Glendale, Arizona – For the first time in a Dodgers uniform, the 23 -year -old right -hander, Roki Sasaki, threw the strikers on Wednesday in front of a gigantic crowd of spectators, who rarely come together for such a baseball baseball component training sessions in the spring.
A year ago, it was the first live shot practice of Shohei Ohtani who had buzzed the camelback ranchWhile impatient fans filling the backfields had their first glimpse of the superstar in action with Dodger Blue. If Ohtani would face the strikers as a launcher this spring as part of its progress of the elbow surgery, this could usurp the inaugural practice of the practice of the live striker from Sasaki as the culmination of the spring training of Los Angeles. But from now on, Sasaki’s first chance to face the strikers represents The high waters’ mark for the plot in the Dodgers camp.
On Wednesday, there was an additional anticipation after the team’s daily training program said Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy when two of the strikers were to face Sasaki, but his enemies ended up being Tommy Edman and Miguel Rojas, as well as two veteran invitations to Eddie Rosario Eddie Rosario, and two veterans who are invited to Eddie Rosario and David Bote. Sasaki launched 27 launches on two simulated rounds, totaling nine plates appearances of the four opposite strikers. He struck a hug while looking with a quick ball and has amazed a few ugly puffs from Rosario on the separator. Along the way, he allowed hard contact in Bote and Edman.
Overall, the results were trivial in both directions, but Sasaki was encouraged on the way in which it happened, in particular compared to his first training enclosure in the spring several days earlier.
“I was not nervous, but face the strikers for the first time using a major league ball and a sort of pitch in a play environment for the first time in a while, I felt like that would go and I used to be back in the flow of the game, ”said Sasaki later by an interpreter.
Although Sasaki did not know where his speed was, he said he thought he had thrown stronger on Wednesday than during his enclosure, and he said it was useful to get on a mound with a real adversary live before him.
“Having strikers in the box, even if I launched a decent amount of bullets, I felt that my command was somehow where I was generally aimed,” he said.
Sasaki strongly relied on his combo of fast ball balls very tuned for Wednesday, but he also mixed a cursor. Because as dominant as its radiator and its separator have been during his NPB career, the progression of his cursor will be essential to his development when he transitions to MLB. Like ASs à Haute Octane such as Spencer Strider and the new teammate Tyler Glasnow have demonstrated it in recent years, it is not impossible to succeed as leaving with two locations if the two locations are that GOOD.
But for Sasaki to reach its full potential, an expansion of its arsenal via increased use of cursors will probably be necessary – and he is committed to pursuing such a change.
On the mound, there is a lot of room for the improvement of the young launcher. Apart from that, Sasaki always learns what it means to be a main character in the team that manager Dave Roberts was called “the epicenter of baseball” several times, while adapting simultaneously to a new culture and to a daily country and responsibilities of being a large league launcher. This surely helps to have two compatriots including Sasaki sandwich lockers in the Dodgers clubhouse: Ohtani, which has achieved the pressure and expectations of being the greatest celebrity of sport for almost a decade, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Who made the jump from NPB to MLB a year ago at a relatively young age.
“From the first day of the camp, they were very useful to guide me through everything I don’t know,” said Sasaki. “And at the start of the games, there will be more and more things that I do not know, so being able to tell them about these things will be very useful.”
While the depth table in charge of dodgers should, in theory, facilitate pressure on Sasaki to occur like an ace, immediately, The media threshing surrounding its recruited season will not expect anynce soon. As such, each step towards its beginnings in the big league will meet with a higher examination and a curiosity.
Wednesday, Sasaki managed to keep his goal between the mound and his receiver, Will Smith, despite the amazing number of participants on and around the field that took place to see him. Hundreds of fans filled the grass behind the back of the background of the Dodgers, with many jockeys for the position to capture photos or videos of Sasaki releasing land. Dozens of teammates, including Ohtani, Yamamoto and Blake Snell, stood behind the marble alongside a herd of members of the high -ranking Office Front, notably Andrew Friedman and Brandon Gomes, for a view of the first launches of Sasaki . On the left line, Sasaki’s agent Joel Wolfe watched his famous client to make his first competitive throws from afar as Dodger.
Bote said he had never seen that many people – fans and / or members of an organization – come together to look at some simulated rounds in February. But he saw the crowd behind the net as proof that the Sasaki teammates are not just curious to see him forced; They are also impatient to help him succeed.
“The cool part too is all the teammates … The support of the group here, strikers, launchers, seeing what Roki can do,” said Bote. “To go out and do this with this group of people, and throw a living BP with 50 people literally just behind you – it takes courage.”
It was undoubtedly an unusual attention for a common element of the practice of spring – and it extended to the clubhouse after training.
“I have never seen so many people here to see me talk A live BP, “said Edman amused. “It was definitely a fun environment. Everyone is delighted to look at him.
“I’m delighted to play behind him in certain games this year.”
