"Who are these guys?"

[viper]

I felt like Butch Cassidy during my first mock draft.

Research is needed on Kenshin Kawakami of the Braves and Hong-Chih Kuo of the Dodgers. I know Kuo has been with the Dodgers and is a RP but his numbers last year were a whole lot different from his first 3 years. Kuo was my 23rd round pick in my mock.

[Todd Zola]

Here's a link to Kenshin Kawakami

http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players ... yerID=1026

He's not particularly overpowering, throws an array of breaking stuff resulting in a bunch of ground balls and allegedly "knows how to pitch".

Sounds a bit like Hiroki Kuroda, with the advantage of being a GB specialist. He'll probably be considered a middle-of-the-rotation innings eater. But keep in mind the workweek in Japan is different as well as the travel.

We have him in the Guthrie, Wellemeyer, Kuroda, Pelfrey, Maholm range.

[Todd Zola]

Hong-Chih Kuo has been around for awhile. He's very injury prone and has already had 2 Tommy John procedures. He's bounced between starting and the pen. When he's healthy, he is tantalizingly good, but he can't stay off the DL long enough to really establish himself.

With respect to fantasy, when healthy, he's a great guy to have as he is a useful MR as his Ks are good and he has excellent ratios and he can spot-start in good match-ups.

[da_big_kid_94]

I can not reference it because it was on the old boards, but someone started a topic about TJ surgery and those who came back from it successfully as good or better than before. The thread ALSO mentioned that the number of players who came back to be as good as before from TWO TJ surgeries totaled zero.

[Todd Zola]

Kuo is "as good" as before in terms of skills, he's just always injured

GUYS WHO HAVE HAD IT TWICE, courtesy of wikipedia

Chris Capuano (just now coming back from his second procedure)
Dave Eiland
Kuo
Mike Lincoln
Scott Mathieson
Victor Zambrano
Jeff Zimmerman

THREE TIMES

Chad Fox
Matt Riley
Jose Rijo

Some feel pitchers come back stronger because of the "tighter" ligament, you know, like Henry Rowengartner.

While I used to hesitate to share this because it was part of material presented at a private baseball conference, it has since become common enough knowledge that my case of the guilts is seriously diminished.

At a First Pitch Symposium, scout David Rawnsley explained that the additional rehab these guys have to go through in order to recover was more in terms of working out than they likely did pre-injury, as previously they got by on basically superior talent. This extra work, in terms of strengthening the surrounding muscles is the likely reason for improved velocity.

Good friend Rick Wilton of the Baseball Injury Report has tracked this the past several years and has found that a great percentage of the returnees indeed have picked up a foot or two on their heater.

That said, Francisco Liriano serves as a great reminder that there is a HUGE mental aspect of the whole thing, as his main pitch is a slider and he was hesitant to let loose with it, and it remains to be seen if his repertoire will be different this season.