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A more relaxed Kawakami working on two-seam fastball

3:34 pm March 4, 2010, by Carroll Rogers

 LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – Just like last year, Kenshin Kawakami faced the Pirates in his first start of spring training on Thursday. He pitched two scoreless innings, just like last year. But so much has changed for the 34-year-old right-hander entering his second season with the Braves.

Kawakami, who is in the second year of a three-year $23 million contract, can relax this time around.

He can treat spring training the way veteran pitchers who are secure in their jobs do – work on some pitches and prepare for the upcoming season.

“Last year when I faced Pittsburgh, I was looking at every spring training game as if it was a regular season game,” Kawakami said through an interpreter. “…There was a lot of pressure on me because I was new to the team, new to the States, new to Major League Baseball. There was a lot of pressure to show what kind of stuff I have, what will work over here. After a year where players are comfortable seeing what I have, even the fans are comfortable seeing what I have, I can try things out much more.”

His focus right now is working on his two-seam fastball. Kawakami, who went 7-12 last season with a 3.86 ERA without the benefit of much run support, started throwing more sinkers after the All-Star break last year. He said he decided to make the change after watching the success Derek Lowe had with his sinker.

“He plays baseball where he trusts the defense and gets quick, easy outs,” said Kawakami.

The outs looked easy for Kawakami on Thursday. He gave up only single to former Brave Ryan Church on a groundball through to right field in two scoreless innings of the Braves’ 4-2 win over the Pirates. He used his two-seamer to coax a double-play ball from Jeff Clement and negate Church’s leadoff single.

Kawakami came back with another two-seam fastball to strike out Pedro Alvarez looking to end the second inning. He threw 17 pitches overall, including 12 for strikes.

Braves manager Bobby Cox liked the look of Kawakami’s sinker.

 ”It sunk like crazy, it was very, very good,” Cox said. “He threw a lot of strikes with it. He had it going really well.”

Kawakami said the two-seamer is much easier for him to locate to left-handed hitters like Alvarez. He’s still working on command to right-handed hitters. Kawakami hit Reds pitcher Micah Owings, a right-hander, in the helmet last year with a two-seam fastball that he lost his grip on; Owings had to have stitches.

“That was what made me try to study the two-seamer a lot more and not let that happen again,” Kawakami said. “Try to improve on it.”

He’s got time to do that now.

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36 comments Add your comment

Lord Stromboli

March 4th, 2010
3:42 pm

first

steverino

March 4th, 2010
3:46 pm

Kenshin seems like he is a hard worker and a good guy, you can’t help but to pull for him. Hopefully having Saito on the team will also help his comfort level.

BravesAreDone

March 4th, 2010
3:53 pm

KK and Lowe…my oh my.

Beauvighn

March 4th, 2010
3:54 pm

Great start today for KK…Now if we can just get you know who to quit grounding into the ole 6-4-3.

summer of 91

March 4th, 2010
4:06 pm

I like to think he hit Micah Owings in the head because that dude has hit about 50 bombs against the bravos

Tooslim73

March 4th, 2010
4:10 pm

BravesAreDone ….Carroll you have your first Troll, how does it feel?

bob horner stayed hurt

March 4th, 2010
4:38 pm

I think KK could win 15 games this year…..if he concentrates/relaxes…it will help him that we have another Japanese player on the team also….IMHO

Jamia

March 4th, 2010
4:47 pm

$23 million for an over-the-hill guy who’s clearly on the downslope. That really makes a lot of sense.

GerogiaJim

March 4th, 2010
5:07 pm

Jamia -”$23 million for an over-the-hill guy who’s clearly on the downslope.”
Why don’t you just trot up to New York City, borrow 60 to 80 million from the Steinbrenners, and buy us a 5th starter.

Tooslim73

March 4th, 2010
5:08 pm

Jamia = BravesAreDone

luvthosedawgs68

March 4th, 2010
5:10 pm

Braves are Done and Jamia, If you’re true Braves fans, I think you need some therapy. If you’re not, then you’re sad and pathetic. Horner, good observation on KK, he didn’t pitch awful last year, and with some run support would’ve had a winning record.

t-plunk

March 4th, 2010
5:22 pm

Yep Horner is right – but KK could have had many more wins with run-support last season. Less pressure on him (and the rest of the staff) this year with a stronger line-up and the Braves will surprise baseball in 2010.

"Chef" Tim Dix

March 4th, 2010
5:44 pm

Dude took one in the pipes last season and was ashamed to leave the game… Brownie points from the Chef and imagine the points from team-mates. KK’s a gamer.

hal

March 4th, 2010
5:57 pm

nothing pleases these pathetic losers kk was fine last year since when is it the pichers fault that our guy hitsinto a dp about every 3 at bats and this from the “face of the franshise “lol

bob horner stayed hurt

March 4th, 2010
6:14 pm

t-plunk is right…back at you….

