. Kuroda has been been hit or miss with one great start against Los Angeles (8 IP, 0 ER) and two sup-par showings against Minnesota (4.1 IP, 6 ERs) and Tampa (5.2 IP, 4 ER). A few scouts question whether of not Kuroda can succeed long term coming from the
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The book on Darvish is pretty thick considering he's made only three starts. From a raw statistical standpoint, the fact that he's walked 13 batters in 17.2 IP is a major concern. Baseball Analytics though makes the point that he may be getting
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Overall, AL starters have a called strike rate of 78% on pitches taken in the strike zone. Darvish, however, has a called strike rate of just under 67% in such situations. That's dead last among AL starters who have faced at least 40 batters:
Regardless of whether or not this is true, he'd better find a way to command his pitches because the Yankees typically don't chase pitches and are willing to take walks – and benefit from abnormally small strike zones. When Darvish does throw strikes, his stuff has plenty of movement and bite. Here is a
