chance Eijun might end up the 1st pitcher in the other coaches or player's eyes? Do we suppose that much credit will be given to him?

Feb 4, 2018 5:34 AM

#163

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Jan 2018

393

Raw of chap 101 is out.

Ono is so unfortunate. One can’t feel anyting but pity for him and on top of it, he’s even apologizing to the team and Sawamura who he won’t be able to catch for. It’s also a good chapter to show Sawamura’s dedication to his teammates, he’s even more worried for Ono than any other on the team.

With Ono out, the team is now very tensed especially the 3rd years. Yui predictably calls for the Slurve and commitef a passed ball. This is exactly what I want to see in this chapter. All in all, it’s getting exciting. I hope this will fire up Sawamura instead of rattling him.

Feb 4, 2018 6:17 AM

#164

ADellaLuna

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Jan 2018

98

GDV said:
Raw of chap 101 is out.
Yui predictably calls for the Slurve and commitef a passed ball. This is exactly what I want to see in this chapter.

I'm really sad for Ono even if we all knew this was his destiny.
for Yui i'm not really happy to see this.
i mean it is normal to have a passed ball with that slurve, and i really will want the blame only on the Pitcher (Furuya). I fear that we will see Yui take the blame for this mistake that in reality is not his, but Furuya and his bad control.

Feb 4, 2018 6:30 AM

#165

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393

ADellaLuna said:
I'm really sad for Ono even if we all knew this was his destiny.
for Yui i'm not really happy to see this.
i mean it is normal to have a passed ball with that slurve, and i really will want the blame only on the Pitcher (Furuya). I fear that we will see Yui take the blame for this mistake that in reality is not his, but Furuya and his bad control.

As we can see, the Slurve rolled over to Yui’s right and on the border of the right side of the plate so Furuya may have probably missed the Slurve down the middle that Yui wanted considering he said he wanted to continue with the plan Ono has been using so that Slurve probably missed its spot.

GDVFeb 4, 2018 6:38 AM

Feb 4, 2018 9:09 AM

#166

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Dec 2015

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[quote=RoKrish message=53904025]

GDV said:

Yes they'll need the roster finalized before the Summer Qualifier starts or at least when they do the lottery for the draws. Although it's called Summer or Koshien Qualifier, it's an official and proper Tournament as well, which was what Tetsu and Co. played in before losing to Inajitsu. Inajitsu then went on to Koshien and became the runner up. So it's the starting Tournament of Summer so of course, it will require all team to have their roster registered with the Tournament (they'll have 20 members on the roster).

No they probably won't have the roster done by the time Miyuki comes back from Tokyo Senbatsu because it'll only take Miyuki 1-2 days to play these games. The roster will be finalized in about 1-2 weeks in-universe.

Yes Sawamura was based on Eiji Sawamura and his Babe Ruth opponent was no other than Raichi in the Fall Tournament. Why did you think Terajima made Raichi a make-shift pitcher out of nowhere? Because Babe was also a pitcher turned famous batter. Raichi is a famous batter turned pitcher. So there you go.

Oh I get it, I'm quite confused about everything that I go and watch S1 and S2 (pretty much marathon,just finished both season now..haha)

I didn't know Raichi was based on Ruth~~! I am so excited for this Summer~!

RoKrish said:

Ono's finger looks pretty much broken. The catchers real strength is as a defensive game-manager. Ono is basically everything you need in a catcher, great defensively (back picks for example are notoriously difficult to pull off), and can carry their own weight offensively as well. Catchers like Miyuki are rarities, most catcher barely hit over the Mendoza line (.215 BA) which is why great hitting catchers are so valued. Ono is going to have to take the Chris route and train the other two to get good enough to play at the first string level behind the plate.

Also Sawamura wasn't strictly speaking a closer. He wasn't always deployed in the last one or 2 innings, and was instead used in high leverage situations to get his team out of a jam. However I think you sort of misinterpreted what I said (its fine, this part of baseball stuff is actually kind of confusing). When I said that the most trusted pitcher was often the closer or the Fireman, it really just means that the Manager of the team trusts them with getting 3-9 outs at the end of the game after the starter gets knocked out or is struggling, or you just need to win the game. The best pitcher are starting pitchers. Put it like this who do you trust more, the guy who can get you 27 outs or the guy who can get you 9 outs max? Kataoka was trying to blood Sawamura, protecting him from the risk of over pitching him early in his career and waiting for him to develop some other pitches. The minute he did, what happens? He gets a CG under his belt.

Hahaha, I am so bad in baseball rules since my country doesn't have this sport, I still remember when I need to google about "foul ball" since I didn't realize it is counted as a strike for 2 strikes only, and I was like "What the heck just happen, isn't foul? Why suddenly he lose?" (I'm still confused with wasted ball, and pass ball though)

And yes, I will choose guy who can get me 27 out, that's why Sawamura really want to be the starter pitcher and when they play with Ichidai, Kataoka use Furuya first, and Ichidai coach says that they are playing with the best member(?), not only that, Mishima was so happy on becoming the starter pitcher when they play with Seido in Fall Tournament. So, starter pitcher is important, is that right?

lisyaoran2009 said:

GDV said:

Yes. There are really 3 scenarios where Sawamura can get the Ace Number from now until the last year of his career.
- 1st. Before Summer. This is the most realistic and most likely scenario where he can get the Ace No. Furuya has only been the Ace for half of his first year; hence, the inexperience and poor result he record is enough evidence to give Sawamura the Ace No. With Sawamura doing considerably better than Furuya in all sabermetrics and Seidou's desperate needs of a reliable Ace in Summer (a pitcher that won't break down from one game after another like Furuya), there are no more reasons not to appraise Sawamura into this position. Note: To show evidences why I claim Furuya's stats are much worse than Sawamura, Furuya's ERA up until this game is about 3.2 on the other hand, Sawamura's ERA is 1.17 in all the practice matches and his ERA was a big fat 0 in the Spring Tournament.
- 2nd. Between Summer Qualifier and Koshien. 0%, never happen. The Summer Qualifier and the Koshien takes place almost back to back. There's really no chance for the Ace number to switch its owner in between Tournament. Like with the Fall Tournament, Furuya didn't play better than Sawamura, he still remained as the Ace for the remaining part of the year. It's how it is. People who's counting on this 2nd scenario to happen can forget it.
-3rd. After Summer Tournament. This is the 2nd least likely scenario. If he can prove himself better than Furuya in Summer, he'll be crown the Ace after Summer. However, the unfair notion of DNA's universe is that when Furuya is the Ace, every thing he does will has its glory multiplied by a factor of 10 while whatever Sawamura does will only be considered as its true worth so the same scenario will happen again, Sawamura does better than Furuya but he's still considered worse than Furuya due to unfair plot-force so his chance of remaining as the relief pitcher is much higher than the 1st scenario.

You can rule out the Ace in his 3rd year option because no coach will ever demote a guy who'd been the Ace of the team for over 2 years. Plus, if Sawamura isn't reasonably considered to be better than Furuya NOW with all this stats posted (by Terajima himself), there's no realistic way his situation will change in his 3rd year by which with accumulated glory to his name as the Ace, Furuya will look like the overwhelming favorite by a large margin.

As @GDV has pointed out Sawamura is a namesake of Sawamura Eiji, and Raichi is the Ruth analog (seriously Ruth was probably a good enough pitcher, he only pitched a few seasons for the Red Sox and none for the Yanks, that he would probably have been in the HOF regardless of hitting 700+ HRs). However if you asked me which pitcher was the most like Sawamura Eiji I would say Hongou (Righty with a high velocity fastball). Sawamura is a totally different type of pitcher, equally dominant, but different. Eiji was a power pitcher according to guys whom played against him in that game like Ruth, Gehrig, and most interestingly Moe Berg (he was the catcher and would later become a spy, there's a movie that just came out The Catcher was a Spy starring Paul Rudd, which is about him during WWII after he had been a spy, in fact he had been working as one during this tour of Japan), who had and rode a great fastball with great control. Eijun on the other hand is a finesse pitcher, which is just as good, but attacks the plate and looks for outs either from Groundballs, Flyballs, or Strikeouts, and are not as reliant on a four-seamer as power pitchers were.

Then, I really hope he can become ace this year, When I went back and watch Seido vs Yakushi, although Furuya was pitching in one inning, everyone was like "Oh, he is the ace, he is the one open door to Koushien, bla..bla..bla.. " (Furuya is important player and he does his best, I wouldn't deny it, but please give Sawamura and Kawakami more credit, its like so unfairr.)

This is something new, I didn't know how Sawamura Eiji is similar to Hongou, Thanks for this information. IMO, the pitcher with more variant breaking ball seems more intimidating, and speed is something Sawamura can work later on. I wish Season 3 is here already, the episode I gonna watch and watch again is when Sawamura pitch against ichidai sankou. HAHAHA. love it.

lisyaoran2009Feb 4, 2018 9:13 AM

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Feb 4, 2018 9:25 AM

#167

TeamAce

Offline

Aug 2016

20

Link for the raw: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5540782797

I also liked this chapter. Ono is already out of the game and we progressed with the game, seeing Furuya/Yui failing. Not gonna lie, it's what I wanted to happened. Was afraid that perhaps we would see the "Friendship Power", giving a powerup for Furuya due to all this situation, discharging his feelings on his pitching with a dominant performance, but I'm glad that's not the case (for now at least) and that we may see some runs here. I'm sure Yui will be criticized for lack of experience and such, hope we also see some fingers pointed at the lack of control/composure by Furuya. It's not how I imagined his blame would be regarding the foreshadowed injury of Ono, but I would take it.

Also liked the concern of Sawamura, as you would expect from him. Hard to believe that, from the expressions, he's the one feeling more frustrated with the situation, rather than the fellow 3rd years (perhaps excepting Kuramochi, but I don't understand how there's not more support to a teammate that looks like has ended his High School career this way). On the contrary, the teammate that lives with him for quite some time now, his pitcher partner, just looks bland with the situation lol

As for Ono himself, although it isn't the same case that we had with Tanba (as the Ace of the team, apparently where he would finally have his brightest moment; Ono knew that he would just be the reserve catcher), nor do we have the same connection with him that we have with other 3rd year characters (like the ones from Haikyuu)... damn, it's heartbreaking.

And btw, since I talked about Tanba. We had him, Chris even before, Furuya (3 times, with his nails, foot and back), Miyuki and now Ono. Gotta be the school with the most injuries lol

What's the interaction between Ono and Sawamura?

