MLB Major League Baseball Los Angeles Dodger Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani will return to the two-knife form in the new season, he can only play as a hitter due to right elbow surgery last year, in an exclusive interview with the Japanese magazine "Number", he has the awareness that "as a pitcher, this is the last chance", and positioning himself as a power pitcher, and has the idea of throwing a 170-kilometer fireball.

Last year, Ohtani focused on striking and achieved an unprecedented single-season record of "50-50", and this year Ohtani aims to return to the pitcher mound and continue to play as a second-class player. "Number" is like Ohtani asking, "How do you balance injury risk and pitching quality as a pitcher this year?" Ohtani replied, "For me, this is my last chance as a pitcher...... In other words, I faced all this with the consciousness of the last chance. Therefore, I have to be more cautious and I will be especially careful about the parts that need to be taken care of during the rehabilitation process. But in the competition, I don't have a 'trickle' mentality, I have to have a clear trade-off."

Ohtani further explained that he believes that pitchers should output as much as possible, so the idea of "long-term stability" is unrealistic, "It is very difficult for a pitcher who can throw high-speed balls to shoot long innings as a starter and maintain a high-quality performance for the whole season. Not to mention not having surgery in 10 to 15 years, which I think is almost impossible at the moment. Therefore, it is not realistic to pursue 'strong' and 'long-lasting' at the same time."

Nowadays, baseball is more about ball speed and strikeouts, and pitching timing may increase the chance of injury to pitchers, but Ohtani, who has undergone two elbow surgeries, still wants to be a power pitcher, "If I deliberately reduce the intensity to protect my elbow, then what is the point of my second surgery? No matter what, I want to stand on the pitcher's hill as a power pitcher, and the type of pitcher I've always wanted since I was a kid is the kind of power pitcher who is imposing, not a pitcher who relies on corner control to win. Everyone should have seen that some pitchers have amazing speedballs and changing balls, and the kind of shots that make people look at it and say, 'This ball is too fierce!' 's pitcher. I prefer this type of pitcher to a pitcher who is good at ball control, so I don't want to change my philosophy until now."

Ohtani also proposed to be a pitcher and wanted to shoot a ball that he couldn't even hit, "As a hitter, I know which speedball is hard to hit and which change ball is the most annoying, so I worked in that direction." For the ball he throws, the change ball should be judged according to each ball, but if it is a straight ball, he is most concerned about the ball path rise and ball speed, and then pays more attention to spin efficiency than simple rotation speed.

Finally, Ohtani was asked if he still wanted to challenge the 170km speedball. He said, "170 km? If I could, I'd certainly like to give it a try! But as a starting pitcher, I'm afraid it's hard to achieve."