Free Agents: Dodgers sign Hiroki Kuroda

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced the signing of Japanese pitcher Hiroki Kuroda yesterday. The terms of the deal are 3 years and $35.3 million, an amazing amount of money to a Japanese ballplayer. The long-time Hiroshima Toyo Carp

The 32-year old righthander features a mid-90s fastball, a slider, forkball, and a screwball-like pitch called the shuuto. The Dodgers don’t need much from him in his first year, and that’s a good thing. He’s not a great strikeout pitcher, but he won’t walk many and does seem to be very efficient. I don’t expect him to have much fantasy value going forward, but he could surprise people, as it’s really tough to project how a Japan player translates in the bigs here.  Ned Colletti has assembled what should be, at worst, a very solid rotation, and at best, a very good one in the NL.