Comments on: Is Hiroki Kuroda gonna be OK in New York?

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:17:47 +0000

Old New Yorkers move to Miami. The New Yorkers who want to live it large, with their Beemers and their houses with yards, storming Hollywood for all its worth…. Those chumps move to LA, fill up the freeways, and chant Lets Go Mets at Dodger Stadium.

By: protius

protius — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:21:11 +0000

Sorry, Miami is where New Yorkers move to.

By: protius

protius — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 00:16:42 +0000

Very well constructed argument. Very well supported. Bravo.

By: Jeff M.

Jeff M. — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 23:04:00 +0000

Sadly, that’s true.

By: sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo

sabathiawouldbegoodattheeighthtoo — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:56:13 +0000

The flip side is that, if he pitches well, the press and fans will love him. How many Hiro/Hero puns can the Daily News/Post come up with in one season. It always comes down to performance in NYC. If he does what he has been doing, he will be fine. Let’s face it, the bar for #2 starters in NYC (cough**AJ**ahem excuse me) is not set all that high.

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:44:41 +0000

LA is where New Yorkers move to.

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:43:09 +0000

Not enough people seem to realize this. Say you have 70-80 beat writers for the Yanks across the tri-state area. They’ll all go with different angles each day, so outside a game recap it’s not like Kuroda is going to be the focus of their stories every single day. Now take someone like Matsui or Ichiro, who sometimes had 100+ Japanese writers following them around writing specifically about them every single day. Whose press puts on more “pressure”?

By: whatthehellisansky

whatthehellisansky — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:38:24 +0000

This guy has some stones.

He’s been proving people wrong his whole career (see unclemosesgreen)

Glad to have him in pinstripes and even happier to see that he didnt join at the deadline last year because of Loyalty to his current team.

Welcome to the BX, Hiro. Best of luck.

Anyone else surprised the Yanks didnt have a press conference for the Pineda trade and Kuroda signing? I figured they woulda introduced them both together.. or maybe i just missed it?

By: baseballisboring

baseballisboring — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:37:09 +0000

LA isn’t NY, but it’s not Pittsburgh either. He’ll be fine. He’s not even a high profile free agent that they overpaid for, he’s a 3 starter on a one year deal.

By: paperlions

paperlions — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:35:39 +0000

Sweet.

I love me some bubble incubation.

By: sdelmonte

sdelmonte — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:01:52 +0000

I think that he is used to media attention, being a Japanese player with some sort of press entourage that follows him everywhere. The NYC media will leave him alone for the most part as long as there are other lightning rods in the locker room.

By: Maxa

Maxa — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:01:36 +0000

Concerns about Kuroda’s transition aside, that was one of the better baseball pieces I’ve read in some time.

By: deathmonkey41

deathmonkey41 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:46:22 +0000

I think he’ll be fine- it’s not like he has to be the Ace of the club and all the pressure’s going to fall on him.

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:38:03 +0000

Kuroda’s going to be fine. If he can come back to the mound as a top form weeks after getting hit in the head with a liner, then he can navigate his way through the NYC lifestyle.

The bigger issue, I think, will be how he handles his family. Are they staying in LA, or are they going to NYC with him? He’s a big family man.

By: joejoeyankee

joejoeyankee — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:36:37 +0000

The thing is, the Yankees have to hit the ball. You are paying someone like Kuroda to pitch the way he’s been pitching. I don’t know if you’ve looked at his stats, but he’s not an over powering pitcher by any means. They are paying him to keep them in the game but they are paying their bats to win ball games (outside of CC). The pressure is huge in the wonderful city of New York. The thing is though when your line up is not hitting like they should be that’s more pressure than pitching in Yankee stadium. Look how many runners the Yankees left on base last year that could have kept their pitcher in the game foe he sub. Then you have to wake up and read how you didn’t perform because you let 4 runners cross the plate, but your team left bases load twice and two runners more on top of that. The main point is not if anyone can pitch in NY it’s if the “potent” Yankees line up wants to show up and hit the ball and score runs that day. Anyone will score runs in Yankee stadium, it’s the little league park of the MLB. The money’s worth needs to start showing up in those bats in order to win games!

By: koufaxmitzvah

koufaxmitzvah — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:35:41 +0000

However, Kuroda doesn’t speak English (at least, not much to the media). He lets his translator do the talking, and so he can incubate himself in a bubble.

By: unclemosesgreen

unclemosesgreen — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:13:19 +0000

No, not worth watching.

The article also states how Kuroda broke into NPL with the Hiroshima Carp, who played in a stadium that was just 300 feet to each foul pole. The guy changed continents, succeeded where so many NPL pitchers have failed, and won 3 playoff starts.

Enough of Yamakawa breaking every medical privacy law on earth, enough speculation on the psychological state of players. And for God’s sake, no one better mention Zack Greinke.

By: dcfan4life

dcfan4life — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:12:18 +0000

I think this article doesnt mention one of the key reasons playing in New York can be difficult, and thats the New York media. Sure the pressure to win is relentless, but so is the media. That combination can make 2 sleepless nights turn into a season of sleepless nights…

By: uyf1950

uyf1950 — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:12:11 +0000

Worth watching…sure. But he has something in the Yankees that he didn’t have nearly as much of with the Dodgers, an OFFENSE. In every single meaningful offensive category the Yankees numbers dwarf those of the Dodgers. So Kuroda doesn’t necessarily have to be as good to have the same or better results then he had with the Dodgers in 2011. And that’s a good thing.

By: CliffC

CliffC — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:05:53 +0000

Alex did an awesome job on that, as always. It got me really excited to watch Kuroda this year. As you said, seems like a really good guy.

By: lardin

lardin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:05:33 +0000

Way to cherry pick to make a point.

How about: “The next 2 years, Kuroda was healthier and he improved incrementally. He went from 183 and 117 innings to 196 and 202; his ERA went from 3.73 and 3.76 to 3.39 and 3.07. His walks stayed low and he continued to strike hitters out. He is a nice, no bullshit pitcher who pitches deep into games and is economical,” said Jay Jaffe from Baseball Prospectus.”

““When he’s really on, his splitty is on,” Russell Martin told Anthony McCarron of the Daily News last week. “It gets him out of trouble. He can throw his fastball at 94 or 95 (miles per hour), though he’s mostly at 92 or 93, so it’s impressive. His slider is different, a really short break. It’s not a strikeout pitch, but it gets a lot of balls off the end of the bat, and his splitty is nasty against lefties or righties.”

“Without a doubt it’ll help pitching to Russell,” said Honeycutt. “That’s a huge positive for the Yankees and I have no doubt that Kuroda’s qualified to handle the change.” He is almost certain to get more run support, too. “He might have won 17 games last year with that offense,” said Colletti.