I know many of you are enamored with Trevor Bauer for your teams but I wanted to take some time to discuss the second tier of the starting pitching market. Sugano is among Odorizzi and Tanaka at that 2nd tier. So because he is the most unknown player among the three I thought we would discuss him first.

Tomoyuki Sugano:

6'1, 182lbs, 31 years old, 8 seasons in NPB

(W-L) 101-50, 37 CGs, 20 Shutouts, 2.34 ERA, 1.035 WHIP, 8 K/9, 1.6 BB/9

Scouting profile

Accadales:

• 2 Cy Young Equivalents ( Eiji Sawamura Awards )
• 2 MVP’s
• 3 Gold Gloves
• 1 Postseason No-no
• 1 Triple Crown
• Climax Series MVP (equivalent to the LCS MVP)
• 6x All-Star
• 3× Central League wins leader (2017, 2018, 2020)
• 4× Central League ERA leader (2014, 2016–2018)
• 2× Central League strikeout leader (2016, 2018)

Pitched against the 2017 WBC USA championship team in the semifinal. Threw 6IP, 3H, 1R (UNEARNED), 1 Walk, 6 K's

The only hits against Sugano were solid singles by Buster Posey and an RBI single by Andrew McCutchen.

Top of the 3rd with Posey on 3rd with 2 outs and a 3-0 count to Ian Kinsler he got Kinsler out with a weakly hit ball to 3B after working back into a 3-2 count.

Outside of that, he had no real trouble with this STACKED Team USA lineup that had Giancarlo Stanton batting...............................8th right before he went on to hit .281/.376/.631 triple-slash line with an 1.007 OPS 169 OPS and 59 DINGERS and 132 RIBEYES to go along with an All-Star nod, Silver Slugger and NL MVP.

The rest of the lineup included essentially an All-Star team of Americans (which Sugano shutdown);

1. Ian Kinsler
2. Adam Jones
3. Christian Yelich
4. Nolan Arenando
5. Eric Hosmer
6. Andrew McCutchen
7. Buster Posey
8. Giancarlo Stanton
9. Brandon Crawford

So with all that being said he seems like a logical fit if we miss out or move on from Bauer and want to bring in 1-2 SP's instead (ie Odorizzi Sugano). And with contract expectations ranging around 3-5 years and at $10-14 M AAV he can be had at a reasonable price for a #3 starter in any rotation.

*****EDIT: here is the link of every pitch he threw against Team USA in '17 WBC***\*

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