Mike Salas
Hiroto Takahashi is a 22-year-old right-handed pitcher who plays for the Chunichi Dragons and was part of the 2023 WBC Japan team. Reports say he has the stuff to be a “Bonafide ace” featuring a quality 80 mph split finger, a high 90’s fastball combined with the ability to develop his cutter and curveball.
Takahashi had a solid second year going 12-4 in the NPB with a 1.38 ERA / 1CG / 1SHO / 143IP / 22ER / 1HR / 34BB / 130K / 0.981WHIP. On July 7, 2022, Hiroto set a club record for the fastest pitch thrown at 98.2 MPH to cement himself as one of Samurai Japan’s best young pitchers.
In the WBC Hiroto pitched against the USA and threw one scoreless inning. He faced Mookie Betts who hit an infield single, then struck out Mike Trout and Paul Goldschmidt. He gave up a hit to Nolan Arenado, before getting Kyle Schwarber to fly out to escape any runs scored. According to reports, Takahashi created a significant buzz among scouts who used the phrase “nasty” to describe his pitching in the WBC.
Takahashi idolizes Yamamoto and trained with him over the winter before the 2024 season and has even patterned his mechanics after Yoshinobu.
“His pitching skill, his pitching style, everything — I think he’s the best pitcher that I’ve ever seen in my life,” Takahashi said with a broad smile. “I’m trying to take away anything that I can, steal everything from Yoshinobu.”
Takahashi credits his success this past season to the work he did with Yamamoto, as well as the way he mixes up his fastball (averaging 95mph) and diving splitter (averaging 80mph) with hitters only hitting 30 percent of the time.
2024 Pitch Usage:
Fastball – 50.2% / .206BAA / 6.4 SwStr%
Splitter – 31.3% / .150BAA / 20.4 SwStr%
Cutter – 9.8% / .179BAA / 14.4 SwStr%
Curveball – 8.7% / .231BAA / 5.5 SwStr%
Takahashi has pitched under the shadows of Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki, but with the talks of Sasaki being posted and signing with a Major League team this winter. Takahashi could be in the bright lights the start of the 2025 NPB season as one of the best pitchers in the league.
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