TeamAceFeb 4, 2018 9:29 AM

Feb 4, 2018 9:31 AM

#168

Offline

Dec 2015

89

ADellaLuna said:

GDV said:
Raw of chap 101 is out.
Yui predictably calls for the Slurve and commitef a passed ball. This is exactly what I want to see in this chapter.

I'm really sad for Ono even if we all knew this was his destiny.
for Yui i'm not really happy to see this.
i mean it is normal to have a passed ball with that slurve, and i really will want the blame only on the Pitcher (Furuya). I fear that we will see Yui take the blame for this mistake that in reality is not his, but Furuya and his bad control.

Usually, when this (passed ball) happen, it is catcher's responsibility? Ono seems so down when he failed to catch Furuya's pitching b4 that he put that scorebook there...

I second your opinion on "If Yui didn't manage to catch the ball, I hope people won't blame him". a battery consists of 2 people, if the ball were hit, then if the game call made by the battery is wrong. not just catcher. And we can see what Furuya gonna do, then people will know if this person is Ace-material or not.

(I dont know, but I dont think an ace is a guy who substituted other pitcher and says thing like "there is no need to two pitchers on a mound" God, I am still mad at him.)

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Feb 4, 2018 6:57 PM

#169

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Jan 2018

146

[quote=lisyaoran2009 message=53947802]

RoKrish said:

GDV said:

Yes they'll need the roster finalized before the Summer Qualifier starts or at least when they do the lottery for the draws. Although it's called Summer or Koshien Qualifier, it's an official and proper Tournament as well, which was what Tetsu and Co. played in before losing to Inajitsu. Inajitsu then went on to Koshien and became the runner up. So it's the starting Tournament of Summer so of course, it will require all team to have their roster registered with the Tournament (they'll have 20 members on the roster).

No they probably won't have the roster done by the time Miyuki comes back from Tokyo Senbatsu because it'll only take Miyuki 1-2 days to play these games. The roster will be finalized in about 1-2 weeks in-universe.

Yes Sawamura was based on Eiji Sawamura and his Babe Ruth opponent was no other than Raichi in the Fall Tournament. Why did you think Terajima made Raichi a make-shift pitcher out of nowhere? Because Babe was also a pitcher turned famous batter. Raichi is a famous batter turned pitcher. So there you go.

Oh I get it, I'm quite confused about everything that I go and watch S1 and S2 (pretty much marathon,just finished both season now..haha)

I didn't know Raichi was based on Ruth~~! I am so excited for this Summer~!

RoKrish said:

Ono's finger looks pretty much broken. The catchers real strength is as a defensive game-manager. Ono is basically everything you need in a catcher, great defensively (back picks for example are notoriously difficult to pull off), and can carry their own weight offensively as well. Catchers like Miyuki are rarities, most catcher barely hit over the Mendoza line (.215 BA) which is why great hitting catchers are so valued. Ono is going to have to take the Chris route and train the other two to get good enough to play at the first string level behind the plate.

Also Sawamura wasn't strictly speaking a closer. He wasn't always deployed in the last one or 2 innings, and was instead used in high leverage situations to get his team out of a jam. However I think you sort of misinterpreted what I said (its fine, this part of baseball stuff is actually kind of confusing). When I said that the most trusted pitcher was often the closer or the Fireman, it really just means that the Manager of the team trusts them with getting 3-9 outs at the end of the game after the starter gets knocked out or is struggling, or you just need to win the game. The best pitcher are starting pitchers. Put it like this who do you trust more, the guy who can get you 27 outs or the guy who can get you 9 outs max? Kataoka was trying to blood Sawamura, protecting him from the risk of over pitching him early in his career and waiting for him to develop some other pitches. The minute he did, what happens? He gets a CG under his belt.

Hahaha, I am so bad in baseball rules since my country doesn't have this sport, I still remember when I need to google about "foul ball" since I didn't realize it is counted as a strike for 2 strikes only, and I was like "What the heck just happen, isn't foul? Why suddenly he lose?" (I'm still confused with wasted ball, and pass ball though)

And yes, I will choose guy who can get me 27 out, that's why Sawamura really want to be the starter pitcher and when they play with Ichidai, Kataoka use Furuya first, and Ichidai coach says that they are playing with the best member(?), not only that, Mishima was so happy on becoming the starter pitcher when they play with Seido in Fall Tournament. So, starter pitcher is important, is that right?

lisyaoran2009 said:

GDV said:

RoKrish said:

BTW, I have read before saying that iF sawamura didn't get to be ace now, (during 2nd year), the possibility for him to get ace in 3rd year is slim since usually, they kept the same ace as before to honour(?) them. Is that true?

Yes. There are really 3 scenarios where Sawamura can get the Ace Number from now until the last year of his career.
- 1st. Before Summer. This is the most realistic and most likely scenario where he can get the Ace No. Furuya has only been the Ace for half of his first year; hence, the inexperience and poor result he record is enough evidence to give Sawamura the Ace No. With Sawamura doing considerably better than Furuya in all sabermetrics and Seidou's desperate needs of a reliable Ace in Summer (a pitcher that won't break down from one game after another like Furuya), there are no more reasons not to appraise Sawamura into this position. Note: To show evidences why I claim Furuya's stats are much worse than Sawamura, Furuya's ERA up until this game is about 3.2 on the other hand, Sawamura's ERA is 1.17 in all the practice matches and his ERA was a big fat 0 in the Spring Tournament.
- 2nd. Between Summer Qualifier and Koshien. 0%, never happen. The Summer Qualifier and the Koshien takes place almost back to back. There's really no chance for the Ace number to switch its owner in between Tournament. Like with the Fall Tournament, Furuya didn't play better than Sawamura, he still remained as the Ace for the remaining part of the year. It's how it is. People who's counting on this 2nd scenario to happen can forget it.
-3rd. After Summer Tournament. This is the 2nd least likely scenario. If he can prove himself better than Furuya in Summer, he'll be crown the Ace after Summer. However, the unfair notion of DNA's universe is that when Furuya is the Ace, every thing he does will has its glory multiplied by a factor of 10 while whatever Sawamura does will only be considered as its true worth so the same scenario will happen again, Sawamura does better than Furuya but he's still considered worse than Furuya due to unfair plot-force so his chance of remaining as the relief pitcher is much higher than the 1st scenario.

You can rule out the Ace in his 3rd year option because no coach will ever demote a guy who'd been the Ace of the team for over 2 years. Plus, if Sawamura isn't reasonably considered to be better than Furuya NOW with all this stats posted (by Terajima himself), there's no realistic way his situation will change in his 3rd year by which with accumulated glory to his name as the Ace, Furuya will look like the overwhelming favorite by a large margin.

As @GDV has pointed out Sawamura is a namesake of Sawamura Eiji, and Raichi is the Ruth analog (seriously Ruth was probably a good enough pitcher, he only pitched a few seasons for the Red Sox and none for the Yanks, that he would probably have been in the HOF regardless of hitting 700+ HRs). However if you asked me which pitcher was the most like Sawamura Eiji I would say Hongou (Righty with a high velocity fastball). Sawamura is a totally different type of pitcher, equally dominant, but different. Eiji was a power pitcher according to guys whom played against him in that game like Ruth, Gehrig, and most interestingly Moe Berg (he was the catcher and would later become a spy, there's a movie that just came out The Catcher was a Spy starring Paul Rudd, which is about him during WWII after he had been a spy, in fact he had been working as one during this tour of Japan), who had and rode a great fastball with great control. Eijun on the other hand is a finesse pitcher, which is just as good, but attacks the plate and looks for outs either from Groundballs, Flyballs, or Strikeouts, and are not as reliant on a four-seamer as power pitchers were.

Then, I really hope he can become ace this year, When I went back and watch Seido vs Yakushi, although Furuya was pitching in one inning, everyone was like "Oh, he is the ace, he is the one open door to Koushien, bla..bla..bla.. " (Furuya is important player and he does his best, I wouldn't deny it, but please give Sawamura and Kawakami more credit, its like so unfairr.)

This is something new, I didn't know how Sawamura Eiji is similar to Hongou, Thanks for this information. IMO, the pitcher with more variant breaking ball seems more intimidating, and speed is something Sawamura can work later on. I wish Season 3 is here already, the episode I gonna watch and watch again is when Sawamura pitch against ichidai sankou. HAHAHA. love it.

The Starting pitcher, especially if he is a true ace, like Kershaw, Scherzer, Greinke, Kluber, Sale, or MadBum, they are almost always a teams number 1 asset. (Seriously, there are only likely to be two Relievers in the HOF off the normal ballot, Hoffman who got in this year, and Rivera whom will get in next year) Sawamura certainly is shaping out to be a true ace (numbers+leadership+ability+intimidation from the mound) but a true ace, while great to build a team around, still needs a team around them.

As for passed balls, you mentioned in a later post that you weren't certain who gets the fault for it. The answer is somewhat complicated. If the ball misses where the catcher has asked for it, as what happened to furuya in the Jingu tournament, its the pitchers fault. If the pitcher hits his spots, but the catcher misjudges the ball and it goes past him, its the catchers fault. Essentially anything that is not called dead by the umpire is a "live" ball, and a runner can run on it, so a passed ball is a pitch that goes past the catcher (he doesn't catch it) and is live (a foul tip that goes past the catcher is just called foul) so a runner can and generally speaking will run on it (unless its clear that the catcher is hurt in which case the ump will normally call the ball dead and the runner will return to the base).

As for wasted balls, those are just balls that are thrown out of the zone on purpose. For example imagine if Asada (lefty with a fastball and a curve ball) was facing a lefty batter. His curve drops nearly 5 feet, so if he wants to actually make full use of it, I would have him throwing a fastball up and out of the zone, on purpose (a wasted pitch as it doesn't further the count), followed by a curve ball to the inside low corner, followed by a fastball to the outside edge, then another curve to the outside edge. If executed properly the at bat is over quickly and the waste pitch was worth it, if he can't control his stuff then we are in big trouble.

