24) I’d like to read something on Pineda myself. I don’t know much about him but can’t wait to see the guy pitch, that’s for sure.

I guess this is where I say Hiro is “easy to root for.” But how can you not love a guy who answers the question, “Why don’t you get better run support?” with “My teammates don’t like me.” Even more endearing is that he couldn’t keep a straight face.

More to the point, I think his competitive pride and having Martin and the rest of the Yankee organization around him will make him a great addition to the team and add an element to his performance that no statistical analysis can fully capture.

[18] That’s got to be pretty trippy. On a lighter note, the Carp have pretty cool unis.

Side note about the Hiroshima Carp: Before they moved into their current Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium, they played in a really old dump..right across from ground zero in Hiroshima, where the only remaning building from that day still stands..it was such bizarre and emotional feeling to go that stadium and watch baseball, one of America’s gifts to the world, while across the street was a memorial to our most horrific act.

2nd note on the Carp: their fans used to be notorious for having a lot of gangster elements in the cheering sections. Even today you still see a lot of tatooed guys waving the flags in the bleachers, often a sign of yakuza membership.

I also found it very interesting that the Yankees haven’t been gun shy about tapping the Japanese market after being burned 2 out of 3 times there. Irabu and Igawa were bad situations for the team and Matsuzaka ended up in a bad way with the Sox in the AL East. Of course, like everything else, some of those problems were circumstantial and some of them are born of unreliable scouting/projection for Japanese pitchers, but the sting is still there. Irabu and Igawa weren’t very good in Japan when the Yankees jumped on them, and any Japanese fan will tell you that there were some folks happy to see them go.

Winning the posting for Nakajima (although probably a surprise to the Yanks at such a low price) was interesting, although he never had a shot at making the team to be fair. There isn’t a single middle infielder in Japan that would start for the Yankees even if Jeter moved or hung it up. Latin America is to stocked with talent that actually can hit and Japanese SS a lightweight bats. I can’t say there’s much out there that would suit the Yankees in Japan these days, especially now that Darvish is gone, so Kuroda may be our last Japanese starting player for a generation. Enjoy.

I still have no guess about whether this guy will be successful in pinstripes, but now I know I can root for him wholeheartedly.

http://bit.ly/zRfQv3

Of course, a lot of factors go into winning, defense, offense, bullpen, etc. Moving here is a harder league with better hitters, the DH, but he just might have the support he needs in the Yankees make up. Time will tell. That said, I am looking forward to watching him. Pitchers and catchers coming up.

While I think Kuroda will now face the best hitters of his career, the big jump was from Japan to the National League, and he handled that very well and even got better in 2010 and 11. He might get hurt more often, but I don’t think it will reduce him to complete disarray either.

i also like that he goes after guys, and has a low walk rate.
but a little concerned that he is going to get hit and often hard from looking at his slg percent and babip and what that translates to in the al and in ys.