A friggin’ sidearm knuckler! That’s from the pages of evil…
Eri Yoshida is an 18-year old pitcher from Japan who became the first woman to crack the Japanese professional baseball leagues at the age of 16. Pitching for the Kobe 9 Cruise of Kansai Independent Baseball League, Yoshida hasn’t racked up a terribly outstanding record (the knuckleball is notoriously hard to learn to control and use effectively) but was considered a good enough prospect for a cup of coffee with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp before coming over to the Arizona Winter League to play for the Yuma Scorpions. The AWL is a major stepping stone for a lot of prospects to the MLB and higher levels of the minors. Again, she suffered from control issues, but pitched decently enough, including four innings of shutout ball against Team Canada. With a 6.16 ERA in 19 innings and only 4 strike outs to 6 walks, Yoshida isn’t tearing up the league, but she’s posted better numbers than quite a few of the other male relievers in the league.
At 5ft 1in, with a fastball that tops out in the mid 60s, Yoshida is certainly a long shot to make the major leagues. However, she’s already stepped through some of the most significant blocks between a professional career, even if it is the minor leagues in North America or the Nippon Professional League, advancing further faster than any other female prospect since Jackie Mitchell in the last fifty years. A self-taught pitcher, Yoshida enjoyed a workout with her idol, famed Red Sox knuckler Tim Wakefield, who was her idol growing up. Wakefield, the most effective knuckler since Phil Niekro, said of Yoshida:
"I'm impressed," Wakefield said. "She spun a couple, but for the most part, it was very good. She was able to take the spin out of a lot of them and they had quite a lot of movement on them."
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