So I was looking forward to getting a look at Kei Igawa tonight; he's the one potential Yankee starter I felt I had no real feel for. Unfortunately, having watched him pitch 3 innings, I still can't tell how good he is. Part of that is just it being spring, but part of it his style, which is... how to put this... thrillingly unpredictable? He did hold the Braves lineup scoreless, giving up only one hit with five strikeouts - but four walks. And he threw around 60 pitches in just three innings. Long innings.

Joe Torre, diplomatic as always, put it much better than me: "all his pitches were quality, he just couldn't locate them consistently."

His stats in Japan were excellent -not all that far from Matsuzaka's, in fact, though no one who knows anything about Japanese baseball (or American baseball, for that matter) expects him to be anywhere near as dominant.

This has got to be a huge adjustment for Igawa, and you can't really blame him if it takes a bit longer than spring training for him to settle in. However, I would like to announce that I'm officially jumping on the Jeff Karstens bandwagon. All aboard...