"He may be the worst MLB pitcher I've ever seen."
That's what someone who follows the Yankees closely said to me late last season regarding pitcher Kei Igawa.
While the comment may be a slight exaggeration, his overall point may not be that far off. Igawa was a trainwreck in 2007.
In 12 starts last season, Igawa went 2-3 with a 6.25 ERA and only made into the sixth inning twice. He allowed a miserable 15 home runs and 37 walks in 67.2 innings of work. Amazingly, Igawa pitched much worse than his numbers indicated because the Yankees powerful lineup often overcame Igawa's miserable outings.
So why does this matter? Because thanks to Phil Hughes going on the DL and the New York sending the struggling Ian Kennedy back down to the minors, Igawa will make his return to the mound Friday night in Detroit. This will be Igawa's first start since Sept. 25 and just his second since July 26 of last year. Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he expects Igawa to make at least two starts, although he pointed out that there are no guarantees. In other words, Igawa is just up in the bigs to keep the seat warm for Kennedy, who is currently in Triple-A until he regains his confidence.
Igawa went 3-3 at Triple-A Scranton and reportedly is pitching much better now that he's "tweaked" his mechanics. We'll see. A .500 record at the Triple-A level doesn't exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling about Igawa's chances Friday night against Detroit. One other thing to consider: Igawa is a lefty, facing a predominately right-handed Tigers lineup.
As my Yankees insider told me after news broke that Igawa was being called back up to the Major League: "This is actually good news. It's good news for anyone who likes to see a lot of home runs being hit because this is going to be batting practice for the Tigers on Friday night. Igawa will be lucky to last four innings, and that's the best case scenario."
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