Former Yankees Update: Hiroki Kuroda

Just a quick check in with one of the Yankees former players, Hiroki Kuroda. Kuroda was marvelous as a starting pitcher for the Yankees in his three-year stint here but the lure of wanting to return home to his native Japan was too much. Now Kuroda can presumably retire and ride off into the sunset because he just led his Hiroshima Carp team to something that has not been done in 25 years. A championship.

The Hiroshima Carp with Kuroda on the mound beat the Yomiuri Giants 6-4 last weekend to secure their first Central League pennant in 25 seasons. Kuroda allowed three runs and six hits in six innings of work in the contest while striking out four and it was just enough to lead the team to victory. This marks Hiroshima’s seventh Central League title in their storied history.

Kuroda, now 41-years old, has done everything and more with his career. He played for Hiroshima before playing four years with the Los Angeles Dodgers and three years with the Yankees before returning home to the Carp in 2015. Now he’s finished the 2016 season on top. What more does he have to do?

Nothing. And that’s a great feeling to have. Congrats to the Carp and congrats to an old friend in Kuroda.

Kenta Maeda and Fantasy Baseball

It’s never too early to start thinking about next season, just ask a Chicago Cubs fans, and it’s especially never too early to start thinking about your next season’s fantasy baseball league. Last season I tried to bring as much fantasy baseball discussion and advice as I could to the blog and based on the view count and interactions it seemed to go over well. Have no fear because we’re bringing it all back again this offseason and we start things off with the newest face to join Major League Baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Mr. Kenta Maeda.

Maeda will turn 28-years old in April and pitched for the Hiroshima Carp of the Nippon Professional Baseball League in Japan last season. While pitching alongside former Yankees and Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda with the Carp Maeda posted a 15-8 record with a 2.09 ERA, 1.01 WHIP and 175 strikeouts in 206.1 innings pitched. How that will translate into Major League Baseball is anyone’s guess but we’ve seen enough Japanese-born pitchers come over to the states to take a pretty educated guess if I don’t say so myself.

Maeda is a smaller guy standing just 6’0” and 165 lbs. and he’s not the overpowering bringer of heat like many. Maeda’s fastball sits at about 90-93 MPH which allows him to throw more changeups and curveballs keeping hitters off balance. Maeda is not a huge strikeout guy and relies more on his command and his control while pitching more to contact than anything. The closest comparison you have for Maeda is Philadelphia Phillies rookie Aaron Nola who pitched 77.2 innings in the Majors last season. They have similar builds, velocities and they both pound the strike zone. Neither are huge strikeout guys and rely more on ground balls and fly balls to get their jobs done.

Maeda will be helped by Dodgers Stadium and he should be helped by the fact that he faces the pitchers spot three or four times a night but rest assured he will not be the next Yu Darish or Masahiro Tanaka. His scouting report does sound a lot like Hiroki Kuroda’s and Hisashi Iwakuma’s though so there is some upside associated with him. I wouldn’t take him necessarily early but by around Round 10-15 he should be available and prime for the picking. 

Former Yankee Update: Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda re-signed with the Hiroshima Carp for ~$4.9 million, which makes him the highest-paid player in Japan. https://t.co/NVl8OtBCii

— Dylan Hernandez (@dylanohernandez) December 18, 2015

The New York Yankees have enjoyed some of the best starting pitchers in the history of the game over the franchise's storied history. The team has seen the first ever perfect game being thrown in the postseason with Don Larsen, great pitching performances from Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemens, Cuban-defected stars come over and make an impact like Orlando Hernandez and they may have had the best pitcher to ever come over from Japan wear the pinstripes during his career. That man is Hiroki Kuroda and he just made the next decision in his playing career.

Hiroki Kuroda, a Yankee as recently as 2014, decided to head back to the place where his career started. Japan. Last season Kuroda signed a deal with the Hiroshima Carp to presumably finish his career in the Nippon Professional Baseball League. It was thought to be a one-and-done for Kuroda but the crafty right-hander has at least one more season in him apparently.

Kuroda signed another one-year deal with the Carp worth $4.9 million making him the highest paid player in Japanese League history. Kuroda posted impressive numbers in 2015 with the Carp putting up an 11-8 record with a 2.55 ERA. Kuroda struck out 106 batters in 169.2 innings pitched which was good for 1.102 WHIP in 26 starts.

Kenta Maeda and the New York Yankees

The next great thing from Japan may be headed to the United States and the New York Yankees may be one of the teams involved in his services. Whether Maeda will be the next Masahiro Tanaka or Kei Igawa remains to be seen, and so does whether the Yankees will even be involved in his potential bidding or not, but with this post we hope to at least come closer to a decision on both fronts. Should the New York Yankees pursue Kenta Maeda this offseason and add him to the stable of young starting pitchers vying for just five starting rotation spots? 

