Fantasy owners should familiarize themselves with Japanese phenom Shohei Otani

Fantasy owners ought to become familiar with this name right now: Shohei Otani.

Otani is a 22 year old Japanese right handed pitcher and outfielder who just broke his own Japanese velocity record this weekend. He threw a 103 mph fastball three times in a relief appearance, averaging 101.9 mph with his fastball. He also throws a forkball at 92-94 mph, and a slider at 88-90 mph.

Here's a highlight video of his latest appearance, including the 103 mph pitches:

Here are all the pitches thrown by Shohei Otani today. Hit 165 kmph (~103 mph) thrice. Also a 151 kmph forkball (~94 mph). Kaibutsu #NPB pic.twitter.com/pmcIHsdig7

— Sung Min Kim (@sung_minkim) October 16, 2016

In 20 starts this season with the Nippon Ham Fighters, he has a 1.86 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 31.8% strikeout rate and 8.2% walk rate. He looks like an Uber-Darvish.

Otani can hit, too. He has an OPS over 1.000 in almost 400 plate appearances, and some scouts think he could be an All Star level outfielder in MLB if he plays there full time.

It isn't clear exactly when Otani will leave to come to MLB, but it's possible it could be as early as this offseason if Otani requests that the Ham Fighters post him. The more likely scenario appears to be a little further down the road. Either way, whether he comes to MLB in 2017 or later, fantasy owners need to become familiar with this name, because he could be the next monster pitcher in MLB.