The Curious case of Benjamin Button.... I mean Kei Igawa

Kei Igawa’s has been considered a bust by most everyone in the Majors and rightfully so in his MLB career with the Yankees he has pitched 71 innings and given up 89 hits 15 of those going yard. But what is really disturbing is his ERA being 6.66 all biblical jokes about him being the Lefty antichrist aside why has he been so good in the minors and so bad in the majors. In AAA Scranton last year he pitched 156 innings only giving up 141 hits with 117 strikeouts and an ERA of 3.47. This again brings me to the case of why is he so horrible. Let’s break it down, the good: He has a good speed ratio between his fastball and changeup. 92mph FB and 76 Mph Change. That’s a good if not great difference. He pitches to both sides of the plate and isn’t afraid to come in on Lefties. Ok now the bad: He pitches up in the strike zone, he has poor arm speed, and he relies too much on a below average curveball and he over strides causing his hips to open prematurely. Frankie Piliare of Saber Scouting describes this better than I ever could by saying "Take note of how Igawa’s leg swings open as oppose to just a normal stride forward. This also causes his hips to prematurely open. By doing this, he is causing his front foot to turn open also. Notice that his foot lands very hard on his heel and not on the ball of his foot. Because he is landing on his heel, as he begins to drive with his legs, his heel will rotate slightly before the rest of his foot comes down. It’s a small millisecond but that is more time for his front side to premature open up. Especially since he is a leg drive oriented pitcher this is especially true, but a pitcher’s upper body and arm follow and are dictated by the actions of the lower body".
In Lamons terms he needs to start listening to the Yankees pitching experts most of his problems can be corrected. He’s still a young guy at 29 and he’s a Lefty. He may never be part of the regular Yankees rotation but it’s my belief that he could be an effective lefty out of the Pen if he can overcome some of these issues. Allot of it could be mental as well in April of 2007 he came out of the pen against the Red Sox and pitched 6 inning only giving up 2 hits no runs and had six strikeouts. He didn't have time to psych himself out and he pitched well. Don't give up Yankee fans there may yet be hope for our former Japanese superstar, or perhaps we should just take the 46 million dollars we spent on him as an expensive lesson.