First and foremost Maeda will not command a Jordan Zimmermann-esque free agent deal worth five-years and $110 million ($22 million AAV) so the Japanese-born righty has that going for him. If the Hiroshima Carp grant his wish to post him, and that’s a big “if” since Hiroshima has denied his request in previous seasons, the starting pitching market would gain a 27-year old right-handed starting pitcher who pitched to a 97-67 record with a 2.39 ERA in eight seasons in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball League. Last season Maeda posted a 15-8 record with a 2.09 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 ratios in 206.1 innings pitched. Maeda has nice stats but does not figure or project to be the next Tanaka or Yu Darvish in the Major Leagues, although he is expected to be more competitive than Daisuke Matsuzaka and Kei Igawa. 

If the Yankees were to sign Maeda they would be getting a workhorse that I truly think at least compares to Wei-Yin Chen without the loss of the 22^nd overall draft pick in the 2016 MLB Draft. Also Maeda would come at the cost of a $20 million maximum posting fee plus his contract instead of giving up big time prospects in a potential trade, another plus for New York. That’s the “good” about Maeda but the “bad” has Maeda, a small framed pitcher at just 6’0” and 160 lbs., throwing just 87-93 MPH on his fastball. Also Maeda’s 7.4 K/9 ratio probably dips at least a full point if not more in the Major Leagues, likely more.  

Maeda isn’t an ace and he isn’t bringing a trip to the Canyon of Heroes with him but if the Yankees are hell bent on adding a starting pitcher this winter Maeda may make the most sense. Sure he’s a risk, any pitcher is, but his contract will likely be shorter than the better free agents on the market and a whole lot cheaper. Maeda could fit into the role Ivan Nova was meant to be in, middle of the rotation type starter that can keep the team in games and give the club over 200 innings every season of the contract. A lot has to happen, Nova being traded is one of them, for Maeda to come to the Bronx but he does make a lot of sense for the club. Hold onto the draft pick and either go big on a David Price or go economical and get a Maeda. Either way is okay with me. 

Former Yankees Update: Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda spent a total of three seasons as a member of the New York Yankees after spending his first four professional seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kuroda came over from Japan where he started his career, and will likely end his career, with the Hiroshima Carp of the Japanese League. Kuroda always said he would like to finish his pitching career where it began back in Japan and he did just that in 2015 leaving the Yankees with a glaring hole in their starting rotation. New York has another glaring hole in their starting rotation as Ivan Nova struggles, Michael Pineda continues to be given extra rest despite his stats while pitching on extra rest and with the struggles and subsequent injuries to CC Sabathia, could Kuroda be helping right now?

Looking at his stats from the Hiroshima Carp, seen below, absolutely. If this is how Kuroda wanted to go out I am ecstatic that he's going to get his wish. Going out with the team that gave him his first shot, going out on his own terms and going out on top. Congratulations to Mr. Kuroda.

Year	Age	Tm	W	L	ERA	G	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9
2015	40	Hiroshima	7	5	2.89	17	112.0	111	40	36	6	22	72	1.188	8.9	0.5	1.8	5.8

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

REPORT: Padres Tried to Lure Hiroki Kuroda

Last month we learned that Santa Claus would not be bringing starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda to the Bronx for a fourth straight season and instead he would be delivering to his original team in the Hiorshima Carp. A few days later reports were released that Kuroda turned down a deal in the $16-$17 million range to return home to Japan for roughly $4-$5 million in US dollars. While the report never mentioned the Yankees specifically making that offer, and I questioned anyone and everyone who reported that it was the Yankees making the offer when there was no proof of that including one of my own writers, it was generally assumed that New York made the offer. WRONG!

According to MLB Trade Rumors it was AJ Preller and the San Diego Padres who made the reported deal to Kuroda. I've seen numbers as high as $18 million thrown around from San Diego to the 39 year old RHP although the team confirmed it was not that high. And we have yet to see a reported deal made from the New York Yankees.

Long story short it all comes down to responsible journalism. That's why I personally got into the blogosphere and also why I respect the crew over at Bleeding Yankee Blue so much. Get it right, it's not a race and no one cares if you were first.

Kuroda Accepted Less Money to Return to Japan: Report

Hiroki Kuroda wasn't exactly torn between the Yankees and Japan.

The 40-year-old right-hander accepted a deal worth five times less to return to the Hiroshima Carp, according to a report from The Japan Times. Kuroda's new contract with the Carp, worth just one year, will pay him ¥400 million, or $3.32 million. 

But that's not much since Kuroda's offer from the Yankees must've therefore been somewhere around $16.6 million, a price the Carp are thankful he turned down. 

"I am grateful for the choice Kuroda has made," Carp manager Koichi Ogata told The Times. "This will raise the motivation of the players and have a significant impact on the team."