The thing is, that pitchers whom don't have great velocity (like kershaw who is the best pitcher in baseball right now despite having a below average fastball in terms of velocity or @GDV's favorite baseball player ever Maddux) have to make up for it with ridiculous levels of command. Kershaw can put his fastball exactly where he wants it 8-9 times out of 10 (it may not seem all that high, but these guys are human, and will make mistakes, Maddux could put his fastball where he wanted it 9-10 times out of 10, but even he had his off days, especially against the late, great, Tony Gwynn Jr (batting 400+ and never getting K'd against him is ridiculous). Speed (or as they call it Gas) is something a player is born with or develops as time goes on, but its generally all there by the time the player is 20 years old. Sawamura seems to be a bit of a physical late bloomer, and could certainly hit the mid 90's (MPH) by the time he goes pro, but Furuya, is in a sense, the more coach-able player, since you can teach control, breaking pitches, and offspeed pitches to a guy with velocity. Honestly if you asked me whom I'd want to face, a guy throwing 100mph or a guy with 10 different pitches and excellent control, but only throwing mid-80s, I would choose the guy throwing 10 different pitches, since there is a mathematical chance that I could potentially hit one of his pitches. Thats why closers generally have great velocity, their job is to keep the ball out of play no matter what. For reference, of the 50 fastest pitches in baseball this year 49 were thrown by one guy, Aldorois Chapman, a closer, the 1 other pitch was also thrown by a closer. That isn't to say that one style is any better than the other, its just that each one has certain advantages, for the guy throwing more different stuff he can confuse batters if he is led properly by his battery mate, while the guy throwing gas has the advantage of speed that forces a batter to swing early at every pitch.

Feb 4, 2018 7:03 PM

#170

Offline

Jan 2018

146

TeamAce said:
Link for the raw: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/5540782797

I also liked this chapter. Ono is already out of the game and we progressed with the game, seeing Furuya/Yui failing. Not gonna lie, it's what I wanted to happened. Was afraid that perhaps we would see the "Friendship Power", giving a powerup for Furuya due to all this situation, discharging his feelings on his pitching with a dominant performance, but I'm glad that's not the case (for now at least) and that we may see some runs here. I'm sure Yui will be criticized for lack of experience and such, hope we also see some fingers pointed at the lack of control/composure by Furuya. It's not how I imagined his blame would be regarding the foreshadowed injury of Ono, but I would take it.

Also liked the concern of Sawamura, as you would expect from him. Hard to believe that, from the expressions, he's the one feeling more frustrated with the situation, rather than the fellow 3rd years (perhaps excepting Kuramochi, but I don't understand how there's not more support to a teammate that looks like has ended his High School career this way). On the contrary, the teammate that lives with him for quite some time now, his pitcher partner, just looks bland with the situation lol

As for Ono himself, although it isn't the same case that we had with Tanba (as the Ace of the team, apparently where he would finally have his brightest moment; Ono knew that he would just be the reserve catcher), nor do we have the same connection with him that we have with other 3rd year characters (like the ones from Haikyuu)... damn, it's heartbreaking.

And btw, since I talked about Tanba. We had him, Chris even before, Furuya (3 times, with his nails, foot and back), Miyuki and now Ono. Gotta be the school with the most injuries lol

What's the interaction between Ono and Sawamura?

Ono is actually an interesting case. He's not a genius, not a prodigy, not greatly talented, but is just generally speaking one of the nicest guys on the team. Sawamura is probably pretty close with him, especially since they are generally in the bullpen together getting loose with Kawakami. Sawamura is probably closer with Ono than we have been shown. Ono was his first batterymate in an official game way back in last spring. Also in this case, its not really Furuya's fault. Don't get me wrong I still think he is a deeply flawed pitcher, in this case Ono was just unlucky because Terajima needs to let the first years get a chance to catch it was a foul tip and it was out of both of their abilities to control.

Feb 4, 2018 7:19 PM

#171

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Jan 2018

146

GDV said:

RoKrish said:
Speaking of catchers:
I'll wrap this next part in a spoiler tag since it is a bit spoilery and off topic

Sorry for the late response on the RL related stuffs since I've been wrapped up in tennis lately. This time of year is when I take off my baseball cap and put on my RF headband XD

Still in a celebrating mood

Yeah no problem. Go RF (he's my favorite too)

Feb 4, 2018 7:23 PM

#172

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Jan 2018

393

Chapter 111: unexpected future

Opening notes: Seidou High vs. Yamamori Academy, a clash between the Senbatsu's top 8 powerhouses. Bottom of the 2nd, an emergency problem has broke out for the corner stone of Seidou's defense, Ono.

Note: The reason why the equipments of the catcher is heavy is because it represent his heavy responsibilities.

Players: It's his right hand. A direct hit from the foul shank of the batter eh...on top of that it was from Furuya's fastball. This would hurt. Will he be alright man.
Kataoka: Yui! get ready!
Yui: Yes sir!
Ono: Sorry Furuya, I'll be taking my leave here. I'll leave the rest to you...Yui. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Try to get your grip on Furuya.
Zono: If the runner didn't take off, Ono probably wouldn't have took his hand out to that position...this is unbearable...for Ono to withdraw from the match now would do big damage to us.
Audiences: 2 years ago it was Chris, last year it was Tanba. Seidou is probably cursed during this time of year.
Sawamura: ...
Ono: I'm sorry Sawamura...I won't be able to catch your pitch later.
Sawamura: Just what are you saying! Just don't worry about that, we still don't know what your condition is, please just hurry up and go see the doctor!
Ono: my bad...
Sawamura: Why are you apologizing Ono senpai...

Yui: I got the feeling you guys increase the number of breaking pitches. What kind of arrangement did you do?
Furuya: yeah...since batters aim for nothing but fastball, so more breaking pitches, in the zone. Perhaps it went a little too well. Got lucky with the course.
Yui: I understood. I will continue with that call.
Furuya: yeah...I'll leave it to you.
Mochi: Don't 2 two think that you'll handle things out on your own. The one defending behind you is me alright!
Zono: Won't ya count on us in these kind of situation already!
Haruichi: It's 2 outs already. Let's get that 1 out first and foremost.
Kane: Furuya's pitch won't be hit that easily.
Yui: Alright, if you please.

Yamamori coach: It's an accident during a game so switch your gear. The match has only just begun. Don't forget to stay aggressive with your mind set. We'll have fun in order to win. This is Yamamori's baseball after all.
Players: Yes sir.
Yui: First, let's start with his breaking pitch that's in good shape.
Ono: I'm really sorry to leave the team because of something like this. I thought that I would pull myself together as a catcher during this time of Miyuki's absence. Miyuki also told me to take care of the 1st year catchers...
Rei: Ono kun
Nabe: Even at this point, he's till thinking about the team.
Rei: Okay, hop on, we need to hurry.

--Furuya pitches fastball down the middle, It's foul off.
Yui: It's true, they're able to keep up well with Furuya's fastball. This is the true power of a team at Koshien level. However, we have cornered him, let's take him out with this.
Ono cries: Damn it, why now, something like this.

--Flash back, seems like something Furuya told Ono: It's okay, don't worry. We will hold them back here.

--Furuya's Slurve bounces on the ground, it's a passed ball.

End Note: The ball mercilessly rolls away~

Feb 4, 2018 7:34 PM

#173

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Jan 2018

146

cameltr said:
Guys, I was thinking about how other Aces in the manga will think when they see this kind of or even more dominant and flawless pitching from Eijun at the final of West Tokyo, or further on the road. For example, Mei had taken an interest in Eijun from his first year at Seidou already. Hongo does not have a clue who's coming for him. He only knows about Furuya. The more I think, the more i get goosebumps because the insights on Eijun will be great. If Seidou wins the national championship, do you think there is a chance Eijun might end up the 1st pitcher in the other coaches or player's eyes? Do we suppose that much credit will be given to him?

Here's the thing, other Aces recognize his ability. Mei, Sanada, Amahisa, and Ouno, all rate him highly and give him the respect he is due. Sanada respects him and his ability to go toe-to-toe with him with cutters. Mei has been impressed by him since Sawamura K'd him back in the summer on 3 pitches to end an inning. Ouno expects to see him take the mound in the Koshien. Amahisa, who generally doesn't really care about other teams pitchers, made a point to go and talk to him after Ichidaisan beat Seidou. They respect him, to them he's a member, if not by jersey number, then by ability, of the elite club of Aces. There are really only three groups that haven't recognized him as at worst Furuya' s equal, and at best, Furuya's superior. Those three are, the general fanbase in universe (whom are waking up to the fact that they have a real ace to see pitch), the press (whom have woken up that he is nearing Furuya's level and thus Hongou's), and his own team (whom are for the most part almost comically unaware of how dominant Sawamura is). Hongou and Komodai have no idea whats going to happen if Sawamura gets going, their dream of consecutive national titles could go up in smoke at the final hurdle.

Feb 4, 2018 7:43 PM

#174

Offline

Jan 2018

146

GDV said:
Chapter 111: unexpected future

Opening notes: Seidou High vs. Yamamori Academy, a clash between the Senbatsu's top 8 powerhouses. Bottom of the 2nd, an emergency problem has broke out for the corner stone of Seidou's defense, Ono.

Note: The reason why the equipments of the catcher is heavy is because it represent his heavy responsibilities.

Players: It's his right hand. A direct hit from the foul shank of the batter eh...on top of that it was from Furuya's fastball. This would hurt. Will he be alright man.
Kataoka: Yui! get ready!
Yui: Yes sir!
Ono: Sorry Furuya, I'll be taking my leave here. I'll leave the rest to you...Yui. Don't worry, you'll be fine. Try to get your grip on Furuya.
Zono: If the runner didn't take off, Ono probably wouldn't have took his hand out to that position...this is unbearable...for Ono to withdraw from the match now would do big damage to us.
Audiences: 2 years ago it was Chris, last year it was Tanba. Seidou is probably cursed during this time of year.
Sawamura: ...
Ono: I'm sorry Sawamura...I won't be able to catch your pitch later.
Sawamura: Just what are you saying! Just don't worry about that, we still don't know what your condition is, please just hurry up and go see the doctor!
Ono: my bad...
Sawamura: Why are you apologizing Ono senpai...

Yui: I got the feeling you guys increase the number of breaking pitches. What kind of arrangement did you do?
Furuya: yeah...since batters aim for nothing but fastball, so more breaking pitches, in the zone. Perhaps it went a little too well. Got lucky with the course.
Yui: I understood. I will continue with that call.
Furuya: yeah...I'll leave it to you.
Mochi: Don't 2 two think that you'll handle things out on your own. The one defending behind you is me alright!
Zono: Won't ya count on us in these kind of situation already!
Haruichi: It's 2 outs already. Let's get that 1 out first and foremost.
Kane: Furuya's pitch won't be hit that easily.
Yui: Alright, if you please.

Yamamori coach: It's an accident during a game so switch your gear. The match has only just begun. Don't forget to stay aggressive with your mind set. We'll have fun in order to win. This is Yamamori's baseball after all.
Players: Yes sir.
Yui: First, let's start with his breaking pitch that's in good shape.
Ono: I'm really sorry to leave the team because of something like this. I thought that I would pull myself together as a catcher during this time of Miyuki's absence. Miyuki also told me to take care of the 1st year catchers...
Rei: Ono kun
Nabe: Even at this point, he's till thinking about the team.
Rei: Okay, hop on, we need to hurry.

