Baseball: Like Ohtani, Kikuchi can change how world sees Japanese pitchers

Although Yusei Kikuchi is arriving in the major leagues with less fanfare than Shohei Ohtani did a year ago, the lefty could -- like Ohtani did -- help change people's minds about Japanese pitching.Kikuchi has a chance to join Ohtani as one of the few Japanese starters willing to challenge major league hitters with fastballs in the strike zone. Not only has Kikuchi been Japan's hardest-throwing left-handed starter, but is arguably Nippon Professional Baseball's predominant strike-thrower.According to baseball analytics website Deltagraphs, Kikuchi's percentage of pitches in the strike zone …READ FULL ARTICLE