Tsutomu Iwamoto (50), a former pitcher and baseball commentator of Nippon Professional Baseball, appeared on the radio program “Gan-chan’s” The World’s Most Interesting Professional Baseball Program “” (HBC Radio) broadcast on December 5, 2021. He mentioned Haruki Nishikawa, a 29-year-old outfielder who had a free contract with Nippon-Ham.
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Director Tatsunori Hara (photographed in 2014)
“At Tokyo Dome, Nishikawa’s legs also shine.”
The program introduces an article reported by Sports Nippon (WEB version) on December 5th. The article said that the giant will embark on a Nishikawa acquisition survey as a lead-off man candidate.
In addition, Nishikawa is expected to have a synergistic effect with Sho Nakata (32), who transferred from Nippon-Ham to Giants in a free trade in August, because he was on good terms both publicly and privately.
Mr. Iwamoto expressed the view that “I think it is good” in response to this report, and explained the reason as follows.
“At Tokyo Dome, Nishikawa’s legs shine, and you may not be so worried about your shoulders, which are said to be a weak point. The stadium itself is not so big.”
Became the fourth stealing king this season
Nishikawa joined Nippon-Ham after being nominated for second place at the 10-year draft meeting from Chiben Wakayama High School. He won the opening starting lineup in 2013, his third year as a professional player, and won the title of Stealing King in 2014. He has led the team as a mainstay and has won two best nines and four golden glove awards so far.
Although he applied for a posting system last year and aimed to transfer to the major leagues, he remained in Nippon-Ham without realizing his dream. Although he played in 130 games this season and had a batting average of .233, he did not perform well on the batting average, but he recorded 24 stolen bases and won his fourth stolen base title.
Nishikawa acquired overseas free agent (FA) rights this season, but Nippon-Ham announced on November 16 that he would not present a contract for FY 2010 to Nishikawa and would not carry out the suspension procedure, and on December 2nd. It became a free contract.
The giant won Yoshihiro Maru outfielder (32) in FA in 2018, and Takayuki Kajitani outfielder (33) who declared FA from DeNA last year. A giant who is eager to reinforce the outfielder’s strength. The future trends of Nishikawa will be watched.
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