Well, if you take Kenny Singleton’s word for it, he was told by Japanese pitchers that the hitters here are much stronger than they are in Japan.

Why are we even being polite about it? Igawa sucks. It’s hard to believe he’s going to get “better,” since he’s not some rookie just getting his first taste of pro ball — he was the equivalent of a Cy Young winner in Japan.

I don’t think Igawa is going to be much more than a longman out of the ‘pen and as soon as Hughes is ready that’s what he should be.

What’s kind of incredible is that the Yankees spend all that money on Igawa, and all they ended up with is… Jeff Karstens. But even worse. I guess they should have just let Karstens keep the seat warm for Hughes and let Igawa go to the Mets.

Not to sound PI but how many hitters does he face in Japan who are Troy Glaus big…6’5″ with a long reach?
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Doesn’t make as big a difference as you seem to think.

People of all shapes, sizes and ethnicities have succeeded and failed in MLB.

My take on Igawa is that whoever the Yankees relied on for scouting info on him sold him as a Japanese version of David Wells…91 MPH fastball riding the top of the strike zone, changes and curves low in the zone. They obviously didn’t factor in the differences between Japanese batters and Major League batters. His inability to locate any of his pitches kills any benefit he gets from changing speeds. He can’t change the hitters’ eye levels. He needs to adapt to the strike zone here: waist high is not letter-high. Not to sound PI but how many hitters does he face in Japan who are Troy Glaus big…6’5″ with a long reach?

Good win, but…

…Let’s just say that Igawa got REAL lucky. There were quite a few loud outs today, one of which was a laser to the wall in dead center in the 4th that practically sent him to the dugout in tears. 3 ER in 5 IP: I would imagine that that’s pretty much his ceiling for as long as he plays in the AL East.

Still, I feel bad for the guy, and, obviously, I want him to do well. But he just cannot locate that junk he’s tossing up there with any degree of consistency.

wow, a pretty self-serving pat-on-his-back post by Pags there.

nice victory in general. I don’t know what to make of Igawa except that he should probably be in the minors working on his command. Perhaps his 7 K’s is indicative of whatever it was that scouts liked about him.

At least El Cambio got his work in on the stationary bike out in the pen tonight. That will come in handy if the Yankees ever need an entry into the Tour de France.

he was in trouble a lot, but he did show flashes (6 Ks), and 5 ip, 3 er I’ll take from the #5 guy most every time – i’m trying to stay positive, if you havent noticed.

another no show by Edwar today. 9 straight days and counting… i cant believe myers was warming but not edwar! proctor AGAIN, vizcaino AGAIN. it’s tough to kill Torre bc they MOSTLY did the job (although scotty did give up the tying HR). edwar is better than just a mop up guy, Joe.