The signing of RHP Hiroki Kuroda - for one year and $10 million - got a bit lost in the shuffle of the trade with the Mariners that went down last week, so I'll try to catch you up on the Yankees' latest free agent acquisition.
Before joining the Dodgers, Kuroda spent a decade in Japan where he was usually a good, but rarely a great, pitcher. He's one of the few NPB (Nippon Pro Baseball) imports to actually have a better ERA in the big leagues (3.45) than in Japan (3.69).* Kuroda has, in fact, aged like wine. He's coming off his best ML season when he was 36 years old: 202 IP, 3.07 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 3.3 K/BB, 121 ERA+, 3.7 bWAR (CC and D-Rob were the only Yanks with more WAR).
He's been a very dependable and solid starter for both LA and the Hiroshima Carp. He hasn't posted an ERA higher than 3.76 (in either pro league) since 2004, and has pitched at least 179 innings in all but one season since then. (He actually hasn't been quite as durable as I thought before looking up the numbers, as in he's only reached 200 innings once in his ML career and has hit the DL thrice.)
Kuroda's fared significantly better against same-handed batters, holding them to a .636 career OPS (and 4.4 K/BB), while LHB have OPS'ed .713 against him (with 2.3 K/BB).
There are some red flags though, namely that he's benefited from pitching half his games at spacious Dodger Stadium, which deflated offense by 6% last year (by comparison, Yankee Stadium inflated offense 13%). Also, in 2011, he had career worsts in groundball, HR, left on base and line drive rates.
Despite benefiting from Chavez Ravine, his road numbers are nearly identical to those at home (and before you claim that he gets help from San Francisco and San Diego, he also has to pitch in Arizona and Colorado). And, surprisingly, he's pitched better against .500+ teams.
Scouting Report: Kuroda is mostly a fastball-slider guy, throwing one of those pitches more than 85% of the time during his career. Recently, though, he's featured a two-seamer as his main offering. He sits in the low 90s with his fastball and in the mid 80s with his slider. In 2011, he threw a variety of fastballs: four-seamers, two-seamers and splitters; and he'll even toss a curveball now and then.
He certainly won't have as easy a time in New York as he did in LA, but he should be a solid back of the rotation starter that will give the Yankees quality innings. And the best part about a one-year deal? If he sucks, there are no long-term issues.
* Perhaps due to pitching in a hitter's park over there.