Nagekomi is a term familiar to most Japanese baseball fans. Even in the normally taxing Japanese baseball spring training menu, nagekomi, used in baseball to refer to marathon bullpen sessions, stands out as one of the most strenuous.
It's also among the most perplexing in this day and age of increased focus on injuries to pitchers and how to prevent them. Even as many teams and doctors on the pro level carefully monitor how they use their pitchers, some Japanese hurlers still step in the bullpen and throw and throw and throw each spring.
Last week, Seibu Lions right-hander Ryoma Nogami threw 75 pitches before an intrasquad game, 23 during the game, and 304 more in the bullpen afterward, totalling 402 on the day. Elsewhere around Japan this spring, the Chiba Lotte Marines' Hideaki Wakui has thrown 205 pitches during a bullpen session, while Orix Buffaloes duo Daiki Tomei and Tatsuya Sato have had sessions of 210 and 201, respectively.