KND Report: Kenshin Kawakami falls apart

April 26, 5:37 PMAsian-American Sports ExaminerMichael Street

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Kenshin Kawakami left the field today
with plenty to contemplate
(AP Photo/Al Behrhman)

For the first few innings against the Reds, Kenshin Kawakami didn't give up a hit, and if he'd ended the game after three innings, he'd have been a happy guy.

Unfortunately, major-league starters have to stay on the hill longer than that, and the fourth and fifth frames did Kawakami in.

Cincinnati hung eight runs on him in that time, and Kawakami didn't escape the fifth inning today, adding to an unsteady start.

Kawakami began his day by inducing easy groundouts from Willy Taveras and Laynce Nix before losing control of a breaking ball and clipping Joey Votto on the foot.

This was not an intentional plunking, like Derek Lowe's beanball against Votto yesterday in the top of the first, which was a payback for Edinson Volquez hitting Yunel Escobar the night before.

Kawakami just couldn't control his pitch, a sign of things to come.

He allowed Jay Bruce to reach on a walk in the second inning, but otherwise seemed to have the Braves' number retiring them in order in the third.

Then Votto got some payback of his own by pulling a line-drive double into right field. Two hitters later, Kawakami left a pitch up in the zone to Bruce, who parked it just inside the left-field foul pole and just over the fence.

Kawakami hung his head as Bruce circled the bases, but got Edwin Encarnacion to fly out to end the inning. His problems continued in the fifth, as the first four batters reached in the top of the fifth. Had Ramon Hernandez not been hit by Micah Owings' grounder to short, he wouldn't have recorded a single out and Cincy would have scored once.

With the bases juice, Laynce Nix rifled a sinking liner into right, but Jeff Francoeur not only made a nice play to come up with the out, he fired the ball home and prevented Paul Janish at third from scoring.

All Kawakami had to do was retire one more batter and he'd escape the jam.

Unfortunately, the next batter was Joey Votto, who once again pounced on a weak offering from Kawakami and hammered another double into right field, clearing the bases. Brandon Phillips scored him on a sharp single, and Bruce brought Phillips home when he drove a ball deep into the right field bleachers, ending the day for Kawakami.

One of the reasons Japanese pitchers tend to succeed in the bullpen rather than as starters is because the Japanese leagues emphasize the breaking ball. Whether it's a philosophical stance or because of a talent deficit, their pitchers don't develop overpowering fastball (Kawakami's tops out in the low nineties).

When they come to the majors, their breaking balls are good enough to fool major-league hitters the first time through the order. But after a good hitter sees the pitch more than once, he sees it better, times it better—and hits it better. The solution is usually to put them in the bullpen, where opposing batters will typically only see them once.

Japanese starting pitchers who succed either have a dominating fastball (like Hideo Nomo), a wide repertoire of pitches (like Daisuke Matsuzaka), or a combination of a good fastball and offspeed pitch (like Nomo and Hiroki Kuroda). Much of the excitement around Junichi Tazawa centered on his plus-fastball, which teams wanted to develop in MLB instead of being ignored in NPB.

Kawakami's best pitch is probably his cutter, but he can also get outs with his curve and splitter. He's not a strikeout artist, but need to induce groundouts to be successful. When he leaves his pitches up, or if he relies too much on his average fastball, he gets hurt, and that's what has happened thus far.

This doesn't mean he's never going to get it and never going to succeed. There's always a learning curve when guys reach the majors, even when they're veterans from Japan.

Kawakami's a smart veteran who knows how to make adjustments, and his walk numbers right now indicate he's struggling with his control a bit.

Today was a tough place for him to learn, since the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati is a launching pad for homers, and he was knocked around by the Reds' two best hitters, Votto and Bruce. My level of concern would be much greater if poor hitters were lighting him up, but these are some of the best young bats in the majors right now.

Kawakami will have to figure out how to get major league hitters out consistently, and that's not by relying exclusively on either his fastball (which he currently throw more than half of the time) or his breaking ball (which he throws about a quarter of the time) but by mixing them up well and spotting them in the zone.

There's not much room for error in MLB, especially with a guy who's stuff is a bit fringey like Kawakami. He may ultimately find himself in the bullpen if he can't walk that fine line, but neither he nor the Braves want that to happen.

Don't expect miracles from him anytime soon, though if his slide continues, that bullpen scenario will become more and more likely.

Me, I think he's going to harness his stuff and learn the hitters well before that happens, and he should settle in nicely as a mid-rotation starter.

Stay tuned to the Asian-American Sports Examiner to see if Kawakami improves.