Masataka Yoshida (29‧ Boston), who showed off his appearance as a top-notch hitter in Japanese professional baseball over the past five years, not just one season, realized his dream of advancing to the major leagues by signing a contract with Boston. The five-year total contract size of 90 million dollars (approximately 117.3 billion won) was a jackpot level that could not be easily predicted.

Controversy over ‘overpay’ is already brewing, but Boston, which has been friendly with Japanese players, bet with confidence that Yoshida will be able to show good offense in the major leagues. Yoshita was an outstanding player with batting average based on his excellent contact ability and his pioneering plan. He has the batting ability to accomplish the difficult task of simultaneously achieving a batting average of 30%, an on-base percentage of 40%, and a slugging percentage of 0.500 every year.

If so, who is the best pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball in the eyes of Yoshida, the best hitter? On the 19th (Korean time), Yoshida was asked about this in an interview with ‘Fangraph’, a website specializing in statistics, and after much thought, he replied, “Probably Senga Koda. I think he was the best pitcher in Japan.” Yoshida and Senga, 스포츠토토 who are the same age as him, will cross the Pacific together this offseason by signing a five-year, $75 million (approximately 97.8 billion won) contract with the New York Mets.

However, when another player’s name was mentioned, Yoshida did not give a definite answer. It is Yoshinobu Yamamoto (24), one of the aces of the Japanese national team and who ate together with Yoshida at Orix. Although Yamamoto is only 24 years old, he has already risen to the ranks of the best pitchers in Japanese professional baseball.

“Maybe Yamamoto is only marginally better than Senga,” Yoshida said. In fact, Yamamoto is better than Senga if you look at his performance in the last two seasons alone. Yamamoto was also awarded the Sawamura Award.

Even Yamamoto’s chances of advancing to the major leagues are growing. This is because the Japanese stage is proving to be narrow. Although there is still a deadline for posting, there is uncertainty as it has not been decided at what point the player will take on the challenge of the major leagues. However, Yoshida added, “I think Yamamoto will (challenging in the major leagues). He seems to want to come to America. However, it depends on the posting. He should consult with Orix.”

If Yamamoto attempts to break into the major leagues by posting, he arrives at an age where he can make use of all of his prime. It has been consistently proven by Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka, and Kenta Maeda that a pitcher who has been very successful in Japan can rise to a certain level in the major leagues. There is also a prospect that a young Yamamoto will easily pass $100 million in total.