is a
Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the
Hanshin Tigers of
Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Early baseball career
Hiroto started baseball early when he played catcher for his school's team in his first grade. He specialized as a pitcher in junior high, and helped his team win championships and runner ups in his hometown's local tournaments.
He then went on to become the ace pitcher of Suma Shofu High School, where in his 2nd year, he led the team to win runner-up in the prefectural tournament. Despite his team never making it to either
Spring Koshien or
Summer Koshien, his 140 km/h fastball caught the attention of both NPB and MLB scouts alike.
Professional career
Hanshin Tigers selected Saiki on the 3rd round of the
2016 NPB draft. He signed a 50 million yen contract with the Tigers, with an estimated 6 million yen annual salary. He was assigned the jersey number 35.
On December 2, 2020, he become a free agent. On December 8, 2020, Saiki re-signed with the Tigers.
Playing Style
Standing at 189 cm, Saiki is a right-handed pitcher whose arsenal consists of fastballs clocked at a maximum of 157 km/h,
sliders
Slider or Sliders may refer to:
Arts
* K.K. Slider, a fictional character within the ''Animal Crossing'' franchise
* ''The Slider'', a 1972 album by T. Rex
* ''Sliders'' (TV series), an American science fiction and fantasy television series
* S ...
, curveballs and
splitters
Splitter or splitters may refer to:
Technology
* DSL filter or DSL splitter, in telecommunications
* Fiber-optic splitter
* Hybrid coil, a three windings transformer
* Power dividers and directional couplers, in RF engineering
* Siamese connect ...
. In addition, he also has recently started throwing a
cutter
Cutter may refer to:
Tools
* Bolt cutter
* Box cutter, aka Stanley knife, a form of utility knife
* Cigar cutter
* Cookie cutter
* Glass cutter
* Meat cutter
* Milling cutter
* Paper cutter
* Side cutter
* Cutter, a type of hydraulic rescue to ...
.
He aims to follow the footsteps of his teammate and fellow high-school draft
Shintaro Fujinami who is known for his high velocity pitches.
References
External links
NPB stats*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saiki, Hiroto
1998 births
Living people
Baseball people from Hyōgo Prefecture
Hanshin Tigers players
Japanese baseball players
Nippon Professional Baseball pitchers