--Furuya pitches fastball down the middle, It's foul off.
Yui: It's true, they're able to keep up well with Furuya's fastball. This is the true power of a team at Koshien level. However, we have cornered him, let's take him out with this.
Ono cries: Damn it, why now, something like this.

--Flash back, seems like something Furuya told Ono: It's okay, don't worry. We will hold them back here.

--Furuya's Slurve bounces on the ground, it's a passed ball.

End Note: The ball mercilessly rolls away~

Thanks for the translation. Jeez I didn't think I could respect Ono and Sawamura more. These guys are team players, quintessentially. They are all so worried about the cause that they almost forget about the situation they themselves are in. Unfortunately it may be too late for Ono to be rewarded for his good behavior. Sawamura isn't worried about his own performance, which may suffer without Ono, just that Ono gets treatment. Ono feels that he has failed both as a player and a teammate, which he really shouldn't be. The real question is whether the yamamori hitter swung (if he did its a K but can still try to leg it out, if not he's fine).

Feb 4, 2018 7:48 PM

#175

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Jan 2018

393

RoKrish said:

Yeah no problem. Go RF (he's my favorite too)

RF is just a freak of nature

Regarding Major

Feb 4, 2018 8:08 PM

#176

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Jan 2018

393

RoKrish said:

Thanks for the translation. Jeez I didn't think I could respect Ono and Sawamura more. These guys are team players, quintessentially. They are all so worried about the cause that they almost forget about the situation they themselves are in. Unfortunately it may be too late for Ono to be rewarded for his good behavior. Sawamura isn't worried about his own performance, which may suffer without Ono, just that Ono gets treatment. Ono feels that he has failed both as a player and a teammate, which he really shouldn't be. The real question is whether the yamamori hitter swung (if he did its a K but can still try to leg it out, if not he's fine).

Anytime. If we look at the picture below, there are 2 things can be make out.

- The batter didn't swing because his front foot hasn't fully step on the ground or turn, this suggests he let the ball go.
- Furuya's pitch almost touch the right batter's box which is way too wide so that was a mis-commanded Slurve.

So the runner, which I recall was on 1st base, would probably be able to advance to 3rd if he took off early but the batter wouldn't be allowed to run because it wasn't a dropped 3rd strike. Although let me see, in last chapter against this batter, Furuya pitched a wide ball and Ono checked runner on first so that's 1-0. Fastball down the middle for a strike, 1-1. Hit and run attempt was a foul ball so 1-2. Yui in this chapter firstly called for a low fastball, most definitely wide so 2-2. Another fastball down the pipe and fouled off so still 2-2. Unless Terajima decided it's somehow at Full-Count, the batter probably still have to stay in his batter box. I kind of hoped that it would be a Walk and reset the count to a new batter to keep the trouble running. Regardless, it's still runner in scoring position and now with a passed ball, both Furuya and Yui probably wouldn't want another Slurve, they'll be forced to use the fastball and fastball with runner at 3rd, that's a good chance for the batter to score given how he's been able to foul Furuya's fastball, he may be able to time one nicely next.

GDVFeb 4, 2018 8:27 PM

Feb 4, 2018 8:18 PM

#177

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Jan 2018

146

@GDV I meant that if the batter had swung he could leg it out to first like Sawamura did in the freshman vs upperclassman game from back in the first act. If he didn't swing the runner on first could take off for third, and yeah the batter will stay put.

Feb 5, 2018 8:03 AM

#178

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Dec 2015

89

RoKrish said:

The Starting pitcher, especially if he is a true ace, like Kershaw, Scherzer, Greinke, Kluber, Sale, or MadBum, they are almost always a teams number 1 asset. (Seriously, there are only likely to be two Relievers in the HOF off the normal ballot, Hoffman who got in this year, and Rivera whom will get in next year) Sawamura certainly is shaping out to be a true ace (numbers+leadership+ability+intimidation from the mound) but a true ace, while great to build a team around, still needs a team around them.

As for passed balls, you mentioned in a later post that you weren't certain who gets the fault for it. The answer is somewhat complicated. If the ball misses where the catcher has asked for it, as what happened to furuya in the Jingu tournament, its the pitchers fault. If the pitcher hits his spots, but the catcher misjudges the ball and it goes past him, its the catchers fault. Essentially anything that is not called dead by the umpire is a "live" ball, and a runner can run on it, so a passed ball is a pitch that goes past the catcher (he doesn't catch it) and is live (a foul tip that goes past the catcher is just called foul) so a runner can and generally speaking will run on it (unless its clear that the catcher is hurt in which case the ump will normally call the ball dead and the runner will return to the base).

As for wasted balls, those are just balls that are thrown out of the zone on purpose. For example imagine if Asada (lefty with a fastball and a curve ball) was facing a lefty batter. His curve drops nearly 5 feet, so if he wants to actually make full use of it, I would have him throwing a fastball up and out of the zone, on purpose (a wasted pitch as it doesn't further the count), followed by a curve ball to the inside low corner, followed by a fastball to the outside edge, then another curve to the outside edge. If executed properly the at bat is over quickly and the waste pitch was worth it, if he can't control his stuff then we are in big trouble.

The thing is, that pitchers whom don't have great velocity (like kershaw who is the best pitcher in baseball right now despite having a below average fastball in terms of velocity or @GDV's favorite baseball player ever Maddux) have to make up for it with ridiculous levels of command. Kershaw can put his fastball exactly where he wants it 8-9 times out of 10 (it may not seem all that high, but these guys are human, and will make mistakes, Maddux could put his fastball where he wanted it 9-10 times out of 10, but even he had his off days, especially against the late, great, Tony Gwynn Jr (batting 400+ and never getting K'd against him is ridiculous). Speed (or as they call it Gas) is something a player is born with or develops as time goes on, but its generally all there by the time the player is 20 years old. Sawamura seems to be a bit of a physical late bloomer, and could certainly hit the mid 90's (MPH) by the time he goes pro, but Furuya, is in a sense, the more coach-able player, since you can teach control, breaking pitches, and offspeed pitches to a guy with velocity. Honestly if you asked me whom I'd want to face, a guy throwing 100mph or a guy with 10 different pitches and excellent control, but only throwing mid-80s, I would choose the guy throwing 10 different pitches, since there is a mathematical chance that I could potentially hit one of his pitches. Thats why closers generally have great velocity, their job is to keep the ball out of play no matter what. For reference, of the 50 fastest pitches in baseball this year 49 were thrown by one guy, Aldorois Chapman, a closer, the 1 other pitch was also thrown by a closer. That isn't to say that one style is any better than the other, its just that each one has certain advantages, for the guy throwing more different stuff he can confuse batters if he is led properly by his battery mate, while the guy throwing gas has the advantage of speed that forces a batter to swing early at every pitch.

That's deep.. Having more speed is advantageous than more breaking ball, I didn't think of that before. Thank you for the explanation. wasted ball is not counted is good, meaning that its not included in "four ball"? Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

And in the previous post, saying about Hongou, I hope they will do match Sawamura vs Hongou. Because Furuya seems too concern about Hongou (that he changed after Senbatsu) I thought maybe Terajima wanna make Furuya vs Hongou and make him as the best pitcher (regardless Sawamura is the ace; since Furuya is loved by everyone.) I hope I am wrong. (;´Д`)

lisyaoran2009Feb 5, 2018 8:08 AM

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Feb 5, 2018 10:16 AM

#179

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Jan 2018

146

lisyaoran2009 said:

RoKrish said:

The Starting pitcher, especially if he is a true ace, like Kershaw, Scherzer, Greinke, Kluber, Sale, or MadBum, they are almost always a teams number 1 asset. (Seriously, there are only likely to be two Relievers in the HOF off the normal ballot, Hoffman who got in this year, and Rivera whom will get in next year) Sawamura certainly is shaping out to be a true ace (numbers+leadership+ability+intimidation from the mound) but a true ace, while great to build a team around, still needs a team around them.

As for passed balls, you mentioned in a later post that you weren't certain who gets the fault for it. The answer is somewhat complicated. If the ball misses where the catcher has asked for it, as what happened to furuya in the Jingu tournament, its the pitchers fault. If the pitcher hits his spots, but the catcher misjudges the ball and it goes past him, its the catchers fault. Essentially anything that is not called dead by the umpire is a "live" ball, and a runner can run on it, so a passed ball is a pitch that goes past the catcher (he doesn't catch it) and is live (a foul tip that goes past the catcher is just called foul) so a runner can and generally speaking will run on it (unless its clear that the catcher is hurt in which case the ump will normally call the ball dead and the runner will return to the base).

As for wasted balls, those are just balls that are thrown out of the zone on purpose. For example imagine if Asada (lefty with a fastball and a curve ball) was facing a lefty batter. His curve drops nearly 5 feet, so if he wants to actually make full use of it, I would have him throwing a fastball up and out of the zone, on purpose (a wasted pitch as it doesn't further the count), followed by a curve ball to the inside low corner, followed by a fastball to the outside edge, then another curve to the outside edge. If executed properly the at bat is over quickly and the waste pitch was worth it, if he can't control his stuff then we are in big trouble.

The thing is, that pitchers whom don't have great velocity (like kershaw who is the best pitcher in baseball right now despite having a below average fastball in terms of velocity or @GDV's favorite baseball player ever Maddux) have to make up for it with ridiculous levels of command. Kershaw can put his fastball exactly where he wants it 8-9 times out of 10 (it may not seem all that high, but these guys are human, and will make mistakes, Maddux could put his fastball where he wanted it 9-10 times out of 10, but even he had his off days, especially against the late, great, Tony Gwynn Jr (batting 400+ and never getting K'd against him is ridiculous). Speed (or as they call it Gas) is something a player is born with or develops as time goes on, but its generally all there by the time the player is 20 years old. Sawamura seems to be a bit of a physical late bloomer, and could certainly hit the mid 90's (MPH) by the time he goes pro, but Furuya, is in a sense, the more coach-able player, since you can teach control, breaking pitches, and offspeed pitches to a guy with velocity. Honestly if you asked me whom I'd want to face, a guy throwing 100mph or a guy with 10 different pitches and excellent control, but only throwing mid-80s, I would choose the guy throwing 10 different pitches, since there is a mathematical chance that I could potentially hit one of his pitches. Thats why closers generally have great velocity, their job is to keep the ball out of play no matter what. For reference, of the 50 fastest pitches in baseball this year 49 were thrown by one guy, Aldorois Chapman, a closer, the 1 other pitch was also thrown by a closer. That isn't to say that one style is any better than the other, its just that each one has certain advantages, for the guy throwing more different stuff he can confuse batters if he is led properly by his battery mate, while the guy throwing gas has the advantage of speed that forces a batter to swing early at every pitch.

