Heading into one of the most anticipated MLB debuts in recent history, there are two numbers that sum up what many know about Yoshinobu Yamamoto: 325 million and 8.38.
The first is the total guaranteed dollars in Yamamoto's record-setting 12-year, $325 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers -- a contract handed out this winter based on the 25-year-old's track record of dominance in Japan's NPB, widely considered the second best baseball league on the planet.
The second is Yamamoto's Cactus League ERA in three spring starts. Yes, that number is the epitome of both small sample size and "do spring training stats even mean anything, anyway?" -- but it's also certainly not what Dodgers fans were hoping to see in their first glimpse of the highest paid free agent pitcher in MLB history.
Because of the expectations that come with Yamamoto's contract -- and the pressure on the Dodgers to win big this year -- there will be no time for an adjustment period for the right-hander, despite having no major league experience.
Yamamoto will make his MLB regular-season debut Thursday against the San Diego Padres (6 a.m. ET on ESPN). So to separate fact from fiction, I watched all 151 pitches Yamamoto threw in the Cactus League and got some takes from a scout who saw his final spring outing.
So what does Yamamoto need to change to find immediate success after his spring struggles? Let's go pitch-by-pitch to find an answer.
