ST. LOUIS — Ahead of themost pivotal stretch of his careeras an MLB starter, Roki Sasaki had the idea to completely alter his signature pitch.
During the Dodgers’ last road trip in late April, Sasaki navigated a 4 ⅔-inning, three-run outing against the Rockies at Coors Field. Like most of his starts this year, the results were underwhelming. Under the hood, however, he felt like he was finally making progress.
Thus, when he sat down with Dodgers pitching coaches later during that trip in San Francisco, the right-handed phenom expressed confidence with the state of his mechanics –– then suggested an idea about how to improve his inconsistent arsenal.
“One of the things that came up,”pitching coach Mark Priorrecalled, “was he said, ‘Hey, I do feel like I’m in a spot with my delivery where I can throw my forkball harder, like it used to be.’”
Turned out, by the next time he took the mound, both he and his trademark pitch looked completely different.
When Sasaki came over from Japan last year, his big, knuckling, low-spin forkball was his most unique weapon. But during his first year and a half with the Dodgers, it became a confounding problem.
Sasaki struggled to throw it with the same upper-80s mph velocity he used to have in Japan. He also couldn’t command nearly as well as before.
Some with the Dodgers have theorized it could be because of the differences between the American and Japanese ball (the latter of which is slightly smaller and made with a tackier substance), or simply a byproduct of Sasaki’s inconsistent mechanics in general.
Either way, the pitch didn’t play as well off his fastball and was too easy to differentiate out of his hand.
It was still largely unhittable, just not something he managed to get many batters to chase.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
