The Los Angeles are working to get Lokisaki back on track after he failed to score a strikeout on his final outing.
For those who regularly flaunted his fastballs of over 100 miles during his time in Japanese professional baseball, Sasaki has experienced dips at normal speeds, averaging around 96 miles with four seamers this season. His last two starts featured just 94.8 mph, an average of 94.8 mph on his heater.
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Pitching coach Mark discussed various ways he and his team were trying to promote Phenom’s fastball in a conversation with Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.
“We go back to the drawings with him every week. We try to tell him some specific things, some ideas,” Prior said. “But in the end, he works through his process, and we are trying to support him with everything we can.”
Sasaki’s splitter is just as fatal as it is being promoted, as the batter takes on 35% of the swing and only hits .158 from that pitch.
On fastball, he allowed six home runs, an .253 batting average from opponents and a fifth-lowest WHIFF rating among eligible MLB starting pitchers to 10.1%.
“We’ve had a lot of conversations about a lot of different things,” Prior said. “Again, we go with him every week. We’ve been trying to shed some light on what we think there’s some improvement, but in the end I think he’s just trying to step under him.
Sasaki’s first MLB game in Japan’s home country had an average of 98 mph on his 4-seamer, and a 100.5 mph heater as his fastest outing. He’s still eclipse 98 mph since then, but is now the 19th percentile of the show’s WHIFF percentage.
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Photo credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Immagn Image
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