Japanese Teenager Throws 99mph During 194 Pitch Complete Game Shutout
12UP – Are you desperately looking for the next Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish, or Masahiro Tanaka to dominate Japanese baseball before making his grand entrance to the MLB? Look no further than high school legend Rouki Sasaki. During the eighth inning of his start, Sasaki topped out at around 99.4 miles per hour. He ended up throwing a 12-inning complete game that featured 194 pitches.
While 194 pitches at that velocity on a high school arm is daring the baseball gods not to tear his UCL, Sasaki’s impressive velocity is undeniably hard to hit and should serve him well in his professional career.
In the start before this one, Sasaki threw six no-hit innings while touching 96 consistently. Maybe phenom is selling this kid short.
Earlier this year, Sasaki broke Ohtani’s high-school velocity record of 99.7 miles per hour when he touched 101 on the gun.
Once Sasaki is done dominating Iwata Prefecture baseball, expect to see him dominating hitters in the NPB and MLB.
Alright I don’t bring this up because I particularly care or give a fuck about this kid’s career prospects. In all likelihood, he’s a coin toss to make in an MLB roster at some point and I’ve got about 1,000 different baseball things I’ll care about before we get to Rouki Sasaki’s scouting report. I’m sure his fastball is hard as all fucking hell and no one stands a chance. Such is the case when you’re a teenager pumping 101.
Another thing I don’t care about is his pitch load. I mean I couldn’t be more sick and tired of East Asian baseball players racking up just RIDICULOUS pitch counts and then pretending like I’m supposed to tap dance over long-term shoulder damage.
Don’t get me wrong, 194 is a lot of pitches but at the same time you’re talking to a guy who had a Texas Rangers lunchbox on the southside as a kid because you guessed it
The Ryan Express.
If you want to impress me, throw 236 pitches in 100% polyester uniforms.
Moving on.
The real sex and sizzle of this story is that I love thinking back to what I was doing at this age. And spoiler alert it wasn’t throwing 101. It was more like throwing 81 and then finding the closest alley in Mt. Greenwood or Evergreen Park to drink some lukewarm Busch Lights. I was managing 4-6 AOL instant messenger windows 5 nights a week for at least 3 hours at a time. I was jerking off relentlessly and trying to find a used Mustang that fit my $250/month budget.
Needless to say I wasn’t gassing up professional baseball scouts and getting bloggers halfway around the world to write stories about my athletic accomplishments which brings me to this.
Gun to your head would you rather be this weirdo phenom who will never know a normal life or would you rather be a normal dude with a normal life.
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I know easy question. Give me the struggle and the four five years on a Big Ten campus everyday of the week and once on Sunday but that’s just me. Common man opinions only.