That's deep.. Having more speed is advantageous than more breaking ball, I didn't think of that before. Thank you for the explanation. wasted ball is not counted is good, meaning that its not included in "four ball"? Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

And in the previous post, saying about Hongou, I hope they will do match Sawamura vs Hongou. Because Furuya seems too concern about Hongou (that he changed after Senbatsu) I thought maybe Terajima wanna make Furuya vs Hongou and make him as the best pitcher (regardless Sawamura is the ace; since Furuya is loved by everyone.) I hope I am wrong. (;´Д`)

Well it's not that simple. Having more speed is advantageous, sure, look at Hongou and Mei as two good examples in DnA who are dominant with great speed, but its not the be all end all. If you have a great breaking or offspeed pitch, you can be just as effective without a great deal of gas on your fastball if your breaking balls and offspeed stuff are great and your control is excellent. Its just a bit harder to have those things, which is why Sawamura who does have those things took a bit longer to develop as a player. That said fireballers do get a leg up on most other players. The reason I said I would rather face a guy throwing 10 breaking pitches is that I can conceivably hit a ball that "hangs" where as a fastball, that is controlled, at 100mph pushes the very basic limits of human reaction time. I can hit the breaking pitch at >90mph but hitting a fastball at <90mph is nearly impossible for average people.

Waste pitches are counted in the count they are just not favorable to the pitcher, unless they are part of a strategy to get a hitter out. In the example i gave, it would be 1st pitch 1-0 (this is the waste pitch it hurts the pitchers count, but it actually sets up the other pitches) second pitch 1-1 third pitch 1-2, fourth pitch 1-3 strike out. Sawamura is particularly good at not needing all that many pitches as wasted pitches (Amahisa, Mei, Sanada, and Hongou are similar in that aspect) but most pitchers generally throw a few in there. Sawamura is an aberration in that he almost never throws a wasted pitch and fights almost entirely in the zone until he has an advantage in the count.

Hongou vs Furuya or Sawamura is still a long way away in the story. They still have to beat Mei and he isn't exactly a pushover.

Feb 5, 2018 10:51 AM

#180

dend08

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Sep 2012

174

in the chance that yui fail to sync with furuya here, it would be partially furuya's fault because yui was ready to catch for him anytime (in training) but of course, ace sama want to throw at ease, without having to hold back or anything, tho i don't know how many times they train together after that.

Feb 5, 2018 7:20 PM

#181

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Jan 2018

393

lisyaoran2009 said:
That's deep.. Having more speed is advantageous than more breaking ball, I didn't think of that before. Thank you for the explanation. wasted ball is not counted is good, meaning that its not included in "four ball"? Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

And in the previous post, saying about Hongou, I hope they will do match Sawamura vs Hongou. Because Furuya seems too concern about Hongou (that he changed after Senbatsu) I thought maybe Terajima wanna make Furuya vs Hongou and make him as the best pitcher (regardless Sawamura is the ace; since Furuya is loved by everyone.) I hope I am wrong. (;´Д`)

@RoKrish have done a good job explaining things but there are a lot of information so we sure hope it wouldn't overwhelm you.

To help you visualize the concept of pitching outside the zone or inside the zone better, I would like note some example. Alex Wood, for instance, is a pitcher that rarely pitches inside the zone. He has a Sinker that runs away from the zone and a Changeup that sits so low it's way below the zone. Wood would set up these pitches by landing his fastball inside the zone first, which he has pretty good command on and then start tempting the batter to swing his stuffs that break way outside. He is not exactly a pitcher that uses his pitches sparingly or has a low pitch count but he is very effective with what he does because he has good disguise on the breaking pitches and because the batters know if they don't swing on his breaking pitch, this guy is good enough to make a fastball goes in low and gets a strike. This is an example how a pitcher isn't too bothered about worsening the count but can still be effective.

In case of flame throwers like Chapman and Furuya, they'll pitches a lot of wasted pitches because in their mind, they're much less worried about commanding their fastball compare to their focus of dishing out gas. Their mind set is to pitch as fast as they could and if the ball is in, they gets a strike, if the batter swing and can't keep up with the velocity, they'll get the strike. If they can't locate it inside the zone and the batter doesn't swing, they'll get a Ball. The predictable thing with flame thrower is that they tend to spray their pitch pretty wildly so they're worsening their count needlessly because they're not really going to make the batter think too much, they'll give up the vibe that they're out to overwhelm the batter by force so you can more or less predict what they'll throw you. There's a saying believed by most flame throwers "when behind, fastball". Over 90% of the time if a flame thrower is behind in the count, they'll feed you a fastball, especially at full count because they're usually don't trust their breaking pitch, much like Furuya is.

There is really no 1 failed-safe way to pitch but there is at least an ideal way, that is to fight in the zone and gets the out as fast as you can with lower amount of pitch count because that would 1. prolong your career, 2. limit the amount of risk involved with pitching longer like unlucky hits or runner gets on base and puts pressure on you, 3. puts pressure on the opponent pitcher to pitch longer than you do. There are cases that a pitcher can pitch a shutout under 100 or even 70 pitches which means in some cases, they'll take out a batter in 1-2 pitches. This is a rarest kind of talent for a pitcher and to do this, the pitcher has to have great variety and masterful usage of the zone. To me, the only pitchers in this manga that possess this talent are Sawamura and Mei. Not even Hongou or Amahisa has this kind of talent. However, Mei himself usually relies on his fastball a lot to get strike outs so his mind set is a bit fixed at this point.

Tennis is the best example for the ideal way of keeping the game or the point short and I'll put it in spoiler tag

Same thing with pitching. If you can keep your inning short, you'll force the opponent pitcher to have to come up with the goods constantly placing him under pressure. You waste less pitches, you're more fresh and ready to go next time while the opponent works hard on the mound trying to get the out. In the case with Furuya, he would average around 100 pitches by mid-game so he's worsening his already poor stamina and control. And guess what, the more you have to pitch, the more waste pitch you commit, the more chance the batter have to look at your pitch and they'll get used to it eventually and the worst thing you want is to face a batter who's had a good look at your pitch throughout the game when you're tired.

Feb 5, 2018 10:32 PM

#182

Gundens

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Jan 2018

66

Another predictable chapter, Onos presence is being felt and his injury forced Yui to take over, leading to furuya destabilizing. Kataokas face was scary lol he really wanted furuyas recovery to be complete, looks like it’s not meant to be.

Also I’d like to mention the super bowl/American football

GundensFeb 5, 2018 10:49 PM

Feb 5, 2018 11:41 PM

#183

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Jan 2018

146

GDV said:

lisyaoran2009 said:
That's deep.. Having more speed is advantageous than more breaking ball, I didn't think of that before. Thank you for the explanation. wasted ball is not counted is good, meaning that its not included in "four ball"? Σ(-᷅_-᷄๑)

And in the previous post, saying about Hongou, I hope they will do match Sawamura vs Hongou. Because Furuya seems too concern about Hongou (that he changed after Senbatsu) I thought maybe Terajima wanna make Furuya vs Hongou and make him as the best pitcher (regardless Sawamura is the ace; since Furuya is loved by everyone.) I hope I am wrong. (;´Д`)

@RoKrish have done a good job explaining things but there are a lot of information so we sure hope it wouldn't overwhelm you.

To help you visualize the concept of pitching outside the zone or inside the zone better, I would like note some example. Alex Wood, for instance, is a pitcher that rarely pitches inside the zone. He has a Sinker that runs away from the zone and a Changeup that sits so low it's way below the zone. Wood would set up these pitches by landing his fastball inside the zone first, which he has pretty good command on and then start tempting the batter to swing his stuffs that break way outside. He is not exactly a pitcher that uses his pitches sparingly or has a low pitch count but he is very effective with what he does because he has good disguise on the breaking pitches and because the batters know if they don't swing on his breaking pitch, this guy is good enough to make a fastball goes in low and gets a strike. This is an example how a pitcher isn't too bothered about worsening the count but can still be effective.

In case of flame throwers like Chapman and Furuya, they'll pitches a lot of wasted pitches because in their mind, they're much less worried about commanding their fastball compare to their focus of dishing out gas. Their mind set is to pitch as fast as they could and if the ball is in, they gets a strike, if the batter swing and can't keep up with the velocity, they'll get the strike. If they can't locate it inside the zone and the batter doesn't swing, they'll get a Ball. The predictable thing with flame thrower is that they tend to spray their pitch pretty wildly so they're worsening their count needlessly because they're not really going to make the batter think too much, they'll give up the vibe that they're out to overwhelm the batter by force so you can more or less predict what they'll throw you. There's a saying believed by most flame throwers "when behind, fastball". Over 90% of the time if a flame thrower is behind in the count, they'll feed you a fastball, especially at full count because they're usually don't trust their breaking pitch, much like Furuya is.

There is really no 1 failed-safe way to pitch but there is at least an ideal way, that is to fight in the zone and gets the out as fast as you can with lower amount of pitch count because that would 1. prolong your career, 2. limit the amount of risk involved with pitching longer like unlucky hits or runner gets on base and puts pressure on you, 3. puts pressure on the opponent pitcher to pitch longer than you do. There are cases that a pitcher can pitch a shutout under 100 or even 70 pitches which means in some cases, they'll take out a batter in 1-2 pitches. This is a rarest kind of talent for a pitcher and to do this, the pitcher has to have great variety and masterful usage of the zone. To me, the only pitchers in this manga that possess this talent are Sawamura and Mei. Not even Hongou or Amahisa has this kind of talent. However, Mei himself usually relies on his fastball a lot to get strike outs so his mind set is a bit fixed at this point.

Tennis is the best example for the ideal way of keeping the game or the point short and I'll put it in spoiler tag

Same thing with pitching. If you can keep your inning short, you'll force the opponent pitcher to have to come up with the goods constantly placing him under pressure. You waste less pitches, you're more fresh and ready to go next time while the opponent works hard on the mound trying to get the out. In the case with Furuya, he would average around 100 pitches by mid-game so he's worsening his already poor stamina and control. And guess what, the more you have to pitch, the more waste pitch you commit, the more chance the batter have to look at your pitch and they'll get used to it eventually and the worst thing you want is to face a batter who's had a good look at your pitch throughout the game when you're tired.

