One of the newest Dodgers to join the calvary in Los Angeles is right-handed sensation Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Americas and the world got a glimpse of this money-baller in the spring with the World Baseball Classic and Team Japan.
Yamamoto is coming over from a team in Osaka, the Orix Buffaloes in the Japanese Western League, and Japanese Pacific League where he’s served career time since 2017. Scouts across the globe have raved about his repertoire and every piece of potential he brings to the field.
Statistics - Yamamoto
In 2023 in the Japanese Pacific League, Yamamoto put on an absolute numerical show. Slating 16 wins and six losses, he shoved 164 innings striking out a hot 169 hitters while only walking 28. He’s only allowed 27 runs, 22 of which were earned.
He’s a strikeout king, baring out-pitches used to shut the door on batters in all counts. In seven seasons he’s struck out 986 batters and walked 216 with a whip of .915. He has a career 1.72 ERA with a 2.00 run average.
Makeup and Mechanics - Yamamoto
Yamamoto isn’t the biggest guy on the field, but he knows how to make his build work. He’s 5’10” at 176lbs with an athletic-trim frame and durable all around. His windup and delivery are very consistent and calculated methodically with composure. He takes a softball fastpitch-type step back which pivots into his set and leads into a high delayed leg kick which balances out weight to the back side and delivers from over the top.
The Japanese style of pitching is very unique in its way and it is consistent in most ways across a majority of Japanese pitchers. Although Kodai Senga, Masahiro Tanaka, and Yu Darvish are all visibly different, there is a lot in common between these arms and Yamamoto. The temp, the back leg, the drive, but more importantly where the glove and hand breaks in the windup. This makes for good timing of the arm follow-through.
The Repertoire - Yamamoto
As we could have guessed, Yamamoto has a lot of back-pocket options and is equipped with a fastball, curveball, splitter, slider, and cutter. His fastball tops 98mph and averages around 95-96mph. He throws both the two-seam and the four-seam. Both pitches are biting, with the four-seam riding well works deceivingly up in the zone, and commanded well.
His splitter can be considered an out pitch which reaches up to 90mph and dives deep with spin low and away in the zone, causing a fishing trip. The curveball is extremely effective and perceives at eye-strike level and dips to 6 o’clock on the obvious vertical break. He’s able to throw this pitch for a strike and bury it in the dirt for hitters to go hunting. This takes a drastic change in speed to execute.
His slider, cutter, and changeup are good options to have on the belt, however, these pitches are rarely executed and when used, they usually appear in less volatile situations with the understanding of which hitters you can work these pitches in. As a hitter, you’re not able to determine what you may see and if you see off-speed, you know your approach will be emergency contact with possible rollover. Even worse, you may never see a fastball after the first pitch.
Adam Jones played with Yamamoto for two years in Japan. He explained that the impressiveness of Yamamoto’s stuff is that he’s able to control contact hitters, whereas the majority of Japanese hitters bring a contact approach versus Major League hitters that want to “jump you” and hit for power.
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