If Kuroda's recent numbers with the Yankees are indicative of his talent, the Carp certainly should improve with him in their rotation, as Kuroda has been a reliable force for New York since 2012. In three seasons with the Yankees, Kuroda solidly went 38-33 with a 3.44 ERA, often not getting much run support. 

The Carp expect he and Kenta Maeda, who was originally expected to switch to MLB this offseason, to lead their pitching staff in 2015, and considering the more difficult level of American play, Kuroda should have no problem doing so. 

“The club has persevered with the negotiations," Ogata said, "and I feel this shows how determined the club is to win the pennant next season."

Kuroda likely won't have much trouble fitting in with Hiroshima, having pitched for them for 11 years from 1997-2007. He left them for the Dodgers before 2008, and stayed with Los Angeles through 2011.

Kuroda then joined the Yankees, where he became somewhat of a mentor to Masahiro Tanaka last season, to be the team's no.2 starter, working behind CC Sabathia for the entirety of his tenure with them.

Quick Hit: Kuroda's Three Years in New York

Hiroki Kuroda spent three years in New York as a member of the New York Yankees and now we must say goodbye as the 40 year old will return to Japan in 2015. Kuroda is returning to where his career started with the Hiroshima Carp to presumably end his career. We wanted to take a quick second to look at what Kuroda brought to the team as the teams "Ace" for three seasons as we say goodbye. #HIROK

Year	Age	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
2012	37	16	11	3.32	33	33	219.2	86	81	25	51	167	127	3.86	1.165	8.4	1.0	2.1	6.8	3.27
2013	38	11	13	3.31	32	32	201.1	79	74	20	43	150	121	3.56	1.162	8.5	0.9	1.9	6.7	3.49
2014	39	11	9	3.71	32	32	199.0	91	82	20	35	146	104	3.60	1.136	8.6	0.9	1.6	6.6	4.17
NYY (3 yrs)		38	33	3.44	97	97	620.0	256	237	65	129	463	117	3.68	1.155	8.5	0.9	1.9	6.7	3.59

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table

Kenta Maeda Wants To Play In MLB As Soon As 2015

Kenta Maeda has expressed interest in playing in MLB, as soon as 2015 @Yakyuzuki_news 【広島】マエケン激白！来オフにも「メジャー」（スポーツ報知） http://t.co/G4E0VATfHP
— Patrick Newman (@npbtracker) December 10, 2013

Kenta Maeda, the next "next big thing" from Japan, wants to play in the states and will play in Major League Baseball as soon as 2015. Maeda is a starting pitcher and would be in his age 27 season in 2015 when he would presumably be posted and has shared success over the last two seasons for the Hiroshima Carp. With the Yankees, already looking towards 2015 cannot be a great idea, set to lose Hiroki Kuroda after this season Maeda may be a good replacement in the rotation. A lot can happen both for the Yankees, for the Carp, and for Maeda between now and then though.

Here is a look at his stats from his years in Japan just to give you an early look at what we may be interested in.

Year	Age	Tm	W	L	ERA	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	SO	WHIP	H/9	HR/9	BB/9	SO/9
2008	20	Hiroshima	9	2	3.20	18	1	1	109.2	103	43	39	10	35	55	1.258	8.5	0.8	2.9	4.5
2009	21	Hiroshima	8	14	3.36	29	3	1	193.0	194	82	72	22	29	147	1.155	9.0	1.0	1.4	6.9
2010	22	Hiroshima	15	8	2.21	28	6	2	215.2	166	55	53	15	46	174	0.983	6.9	0.6	1.9	7.3
2011	23	Hiroshima	10	12	2.46	31	4	2	216.0	178	61	59	14	43	192	1.023	7.4	0.6	1.8	8.0
2012	24	Hiroshima	14	7	1.53	29	5	2	206.1	161	46	35	6	44	171	0.994	7.0	0.3	1.9	7.5
2013	25	Hiroshima	15	7	2.10	26	3	1	175.2	129	46	41	13	40	158	0.962	6.6	0.7	2.0	8.1
6 Seasons			71	50	2.41	161	22	9	1116.1	931	333	299	80	237	897	1.046	7.5	0.6	1.9	7.2

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 12/10/2013.

Hiroki Kuroda May Be Heading Back To Japan

Hiroki Kuroda has basically said that he would likely sign either with the New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, or go back to his native Japan to finish out his career. The Yankees are thinking that Kuroda is leaning towards the latter to pitch for the Hiroshima Carp before riding off into the sunset to end his career. The Yankees offered him a qualifying offer so they would only get a pick if he signed with a team like the Dodgers and not if he returned to Japan. Kuroda is expected to decline that offer after making $15,000,000 last season plus incentives.

Kuroda has disappeared down the stretch two years in a row now and entering his age 39 season I have to admit that I would not be terrible upset if he went to Japan and I would be borderline ecstatic if he went to the Dodgers for one more round.