J-Hey Kid

March 4th, 2010
6:47 pm

Hey Braves fans, check out this new “J-Hey Kid” shirt from SportsCrack.com

http://sportscrack.com/tees_j-heykid.html

bfred

March 4th, 2010
7:09 pm

We really need to nip this J-Hey thing in the bud. Maybe he can be the new Ironhead (RIP).

Tailback U

March 4th, 2010
7:13 pm

Glad to see KK get off to a good start considering I kinda
doubt this season will much different than last.
The backs of the pitching staff is going to be sore from
carrying this team again so it had better be strong.
Perhaps a legitimate deal will be struck to upgrade the offense
or maybe we will be lucky enough that several of the hitters
will have career years. But if not I don;t see us being
much of a threat to Philly.

Toole

March 4th, 2010
7:29 pm

I think KK will be the surprise of the staff. He will pitch 200+ innings but get the run support that JJ got in 2009.

TheAntiMe

March 4th, 2010
7:35 pm

It just makes sense that you must be a good pitcher if your initials areKK. Thank goodness that same logic doesn’t hold for Derek Lowe (DL). :)

Smiling Jack

March 4th, 2010
7:52 pm

Would the world have come to an end if there were one day without negative blogs about the Braves? Go Bobby Cox…Go Braves! Bring it all home this year.

Biff Pocoroba

March 4th, 2010
8:37 pm

Kenshin looked good today….his fastball was as quick as Pascual Perez, His sinker was dropping like Terry Forster’s and he looked as mature as Rick Camp. With any luck, he could be the next Len Barker or Rick Mahler.

guy

March 4th, 2010
8:46 pm

The people that post,First,must really be intelligent folks.Deep thinkers!!!???

Alaska Braves Fan

March 4th, 2010
9:03 pm

Kawakami is one of the most underrated players on the Braves’ roster. He will be very effective this year, and by September, fans will not be thinking of him as Number Five, but as an equal partner in an excellent rotation. ERA? This year he’ll be in the 3.00 to 3.25 range.

ABF

38YearBravesFan

March 4th, 2010
9:24 pm

Hey CR welcome back!! Whereyabeen? Up north playin in the snow??

KK couldn’t catch a break last yeat with run support. That was the issue. He’s agood picther and right where heshouldbe in the rotation.

GO BRAVES!!

AdirondackDave

March 4th, 2010
9:33 pm

This multiple blog thing is giving me a headache. The old blog wasn’t broken… so why did you fix it, ajc?

shelbydawkins

March 4th, 2010
9:36 pm

I’ve always liked Kawakami. He seems very humble and is a nice person. I hope he does well this year along with the rest of the Braves.

chas

March 4th, 2010
9:46 pm

I’ve liked Kawakami from day one also. After a few early season struggles he was very effective. He is one of the best 5th starters in the league. I am not sure why some fans haven’t embraced him. The transition for him last year must have been difficult in terms of the culture and 5 man rotation. I think he’ll be a rock this year.

NRBQ

March 4th, 2010
10:54 pm

So, Toole:

You can predict run support?

Cool.

Gil In Mechanicsville

March 5th, 2010
4:51 am

Kershin look comfortable today. Glad to see he has changed his philosophy and is pitching more to contact. Hopefully that will alow him to stay in games beyond the 5th inning. When he ups his tempo he is a much better pitcher. I saw him a couple of times last year when it almost seemed as if he was afraid to throw a pitch. He would get the ball, rub it up, step off the mound, walk around the mound, pick up the rosin, step back to the rubber, look in for a sign, step off the rubber, wipe his forehead, go back to the rosin bag, step back on to the mound, toe the rubber, look in for the sign, shake it off, look in for the sign, wind up…. then throw a ball outside…. This would be repeated until he would walk a couple of batters which would slow the entire process down even more.

The only good thing was you could complete your crosswords, file your nails, go to the bathroom, make your stock picks and never miss a pitch, well, until you fell asleep….

wjones

March 5th, 2010
9:36 am

“”Chef” Tim Dix

March 4th, 2010
5:44 pm
Dude took one in the pipes last season and was ashamed to leave the game… Brownie points from the Chef and imagine the points from team-mates. KK’s a gamer.”

And the shame about that game was that he was throwing a perfect game after 3 innings–against the Yankees! He certainly came up big against big opponents last year.

bvillebaron

March 5th, 2010
9:39 am

Tailback U:

Yeah, I know the Phillies are so fantastic that we might as well cancel the season and the first two rounds of the playoffs and pencil them in for the World Series right now.

braves tech fan

March 5th, 2010
1:49 pm

I hate the Phillies. I hate the Yankees. I hate the Mets. Please Braves make it to the playoffs for the long time fans that spend a lot of money on beer and tickets at the game and most of all for the best and only skipper I have ever known.

JUST SAYIN'

March 5th, 2010
1:52 pm

I detest this new format.

Anti-Sales

March 5th, 2010
2:56 pm

Why is there somebody on this blog selling T-Shirts every day? What has that got to do with the discussion?

Firearm

March 6th, 2010
2:44 pm

Glad Kenshin got off to a good start in camp. Hope to see him pitch when the Braves go to Target Field in June.

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