The Boston club’s press distribution information sheet has the word ‘Macho Man’ attached to one player. It’s a humorous expression, but considering his recent performance, this expression doesn’t seem exaggerated at all.
I am talking about Masataka Yoshida (30), a Japanese hitter who joined Boston this year. At the beginning of the season, the bat seldom spins happily and it was difficult, but recently it has been stretching every hit hit. It is proving that Boston’s choice, which had high expectations from the bat, was not wrong.
Yoshida, who signed a five-year contract with Boston ahead of this season for a total of 90 million dollars, has been a controversial player since the time he joined the team. He didn’t really have much to look forward to on defense and running. He said it was a success even if it was only at the league average level. He was, after all, a player who was brought in after seeing one bat. Criticism that ‘the amount is too much for such a player’ continued.
Even at the beginning of the season, those concerns seemed to be coming true. Yoshida only had a batting average of 0.167 (8 hits in 48 at-bats) through his first 13 games. His batted ball seldom floated. He only hit a lot of ground balls, which led to a simultaneous drop in batting average and slugging percentage. The OPS during this period was only 0.560. That was an odd number for a $90 million player.메이저놀이터
However, the Boston coaching staff’s unwavering belief was, “His swing rate is low, and he has good patience at bat. He’s going through a period of adaptation. We have to watch.” And Yoshida is living up to that belief. From April 21 to May 1, Yoshida swung a fire bat with a batting average of 0.410 in 10 games. He got on base in all 10 games. He wasn’t just ticked off. His OPS also jumped to 1.172 with 6 extra-base hits (3 doubles and 3 home runs) out of 16 hits.
These days, there are more balls that go over the fence or hit the green monster directly. In the game against Toronto on the 2nd, he scored an RBI with a timely double that hit the green monster directly from the first at-bat, and then completed another multi-hit game with a neat heavy hit in the 5th inning. His batting average for the season has risen to 0.286, and he is now close to reaching 30%.
In the first inning, he hit the outside ball of opposing starter Jose Berrios with all his might. The batted ball was alive and led to a double with a distance of 375 feet (about 114 m). In the 5th inning, he showed off his strength by pulling out a sinker deep inside Berios and hitting it in the direction of the center fielder. It was a good ball, but I couldn’t overcome Yoshida’s batting pace recently.
Yoshida showed off his improved sense of hitting by hitting 18 hits in the last 11 games. The 11-game on-base streak is the longest along with Robbie Grossman (Texas) among the major league records that currently stand. It is noteworthy whether he will be able to become the real macho man of Fenway Park.