![]() Under the current agreement, players who are younger than 25 years old (or who have fewer than six years of professional experience) are subject to the international bonus pool system that also applies to true international amateur free agents (e.g., the teenagers who sign each July 2). Should Sasaki decide he wants to pursue a career in North America, then he'll have to make another important decision: how much does he care about money? That's because the cruel irony of MLB's rules governing international free agents is that they deter the world's best players from joining the league as soon as possible. It's a fantastic pitch, and even it can't match Sasaki's numbers across the board. Among pitchers with at least 200 innings thrown last season, Cole's heater ranked in the 99th percentile in velocity the 80th in induced vertical break and the 95th in horizontal break. Last year, it averaged 97.7 mph and featured 17.9 inches of induced vertical break and 11.9 inches of horizontal break. That's an elite, unmatched combination.įor context, consider New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole.Ĭole's fastball might be the best in the majors. According to data obtained by CBS Sports from Sunday's start, Sasaki's fastball averaged better than 99.5 mph and featured 19.8 inches of induced vertical break and 15.4 inches of horizontal break. Are there any MLB comparisons for Sasaki's fastball? He does have other offerings at his disposal, including two breaking balls. ![]() ![]() Those two accounted for 99 of his 105 pitches, good for a 94 percent usage rate. On Sunday, Sasaki leaned heavily on two pieces of his arsenal: his fastball and his splitter (some sources have labeled it as a forkball, but the pitches are more alike than not). To validate that curiosity and to honor Sasaki's performance, we here at CBS Sports decided to answer nine questions about him, his game, and his future - or, one question for each of the perfect frames he pitched during his masterful performance. Who is this pitcher? What does he throw? And will he ever come to the United States, following the same path two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani and new outfield sensation Seiya Suzuki have in recent years? He showcased the arm strength to average nearly 100 mph on his fastball, and the grace to credit his start in part to the work of his catcher, a teenager named Kou Matsukawa.Īnytime a relative unknown to American audiences commands attention the way Sasaki did on Sunday, it's bound to stir curiosity. He set new league records for strikeouts, both in total (19) and in a row (13). He notched the first perfect game in the Nippon Professional Baseball league in 28 years. The 20-year-old has 56 strikeouts in 31 total innings and has retired the last 52 batters he's faced.Roki Sasaki, a 20-year-old right-hander who plays for Japan's Chiba Lotte Marines, pitched one of the greatest games in professional baseball history on Sunday. Sasaki whiffed 14 batters total Saturday and struck out the side in the eighth while his pitches still topped 101 mph, according to the Kyodo News. In his perfect game last Sunday, Sasaki struck out 19 Orix Buffaloes batters, at one point fanning 13 in a row. He was pulled after the eighth at 102 pitches and the game tied at 0 Chiba lost 1-0 in extra innings. The Chiba Lotte star followed that performance with eight more perfect innings Saturday against Hokkaido Nippon. Roki Sasaki, 20, threw the first perfect game in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball in 28 years last week. On the other side of the world, another right-handed phenom is throwing just as hard – and one-upping Greene by being perfect. The Cincinnati Reds' Hunter Greene has dazzled through his first two MLB starts, firing fastballs that routinely clock in at more than 100 mph.
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