@GDV:
I just wanted to bring up a few areas in which I disagree with you. I think that this is a really good summary of what I was saying.
Firstly I agree that there is no inherent best way to pitch. I find that its often the smarter thing to do to pitch outside against hitters whom are hot or just that good. Pitching in the zone all of the time can be really bad *cough* Bartolo Colon *cough*. Second, many great fireballers like Sandy Koufax relied on their breaking pitches just as much as their heaters, saying that they will throw their heater always (90% or higher) in a jam isn't always true or a fair representation of fireballers. thirdly I'd just like to point one thing out about your tennis analogy

Mei and Sawamura both set up batters with their heaters but k 'em on offspeed or breaking stuff. But you are absolutely right that they use the fact that they pitch in the zone to set up their other stuff. Hongou and Sanada do so as well, though to a lesser degree in Hongou's case, and without offspeed stuff in Sanada's case. They do use it to increase pressure on other teams but its fair to mention that Furuya pitches 70+ balls in 5 innings because he can't command his pitches at all, not because he is a fireballer.

@Gundens:

Feb 6, 2018 12:21 AM

#184

Gundens

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Jan 2018

66

I assume the general consensus is that Okumura will catch for Sawamura in the scrim correct? How will Sawamura perform against a top 8 Koshien team without his numbers and just on 4 seam, moving fastball, changeup, and 2 seam?

@RoKrish

GundensFeb 6, 2018 12:26 AM

Feb 6, 2018 12:28 AM

#185

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Jan 2018

393

RoKrish said:

@GDV:
I just wanted to bring up a few areas in which I disagree with you. I think that this is a really good summary of what I was saying.
Firstly I agree that there is no inherent best way to pitch. I find that its often the smarter thing to do to pitch outside against hitters whom are hot or just that good. Pitching in the zone all of the time can be really bad *cough* Bartolo Colon *cough*. Second, many great fireballers like Sandy Koufax relied on their breaking pitches just as much as their heaters, saying that they will throw their heater always (90% or higher) in a jam isn't always true or a fair representation of fireballers. thirdly I'd just like to point one thing out about your tennis analogy

Mei and Sawamura both set up batters with their heaters but k 'em on offspeed or breaking stuff. But you are absolutely right that they use the fact that they pitch in the zone to set up their other stuff. Hongou and Sanada do so as well, though to a lesser degree in Hongou's case, and without offspeed stuff in Sanada's case. They do use it to increase pressure on other teams but its fair to mention that Furuya pitches 70+ balls in 5 innings because he can't command his pitches at all, not because he is a fireballer.

@RoKrish
Yes, pitching in the zone is bad if you don't have a good understanding of what you're doing. I mean why don't all these guys just succeed like Maddux did? Because not only was Maddux able to pitch to a catcher holding out his mitt with a blindfold on, he's also very adept at the game, he pay close attention to the batter on the day and figure out what kind of pitch they're annoyed to see and he'll give them that. Not just roll a 80 mph pitch in there will be good enough even with good command, you have to set it up and mix it up. Which is why I note it's a talent that is so rare to see.

In terms of Koufax or Nolan Ryan's breaking pitch usage, I would argue it's fair to say when you're looking at a great pitcher, we have to sort of separate them into another category because not often would you come across a pitcher who both has heat and a good breaking pitch (which is the case with Mei and Hongou to an extent). Ohtani is an example where he's overhyped in Japan, they came up with outlandish name for his pitches like "Super fastball", "Super Slider" and "Super Forkball" and stuffs like that to help sell him to the MLB but in reality, his breaking is only at B-C rate at best and his command is so so and when he’s behind, it’s the fastball that he will always use, only when he’s ahead would he bring out the breaking pitches. To really be able to fall back to use their breaking pith like the "Great" does, a great deal of experience and belief would require and most flame thrower just don't have them. I will admit that it is an oversimplification of the actual land scape but to my experience, it's like that most of the time.

I'll admit I was using kind of an "extreme" example with the GOAT lol but like again

The argument of a pitcher having trouble commanding their pitch because he sucks with control or because he's a fireballer is probably going to be an endless one. On one hand, yes, pitcher with bad control isn't necessary fireballers, they may just have problems with their delivery and other technical stuffs. On the other hand, flame throwers have higher tendency to waste more pitches because 1. they're overstrain their body to put up the gas, that will make their control suffer, there ain't no way around it. 2. it's been statistically proven that faster pitches tend to be called out instead of strike despite being landed in the same location. So flame throwers in reality do tend to have much higher pitch count than slower pitchers (not neccessary the slow-pitching but the average velocity pitcher). So we really can argue constantly back and forth between these points but yeah I do agree with you that Furuya's problem is his incompetency with control that leads to higher pitch count; however, it's also noteworthy to say that problem is further magnified by his mentaltiy of trying to over-abuse his shoulder to pitch faster and faster all the time because we have seen a few occasion where Miyuki was able to get Furuya to pitch to contact, pitch softer but more accurately, he was able to keep his pitch count down so I'll throw this in there as well.

GDVFeb 6, 2018 1:41 AM

Feb 6, 2018 12:36 AM

#186

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Jan 2018

393

Gundens said:
I assume the general consensus is that Okumura will catch for Sawamura in the scrim correct? How will Sawamura perform against a top 8 Koshien team without his numbers and just on 4 seam, moving fastball, changeup, and 2 seam?

The encouraging thing with Okumura is that he's daring sort of character. Yes, he's probably not skilled enough to catch Sawamura's Cutter Kai right now and that's a big disadvantage; however, we can expect him to not shy away from it when the moment demand. Last time he catch for Furuya, he ordered a Splitter, which he dropped but he then order it again, which he also drop for 3rd strike but was able to recover quickly enough to get the runner out. So I'm expect Okumura to keep that mind set when partnered with Sawamura and call the Cutter even if he fails to catch it a few times.

Like you said, Okumura is currently probably limited to those pitches but I would say that may be enough, just mix in a few Cutter here and there would be good. Remember, he didn't have the Cutter Kai against Yakushi and struck out Raichi and Sanada, in addition, Ichidiasan was totally shut out by Sawamura when he only used like 1 Cutter. In the complete game against Hakuryu, he probably used at most 2-3 Cutters anyway so it's the last trump-card for him and he's already at the level where he's good enough to get by without it.

Feb 6, 2018 12:58 AM

#187

Paix672

Offline

May 2010

82

Re: Okumura's ability to catch the cutter - he was shown to be able to catch it in chapter 100.

Sawamura says that if his splitter is good, then he's switching to "number 7" AKA the Cutter Kai

http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Daiya-no-A-Act-II/Ch-100--Light-the-Fire?id=389307#7

A few pages later, we see him really get into it and Okumura catching them well (although he had trouble keeping his mit stable).

http://kissmanga.com/Manga/Daiya-no-A-Act-II/Ch-100--Light-the-Fire?id=389307#11

Also important to note is that this is probably the 3rd time that Okumura got to catch for Sawamura and he was able to adjust to this diffcult pitch pretty fast, so I think they'll be fine on this front.

Paix672Feb 6, 2018 1:06 AM

Feb 6, 2018 2:46 AM

#188

ADellaLuna

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Jan 2018

98

Gundens said:
I assume the general consensus is that Okumura will catch for Sawamura in the scrim correct? How will Sawamura perform against a top 8 Koshien team without his numbers and just on 4 seam, moving fastball, changeup, and 2 seam?

As i said many times, baseball is not really my "forte" (i don't know it very well),
but in all these years I learned something.
If Sawamura with his technique can make his pitches seem all the same, (same and particular delivery ), just use the Kai Cutter a few times or some other "number":
the batters will still have to guess what will come. Good Luck to them
2 seam, 4 seam, in, out, high, low, change up, Cutter (if Cutter kay is not available).
As Miyuki said, Sawamura is able to do a good game even without his "numbers"
In the worst case, I do not think I will lose more than 2 runs

Feb 6, 2018 6:37 AM

#189

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Jan 2018

393

You guys know what I want to see next for Sawamura? I want to see Terajima gives him a "Kershaw" growth spurt which he experienced in high school as well and take Sawamura's pitches to the next level. Not unlike our protagonist, Kershaw was an underdog throughout his first year and was mostly relying on his breaking pitch because he was "fat and short" (as he described himself). After working hard physically, he was rewarded with a more physically strong body and a height rise that helped took his pitches to the next level, allowing him to reach the so called "magic number" 90 mph on his fastball and his Curve becomes more deadly, then he started his winning streak that span over 20 matches with sub 1 ERA. I would love to see Sawamura gain a couple more inches by next year and reach 150 for his max velocity, for his average, he can sit in the mid 140s. That'll help take Seidou to the Koshien's championship.

Feb 6, 2018 8:14 AM

#190

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Dec 2015

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RoKrish said:

Well it's not that simple. Having more speed is advantageous, sure, look at Hongou and Mei as two good examples in DnA who are dominant with great speed, but its not the be all end all. If you have a great breaking or offspeed pitch, you can be just as effective without a great deal of gas on your fastball if your breaking balls and offspeed stuff are great and your control is excellent. Its just a bit harder to have those things, which is why Sawamura who does have those things took a bit longer to develop as a player. That said fireballers do get a leg up on most other players. The reason I said I would rather face a guy throwing 10 breaking pitches is that I can conceivably hit a ball that "hangs" where as a fastball, that is controlled, at 100mph pushes the very basic limits of human reaction time. I can hit the breaking pitch at >90mph but hitting a fastball at <90mph is nearly impossible for average people.

Sawamura is an aberration in that he almost never throws a wasted pitch and fights almost entirely in the zone until he has an advantage in the count.

Hongou vs Furuya or Sawamura is still a long way away in the story. They still have to beat Mei and he isn't exactly a pushover.

Ohh, that's why Miyuki always said that keeping your breaking ball alive is this ball which is fastball. and Sawamura fastball is not your-everyday-fastball, it speeds up in the middle.

Not only Narumiya, they have that 1st year pitcher who pitches crazy stuff during Kanto Tournament, how that stuff can even be hit? (How can it been thrown is a mystery to me), that ball moves like inverse U.

@Gundens
I just hope Sawamura is OK after that happen to Ono, he is the kind of pitcher pitches from his heart (quote from Kuromochi) or maybe this match will prove even without deploying all his weapons, he could take on Top 8 team and he has like 4 breaking ball there, exclude his fastball and his form.

Besides, Okumura is aiming to be starter catcher, this hurdles could make him stronger later.

On a different note, is Okumura eyes were like that from the beginning or we can assume that he gonna regain some light in his eyes (like Chris senpai) later on?

