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Taro's picture

Thanks.. Its hard to tell how good Lewis's command is until we actually see him pitch for a couple months. His BB/9 numbers have certainly been spectacular in the NPB the past two years, and he didn't have a mistake (homer issue) despite playing in a tiny park which suggests excellent command. Hiroki Kuroda, in the exact same situation, put up higher BB/9 and HR rates in the NPB in his walk year and he has a sub 2 BB/9 and low HR rate with the Dodgers over 2 seasons.
Harang stylistically is somewhat similar to Lewis. They are both mainly command fastball+slider types with good deception and  a curveball and changeup. Both have above-average life, although Harang has less horizontal movement on his fastball than Lewis (Harang's fastball is straighter but with good life).
Harang doesn't throw quite as hard as Lewis, but has more dive to his slider. Lewis has a superior curve, while both have show-me changeups.
The biggest difference I think is the velocity edge Lewis has and the fact that Lewis throws that cutter. It makes Lewis more of a groundball pitcher as opposed to a fairly extreme flyball pitcher like Harang.
At the end of the day, I think Lewis might actually be a little better. With Lewis in a bandbox in the AL and Harang in the NL, I think they'll end up with similar all around ERA/FIP/xFIP numbers.

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