All that glitters is not gold, goes the old and well-known saying that could well be applied with brutal precision to Roki Sasaki, the Japanese pitching sensation who promised to take Major League Baseball by storm like his compatriot Shohei Ohtani.
Everyone was expectant before such a 23-year-old prodigy who threw blazing fastballs and boasted samurai-like control. All the franchises were vying for who would get him, and all emitted siren songs to attract this overseas sailor who was touched by the gods of the ball.
Sasaki is so far a disappointment
But time gave its verdict, and as relentless as it is, it left everyone fascinated only to suffer an equally intense disappointment when Sasaki arrived in MLB with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He was unable to overcome his stage fright, making six appearances with a 0-1 record and a 3.55 ERA. He was as out of control as a maraca player, issuing 18 walks in just 25 innings, with just 20 strikeouts, for a WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) of 1.42. Sasaki was therefore a total disappointment.
For the reasons that Sasaki reached the majors, some came to compare him to the Pittsburgh Pirates phenomenon, Paul Skenes, but in light of the facts, everything indicates that besides the fact that comparisons are odious, they often show mistakes, although in this particular case, also excesses without justification, because Olivia Dunne’s boyfriend boasts in 42.2 innings a record of 3-3 with an ERA of 2.74 in seven starts this season, plus 41 strikeouts which gives him a WHIP of 0.91.
The always ‘hateful’ comparisons
“He seemed to be being praised as the next Skenes, and so far he hasn’t been. The walks have been surprising,” an American League executive told mlb.com, undoubtedly an accurate diagnosis, as was made by analyst Jim Bowden, who sent a message to the Dodgers that Sasaki needed to be transferred to the Minor Leagues if he did not perform well, so that he could learn to control his impulses.
Apparently, the Dodgers chose to learn ‘the hard way’ and now they must pay the consequences.
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