Trevor Bauer’s curve, the unfortunate Cy Young Award winner abandoned by Major League Baseball, was the best pitch of this season by active Japanese professional baseball players.
Japan’s Sports Nippon reported on the 20th the ranking of the “best 100 active players selected” breaking ball section introduced on the TV program S-PARK. Bauer’s curve took the top spot with 12 picks.
Takaya Ishikawa, Junichi, said, “It falls vertically to the point where it feels like it’s hitting a wall and falling.” Ryoma Nishikawa of Hiroshima said, “It was the first speed I saw, the fall. I was so surprised that I couldn’t use my hands,” he explained. Yakult Murakami Munetaka said, “I’ve never attacked yet. I wanted to compete more,” he said.
In fact, Bauer also voted for his curve. Bauer said, “The breaking ball is the area I’m most confident in. So I want to recommend my ball. He confidently said, “The curve is the best among the various breaking balls.” It’s a bizarre idea.
DeNA catcher Ito Hikaru, who worked with the battery, said of Bauer’s curve, “After throwing it, it feels like it’s accelerating and falling. “I think I can induce a swing and miss because I fall while going straight with a feeling similar to a fastball from knuckle curve,” he said. “Once it rises (like a normal curve), the batter judges it as a high ball and does not respond.”
Bauer is back in the U.S. after the season and looking for a new team. In a video interview with the broadcaster, he said, “I’m grateful to the players who picked my curveball as the best breaking ball. I was a little surprised because there are many pitchers who throw breaking balls well. It’s an honor. I miss the time I spent with great players, and I hope we can meet again,” he said.
Bauer went through Arizona and Cleveland to gain full-time starting experience. He had only a normal performance until his mid-20s, but he raised expectations in Cleveland in 2018 when he was 27 years old, growing rapidly with 12 wins, 6 losses and a 2.21 ERA. In 2020, when he was a member of Cincinnati, he won the National League Cy Young Award with 5 wins, 4 losses and a 1.73 ERA, including two shutouts in 11 games. It became a hot topic as a pitcher who studies beyond studying and a unique character who does not avoid war of words with fans.
However, after moving to the Dodgers in 2021, his career in the Major League was cut off as he was involved in a lawsuit for assault. He tried to return to the big league in 2023 after flying 2022 due to disciplinary action, but 30 clubs turned a blind eye to him. Unexpectedly, it was the DeNA BayStars of the Japanese professional baseball that reached out to Bauer.
Bauer repeated the game in which he allowed a large number of runs due to continued long balls early in the season. The ERA in the first three games reached 8.40. He changed his pitching pattern and adapted to Japan. He finished the season with 10 wins, 4 losses and a 2.76 ERA in 19 first-team games. In the All-Star vote, he ranked first in the Central League in the “Plus One” vote to determine the last spot and was selected as an All-Star from his debut season in Japan.
Bauer, who finished the season with DeNA, is looking for a new team. The conditions of the new destination are unique, like a nerd. A team that does its best to win, a team that throws a lot of innings without conditions, and a team that makes fans happy are the new team that Bauer wants. It is said that the KBO League, as well as Major League and Japanese professional baseball, is possible, but the KBO League is unlikely because it has a $1 million annual salary limit for new foreign players.
Meanwhile, the fifth-best breaking ball selected by Japanese professional baseball players is the folk ball of Roki Sasaki (Chiba Lotte) and Yuki Udawa (Orix). Yamamoto Yoshinobu’s fork ball came in third, and Yamashita Shunpeita’s curve ball came in second. 메이저사이트