GDV said:

The argument of a pitcher having trouble commanding their pitch because he sucks with control or because he's a fireballer is probably going to be an endless one. On one hand, yes, pitcher with bad control isn't necessary fireballers, they may just have problems with their delivery and other technical stuffs. On the other hand, flame throwers have higher tendency to waste more pitches because 1. they're overstrain their body to put up the gas, that will make their control suffer, there ain't no way around it. 2. it's been statistically proven that faster pitches tend to be called out instead of strike despite being landed in the same location. So flame throwers in reality do tend to have much higher pitch count than slower pitchers (not neccessary the slow-pitching but the average velocity pitcher). So we really can argue constantly back and forth between these points but yeah I do agree with you that Furuya's problem is his incompetency with control that leads to higher pitch count; however, it's also noteworthy to say that problem is further magnified by his mentaltiy of trying to over-abuse his shoulder to pitch faster and faster all the time because we have seen a few occasion where Miyuki was able to get Furuya to pitch to contact, pitch softer but more accurately, he was able to keep his pitch count down so I'll throw this in there as well.

@GDV
Is that even possible?? To throw precisely to mitt when he was blindfold. Maddux is so awesome, he must have a great control that he know where to pitch without even seeing (It's beyond great control, it just Sage-level there). I do know Ohtani from Japanese drama, I think. I didn't know his pitches but he was hyped in that drama.

And to throw faster without precision is somewhat like Raichi..or he just throw ball randomly? Is he gonna be pitcher again this time, they do have new 1st year ace.. What do you think?

GDV said:
You guys know what I want to see next for Sawamura? I want to see Terajima gives him a "Kershaw" growth spurt which he experienced in high school as well and take Sawamura's pitches to the next level. Not unlike our protagonist, Kershaw was an underdog throughout his first year and was mostly relying on his breaking pitch because he was "fat and short" (as he described himself). After working hard physically, he was rewarded with a more physically strong body and a height rise that helped took his pitches to the next level, allowing him to reach the so called "magic number" 90 mph on his fastball and his Curve becomes more deadly, then he started his winning streak that span over 20 matches with sub 1 ERA. I would love to see Sawamura gain a couple more inches by next year and reach 150 for his max velocity, for his average, he can sit in the mid 140s. That'll help take Seidou to the Koshien's championship.

I hope that will happen too~! But, since DnA starts with Sawamura meet Miyuki and this is miyuki's last year, I don't know whether Terajima sensei gonna continue DnA until sawamura is in the third year (That is if you are implying that Sawamura grows some inches next year ). And they pretty much hyped about Hongou, so maybe they were able to take down him in Koushien, then Miyuki graduate leaving Koushien-championship-legacy and I'm pretty much gonna cry during his graduation.

I read some rumours saying that Terajima sensei didn't plan to continue drawing for DnA after they manage to win the Fall Tournament, don't know whether its true or not..

BTW, 1. Curve becoming more deadly,2. suddenly becoming tall is ... this is like that new pitcher in Inajitsu, the one with the deadly and crazy pitch if I remember it correctly..

"It's only us pitchers who can prove for all to see that your gamecalling' choices ain't wrong, yeah?" Sawamura to Okumura before their first official practice game as a battery.

Feb 6, 2018 1:57 PM

#191

Gundens

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Jan 2018

66

GDV said:

Gundens said:
I assume the general consensus is that Okumura will catch for Sawamura in the scrim correct? How will Sawamura perform against a top 8 Koshien team without his numbers and just on 4 seam, moving fastball, changeup, and 2 seam?

The encouraging thing with Okumura is that he's daring sort of character. Yes, he's probably not skilled enough to catch Sawamura's Cutter Kai right now and that's a big disadvantage; however, we can expect him to not shy away from it when the moment demand. Last time he catch for Furuya, he ordered a Splitter, which he dropped but he then order it again, which he also drop for 3rd strike but was able to recover quickly enough to get the runner out. So I'm expect Okumura to keep that mind set when partnered with Sawamura and call the Cutter even if he fails to catch it a few times.

Like you said, Okumura is currently probably limited to those pitches but I would say that may be enough, just mix in a few Cutter here and there would be good. Remember, he didn't have the Cutter Kai against Yakushi and struck out Raichi and Sanada, in addition, Ichidiasan was totally shut out by Sawamura when he only used like 1 Cutter. In the complete game against Hakuryu, he probably used at most 2-3 Cutters anyway so it's the last trump-card for him and he's already at the level where he's good enough to get by without it.

As someone mentioned above Okumura was shown to be able to catch the cutter, so that’s always good. Against Raichi and sanada they weren’t aware of the increased speed on his fastball, so that took them by surprise, but nethertheless that’s true. Against Ichidiasan, I assume sawamura used other numbers other than the cutter once, as they showed a couple different movements on his breaks. Who knows how far Okumura has handled the numbers. But either way Sawamura will be fine.

Feb 6, 2018 2:03 PM

#192

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Jan 2018

146

Gundens said:
I assume the general consensus is that Okumura will catch for Sawamura in the scrim correct? How will Sawamura perform against a top 8 Koshien team without his numbers and just on 4 seam, moving fastball, changeup, and 2 seam?

@RoKrish

As for your other Comment, I think Sawamura will do just fine. I mean if he sticks to his basic gameplan, and throws his changeups properly the overly aggressive swingers on the other team are going to be found out.

@ADellaLuna:
Sawamura actually uses a slightly different technique on his Cutter than on his other pitches, a Cross-Step. He strides towards the First Base bag, and as such his release is slightly further away from the strike zone than on his 4-seamer. Thats the only difference, and its not that noticeable, can you tell from sixty feet away where a guy's legs are pointing as he throws an object at you?

Feb 6, 2018 2:21 PM

#193

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Jan 2018

146

@GDV:
Thats the one thing I was concerned about with Ohtani, he's been way overhyped. I mean, he doesn't have either the accomplishments or the stats that the three best Japanese pitchers whom have come over have had. I hope he does well, but I don't know if his underlying ability as a pitcher is as good as he has been hyped to be. That said freaks of nature like Koufax, Ryan, or Maddux are the exception rather than the norm for baseball players. much like RF in tennis.

You bring up something interesting about Sawamura growing physically. Height is almost directly correlated with increased Velocity, and seems that Terajima knows this and has been showing Sawamura getting bigger. If he gets to six feet tall (tall enough for a Japanese pitcher) and gets a Curve he might become a Japanese Kershaw if he ticks up to 140+kph (which could happen in the lead up to this years Koshien). The weird thing is that although Kershaw called himself "fat and short" he was a center on a very good high school Football team (in fact his best friend and QB was a certain Matthew Stafford who currently plays for the Detroit Lions), in the heart of football country USA (Texas, I'm talking about Texas). He was a pretty good athlete, even before the physical changes that he underwent as he grew up. This is true for Sawamura as well, so the Kershaw comparison is pretty apt. Although comparing him to a probable GOAT on both his team, he has already surpassed Koufax in bWAR and is only 7 bWAR behind Robinson who was his team's greatest player (dang it segregation taking away the best parts of Robinsons career in the Majors), and possible GOAT pitcher (if only Cy Young didn't pitch effectively until he was 50 and whether or not you consider Babe Ruth a pitcher primarily).

Feb 6, 2018 3:24 PM

#194

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Jan 2018

146

lisyaoran2009 said:

RoKrish said:

Well it's not that simple. Having more speed is advantageous, sure, look at Hongou and Mei as two good examples in DnA who are dominant with great speed, but its not the be all end all. If you have a great breaking or offspeed pitch, you can be just as effective without a great deal of gas on your fastball if your breaking balls and offspeed stuff are great and your control is excellent. Its just a bit harder to have those things, which is why Sawamura who does have those things took a bit longer to develop as a player. That said fireballers do get a leg up on most other players. The reason I said I would rather face a guy throwing 10 breaking pitches is that I can conceivably hit a ball that "hangs" where as a fastball, that is controlled, at 100mph pushes the very basic limits of human reaction time. I can hit the breaking pitch at >90mph but hitting a fastball at <90mph is nearly impossible for average people.

Sawamura is an aberration in that he almost never throws a wasted pitch and fights almost entirely in the zone until he has an advantage in the count.

Hongou vs Furuya or Sawamura is still a long way away in the story. They still have to beat Mei and he isn't exactly a pushover.

Ohh, that's why Miyuki always said that keeping your breaking ball alive is this ball which is fastball. and Sawamura fastball is not your-everyday-fastball, it speeds up in the middle.

Not only Narumiya, they have that 1st year pitcher who pitches crazy stuff during Kanto Tournament, how that stuff can even be hit? (How can it been thrown is a mystery to me), that ball moves like inverse U.

@Gundens
I just hope Sawamura is OK after that happen to Ono, he is the kind of pitcher pitches from his heart (quote from Kuromochi) or maybe this match will prove even without deploying all his weapons, he could take on Top 8 team and he has like 4 breaking ball there, exclude his fastball and his form.

Besides, Okumura is aiming to be starter catcher, this hurdles could make him stronger later.

On a different note, is Okumura eyes were like that from the beginning or we can assume that he gonna regain some light in his eyes (like Chris senpai) later on?

GDV said:

The argument of a pitcher having trouble commanding their pitch because he sucks with control or because he's a fireballer is probably going to be an endless one. On one hand, yes, pitcher with bad control isn't necessary fireballers, they may just have problems with their delivery and other technical stuffs. On the other hand, flame throwers have higher tendency to waste more pitches because 1. they're overstrain their body to put up the gas, that will make their control suffer, there ain't no way around it. 2. it's been statistically proven that faster pitches tend to be called out instead of strike despite being landed in the same location. So flame throwers in reality do tend to have much higher pitch count than slower pitchers (not neccessary the slow-pitching but the average velocity pitcher). So we really can argue constantly back and forth between these points but yeah I do agree with you that Furuya's problem is his incompetency with control that leads to higher pitch count; however, it's also noteworthy to say that problem is further magnified by his mentaltiy of trying to over-abuse his shoulder to pitch faster and faster all the time because we have seen a few occasion where Miyuki was able to get Furuya to pitch to contact, pitch softer but more accurately, he was able to keep his pitch count down so I'll throw this in there as well.

@GDV
Is that even possible?? To throw precisely to mitt when he was blindfold. Maddux is so awesome, he must have a great control that he know where to pitch without even seeing (It's beyond great control, it just Sage-level there). I do know Ohtani from Japanese drama, I think. I didn't know his pitches but he was hyped in that drama.

And to throw faster without precision is somewhat like Raichi..or he just throw ball randomly? Is he gonna be pitcher again this time, they do have new 1st year ace.. What do you think?

