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TOKYO — New Year's night, a sparkling "2017" is brightly lit atop the Tokyo Tower, and the possibilities ringing in are endless. Proof? Inside apartments on the city's flat screens, a Japanese League champion and heartthrob is squatting behind a makeshift home plate in a studio attempting to receive his own pitches.
"Best baseball player in the world," one high-ranking official with a major league club flatly has declared back in the United States.
"He's…wow!" one veteran scout with a National League club exclaimed.
"All the stories you hear are real as far as the batting practice power and his ability to throw 100 mph," the international scouting director of another major league club said.