The Los Angeles Dodgers are working to get Roki Sasaki back on track after he failed to record a strikeout in his last outing.
For someone that regularly flaunted a 100-plus mph fastball during his days in Nippon Professional Baseball, Sasaki has been experiencing a dip in his usual velocity, averaging about 96 mph on his four-seamer this season. His last two starts featured just a 94.8 mph average on his heater.
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Pitching coach Mark Prior discussed the different ways he and the team have been tinkering to try and elevate the phenom’s fastball in a conversation with the Los Angeles Times’ Jack Harris.
“We go back to the drawing board every week with him. We try to talk to him about some certain things, some ideas,” Prior said. “But ultimately, he’s working through his process, and we’re just trying to support him with everything we can.”
Sasaki’s splitter is still as lethal as advertised, as batters have whiffed on 35% of their swings and are only hitting .158 off of that pitch.
The fastball has allowed six home runs, a .253 batting average from opponents, and the fifth lowest whiff rate among eligible MLB starting pitchers at 10.1%.
“There’s been a lot of conversations about a lot of different things,” Prior said. “Again, we go every week with him, and we’ve been trying to shed light on things where we think there’s gonna be some improvement. But ultimately, again, I think it’s just him trying to get his footing under him, and be comfortable in what he’s doing.”
Sasaki’s first MLB game, in his home country of Japan, featured a 98 mph average on his four-seamer with a 100.5 mph heater as his fastest of the outing. Since then, he has yet eclipse 98 mph, while currently in the 19th percentile of whiff percentage in The Show.
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Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images
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