After spending four years pursuing his dream of pitching in the major leagues, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks lefty Tsuyoshi Wada believes Japanese baseball needs what he discovered in the States: an appreciation for the two-seam fastball.
After two seasons coming back from Tommy John surgery, Wada spent two more in the Chicago Cubs organization where he split his time between Triple-A and the majors before returning to Fukuoka last season.
In the U.S., the slicker major league ball allows for more horizontal movement than Japan's tackier ball. Wada was surprised by how much movement he could get on a two-seam fastball, a bread-and-butter pitch in America that is rarely thrown by Japanese pitchers here.