Ball games! Nowadays, there are many varieties of outdoor ball games that can be played which make us perspire, keep our bloods circulating, and even give us a competitive spirit.
As a shy and introverted child, I spent playtime indoors: reading books; learning musical instruments; and watching anime shows on tv.
Outdoor games such as basketball, baseball, and softball are activities I didn’t associate myself with unless it’s necessary during my elementary school’s physical education activities.
I didn’t appreciate the commitment and dedication athletes give in their games until I learned about Diamond no Ace — a baseball series featuring competitive high school boys’ fierce matches with their opposing teams.
With that in mind, I am listing the top 10 pitchers I admire in Diamond no Ace.
Disclaimer: Characters from the anime and the manga up to Act II are mentioned in this list; so, minor spoilers will be mentioned. Enjoy this ranking!
10Akamatsu Shinji
As a calm pitcher of Inashiro Industrial, third-year student Akamatsu goes to Ritsurin Junior High and is the ace of the Minamisawa Senior League.
With a velocity of 130 km/h, he debuted his first official high school match in the Kanto Tournament where he scored 6 consecutive strikeouts at a single out.
When he watched Seidō High’s final match with Yakushi High, he was able to get an idea of the two school’s strategic plays.
When Inashiro competed against Ritsurin during the Spring Tournament, he had an idea how the opponent would play against his school.
Using strategic thinking, Akamatsu expressed his plans, confidence, and encouragement to his teammates.
Finally, Akamatsu is interested in playing baseball with Narumiya Mei, a pitcher who goes to the same school as him, and whom Akamatsu respected.
9Satoru Furuya
Formerly the Ace of Seidō Baseball Club since the Fall Tournament of his first year until the Spring Tournament of his second year, Furuya throws the best fastballs in the series that they go as far as 154 km/h themselves.
Ranking Furuya Satoru as #9 does not mean he is not as good as the others. He’s a good vertical slider and an excellent splitter, no doubt, but his shortcoming lies in his slugger potential.
An example of this is pitching from the stretch, which decreases his pitch velocity and causes him to hold back.
Sometimes, his lack of stamina is the reason why he fumbles around catching the ball as he was too focused on stepping on base.
His tendency to overdo it causes stresses on his hands, particularly his fingertips, which greatly affects his best pitches.
Nevertheless, Satoru played matches throughout the Golden Week expedition; this eventually earned him a game against Hakuryū High despite multiple strikeouts.
His determination leads him towards other competitor matches — he even has the potential to play in the major league baseball (MLB) almost immediately.
Despite this potential, Furuya needs time to settle matters into his own hands, particularly his mindset when it comes to AAA (Note: For fans not well-versed in the series, Triple-A is the highest pro-baseball league.)
8Akashi Seiya
Akashi has a very powerful pitch like Furuya and Hongō Masamune. Even if his control is average, his strengthened lower body muscles (due to extensive training) and professionalism enhanced his aptitude to go pro.
As the 4th batter, his batting speaks for himself through his powerful swings along with his long stride lengths.
Because he has good bat control, Akashi is as good as Kominato Haruichi, the second baseman of Seidō High School’s baseball team.
An elbow injury during his second year is the reason for his multiple losses. This shifted his position from pitching to batting within his team.
As the power pitcher, Akashi utilizes his thighs and high leg-kick motions to boost his dynamic performance.
7Onō Shintarō
As a player in Hakuryū High School, he’s a good pitcher who’s really calm on the mound, meaning he doesn’t show his emotions much.
Onō does not have flashy pitches, but he is serious. He does not show his emotions and that makes him an indecipherable pitcher. His colleagues respect him, seek to help him, and trust his work.
Onō is slightly better than Yeung Shunshin simply because of the team they both have. For Onō, studying in an elite school like Seidō or Inashiro made progress.
But after a match between Seidō and his school, Akikawa Academy, Onō feels like his school slowed him down a lot. The other players were not at his level and that generated him more pressure.
In that game, Onō is respected by the team members: he is serene and calm even if he is losing. One of his teammates said that Onō plays patiently, while calmly waiting for the other players to score.
