(This article was written with the help of Castmagic, an AI tool, and examined by our editorial team to ensure accuracy. Please contact us if you notice errors.)
If you've paid attention to the Dodgers this season – or the baseball sphere in general – you have probably heard a lot of Sasaki Roki. The refined Japanese phenomenon was supposed to be one of the new most exciting launchers in MLB.
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But here we are a few weeks ago, and the hosts of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast”, Jake Mintz and Jordan Shusterman, ask a question for Dodgers fans could be afraid of saying out loud: why does Sasaki look … not great?
Let’s decompose what Mintz and Shusterman discussed in their last episode, because their point of view is the one you don't want to miss if you can't wait to see Sasaki becoming the next AS of Los Angeles – or if you feel anxiety at the start of the season.
The Sasaki separator remains disgusting
First of all, let's start with good. As Shusterman points out, “the separator is always one of the best throws in the world”. It is not a hyperbola. He saves sasaki jams and returns the big leaguers to stupidity. This is why the media threshing around the young phenomenon did not seem exaggerated when he made the NPB jump.
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Also, The Dodgers season takes place so farEven with some pitching difficulties.
But the quick ball … Yikes, he needs help
Here is where things become risky. The quick ball just doesn't play. “He receives no puffs on this subject,” says Shusterman. “He does not throw it strong enough to blow it up in front of the guys. 96 (MPH) is not fast enough to live in the area in the big leagues, especially when it has no life and your order is not very good.” In addition, it is not something that can be corrected with a simple handle adjustment or an additional session of the enclosure of the lifts.
For the moment, Sasaki can survive, in particular against lower alignments such as pirates. He went further in his Most recent release on Saturday against Pittsburgh – An improvement, of course. But the “puzzle” (as Mintz calls him) consists in understanding how to make his ball fast not only playable but a weapon. The hosts establish a parallel with skepticism before the cog about the rapid ball of Paul Skenes, although Skenes launches stronger, and his command was much sharper.
Mintz and Shusterman both trusted the Dodgers pitch design machine. “I trust the Dodgers to understand this as much as I trust anyone,” says Mintz.
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This is there, after all – a famous club to transform the weapons of the project into stars. And, as Shusterman notes, with other Dodgers weapons dealing with injuries, “each Sasaki departure is no longer important because it is not like, Oh, whatever, he is the sixth starter … Now, he becomes more important for him to understand it.”
Patience and a little faith
What is the lesson here? For Sasaki, the problem of the “rapid ball” is real, and it will take more than blind optimism to sort. “If Roki was on the Rockies, if he were Rocky Sasaki, I would be like … he is cooked. As, he has no chance of understanding it,” jokes Mintz. But on dodgers? Hope remains.
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It is not a bust (far from it). But the version of Sasaki that we have all dreamed of will require a little more patience, a lot of coaching and perhaps a little of the legendary magic of the Dodgers. For the moment, each start remains a kind of hearing on how this experience will take place.
Is Roki Sasaki the next Ace of Dodgers? Or a project? Or a puzzle? For the moment, maybe a bit of the three. But with some confidence in the Sasaki separator and the dudgers pitching device, it will be a pleasure to watch this story take place.
To find out more about dodgers and other baseball debates, connect to “Baseball-bar-B-CAST” on Apple,, Spotify Or YouTube.
