The Los Angeles Dodgers agreed to pay $325 million (over 12 years) in the offseason to get Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s services.
This is a pitcher who posted a 1.21 ERA in his last season in Japan, in 164 innings.
His career ERA in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league was lower than 2.00: when it comes to run prevention, he was the man in his native country.
Life in MLB, however, hasn’t treated him too kindly.
He has been far from a disaster, as he has a 4.50 ERA, but that’s a far cry from his best version in Japan.
What is happening with Yamamoto?
Why is he so inconsistent?
He has thrown two scoreless outings among his five MLB games so far, but has conceded 11 earned runs in total in his other three.
MLB analyst Chris Towers posted a simple image that might explain Yamamoto’s issues so far.
guys, I think I figured out why Yamamoto is struggling pic.twitter.com/e7zdzwruls
— Chris Towers is the Riley Greene Preservation Soc (@CTowersCBS) April 22, 2024
It’s a heatmap with Yamamoto’s four-seam fastballs to this point.
The part that shows red means he has been hitting that location a lot.
As you can see, it’s right in the middle of the zone.
Control hasn’t been a problem for the Japanese so far: he has given away just five walks against 30 strikeouts.
Command, however, is the key here.
Hitting the strike zone consistently is cool, but leaving it in the middle of the plate will lead to some loud contact.
Yamamoto doesn’t throw 102 mph, so he just can’t be leaving pitches in the fat part of the zone.
Command is his middle name, or at least was in Japan.
That leads us to believe he will eventually straighten things out.
He needs to start hitting the corners with his heater, though.
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