caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 01:43 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:43 AM (edited) https://www.si.com/mlb/roki-sasaki-what-to-expect-japan-pitcher-free-agent “His ceiling is he’s the best pitcher in the world,” said one MLB talent evaluator who has watched him in person several times. “[But] he’s definitely not a finished product. Most people in Japan would agree with that.” What does he throw? 1. Four-seam fastball with elite velocity and movement Sasaki’s heater this year averaged 96.9 mph, down from 98.9 mph in 2023. It has 17 inches of induced vertical break, a measurement of “ride.” Only six MLB starters last season averaged at least 96 mph with that much vert: Taj Bradley, Dylan Cease, MacKenzie Gore, Hunter Brown, Luis Gil and Jared Jones. That’s not all. Sasaki’s four-seamer also has ridiculous arm-side run: 12 inches. Only one MLB pitcher this year had that combination of so much velocity, ride and run on a four-seamer: Philadelphia Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman. “The movement profile on his fastball is elite,” the evaluator said. 2. Elite split-finger fastball The low-90s dive bomber (not sure that's the right word after WWII), thrown with a wide, four-seam grip, is a swing-and-miss pitch. “His command of the split is phenomenal,” said one scout. ..... That mentality is waning. As a high schooler in 2019, Sasaki was clocked as fast as 101 mph (163 kph) with his fastball, breaking the national record of Shohei Ohtani (160 kph). In the national tournament for Ofunato High School, Sasaki did throw 194 pitches in a 12-inning victory and 129 pitches in a semifinal win three days later, but did not pitch the next day in a loss in the championship game, prompting a flood of calls to the school asking why he didn’t pitch again. Ofunato's manager explained he was protecting Sasaki’s health. The next season, 2022, was his breakout season. He posted a 2.02 ERA over 129 1/3 innings while coming within three outs of back-to-back perfect games. His manager, Tadahito Iguchi, had decided before the second of those games to pull him at around 100 pitches. Sasaki’s innings fell to 91 in 2023 and 111 this year, in part due to arm soreness and an oblique issue. Edited Tuesday at 01:47 AM by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 01:53 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:53 AM If the White Sox really wanted to sign Sasaki, going through Iguchi would have been perhaps the ONLY way... When he retired as a pro in 2017, Tadahito Iguchi, the second baseman for the Chicago White Sox’s 2005 World Series champs, said he someday hopes to be back in a Sox uniform. “Yes. That’s my dream,” the second-year Lotte Marines manager said in March. Remembering Ozzie Guillen Iguchi said the biggest skill he takes into managing is communication and cited his former Sox skipper Ozzie Guillen as his biggest influence. “In some sense, he (Guillen) is kind of crazy,” Iguchi said. “But he communicates well and is charismatic.” “Having been with the players here as a teammate when I was still playing and speaking with them on the bench, I think I’d established good communication with them.” How about the motivation side? “He (Guillen) has the ability to motivate people. That’s something I think I lack,” Iguchi said. One of just a handful of Japanese position players to go to the majors, Iguchi said he gained some insight into the differences between Japan’s game and America’s. https://jballallen.com/iguchi-eyes-sweet-home-chicago/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eminor3rd Posted Tuesday at 02:14 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 02:14 AM FWIW, consensus seems to be that he can still throw 100+ whenever he wants, but that he's been coached very stringently to lay back in order to improve command and reduce injury risk. Despite this, he has still spent a ton of time out of the rotation, and his command is very inconsistent. Ultimately, he has his best nights when he lets it rip a bit more. From what I've seen over the last few years, the quality of his secondaries plays up quite a bit when they are primarily utilized as off-speed pitches, rather than relying on their movement/shape to miss bats. He can throw very hard and spin the ball reasonably well but he needs a ton of work, and he has to be considered a higher health risk than average. To be fair, they have treated his health EXTREMELY carefully, so maybe he could have pitched more than he did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted Tuesday at 03:53 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 03:53 AM Alright, did my best to move the Sasaki discussion from the Crochet catch-all to the new thread started by Caulfield. Please discuss how the Sox will come up short in regards to both pitchers in their respective threads. