The slider is getting better, but he lacks the excellent command of his splitter and currently the curveball is a get-me-over change-of-speed in the upper 70s. And that he has great feel for the splitter at this stage of his career – that’s highly impressive. This pitch variation allows Sasaki to be a dominant two-pitch pitcher, as he threw only three curveballs and three sliders during the perfect outing – two pitches behind his stellar fastball and splitter. In the picture below, Sasaki fades this splitter away, applying even pressure on the ball, where he’s more worried about the pronation or the turning of his arm over, and letting the pitch run away from a left-handed batter. When this happens, the pitch takes off and darts away from righties. Sasaki displays the unique ability to manipulate the pitch and cut the splitter too, creating movement more like a slider when thrown to right-handers. This dive-bomb splitter comes in at around 91 mph and masquerades as his four-seam fastball for 50 feet before darting down into the ground. The fastball, especially knee-high, sets up his go-to pitch: a nasty splitter that batters constantly swing over the top of. Sasaki’s fastball displays late life and pops through the zone, and when he is dialed in he commands the inner and outer thirds of the plate and loves to work down in the zone. It averaged 99 MPH and touched 102 that day. Sasaki pounded the zone with a first-pitch exploding fastball in 21 of the 27 at-bats. Sasaki masterfully filled the strike zone with 82 strikes and just 23 balls. Twenty-year-old Rōki Sasaki of the Chiba Lotte Marines tossed the first perfect game in 28 years, striking out 19 Orix Buffaloes during the game. On April 10, arguably the best pitcher in Japan and one of the best on the planet right now, dazzled. I’m going to review those four games, one in this article and the other three in the near future. What fascinated me about these is the uniqueness and similarities of each of these three starts, as well as how the quest for perfection or hitless ball by a pitcher can be achieved by three completely different approaches to pitching.
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But that does not mean that MLB fans should ignore Sasaki until that point.Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), Japan’s professional baseball league, has featured three no-hitters and one perfect game so far in the 2022 season.
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Players need to put in nine years before they become eligible for international free agency in Japan, and the Marines may not be willing to post him until it gets much closer to that time. It will be years before Sasaki is able to come stateside. That velocity would be impressive at any point in the season for a starter, but the fact that he was able to throw that hard in mid-February at his age makes it all the more incredible. Sasaki pitched in a spring exhibition game recently and was able to reach 101.3 MPH with his fastball.
The hype train may just be getting started. While there were concerns about Sasaki’s command when he was initially drafted, those are starting to go away. He posted a stellar 2.27 ERA and a 1.058 WHiP in his 63.1 innings, striking out 68 batters with just 16 walks. Sasaki made his NPB debut at just 19 years old but was able to dominate. He showed that he was much more than just hype last season. Related Story: Mariners in play for Seiya Suzuki That velocity is certain to get anyone’s attention, no matter where the player is from. Even though he was in high school, his fastball sat in the upper 90s, even reaching 101 MPH during a tryout for Japan’s U-18 National Team. That attention primarily came from his impressive fastball.
Roki Sasaki proving that the hype is real Instead, he filed for the NPB draft, being selected by the Chiba Lotte Marines. There was a time when it seemed that he would explore a move stateside, eschewing NPB altogether to learn his craft in a major league organization. Roki Sasaki had already received a great deal of attention from major league teams. Between Japanese players that have looked to move on to the next level and players looking to take the next step in their development, NPB has become a breeding ground for a great deal of talent.
Nippon Professional Baseball has become a viable proving ground for players looking to reach the majors.
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