Ohtani’s monster junior with ‘140 home runs and 80% slugging percentage in high school’ chooses NCAA over NPB

Rintaro Sasaki (18), the top Japanese high school baseball prospect slugger, is heading to the United States instead of Japan.

Local media, including CBS Sports in the U.S., reported that ‘Japan’s teenage slugger Sasaki will give up participating in the Japanese Professional Baseball (NPB) rookie draft and will instead attend an American university (NCAA).’ Sasaki, a member of Hanamaki Hisari High School in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, is a high school junior of Shohei Otani (LA Angels) and has a career high school home run of 140, the highest ever.

The strength that comes from a solid physique (height 1m84cm, weight 113kg) is great. He has been a starting player since his first year in high school. Although he suffered from major and minor injuries during his high school years, including a stress fracture in his leg and thoracic outlet syndrome, he showed off his unique presence when he stepped up to the plate. He was early evaluated as a candidate for the first overall pick in the NPB draft.토토사이트

It remains to be seen which university Sasaki will attend, but the name of Vanderbilt University is being mentioned locally. Vanderbilt University is a prestigious baseball university that produced Dansby Swanson and David Price. ESPN said, ‘From a scouting perspective, Sasaki is capable of hitting more than 30 home runs per year in the Major League Baseball (MLB), and has a rating of around 70 (on the ’20-80 scale’, which evaluates a prospect’s talent as a high of 80, a low of 20, and an average of 50). He predicted, “It is unclear how well he will perform against the best amateur pitcher in the United States (who has a faster speed) than the pitcher he faced in Japan.” He further added, ‘There is a consensus in the scouting industry that Sasaki is currently a 3rd round draft prospect.’

Baseball America (BA), which specializes in evaluating prospects, said, “Sasaki dominated Japanese high schools with a batting average of 0.413, an on-base percentage of 0.514, and a slugging percentage of 0.808,” adding, “If he moves to the United States for college, he will be subject to MLB International Amateur rules (bonuses set for the team). They will not be subject to the regulations limiting the pool and will instead be eligible to participate in the MLB draft.’