“I expect an annual salary of 25 to 30 million dollars for a 10-year contract.”
The major leagues in the U.S. are showing keen interest in Roki Sasaki (22, Chiba Lotte Marines), a fireballer that Japan is proud of. Sasaki, who plays in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), will have to wait four more years to qualify for the American stage, but major league experts predict that he will be treated as the best pitcher in the big leagues.
The weapon that represents Sasaki is, of course, the fastball. At the 2003 World Baseball Classic (WBC) stage held last month, Sasaki mercilessly threw a heavy fastball with a maximum velocity of 164 km, catching the eyes of big league officials.
On the 15th, the Japanese media ‘Sponicianex’ borrowed the voice of reporter Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times to confirm the big league’s positive gaze towards Sasaki. Hernandez told the media, “An American League general manager saw Sasaki’s fastball and said it was the best in the world. In a way, he said he might be better than Jacob deGrom.” DeGrom is the top ace in the major leagues who won the Cy Young Award for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019.
Reporter Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe predicted Sasaki’s ransom. Sponicianex reported that ‘Reporter Abraham said that, assuming Sasaki reached the age of 25, uninjured, when he could sign a major league contract under current regulations, he could be offered a 10-year contract. He said, ‘I expected an annual salary of 25 to 30 million dollars. If you calculate it as a 10-year contract, you can look at up to $ 300 million (approximately 392.1 billion won).
It can be seen that Sasaki raised his value by contributing to Japan’s victory in the WBC tournament. Even before participating in the tournament, he attracted attention as a fastball pitcher who freely threw a ball at 160 km per hour. The big league scouts who watched Sasaki at the WBC even checked how well he adapts to the big league official ball, and Sasaki is known to have received a passing grade.
In fact, Sasaki’s move was what Lee Jung-hoo (25, Kiwoom Heroes) wished for in the Korean national team. After this season, Lee Jung-hoo drew attention when he announced that he would advance to the major leagues in the US through the posting system. Many American media predicted that this WBC would be a big league showcase for Lee Jung-hoo. Expectations were so high that there was talk of a contract of up to $100 million (approximately 130.7 billion won), a high amount for an Asian beast.
However, as the Korean national team failed to advance to the quarterfinals with 2 wins and 2 losses in the first round, it was not easy to seize an opportunity to further enhance Lee Jung-hoo’s value. Major League officials naturally turned to Sasaki, who plays a big role in the Japanese national team, pitcher Yamamoto Yoshinobu (Orix), and home run hitter Murakami Munetaka (Yakult), who have the potential to advance to the United States. 토스카지노
The NPB stadium continues to be visited by big league officials who want to accumulate Sasaki’s data. According to Sponichianex, on the 14th, the match between Orix and Chiba Lotte, which attracted attention with Sasaki and Yamamoto’s match against Japan’s top ace, was visited by big league scouts from eight clubs, including the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers. While the WBC was held in March, scouts from more than 10 big league teams visited the Tokyo Dome in Japan.
In the match against Orix, Sasaki led the team to a 2-0 victory with 7 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts and no runs, with a fastball that reached up to 163 km. Sasaki is in the process of increasing the use of the slider, which was taught by veteran Yu Darvish (San Diego) during the WBC tournament, to 17 pitches that day. This means that the monster continues to evolve.