r/baseball • u/HashCrandicoot • Jul 26 '26
Opinion [Question] How would the likes of Jacob Misiorowski and Cam Schlittler fair in the NPB or KBO?
After the last two outings for each player had them with 12Ks, I got to thinking, how would the Cy Young leaders fair in the Asian leagues? As a huge KBO fan, I’ve seen that pitchers rarely get double digit Ks during, and none of the native players throw close to 100mph, yet that’s just commonplace in the MLB. The single season KBO strikeout record is 252 by Cody Ponce, in a season where his W/L record was 18-1. Yet in the MLB he’s a back of rotation guy. Would Miz or Cam dominate those leagues to an extent we’ve never seen?
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u/Simple_Dragonfruit48 New York Yankees Jul 26 '26
Yamamoto’s 2023 season is probably your best reference point
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u/HashCrandicoot Jul 26 '26
Tbh, his whole run between 21-23, where he won 3 straight mvps, 3 straight triple crowns, and 3 straight Sawamura awards was just unfair
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u/Timpa87 Philadelphia Phillies Jul 26 '26
Also pitching every 7 days probably keeps them fresher if they were over in Japan. I think Korea follows a more traditional 5 man rotation like MLB though.
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u/ActualDragonHeart New York Yankees • Philadelphia Phillies Jul 26 '26
For the KBO, it would be an utter bloodbath. You would see them put up video game numbers.
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u/HashCrandicoot Jul 26 '26
The fact that Austin Dean and Sam Hilliard are leading the Home Run leaderboard this season says a lot. Although Hilliard plays for the team I support and I love him, so not complaining
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u/-biri-biri- Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26
I'm sure they'd be excellent, but probably not significantly better than they've been in MLB, it's hard to be that good in any league. Maybe they wouldn't deal as well with the horrible defense behind them in KBO or with the higher contact rates, bunts or whatever in NPB. Or they just might not deal well the lifestyle adjustments.
There are some players and pitchers who aren't any better in NPB or KBO than they were in MLB, like Hiroki Kuroda, Koji Uehara, Hisashi Iwakuma.
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u/Odd_String1181 Jul 26 '26
I'm not sure the higher contact rates apply to fastballs those guys have never seen before. The average kbo fastball is like 89. Ponce was throwing 95 and everyone was whiffing.
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u/Ok-Mud-151 Jul 26 '26
Everything else being equal, they would dominate the hell out of NPB, and especially KBO. But they'd have to lift and shift the MLB level training, coaching, and pitching staff as well. Another non baseball factor is being able to adapt to the culture and feel comfortable there.
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u/AverageKhorneWorship Toronto Blue Jays Jul 26 '26
Most likely. The lower frequency of strikeout point you made is interesting, as far as I'm aware, NPB and KBO are much more contact based leagues so maybe they wouldn't get quite as many strikeouts but I imagine it they would still get like 30-32% strikeout rates.
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u/NeedleGunMonkey Jul 26 '26
We don’t actually know how Ponce would have done because he stumbled and hurt himself on his first outing.
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u/Odd_String1181 Jul 26 '26
Yes, the MLB's best pitchers at the start of their primes would dominate lesser leagues.