MLFA pitcher is crazy! Japan's first historical record
Yamamoto Yoshinobu (25), the "monster pitcher" South Korea faced at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, finally achieved the feat of "four gold medals for three consecutive years" for the first time in Japanese professional baseball history.
The 2023 Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) pennant race schedule was completed after the showdown between Chiba Lotte and Rakuten Golden Eagles on the previous day (10th).
All individual title winners were also screened. The most notable was Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who played as a starting pitcher for the Orix Buffaloes.
Yamamoto started all 23 games this season and posted 16 wins, 6 losses and a 1.21 ERA. His winning rate was 0.727. During his 164 innings, he faced 636 batters, posting 117 hits (two homers), 169 strikeouts, 28 walks, 6 hits, 27 runs (22 earned runs), 0.198 hit rate, and WHIP (per-inning on-base-per-. The quality start (less than three earned runs in six innings) pitching rate reached 91.3%.
Along with Yamamoto's strong performance, the Orix won the Pacific League with an overwhelming 86-53 record (0.619 win rate) and won its third consecutive league title. It was 15.5 games against the second-ranked Chiba Lotte and 27.5 games against the Nippon Ham Fighters, the lowest in the league. On the other side, the Central League, Hanshin Tigers (85 wins and 53 losses) won the championship.
As a result, Yamamoto showed a remarkable performance, ranking first in all major pitching categories, including multiple wins, ERA, most strikeouts, and winning percentage. Yamamoto is the first player in Japanese professional baseball history to win four gold medals for three consecutive seasons. The difference in wins between Yamasaki Sachiya (Orix) and Tyra Kaima (Seibu Lions, 11 wins), who are tied for second in the multiple wins category, is five wins. Yamamoto was also the only ERA in the one-point range, and in the strikeout category, he beat second-ranked Tanaechi Atsuki (Chiba Lotte) by 12 to become the top.
Yamamoto is the best pitcher representing the Japanese professional baseball as well as the Orix. Players from the Korean national baseball team also had a head-to-head confrontation with Yamamoto. It was the last 2020 Tokyo Olympics held two years ago. At that time, Yamamoto made a strong impression by pitching five hits (94 pitches) in five ⅓ innings, nine strikeouts, one walk and two runs (two earned). He used fastballs of more than 155km per hour and high-speed folk balls and sliders of 140km. Lee Jung-hoo had a multi-hit against Yamamoto, and it was certainly encouraging that Huh Kyung-min, Park Hae-min, and Kang Baek-ho had hits. 슬롯머신
Yamamoto, who made his professional debut with Orix in 2017, won four games and two in 2018 and eight wins in 2019 and 2020, respectively, before winning his first four titles in 2021 with 18 wins and five losses with a 1.39 ERA and a 0.783 winning rate. In the 2022 season, he then won four gold medals for the second consecutive season with 15 wins and five losses, with a 1.68 ERA and a 0.750 winning rate. In addition, he ranked first in four categories this season, winning four gold medals for three consecutive seasons. Earlier, Yamamoto won the Sawamura Award, which is given to the best pitcher in Japanese professional baseball, for the second consecutive year.
To Yamamoto, the Japanese stage looks small. Yamamoto will now advance to the Major League through the posting system after the postseason this year. Yamamoto is also considered one of the biggest FA pitchers as there are not many special starting resources in the FA (Free Agent) market this winter. Currently, Yamamoto is known to receive a lot of attention from big market clubs such as the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, Boston Red Sox, and Texas Rangers. What will be Yamamoto's final destination be.