“Better as a pitcher than Shohei Ohtani”
Chiba Lotte Marines Sasaki Rocky faced off against Hiroshima Toyo Carp in the 2023 Japan Professional Baseball Exchange Match held at ZOZO Marine Stadium in Chiba, Japan on the 11th (hereinafter Korean time) After starting the mound, he pitched 109 pitches in 7 innings, 5 hits, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts and 2 runs (2 earned), winning his 5th win (1 loss) of the season.먹튀검증
Sasaki, who left the line before the All-Star game last year due to blisters on his fingers, returned to the mound in the second half due to physical problems, etc. But this year, still in good shape after breaking out due to blisters.
Sasaki went down the mound after throwing only 5 innings against the Sofbank Hawks on the 5th of last month. A situation where there was room for the number of pitches. The blisters on his fingers caused trouble. On May 28, 23 days after his injury, Sasaki re-entered the game against Softbank and earned his 3rd win with 2 runs in 6 innings. He suffered a yoke of defeat, but on the 11th he showed off his monstrous pitch again.
Sasaki displayed a pitch that was close to perfection, marking 165 km, the Japanese highest speed tie record he owns with Shohei Otani (LA Angels). Sasaki, who broke off a three-way start in the first inning, struck out two in the second inning, blocked the Hiroshima lineup, and showed ‘perfect’ pitching until the fourth inning. He gave up 2 runs while giving up 3 hits and 1 walk in the 5th inning, but ended the inning without a run even with a defensive error in the 6th inning, and scored only 2 runs until the 7th inning.
Although he has been excluded from regulation innings due to a hiatus of more than three weeks, his performance is still good. 5 wins tied for 3rd in the Pacific League, 7 quality starts (3 earned runs or less in 6 innings) tied for 5th, and 79 strikeouts (51 innings) are overwhelmingly running for 1st place. With a strikeout rate of 13.94 per 9 innings, even bullpen pitchers who give everything in short innings cannot offer Sasaki a business card.
Starting with ‘Perfect Game’ early last year, Sasaki began to make his name known to the world. And he peaked at value at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) held in March of this year, and is currently driving a major league scout. In games where Sasaki takes the mound, he can easily witness numerous scouts.
How big of a contract can Sasaki, who is showing good form every day, enter the major leagues? In the past, Alex Ramirez, who ate rice with Doosan Bears coach Lee Seung-yeop at the Yomiuri Giants and served as the Yokohama DeNA Baystars command tower, played in 1744 games over 13 seasons in Japan, recording 380 hits, 380 home runs, and 1272 RBIs in 2017, a batting average of 0.301 OPS of 0.859. Director Jeon expected 300 million dollars (approximately 386.2 billion won).
Former manager Ramirez shared the contents of Sasaki’s appearance on the 11th through SNS and predicted, “As a former Japanese professional baseball player, he may sign a $300 million contract in a few years.” “Sasaki is better as a pitcher than Shohei Otani I can do it,” he praised Sasaki.
Sasaki, who was selected in the first round by the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 2019 rookie draft, did not play a single game in the first season of his debut. And in 2021, it was only the third season that he started playing in full-fledged games, such as standing on the first team mound. It still needs a lot of time before he can try to enter the major leagues through the posting system. However, while he leaves a huge impact in every pitch, a lot of attention is already focused on how big a contract he will hold when he challenges the major leagues.