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 04:44 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 04:44 AM (edited) 53 minutes ago, Quin said: Alright, did my best to move the Sasaki discussion from the Crochet catch-all to the new thread started by Caulfield. Please discuss how the Sox will come up short in regards to both pitchers in their respective threads. And I tried to add the Iguchi tie-in as his Marines manager for multiple years to at least create a plausible path...where he would be hired to coach infielders for the White Sox AND help recruit his player to the Sox (because Machado Friends & Family worked so well, right?) I mean, it's not like we have ever replaced Durham/2005-06 Iguchi...at second base, nearly two decades later. Moncada in 2016-17 was the closest. Edited Tuesday at 04:46 AM by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chisoxfn Posted Tuesday at 05:19 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:19 AM 8 hours ago, Balta1701 said: Every press article I've read so far says some version of "Teams would renege on previously agreed upon deals for a player like this." Maybe that is Sox best angle. Dodgers get him in 24 pool and Sox go sign a few dodgers 24 guys with their remaining salary. lol - so sad the state of the franchise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hi8is Posted Tuesday at 05:39 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:39 AM It’s gonna be a LONG winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 05:43 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:43 AM 24 minutes ago, Chisoxfn said: Maybe that is Sox best angle. Dodgers get him in 24 pool and Sox go sign a few dodgers 24 guys with their remaining salary. lol - so sad the state of the franchise. Monday was the first day of the 2024 international signing period across Major League Baseball, the annual addition of teenagers — many with advance deals in place from unfathomably young ages — that might one day help in the majors. On the first day of the period, the Dodgers announced the signing of 19 players, headlined by 17-year-old shortstop Emil Morales from the Dominican Republic. Morales was rated the No. 2 international prospect in this class across baseball by Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs, who wrote Morales has “a shot to do a little bit of everything and develop into [a] five-tool player” and “he could perhaps be a very good defender at a second-tier position (third base).” The 6’3 shortstop was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America, with Ben Badler writing, “It’s a sound swing for his age with power that has trended up as he has added strength to his lower half and should spike more in the coming years. Morales is an offensive-oriented shortstop who is built more like a third baseman, with many scouts believing he will slide over to third base in the near future.” MLB Pipeline has Morales as the 14th-best international prospect. Basically, it's just ONE player who would get the majority of attention... https://www.truebluela.com/2024/1/16/24039199/dodgers-international-signing-period-2024-emil-morales-rafy-peguero Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 05:50 AM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:50 AM https://www.mlb.com/news/top-mlb-international-prospects-for-2025 #4 is another Salas brother, #5 a name that should be familiar with Sox "internationally-oriented" fans Sasaki’s arsenal is the type that makes evaluators salivate. His fastball sits 97-100 mph and touches 102 with remarkably little effort. His 89-91 mph splitter is a soul-destroying pitch batters can’t hit even when they know it’s coming. He flashes an above-average slider with late, vertical snap and has a curveball that he can land for strikes. He maintains his velocity deep into his starts, has an athletic, durable, 6-foot-2 frame and fills the strike zone with plus command and control. The Dodgers’ interest in Sasaki has been no secret, and has been a long time coming. Under the posting system between Nippon Professional Baseball and MLB, Japanese teams receive a free from the signing MLB team based on the contract signed, on a graduated scale starting at 20 percent, down to 15 percent for any amount exceeding $50 million. For Yamamoto, whose $325 million contract signed last December was the highest ever for any pitcher, the Dodgers paid Orix a posting fee of $50.625 million. But because Sasaki isn’t yet 25 years old and lacks the requisite professional experience, he is subject to MLB’s international bonus pool, which severely limits his earning power. In the 2024 international signing period, which runs through December 15, total bonus pools ranged from $5.1-7.1 million, and most of that is already spent. The Dodgers reportedly have somewhere between $2-2.5 million to spend in this period, which is the most in MLB. It made for an awkward, and also amusing moment prior to Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium, when Ronald Blum of Associated Press during a press conference asked Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman of the team’s interest in Sasaki. “Are you serious right now? That’s really the question?” Friedman snapped. “This is the World