20-y/o Japanese pitcher throws perfecto w 19 Ks

[rhd]

Today in Japan, 20 y/o pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines, Roki Sasaki, threw a perfect game w 19 Ks. It was the 16th perfect game in Japan League history. It was the 1st perfecto in Japan since 1994 and the 19 Ks also tied a Japanese record. He struck out 13 in a row at one point setting a new Japanese record. He routinely reached 100 mph during the game, threw 105 pitches and did not walk a batter. He's someone to look for perhaps coming over to MLB, altho it will be many years before he nears free agency.

[rhd]

Here is a good video detailing more details about this game and providing some video highlights of it:

It suggested that this maybe was the greatest pitched game of all time anywhere in the world. It said that the game had a Bill James Game Score of 106, which it said was the highest of any 9-inning game ever, including MLB. It said that this year, after 3 starts, Sasaki has a FIP of negative 0.35, which I previously didnt realize was possible. It said the average velocity of Sasaki's FB was 99.5 mph for the game. Also, he had only 1 3-ball count the entire game, and never threw more than 14 pitches in an inning.

I'll add that this feat was not accomplished against a bad team. The opponent (Orix Buffaloes) was in the Japan Series finals last year. And this team features Masataka Yoshida, one of the very best hitters in Japan. Yoshida struck out all 3 times vs. Sasaki. He struck out only 26 times in all of 2021 in 455 PAs (!).

I hope that he never has any major arm injury and I definitely hope we see him one day in MLB.

[Sour Masher]

Man, I'd love to see him ASAP. Maybe enough cash can get the rules broken on that. I will always wonder what Ichiro's hit total would have been if he'd come over at 21 or 22 instead of 27. I think he could have broken Rose's record.

[Gregg]

Wow! That is amazing.

[rhd]

Man, I'd love to see him ASAP. Maybe enough cash can get the rules broken on that. I will always wonder what Ichiro's hit total would have been if he'd come over at 21 or 22 instead of 27. I think he could have broken Rose's record.

No way he comes over rt away. He hasnt even really played a full season in Japan yet. His IP last year were very limited. I dont know what informal agreement he's made w his Japanese club, if any, about being posted early, but I wouldnt expect him to come over any earlier than Ohtani came over, which was at age 23. So I would say 3 years at the very least before we see him here, probably a lot longer.

And Ichiro, of course, did break the world record for career hits, having had 111 more than Rose. If he had started in MLB at the same time he started in NPB, and assuming he didnt miss significant time due to injury, I think he would almost undoubtedly had the most hits in MLB, in light of the fact that, altho MLB competition is tougher, the MLB plays 18 more games per season than NPB does. That's 12.5% more games so that would have amounted to about 107 more games. With the increased # of ABs, even if he hit the same as his career MLB BA (.311) instead of his career NPB BA (.353), which I think is conservative since he played his age 18-26 years in Japan, he would have had about 100 more hits than Rose. The key thing is whether his MLB team would have allowed him to play starting at age 18, which probably would have been unlikely. But he went only 36-159 in those 1st 2 partial seasons in Japan and didnt have his first full season until age 20, so if he had started in MLB then, he still likely would have done it.

[rhd]

Here's another short video showing all 19 Ks: