Roki Sasaki, the Japanese baseball prodigy, is a wild card at the Los Angeles Dodgers' spring training. After a disastrous rookie season as a starting pitcher, Sasaki is working on developing a third pitch to succeed as a starter. His slider, while not terrible, was underutilized and of subpar quality. Sasaki is now focusing on a cutter or gyro-spin slider to break away from right-handed hitters, as his fastball is relatively flat and hittable. He's also incorporating a two-seamer to run in on right-handed hitters. Despite his struggles, Sasaki's late-season success as a reliever has given him a new mindset going into his second spring training. He believes he can pitch throughout the entire season and show what he has to work on at the big league level.
