Free Agent Watch: Hiroki Kuroda

Hiroki Kuroda had a career high 3.7 WAR in 2011, which is worth 11.1 million dollars. You would think that as a rule, a team can't pay more than that, although we have seen some silly things in free agency. 8.6 WAR in 4 seasons, a 2.15 average, meaning he is worth 6.45 million dollars most years. He made 47 million dollars in his 4 years with the Dodgers, giving him a not very good WASP of 5472. A not bad at all .427 PE for his career. -.377 PE in 2011, and that is with a slightly above career average .290 BABIP (his FIP was much higher than his ERA though, at 3.78-3.07). His opponent OPS is just .673 for his career, under league average by far. Only an average strikeout pitcher, but gives up slightly less home runs than average. He gets as many groundballs as flyballs but gets slightly less double plays than average. His career TR is a very good 11.06, and in 2011 it was about the same at 11.17. Considering his age, it is very unlikely that he can command a long term deal, which separates him from guys like C.J. Wilson and C.C. Sabathia and should make him more attractive. If you can get him for around 10 million, you should probably pull the trigger, this is a very good pitcher that has been sort of under the radar (mainly because he isn't even close to being the best pitcher on a losing team), but he can be a very good number 2 starter for a rotation.