6Mukai Taiyō
Some fans say that Mukai is a good, lefty sidearm pitcher because he plays the strike zone with depth, while still catching his pitches.
Meanwhile, others say that he lacks durability, which is a huge skill in pitching. He is only good because of his teammates’ superb defense, especially when baseball team captain Inui Kengo becomes his catcher.
Even if it seems that he is not as impactful as other pitchers, he’s still ranked as #6 in this list.
For example, look how he debuted in the 89th Summer Koshien (aka the National High School Baseball Championship): he uses control, screwball, and crossfire to increase the angle of his pitch (see episode 7 of Season 2).
His confidence and zealousness in pitching complements his admiration towards hitters as well.
Mukai’s personal style is to make hitters swing at the balls; thus, getting him cornered with a 3-2 count and giving him a high pitch count.
His love for pitching stems during middle school that he even self-proclaimed himself as the #1 pitcher in his generation.
Moreover, his bold personality and finesse side-arm pitch allows him to find the fun in pitching.
Sometimes, he gets so much fun that he gets addicted to it. Despite his arrogance, Mukai has been phenomenal as the ace of his school (Teitō High School).
5Sanada Shunpei
Any AAA team will love to have Sanada Shunpei because he’s born to be a closer. When he spends 3-4 years in AAA, any team will love to have him because he can close the game for them.
He is a great pitcher, but he can’t really dominate a whole game since his pitching doesn’t stay as unhittable as in his first inning.
Sanada can’t really surprise the batters anymore after a certain amount of innings unlike the other pitchers, who can be unhittable and have that huge presence on the mound for all 9 innings.
He is unlike other pitchers who can still take batters by surprise in the late game. In other words, the batters just get used to Sanada’s style easier than other pitchers.
The coach probably knows this too which can be one of the reasons why he always tries to preserve Sanada as long as possible other than the stamina problem.
If Sanada gets too many innings, the batters of the better teams will hit him off. Sanada has 3 types of fastballs which are used so that the batter will make weak contact.
Speed is the easiest thing to improve as a pitcher; while variety and control are what gets a player some strikeouts. Some sluggers hit 160 games out of the park if it comes down the middle.
On the other hand, Sanada’s biggest disadvantage is his throwing style: this might cause him to leave baseball with permanent damage to his leg, and to others.
One time, he actually struck out Miyuki Kazuya, who got injured in the process.
Nevertheless, Sanada owns top tier teams despite being a contact type pitcher: he manhandled Ichidaisan High School, giving up only 2 runs in 7 innings, one of which was caused by an error.
His pitching repertoire isn’t usable for more than 7 innings, and the 6th and 7th are already dangerous. Despite these claims, his fastball and cutter pitches are excellent, along with his greatest weapon – his mental strength.
4Amahisa Kōsei
His talent is graded as MLB-level because of his awesome speed and unhittable pitching, which makes up for his average batting and hitting abilities in AAA.
In fact, scoring winning runs against Yakushi High School makes his pitching comparable to Narumiyaand Hongō’s. Amahisa’s greatest strength is getting his slider under control.
But, sometimes, Amahisa lets his guard down resulting in his shaky openings, poor curve balls, and weak change ups. However, once he pulls himself together, he could be way better than Hongō.
While Hongō has only 1 pitch, fans have seen at least 4 pitches from Amahisa.
3Eijun Sawamura
Sawamura has a much larger arsenal than Narumiya, but he has yet to keep them stable and consistent. Considering his control and amazing 4-seamer, he deserves to be higher than Yeung Shunshin (an ace pitcher of Akikawa Academy) and Furuya. Sawamura’s potential and work ethic will surely boost him up.
His style and character make him a natural relief pitcher, but he also has the potential to be a starting pitcher. His speed needs to rise a lot and he can do this after 3 or 4 seasons in AAA.
He can surely make it, but he will have to show once again he can be a starter. Sawamura is awesome for several reasons — once he gets going, he’s almost unstoppable.
Physically, he is endowed with unique characteristics such as flexibility. In his first game, it was thanks to his flexibility that he was able to dodge the catcher and score.
