Hisashi Iwakuma has looked bad, and there are all these concerns about his velocity being down, at least that is the popular wisdom at the moment. Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. According to PITCHf/x data Hisashi has a career mph mark of 89.6 on his fastball. This season the mark is 89.5 mph which, duh, is exactly the same. So that line of thought is just plain wrong. He’s also sporting a 1.65 BB/9 mark and .288 BABIP. His career marks are 1.82 and .272. The real issue has been the home runs. He’s making mistakes and they are getting hammered. Iwakuma has a career HR/F mark of 13.9 percent. Through three starts this season that number has literally doubled to 27.8 percent. I would be adding Iwakuma on the cheap, or holding if I owned. #Patience
Ian Kennedy will return from his hamstring issue to start for the Padres Saturday. His return will send Odrisamer Despaigne back to the bullpen.
Joe Nathan is done for the year as he tore his UCL again (he had Tommy John surgery in 2010). Already 40 years old, it’s possible he will never throw another big league pitch (he doesn’t plan to retire, but coming back from a second surgery can be difficult and it will likely take upwards of 18 months. That means even if he does return Nathan might not be healthy enough to pitch until 2017). Feel bad for the guy, but also hope that you bought into our preseason rankings. Why? We had Joakim Soria listed ahead of Nathan from the first day that we released our rankings. Hopefully you followed that advice. If you did you now have the Tigers closer, a guy who is 5-for-5 converting saves on the young season, and you avoided the disaster that Nathan has become.
Jimmy Nelson has made three starts for the Brewers and been one of their few bright spots. Over 20 innings Jimmy has struck out 17 batters and walked just four men leading to an excellent 4.25 K/BB ratio. He’s also generated a crazy good ground ball rate of 58 percent which has helped him to avoid giving up a big fly. This guy is a big time talent, one who has struggled to consistently show up from start to start. His strong start is extremely encouraging but he’s still a depth mixed league arm at the moment and not someone you should be looking at to lead your staff.
Mike Pelfrey has allowed on run over his last two starts to lower his ERA to 2.65 for the Twins. Don’t come close to buying on Pelfrey unless you’re in an AL-only league. Pelfrey has failed to reach 25 innings in two of the last three seasons, and even with his success this year his K/9 (4.24) and K/BB (1.14) are pitiful. Smoke and mirrors as they say.
Red Sox starters ERA: Rick Porcello (6.63), Wade Miley (6.08), Clay Buchholz (6.06), Justin Masterson (5.74) and Joe Kelly (4.08). All have made three starts. #Horrible
There is panic in the streets with Jered Weaver. Why? OK, fair to point out that his velocity is down two mph, and that can’t be dismissed. It’s an issue. It’s 
also possible that the number will increase as the season wears on. Regardless, why do I hear no one talking about the fact that he’s allowed just three runs over his last two starts while not walking a batter? Weaver has been one of the better pitchers in baseball the last nine years so let’s give the guy a little rope, shall we?
STRIKEOUT LEADERS
Here are the early K/9 leaders.
12.95 Clayton Kershaw
12.60 Jason Marquis
12.50 Brandon McCarthy
Yeah… it’s early.