Series, Ron. This is outrageous. You want to talk about our hitting philosophy and the player development. Seriously, this is not important for right now. That’s outrageous. It’s crazy.” https://www.truebluela.com/2024/11/9/24292018/roki-sasaki-posted-chiba-lotte-japan-mlb-dodgers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted Tuesday at 01:00 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:00 PM 7 hours ago, caulfield12 said: Monday was the first day of the 2024 international signing period across Major League Baseball, the annual addition of teenagers — many with advance deals in place from unfathomably young ages — that might one day help in the majors. On the first day of the period, the Dodgers announced the signing of 19 players, headlined by 17-year-old shortstop Emil Morales from the Dominican Republic. Morales was rated the No. 2 international prospect in this class across baseball by Eric Longenhagen at FanGraphs, who wrote Morales has “a shot to do a little bit of everything and develop into [a] five-tool player” and “he could perhaps be a very good defender at a second-tier position (third base).” The 6’3 shortstop was ranked No. 10 by Baseball America, with Ben Badler writing, “It’s a sound swing for his age with power that has trended up as he has added strength to his lower half and should spike more in the coming years. Morales is an offensive-oriented shortstop who is built more like a third baseman, with many scouts believing he will slide over to third base in the near future.” MLB Pipeline has Morales as the 14th-best international prospect. Basically, it's just ONE player who would get the majority of attention... https://www.truebluela.com/2024/1/16/24039199/dodgers-international-signing-period-2024-emil-morales-rafy-peguero The people in the 2024 class are already signed, you can’t get out of those deals. That player is already a Dodgers prospect. The 2025 class isn’t allowed to sign yet, so everything there is handshake deals so far, nothing there is in writing. That allows the potential that either side could change things if they had to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Balta1701 Posted Tuesday at 01:27 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 01:27 PM If they had agreed to an international draft this guy would totally be headed to the White Sox wouldn’t he? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capn12 Posted Tuesday at 02:41 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 02:41 PM I'm moreso amused that there are folks who ACTUALLY give a bit of thought to this organization having a snowball's chance in hell, of getting a guy like Roki from Japan. How easily some forget the current level of ineptitude, all around. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joejoesox Posted Tuesday at 04:45 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 04:45 PM lol his arm is obviously gonna fall off sooner rather than later, red flags on those IP numbers the last few years Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted Tuesday at 04:52 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 04:52 PM 3 hours ago, Balta1701 said: If they had agreed to an international draft this guy would totally be headed to the White Sox wouldn’t he? Wouldn't we be relegated to drafting 10th in that too every other year? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Sacamano Posted Tuesday at 05:15 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:15 PM 25 minutes ago, caulfield12 said: Wouldn't we be relegated to drafting 10th in that too every other year? If the rules were the same across both drafts, yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quin Posted Tuesday at 05:16 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 05:16 PM 29 minutes ago, joejoesox said: lol his arm is obviously gonna fall off sooner rather than later, red flags on those IP numbers the last few years Drew Thorpe needed arm surgery while Verlander was a power pitching workhorse for most of his career. Some dudes are built different. Sasaki pitched roughly the same innings as Thorpe — so the takeaway is avoid all pitchers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joejoesox Posted Tuesday at 06:01 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 06:01 PM 45 minutes ago, Quin said: Drew Thorpe needed arm surgery while Verlander was a power pitching workhorse for most of his career. Some dudes are built different. Sasaki pitched roughly the same innings as Thorpe — so the takeaway is avoid all pitchers? haven't his IP have been declining the last 3-4 years? plus he's already had health concerns based on what I've read Drew Thorpe had bone spurs, haven't heard of anything alarming otherwise Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lip Man 1 Posted Tuesday at 06:37 PM Share Posted Tuesday at 06:37 PM The odds of Sasaki signing with the White Sox are slim and none...and slim just walked out the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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