Andrew Friedman, president of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball operations, visited the Japanese baseball team’s training ground.
According to local media outlets in Japan, four Dodgers employees, including president Friedman and Asia Pacific scouting director John Dibble, visited Japan on the 17th to observe the World Baseball Classic (WBC) pre-training held in Miyazaki, Japan. At the beginning of the Dodgers spring camp in Arizona, USA, he left the team behind and inspected the Japanese national team.
Major leaguers such as Shohei Otani (LA Angels), Masataka Yoshida (Boston Red Sox), and Seiya Suzuki (Chicago Cubs) have not yet joined the Japanese national team, but Yu Darvish (San Diego Padres), who participated early in training, led by Munetaka Murakami. (Yakult Swallows) and Loki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte Marines) are training in large numbers.
In particular, Murakami was born in 2000 and is still young, but last year he hit 0.318 batting average with 56 home runs and 134 RBIs in 141 games. He broke the record for the most home runs by a Japanese batsman (previous 55 home runs by Sadaharu Oh in 1964) and became the youngest NPB triple crown (batting average, home runs, RBIs). He was also voted Central League MVP. 토토사이트
Sasaki, born in 2001, is a fireballer who drew attention with his 160km fast ball even before joining the team. Sasaki achieved a perfect game against the Orix Buffaloes on April 10 last year, his third year as a professional, with 105 pitches and no runners on base for 9 innings. It was the 16th in NPB history and the youngest perfect game record. He drew attention by striking out 13 consecutive batters from two outs in the first inning to the fifth inning.
President Friedman did not miss them either. President Friedman said in an interview with local reporters, “There is no place where so many talents gather in one team. I came to Miyazaki with a surprising mind. I can’t pick a specific player, but there are many good players. I see many players, including Sasaki. Murakami. has been receiving scouting reports for several years. I heard that the third base defense has improved recently.”
He continued, “Yamamoto Yoshinobu has heard of the name. I have also heard rumors about the major league challenge. I want to prepare to recruit when the official announcement is made. I will confirm Sasaki in a video soon.”
Local reporters also raised a question about Ohtani, who will become a free agent at the end of this season. This is because there are rumors that the Dodgers are ‘preparing bullets’ to prepare for the recruitment of Ohtani next year without spending a lot of money in the transfer market this winter.
After receiving the question, President Friedman laughed out loud and avoided answering, saying, “The Major League Secretariat and the players’ union cannot comment on the free agency.”
On the other hand, Ohtani said about free agency at the Angels’ spring camp held in Arizona on the 17th, “I’m not sure yet. I’m conscious that this year is the last season of my contract, but I’m still an Angels player, and winning the team is my top priority. It’s only after the season is over that I can feel free agency.” It seems to fly,” he said.
