This is a blog about the top pitching prospect in baseball, Roki Sasaki.
He’s a 23 year-old Japanese superstar and there’s a lot of important shit worth discussing.
So let’s do it provided somebody out there gives a fuck.
Presenting the important things in numbered format:
1.
He’s supposed to be at least as good as Shohei Ohtani on the mound.
Many thus assume he will be better than Yamamoto, but now we’re splitting hairs.
Point is he’s very fucking good with a high ceiling to become much better.
He sits at 99mph and that’s not a typo.
Specifically:
I don’t recommend it, but you’re able to read thefull thing here.
It’s a real word salad just to say thatmaybe it’s not the Dodgers.
Everybody in the league can sign Roki because everybody is limited in how much they offer him.
In fact, he would get more money from a worse team with a tier-1 international budget.
The money was able to be traded only in those increments.
But that’s not happening.
Roki is coming now, age 23 and with 2 years left on his original Japanese deal.
yes, 0.89 WHIP
7.
When Shohei came over early, people were confused because he was due a lot more money by waiting.
But he didn’t want to wait because he wanted to play MLB as soon as possible.
He didn’t care about the money and that broke the brains in American media.
We’re simply not used to premium talent taking a $200,000,000 pay cut just to play in Anaheim.
And even typing that back now renders me utterly bewildered.
Joe Maddon told me he wouldn’t come off the field.
Not during BP or infield instruction or really any time it was ever set up before a game.
He’s like a little kid watching his older brothers play organized games.
He’s so monumentally bored and simultaneously entertained with the sport.
The challenge in managing him is getting him to understand that he’s Not Like The Other Kids.
This helps understand a little bit more how Shohei is comfortably deferring $68M every single year.
It all comes from a place of pure love.
All this to say that Roki following the same path could be a direct reflection of Shohei’s values.
He could be the exact same kind of teammate that loves the game so much.
I think so but I’m not Roki Sasaki.
I’m not a Japanese baseball superstar.
I can only guess and my hunch is the Dodgers get him and run it down our fucking throats.
PS - great breakdown from one of my favorite insiders Lance Brozdowski:
