Category Archives: Paid Content

Roki Sasaki’s unprecedented situation

Roki Sasaki may be under contract with an MLB team next season, two years before he and the Lotte Marines are eligible to cash in on the riches that would be theirs if he moved as an international free agent, instead of as an international amateur, as defined by MLB’s collective bargaining agreement with its players union.

I have spoken to people with some knowledge of the situation, and have a good idea where the leak occurred that Sasaki will be posted. But I am not here to tell you that he will or he won’t. Even if the Marines agree to let him go, the final decision would be Sasaki’s, not his agent’s and not the sports marketing company that has a stake in him.

Instead, I want to explain how it might take place.

Continue reading Roki Sasaki’s unprecedented situation

Japan’s best pitches, 2024 part 2

This is part 2 of my lists of the most effective pitches thrown in Japan in the 2024 regular season. “Best” is subjective, but these pitches were the most effective in terms of their influence on game situations, by leading to better or worse counts or having worse results when put in play.

In Part 1, I explained the way the evaluations were created, and included the top 10 pitches overall, the top fastballs, and the top sliders.

Part 2 starts with Japan’s favorite secondary pitch, the splitter. For the most part, I have stuck with the SpoNavi website’s name for each type of pitch, except when Delta Graphs, which is more rigorous, is obviously talking about the same pitch as something else. The changeup of Hiroshima’s Allen Kuri is listed as a splitter by DG and so I’ll list that here.

Top 10 Splitters

PlayerTeamAvg. ValMiss Pct.Avg. Velo
Tomoyuki SuganoG-.03236.9138.5
Carter Stewart Jr.H-.02842.6135.4
HIroto TakahashiD-.02634.5143.0
Iori YamasakiG-.02337.9137.2
Allen KuriC-.02134.7126.8
Kona TakahashiL-.01929.8141.5
Shoma KanemuraF-.01829.7140.3
Tomohisa OzekiH-.01724.5131.5
Roki SasakiM-.01754.5142.1
Kazuya OjimaM-.01427.3135.1

Next up are the top curveballs of 2024, a list that definitely has a hawkish lean to it…

Top 10 Curves – minimum 100 pitches

PlayerTeamAvg. ValMiss Pct.
Tomoyuki SuganoG-.02722.1
Shoki MurakamiT-.0235.0
Shumpeita YamashitaBu-.01923.0
Livan MoineloH-.01827.0
Shuta IshikawaH-.01728.2
C.C. MercedesM-.01431.4
Carter Stewart Jr.H-.01421.4
Yuito MoriBS-.01331.4
Natsuki TakeuchiL-.01226.4
Chihiro SumidaL-.01128.4

Now to the cutters, where the No. 1 pitcher, rookie Teruki Yoshino, just scraped over the minimum, but it perhaps explains why he started Game 5 of the CL playoffs’ final stage…

Top 10 cut fastballs – minimum 150 pitches

PlayerTeamAvg. ValMiss Pct.Avg. Velo
Teruki YoshinoBS-.04322.2137.5
Kohei AzumaBS-.03819.8138.5
Shoma KanemuraF-.02921.7138.1
Kohei AriharaH-.02813.2142.5
Sachiya YamasakiF-.02512.0129.0
Jeremy BeasleyT-.02420.4140.6
Ryusei KawanoF-.02437.8137.2
Naofumi KizawaS-.02148.3139.6
Hayato YugeE-.02019.8130.4
Iori YamasakiG-.01927.9134.4
Yutaro WatanabeL-.01916.9137.8

Top 10 2-seam fastballs – minimum 100 pitches

PlayerTeamAvg. ValMiss Pct.Avg. Velo
Takuma KirishikiT-.04011.6147.2
Haruto TakahashiT-.03219.4139,4
Allen KuriC-.03221.0130.3
Kohei AriharaH-.0308.3145.5
Keisuke IzumiG-.02825.0138.0
Patrick MurphyF-.02815.7154.0
Luis PerdomoBu-.02814.3147.9
Albert AbreuL-.02720.3155.6
Kotaro OtakeT-.0246.1132.1
Daiki TajimaBu-.02415.9138.1
Andres MachadoBu-.02422.2154.6

Delta Graphs categorizes Allen Kuri’s shoot as a two-seamer, but the shoot was much less effective than the two-seamer (+.006 as opposed to -.032).