A Japanese pitchers 101 MPH and smashes a bat. The man who did it, Shohei Otani, could be on the MLB radar soon.
He likely isn’t on the MLB radar yet, but Shohei Otani might be a name baseball fans should remember.
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The 20-year old right-hander is in just his second season in Nippon Professional Baseball (a Japanese professional league), but had considered signing with an MLB team out of high school. He set and tied a few records in Japan for the fastest pitch thrown Sunday, topping out at 101 MPH.
Otani is the ace of the Nippon-Ham Fighters and on his second pitch Sunday, he hit 101 MPH and shattered the bat of hitter Ginji Akaminai, setting the record for the fastest pitch ever thrown by a Japanese pitcher in the Nippon league. Otani, who touched 101 MPH four times during the game, tied the record for the fastest pitch ever in Nippon Professional Baseball with Marc Kroon.
Yada Otani finished the game with three strikeouts in two innings, and 14 of his 17 fastballs were 99 MPH or higher (it’s unclear why he only pitched two innings).
In 155.1 innings pitched this year, Otani has a 2.61 ERA and 179 strikeouts. Even more impressive is he’s 0nly allowed 57 walks. Baseball America speculates it could be a few years until the Fighters decide to put Otani through the posting system, freeing an MLB team to negotiate with him, so MLB fans might not see Otani stateside anytime soon.
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