After Shohei Ohtani homered in his Dodgers spring coaching debut on Tuesday, the Dodgers unveiled one other new toy to their fan base on Wednesday. It was the spring coaching debut for beginning pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Yamamoto wasted no time getting forward within the rely, coaxing a foul ball off the bat of Rangers leadoff man Marcus Semien to begin the sport. He would strike Semien out on a 96-mph heater.
Evan Carter adopted with a single, however then Wyatt Langford grounded right into a double play to finish the body. Yamamoto wanted solely 11 pitches, 9 of them strikes, within the first.
He got here again out for the second inning. It went strikeout, flyout and strikeout.
The road: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 Ok. He threw 19 pitches and a whopping 16 of them had been for strikes.
His precise debut continues to be to come back, as this was only a two-inning exhibition outing, however from what we noticed, Yamamoto definitely appears the a part of ace.
The Dodgers signed Yamamoto from out of Japan’s NPB this previous offseason to a 12-year, $325 million deal. The 5-foot-10 right-hander is 25 years outdated this season, which is youthful than most gamers when making the transition from NPB to MLB.
Yamamoto’s stuff is predicted to play remarkably within the majors and here is a fast rundown, by way of R.J. Anderson of CBS Sports activities:
Expertise evaluators have raved to CBS Sports activities about Yamamoto for years, citing his high-grade command over a very good arsenal as essentially the most spectacular a part of his recreation. He throws a mid-90s fastball about half the time, complementing it with a swing-and-miss splitter and a high-spin curveball. Every of these pitches went for a strike at the least 65% of the time this season, reinforcing the notion that he paints with a fine-tip brush.
In NPB final season, Yamamoto was 17-6 with a 1.16 ERA, 0.86 WHIP and 176 strikeouts towards 28 walks in 171 innings. He gained three straight MVPs within the Pacific Coast League earlier than departing Japan. He additionally left with three straight Eiji Sawamura Awards (the NPB equal to the Cy Younger).
