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Yū Satō
Yū Satō (佐藤 優, Satō Yū, born June 28, 1993 in Ōsaki, Miyagi, Japan) is a professional Japanese baseball player. He previously played pitcher for the Chunichi Dragons. Early careerSatō 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 career2016-2017On 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-PresentSatō 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 careerOn October 26, 2018, he was selected Japan national baseball team at the 2018 MLB Japan All-Star Series.[10] Pitching styleSatō 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] References
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