Masataka Yoshida, a star in the NPB, and the Orix Buffaloes recently took home the Japan Series championship.
The Buffaloes (then known as the Orix BlueWave) have not held either a Japan Series championship or an NPB superstar like him in their ranks since the heyday of the great Ichiro Suzuki.
He excelled during the 2022 Nippon Professional Baseball League season. Along with 21 home runs, 89 RBIs, and a slash line of.336/.449/.559, he also had an OPS of 1.007.
Yoshida, who was only 22 years old, adjusted to the NPB right away, hitting 11 home runs and driving in 38 runs in 73 games during his rookie season in 2016. The Buffaloes knew they had a future star on their hands as Yoshida’s rookie almost immediately. Talk about a young stud—his batting average of.296 is the lowest of his career.
Over the course of seven seasons in Japan’s top levels, he has 126 home runs, 446 RBIs, and a batting average of.326.
Additionally, the outfielder has won four Pacific League Best Nine honors, four All-Star teams, the NPB Home Run Derby in 2021, the Pacific League Batting Title twice, the Japan Series once, the Japan Series title, and the Pacific League Batting Title once.
The incredible discipline of Masataka Yoshida
The largest misconception regarding Masataka Yoshida, despite all the incredible honors stated, is that he is a “slugger.”
He can certainly blast a ball into the stands, but a more accurate assessment of him is a consistent hitter. Yoshida’s plate discipline is unmatched, in contrast to many sluggers who became famous by throwing everything they had into their swings.
Yoshida had 41 strikeouts in 515 plate appearances with Orix in 2022, which represented barely 8% of all his PAs. A total of 82 times, or 16% of all his plate appearances, the star outfielder also took walks.
As a result of his amazing discipline, he has broken through all of the strategies used by the opposition, and even changes in defensive stance scarcely have an impact on his ability to reach base.
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