GDV said:
You guys know what I want to see next for Sawamura? I want to see Terajima gives him a "Kershaw" growth spurt which he experienced in high school as well and take Sawamura's pitches to the next level. Not unlike our protagonist, Kershaw was an underdog throughout his first year and was mostly relying on his breaking pitch because he was "fat and short" (as he described himself). After working hard physically, he was rewarded with a more physically strong body and a height rise that helped took his pitches to the next level, allowing him to reach the so called "magic number" 90 mph on his fastball and his Curve becomes more deadly, then he started his winning streak that span over 20 matches with sub 1 ERA. I would love to see Sawamura gain a couple more inches by next year and reach 150 for his max velocity, for his average, he can sit in the mid 140s. That'll help take Seidou to the Koshien's championship.

I hope that will happen too~! But, since DnA starts with Sawamura meet Miyuki and this is miyuki's last year, I don't know whether Terajima sensei gonna continue DnA until sawamura is in the third year (That is if you are implying that Sawamura grows some inches next year ). And they pretty much hyped about Hongou, so maybe they were able to take down him in Koushien, then Miyuki graduate leaving Koushien-championship-legacy and I'm pretty much gonna cry during his graduation.

I read some rumours saying that Terajima sensei didn't plan to continue drawing for DnA after they manage to win the Fall Tournament, don't know whether its true or not..

BTW, 1. Curve becoming more deadly,2. suddenly becoming tall is ... this is like that new pitcher in Inajitsu, the one with the deadly and crazy pitch if I remember it correctly..

Not really, what miyuki means (as it has been established that he is often full of bs when it comes to the technical side of baseball, he couldn't identify what Sawamura's "moving fastball" was, its actually not a fastball at all, its actually a changeup variant called a power chanegup) is that the fastball is always the core of a pitchers tool set. If he can control it, he's golden, his other stuff can survive as a result. What makes Sawamura's fastball special is that it can take three different courses through the air on his four seamer (only one other pitcher in baseball can do that, Kershaw), he can get it to "cut" run gloveside (thats where the name cutter come from, a pitch specifically designed to move in the opposite direction from a pitchers arm, in Sawamura's 4-seamer's case it just moves that way if he holds the ball with uneven pressure on his middle finger), sink (run armside and down which is what his 4-seam fastball naturally does), or "ride/rise" which is what you are talking about speeding up in the middle. It actually doesn't speed up in the middle (I mean that would violate the laws of physics it wouldn't be able to increase speed after it has been thrown) it instead, falls slower. Raichi, who has a very fast and accurate swing (by my reckoning he's the second or third best hitter in the series we have seen so far only Tetsu and Mima, ".800 OBP" are better) is still fooled by it. Nolan Ryan has talked in detail about the fact that a ball can't rise, as that would literally violate physics, but instead due to the intense velocity and backspin, he could get a fastball to stay up a bit longer. Thats what Sawamura is doing, he's not speeding up his fastball mid-flight, its just that to a batter, the ball looks faster than it actually is so he swings under it since he's thinking about the normal flight path of the ball.

The pitch that Akamatsu Shinji (the first year pitcher at Inajitsu) throws is not actually all that weird, he's spinning his curveball tightly, so the ball drops sharply and viciously, its somewhat similar to Sandy Koufax's curve. However if you asked me who is the pitcher most like Koufax in DnA I would say Asada (if he gets velocity). Southpaw with a great curve, a tall lanky build (Koufax was a collegiate Basketball player). The big difference was that Koufax could throw really, really hard (like he was ticking a 100 on his heater when he was under the age of 24, he took a bit off of it and he got better as he could control the ball better). The pitcher like Kershaw is Sawamura, they both have kind of funky windups, devastating fastballs, the big difference is that Kershaw relies on a slider and Curveball combo, which is something that Sawamura should develop, especially the curve.

As to Maddux being able to throw to a catcher blindfolded, I'm not all that surprised, he was a freakishly good control pitcher. Raichi isn't really a pitcher, so its kind of expected that he doesn't have the greatest control. What @GDV was saying was that players like Furuya throws really fast but can't put the ball where they want because they sacrifice accuracy for power.

As for the rumor that Terajima didn't plan to continue drawing DnA after the Fall Tournament, its pretty true. He initially didn't want to continue drawing something after 10 years as he felt that the story was pretty complete, but I think the anime, and the love it got in Japan was enough to spur him into writing more, especially after what Sawamura's Voice Actor Ryota Osaka said about wanting more material. Plus the fact that actual baseball players in the Majors like Kenta Maeda (who is actually referenced back in act I when they show Sawamura his warm ups) liked it probably convinced him to continue writing and he picked it up in Act II after a break. This is just me projecting a bit, but I think on seeing the end of the anime and looking back on the work he had done up to when he finished, he felt a bit bad about not giving Sawamura the due credit he deserved, and wanted to make it clear that Sawamura was the Ace, and so he began to work on Act II. Honestly, I wouldn't have blamed him if he stopped after act I ended, being a Mangaka is incredibly hard, if you want reference to how hard it is, Bakuman is a great anime and Manga that shows the work life and lifestyle that many Mangaka have. Its kind of insane, especially in a weekly series like DnA where he needs to turn out 18 pages plus an occasional color page a week.

Also Ohtani may not be as good as he is hyped to be. His breaking stuff isn't wipeout, and he will need time to adjust to MLB hitters, whom are a grade above (generally speaking) NPB hitters. He throws a slider/slurve and a splitter as offspeed and breaking pitches. the Splitter is good, but the Slider isn't quite good enough yet. It'll depend on his control at the MLB level to see how effective he will be.

actually you talking about Raichi being a pitcher again reminded me of something a bit off-topic, so I'll spoiler tag it.

RoKrishFeb 6, 2018 3:41 PM

Feb 6, 2018 5:12 PM

#195

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Anyone else get annoyed when people just talk trash about yui like he isn't good?

Feb 6, 2018 5:16 PM

#196

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Jan 2018

7

Saw his comment on the recent chapter about yui that got me mad saying "I kinda want Yui to go away... I can't bring myself to really like him... Best player in middle school or something? He's not even that good. And honestly, let's go back to Okumura and Sawamura already" people already putting yui and okumura different level when I think yui is still the better all around player right now.

Feb 6, 2018 7:07 PM

#197

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Jan 2018

393

Arz3nL24 said:
Saw his comment on the recent chapter about yui that got me mad saying "I kinda want Yui to go away... I can't bring myself to really like him... Best player in middle school or something? He's not even that good. And honestly, let's go back to Okumura and Sawamura already" people already putting yui and okumura different level when I think yui is still the better all around player right now.

Which is surprising because I see the problems more on Furuya's miss-management of his Slurve instead of Yui. Like Okumura completely miss Sawamura Cutter and wasn't even close with his mitt at first but with an idea on where the pitch may break, and with a bit of practice, he can actually catch it. This not only signify Okumura's dept touch but also Sawamura's ability to adapt to his catcher and locate his pitch. Furuya can't locate his Slurve, there ain't no way around it. He even admitted it himself in this chapter that he got "lucky" with those. Moments later, he missed it way wide to the right batter's box, which you can see in the picture I posted on [Page 3]

Looking at the situation objectively, it wasn't really Yui's fault but even then what's a big deal, they will always have to expect Furuya's pitch to bounce on the ground and at risk of a passed ball, ALWAYS, especially with the Slurve that bad and the Splitter. It's not like Okumura didn't drop Furuya's Splitter twice and he's considered the better catcher. I'll agree that Okumura is better in terms of catching but Yui is possibly better in terms of batting.

Feb 6, 2018 7:26 PM

#198

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Jan 2018

7

GDV said:

Arz3nL24 said:
Saw his comment on the recent chapter about yui that got me mad saying "I kinda want Yui to go away... I can't bring myself to really like him... Best player in middle school or something? He's not even that good. And honestly, let's go back to Okumura and Sawamura already" people already putting yui and okumura different level when I think yui is still the better all around player right now.

Which is surprising because I see the problems more on Furuya's miss-management of his Slurve instead of Yui. Like Okumura completely miss Sawamura Cutter and wasn't even close with his mitt at first but with an idea on where the pitch may break, and with a bit of practice, he can actually catch it. This not only signify Okumura's dept touch but also Sawamura's ability to adapt to his catcher and locate his pitch. Furuya can't locate his Slurve, there ain't no way around it. He even admitted it himself in this chapter that he got "lucky" with those. Moments later, he missed it way wide to the right batter's box, which you can see in the picture I posted on [Page 3]

Looking at the situation objectively, it wasn't really Yui's fault but even then what's a big deal, they will always have to expect Furuya's pitch to bounce on the ground and at risk of a passed ball, ALWAYS, especially with the Slurve that bad and the Splitter. It's not like Okumura didn't drop Furuya's Splitter twice and he's considered the better catcher. I'll agree that Okumura is better in terms of catching but Yui is possibly better in terms of batting.

thats why I think sawamura-okumura battery wlll work against seihou and if furuya-yui doesn't do well it's pretty much a rip for yui.

Feb 6, 2018 7:35 PM

#199

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Jan 2018

146

Arz3nL24 said:
Saw his comment on the recent chapter about yui that got me mad saying "I kinda want Yui to go away... I can't bring myself to really like him... Best player in middle school or something? He's not even that good. And honestly, let's go back to Okumura and Sawamura already" people already putting yui and okumura different level when I think yui is still the better all around player right now.

Yeah but the thing is that Catchers are a difficult position to evaluate. Sometimes you want a more offensively minded catcher (Real life catchers like this are guys like Mike Piazza or Joe Mauer) and sometimes you prefer a more defensively minded catcher who can hit okay (Salvy Perez or Yadi Molina seem like apt representatives). Occasionally there are hybrids that can be elite defensively and offensively (Yogi Berra or Buster Posey) but these guys are literally one in a million. Yui is superior offensively (hitting) to Okamura since he makes better contact and hits the ball harder and is left handed. Okamura is Yui's superior in the defensive side of the job, a better game caller and a clear superior to Yui in glove work. We don't have that much data on Yui's base runner management ability or arm, or Okamura's for that point. That said, Miyuki (for all his faults) is a clearly superior catcher to both of them. A great offensive and defensive talent he is a solid lock for the third type of player the all-round catcher.

That said there is no inherent advantage for being one type or the other. Yui being an offensive type just means that his team can get a more productive AB when he comes to the dish, where as Okamura being a defensive catcher, just means that his team may need to score fewer runs to win.

Feb 7, 2018 4:29 AM

#200