What’s Eating Kei Igawa?
Didn’t the Yankees say they won’t overspend on free agents? I guess it depends on your definition of overspend. Case in point: Kei Igawa.
Is he really that bad? Are the Japanese hitters worse? Is Carl Pavano’s contract better than Igawa’s?
Those are three questions that the Yankees should be asking themselves everytime Igawa takes the mound. The guy is awful. To make matters worse, based on the posting fee and the contract he signed, the Yankees are basically paying $9 million/year for this guy. I decided to look for his stats from his Hanshin Tigers days and came up with this from JapaneseBallplayers.com. It’s a great site that keeps tabs on all Japanese players in MLB. I wonder why Dave Roberts is not on that list? Anyway these are Igawa’s stats from Japan:
| Year | Team | W | L | SV | ERA | G | IP | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Hanshin Tigers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6.46 | 7 | 15.3 | 14 |
| 2000 | Hanshin Tigers | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4.35 | 9 | 39.3 | 37 |
| 2001 | Hanshin Tigers | 9 | 13 | 0 | 2.67 | 29 | 192.0 | 171 |
| 2002 | Hanshin Tigers | 14 | 9 | 0 | 2.49 | 31 | 209.6 | 206 |
| 2003 | Hanshin Tigers | 20 | 5 | 0 | 2.80 | 29 | 206.0 | 179 |
| 2004 | Hanshin Tigers | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3.73 | 29 | 200.3 | 228 |
| 2005 | Hanshin Tigers | 13 | 9 | 0 | 3.86 | 27 | 172.1 | 145 |
| 2006 | Hanshin Tigers | 14 | 9 | 0 | 2.97 | 29 | 209.0 | 194 |
Seems to me that somebody already reached their prime. His record isn’t anything to marvel at: a career record of 86-60 but with a formidable 3.14 ERA. Digging a little deeper, it appears that the Hanshin Tigers are in the Central League which is equivalent to the NL as there is no designated hitter.
Maybe Igawa just can’t handle the
This is exactly what I expected to find out after reading the title in your face. Thanks for informative article
July 28th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Thanks for the comment. Who’s your team?
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:03 am