Who will have a better year, Derek Lowe or Kenshin Kawakami?
PIMC: That’s a real hard one. In many ways, Kawakami is an unknown factor. Going off of his Japanese stats, he seems to be a real good pitcher. But like many of the Braves rotation from a season a go, Kawakami is coming off an injury plagued season where he only pitched 117.1 innings, down 50 innings from the year prior and almost a hundred innings off his career high. Even with the back problems, he maintained a low ERA of 2.30 and had 112 strikeouts. It’s hard to know how the switch from Japanese baseball to MLB will affect him, with the cultural differences, extra travel and extended season. Derek Lowe, on the other hand, was not the pitcher the Braves were hoping for. As it was well documented, they pursued Jake Peavy and A.J. Burnett before making a push for Lowe. At 35, if he can replicate his 2008 stats, stay healthy, eat innings, I think his acquisition would be successful. If you just think about the fact that his win total from a year ago, 14, would have lead the Braves in wi