He’s already getting better as a hitter, and he’s progressing fast; in one year he could be a standout hitter. Also, Sawamura’s way of throwing makes him almost impossible to guess by the batter.
The batters are easily confused since Sawamura’s pitches only change his grip. Sawamura has inconsistent numbers but the inconsistent ones are the new pitches.
His change up and fastball are always usable; he can use his palmball for ground outs.
Other than those 3 pitches, his normal cutter, and the cutter custom (which he didn’t have a bad day with recently), it probably depends on what pitches he’s been practicing the few days before the games.
Since Eijun has 11+ numbers, he can’t practice every single one of them daily; so, if he focuses on his splitter mostly for 2 days, his splitter will be in great shape.
Although he is spacey sometimes, he is able to learn quickly through practice; he is a natural, self-taught person. People with that kind of learning can stand out, just like Sawamura.
Sawamura is an ace in every sense of the word — not only physically, but also in talent, including his values and attitudes. He is a born leader; he influences all those around him in a positive way, gives them hope, and optimism.
He is the type of person who can make people change. Those people influenced by Sawamura become better individuals.
He is not selfish, thinks of the team before himself, and wants them to believe in him and know they can count on him.
2Hongō Masamune
Hongo Masamune #2 ranking in this list says that his speed, slider, and split-finger fastball makes him a better “Furuya version” at the Senbatsu finals.
Fans know how Furuya’s pitches are unhittable when he is in the zone, but Hongō can do the same thing every time and gets better during tougher circumstances.
Unlike Mei, Hongō’s mental strength is better — he is neither arrogant nor loses his cool when facing his competitors. He takes his games very seriously and naturally plays just as he practiced.
The more stress Hongō’s body receives due to build up, Hongō performs better.
On the other hand, Hongō’s only an average hitter and needs to work on this ability. Nicknamed “The Young Phenom of the North” by the media, Hongō also takes the top only because he is surrounded by adoring fans who give him overwhelming support.
This fact alone makes others perceive him as a difficult opponent in the tournament – someone who emits the main opponent vibes. This is especially true when he’s compared to Sawamura, who’s also a 2nd year student.
Fans have only seen Hongō pitch 1 game. But after he spends some time in AAA, there’s potential for him to be a starting pitcher.
Seeing how the baseball team of Komadai Fujimaki (his school) strategically placed him (their ace) to compete against Seidō High’s ace tells us a lot.
Hongō’s pitches are superior to the point that he’s the final “boss” in the Summer Koshien.
1Mei Narumiya
Mei Narumiya is the best pitcher and the best ace in Diamond no Ace series because he’s known as the Prince of the Capital and an exemplary 3rd year pitcher who is exceptional in his velocity and control.
His improved speed gives him a clear advantage over Hongō. Moreover, Mei’s slider is second best after Amahisa’s slider.
His performance during the 89th Summer Kōshien is due to his excellence in fastball pitch, change up, slider, and forkball.
On the other hand, given that he lost his style twice (which is probably due to his temper and desire to be in the spotlight), Mei’s two downsides are his mindset and sluggishness.
Despite Mei being a southpaw, and having a wider arsenal of breaking balls, he needs time to bulk up. He crumbles when the opposing team hits his pitches, but he is working in improving it.
Both Mei and Hongō have unhittable winning pitches. Although Hongō’s fastball is somewhat better, Mei seems to have better control. In addition, Mei’s mental strength is improving in the series.
About Diamond no Ace
Ace of Diamond, also known as Diamond no Ace, is a Japanese shōnen baseball manga series written and illustrated by Yuji Terajima and published by Kodansha.
Weekly Shōnen Magazine has serialized it from 2006 to 2015. A sequel titled Ace of Diamond Act II started in 2015. The series follows one Eijun Sawamura, a baseball pitcher with a very unusual change up pitch that has occurred naturally.
Sawamura plans to go with his friends to a local high school and play baseball to the best of their abilities. However, one scout from the prestigious Seidō High approaches him and offers him a scholarship and a chance to make it to the nationals.
Sawamura decides to pay a visit to the school, and it changes his entire outlook on the future.
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