Red Sox sign Masataka Yoshida
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
Anyone have any in-depth knowledge about baseball in Japan? Interested how he stacked up to other players there.
He was the best player on the team that won the Japan Series. Led the team in all 3 triple crown categories. Named DH for All-Japan team for 2022. So considered one of the best players there.
Yes and as a general observation, I've always felt that short, compact swings were more conducive to quick jumps out of the batters box.
He led the Pacific League in OPS the last two seasons. Each year he was behind one player in the Central League for tops in NPB (Seiya Suzuki in 2021, 22yo Triple Crown winner Munetaka Murakami last year). He has been consistently one of the best hitters in the country his whole career. Some relevant recent tweets about last year; you'll note Yoshida's name is the only one on all three lists:
View: https://twitter.com/yakyucosmo/status/1621121240802164739?s=20&t=2ThH-P06CryALTX7kSZdqA
View: https://twitter.com/yakyucosmo/status/1620640916125155328?s=20&t=2ThH-P06CryALTX7kSZdqA
View: https://twitter.com/yakyucosmo/status/1620642714160340994?s=20&t=2ThH-P06CryALTX7kSZdqA
tweet text:
2022 NPB hitters with K% under 12.0%, wRC+ over 130, and hard hit % over 37.0% (min. 300 PA)
Toshiro Miyazaki
Masataka Yoshida
Go Matsumoto
Keita Sano
Kensuke Kondoh
2022 NPB hitters with .ISO over .200, BB% over 10.0%, hard hit % over 37.5% (min. 300 PA)
Munetaka Murakami
Hotaka Yamakawa
Masataka Yoshida
Yoshihiro Maru
Tetsuto Yamada
Yusuke Ohyama
2022 NPB hitters with O-Swing % under 27.5%, SwStr % under 6.0%, hard hit % over 37.5% (min. 200 PA)
Toshiro Miyazaki
Masataka Yoshida
Kensuke Kondoh
Shogo Nakamura
Keita Sano
You can look at NPB Stats here: http://npbstats.com/leaders/player-season/batting-dashboard/
For my local Tokyo Yakult Swallows. It was ridiculous and a ton of fun. He became the youngest ever NPB triple crown winner. At least half the posts I made last year in the Asian baseball thread were about Murakami. He was just on a different level from everyone else.
Exactly why I can’t wait for the WBC. Seeing Ohtani and Murakami play together against top talent will be such a treat. I also had no idea that Lars Nootbaar is half Japanese as well.
Thanks for the responses on Yoshida. On paper, it looks like we have a good one. Really excited to see him in action.
I really think this guy is going to be Luis Arraez with better plate discipline. So, a poor man’s Boggs. With a little less contact, a little more power. Something like .300/.390/.440.
That’d be a steal. I know we can’t remove eras, but take Pedroia’s last season and a half out and he was significantly better.
He just wasn’t the same after ‘17
Yeah, an 830 OPS would rank 5th among MLB OF last year, amazingly (in between Taylor Ward and Kyle Schwarber), that would be pretty fantastic. Only 13 MLB OF had an 800 or better OPS last year, and there were 0 who had an OPS in the 900s. It’s pretty remarkable.
I used to have .800 OPS in my mind as the borderline between good and average. Below .700 was just garbage.
For some quick-and-dirty context:
Nixons 975 was a 149 OPS+ in 2003.
Altuve's 921 was a 160 OPS+ in 2022.
His splits were 1.058 v RHP and .671 v LHP. IIRC he had the highest OPS vs RHP in the league that year…as Rich Harden can probably attest.
Never saw this clip with Manny calling the shot
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=62o_jXvJd0o
I still maintain that's the loudest I've ever heard Fenway. And I've been to every single postseason game in the last 20 years.
It's crazy to think of a 700 OPS as average, but that's where we've been recently. I hope some of the rule changes are effective in boosting offense a bit.
I'm really looking forward to seeing Yoshida playing for the Sox. I'm optimistic, but at the same time we do have to understand that there may be a learning curve with him coming to the states and how his numbers translate vs MLB pitching remain to be seen.
As an aside, I decided to watch the entire highlight video of the 2003 ALDS. The rush of memories coming back ending with the strikeout and Nomar exulting on the field made the 20 years (OK, 19.5) since then disappear.
Thank you for making my morning.
Edit: I should add that I’m excited to see Yoshida.
I/we continue to underestimate Verdugo's value, considering he had a top-25 OPS (.733) for the outfield last year. If he managed to get back to his 2021 average of .777, he would have ranked 14th last year.
Something around his 2020 (.845) and 2019 (.817) numbers would look pretty good moving forward.
Hell, you don't even need to go back that far - he had an .803 OPS in the second half of last year.
Apparently was playing injured the first half too…
I don’t think he’ll ever be a good defensive guy, but Im bullish on his future here and think he’s going to be at his peak the next 3 seasons. Like him or hate him, he definitely plays hard and really loves to be out there. I don’t think he’s lazy and I think Cora’s challenges will have him working on his shortcomings.
The brick shithouse is already in camp.
New outfielder Masataka Yoshida arrives early at Red Sox camp - The Boston Globe
He'll have almost a month with the team before he has to take off for Japan for the WBC.
New outfielder Masataka Yoshida arrives early at Red Sox camp - The Boston Globe
He'll have almost a month with the team before he has to take off for Japan for the WBC.
Yoshida might have 70 power?!
We expected some power, but much more plate control and hit tool were his carrying qualities. If he shows even glimmers of that kind of power, in addition to his other tools, it will be an extraordinary end result.
It sounds like it's probably just spring training exuberance, but dreaming big is what this time of year is for.
That said, from that video's camera angle, I have no idea what I'm seeing... Every ball disappeared into the sun. He could have been hitting them 500 feet or just over the right fielder's head.
I’m ok with limited power if he hits .360-.372
But being Mighty Mighty would be an added bonus
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If he maintains his plate discipline and shows that ‘upwards of 70 raw power’ I will indeed let it all hang out.
If he hits 36-24-36 bombs over the first three years of his contract, it would be a winning hand.
(I hope "The Commodore" catches on. That's an old school SoSH nickname)
Agree that you can't see the flight of the ball. However, his swing does look longer than what I recall seeing in the earlier videos. Not sure if it is just seeing more swings or if the Sox coaches are already "tweaking" him. I sure hope they are not going to try and make him into something he is not.....aka Duran
Look at that crowd on the third base line / behind home plate as Trot comes around, just going absolutely bonkers. Things change, and that's OK, but things really were different back then.
I dunno man, that's an extra inning walk off home run in a playoff game. That's about as intense as it gets, barring a playoff series clinching extra innings walk off home run. Maybe I'm misremembering, but I feel like the level of energy in the 2018 and 2021 playoffs was similar to this, adjusted for the situation. I do agree that things were different overall -- you really can't compare the experience of being a Red Sox fan pre '04 to post '04 -- but there's still plenty of fans going absolutely bonkers in moments like this.
Yeah, '18 and '13, too. Not many better places to be than Fenway during a playoff game.
I was at the Vazquez extra innings walk off playoff game against TB in ‘21 and the place was going nuts.
I was there too. My only ever playoff game in Fenway. Walk-off in extras to clinch the series vs. Tampa. Absolutely unbelievable.
