Yū Satō

Yū Satō (佐藤 優, Satō Yū, born June 28, 1993 in Ōsaki, Miyagi, Japan) is a professional Japanese baseball player. He plays pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons.

Yū Satō
佐藤優
Chunichi Dragons – No. 25
Pitcher
Born: (1993-06-29) June 29, 1993
Ōsaki, Miyagi, Japan
Bats: Left Throws: Right
debut
10 May, 2016, for the Chunichi Dragons
NPB statistics
(through 2019)
Win-Loss record5-2
Innings Pitched93.1
ERA3.47
Strikeouts83
Teams

Early career

Satō started playing rubber-ball baseball in elementary school. With his high school, Furukawagakuen, he started his freshman year on the bench and reached the best 8 of the Tohoku Regional high school tournament.

He attended Tohoku Fukushi University and started playing league games in his freshman year. In his senior year in a game against Tohoku Institute of Technology, Satō fanned a remarkable 13 batters.[1] He finished with an 11-2 win-loss record with a 1.29 ERA.

On 22 October 2016, Satō was selected as second pick for the Chunichi Dragons at the 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball draft and on 1 December signed a \10,000,000 per year contract with a \70,000,000 sign-on bonus.[2]

Professional career

2016-2017

On 10 May, in a game against the Yokohama DeNA Baystars at Yokohama Stadium, he claimed a debut win throwing 5 innings for 1 earned run becoming the first Dragons rookie pitcher to win on debut since Kenshin Kawakami in 1998.[3]

Satō finished the 2016 NPB season having started 4 games going 1-0 in decisions with a 3.67 ERA. The following season, Satō was limited to mostly work out of the bullpen claiming 2 wins, 2 holds and a 5.40 ERA.

2018-Present

Satō made his first appearance in April, but was immediately demoted to the farm team after surrendering 3 runs.[4][5] He would later join the team in June and record 11 consecutive games without an earned run.[5] For the end of the season, thanks to the mishaps of Shinji Tajima and Hiroshi Suzuki, Satō was made the closer and on 24 August registered his first career save.[6] Satō would end the season having pitched in 42 games with a 1-2 record, 5 saves, 10 holds and a 2.08 ERA.[5]

Despite breaking out somewhat in 2018, Satō was unable to repeat his success in 2019 making a career lowest 7 mound appearances despite being with the team from opening day.[7] On the farm, Satō would pitch in 24 games, throwing 39 innings for a respectable 3.00 ERA.[8] In the off-season, on October 21, Satō underwent arthroplastic surgery on his right elbow.[9]

International career

On October 26, 2018, he was selected Japan national baseball team at the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.[10]

Pitching style

Satō throws a four-seam fastball that tops out at 151 km/h. He can also throw a forkball that was taught to him by former Seattle Mariners pitcher, Kazuhiro Sasaki.[11]

gollark: Sure, but in this case the simple solution is probably just to make printed pages not get display names handled individually.
gollark: The issue only occured because there were a *huge* amount of items with NBT stored.
gollark: That would probably be better on startup though much worse when running.
gollark: Er, in-memory.
gollark: Mine does that, but only on startup.

References
  1. "プロ注目の東北福祉大・佐藤13Ｋで白星発進 (Tohoku Fukushi's Future pro, 13K man Satō)" (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  2. "中日ドラ２、東北福祉大・佐藤優の入団決定 (Chunichi's #2 pick, Tohoku Fukushi's Satō joins the team)" (in Japanese). Sponichi. 1 December 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  3. "「優しすぎる男」中日佐藤が初登板初先発プロ初勝利 (The "man that is too kind"; Chunichi's Satō wins on debut)" (in Japanese). Nikkan Sports. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  4. "広島鈴木誠也、巨人陽岱鋼ら抹消／４日公示 - 公示 : 日刊スポーツ". Nikkan Sports (in Japanese). 2018-04-04. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  5. "【中日】佐藤、飛躍の理由はアレをやめたから？…最終戦「抑えて終わりたい」" [Satō's reason for success is because he stopped that? Last game "I want to close it out and finish"]. Sports Hochi (in Japanese). 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  6. "佐藤、初S 新守護神誕生" [Satō's 1st save. A new closer is born.]. Chunichi Sports (in Japanese). 2018-08-24. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  7. "中日・佐藤優が300万円減の推定1700万円でサイン 今季は自己最少の7試合登板に「キャンプからアピールできずそのまま…」" [Chunichi's Yu Satō receives 3M yen decrease to sign at 17M. Made fewest appearances this year "I was unable to take a spot in camp and then it just..."]. Chunichi Sports (in Japanese). 2019-11-09. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  8. "2019年度 中日ドラゴンズ 個人投手成績（ウエスタン・リーグ）". npb.jp (in Japanese). 2020-03-13. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  9. "右肘手術の中日・堂上「春のキャンプは大丈夫」 伊藤準も「元気な状態でキャンプに」" [Right elbow surgery recipients: Donoue "I'll be fine for spring camp"; Ito "I'm in good shape for camp"]. Chunichi Sports (in Japanese). 2019-12-16. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
  10. "「ENEOS侍ジャパンシリーズ2018」ならびに「2018日米野球」に出場するトップチームの出場選手の変更について". 野球日本代表 侍ジャパン オフィシャルサイト (in Japanese). October 26, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  11. "【中日】ドラ２東北福祉大・佐藤優"竜の大魔神"になる「目標は新人王」(Draft #2 Tohoku Fukushi Uni's Yu Satō to become "Dragon Stone Warrior"; goal of rookie of the year)" (in Japanese). Sports Hochi. 28 October 2015. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
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