... Kikuchi pretty much stays to his three-quarters and doesn't seem to deviate from it all that much. ... Kikuchi's arm motion is more whippy. The majority of the stress seems to be in his arm, which alarmed me a little at first. I also noticed that, among other quirks, his arm can finish low and across his body and sometimes his trailing foot will drag forward as he decelerates. Aside from that, there aren't any major mechanical concerns; the inverted W, which is in vogue now as the source of all pitching ills, was not present, nor did it look like he was otherwise putting a lot of strain on the other sensitive areas. His finishes weren't always smooth, but his flaws were few for a pitcher of his age and generally correctable.

... It is more Kikuchi's style to stay in the high-80s range, but he is capable of reaching back for 92, 93 or 94, with about a 60% success rate, and will do so about fifteen times a game. His ability to hit his spots is otherwise solid. He doesn't miss often, and when he does it tends to be down. ... his pitches naturally trail from left-handed batters, so you don't see him come in on them like he does versus right-handers, but that's not so much of an issue at this point.

For secondary pitches, the next one up would clearly be the slider that clocks in the mid-70s. It has a great deal of lateral movement, but there were a few of them that had a sharp downward break to them and it's clearly a pitch with a lot of potential and he recorded Ks on it at a rate roughly equivalent to his fastball. He also threw a slurve, not quite as often. His other offerings came and went as needed. For example, when a hitter led off the second with a double and the next batter came up intending to bunt him over, Kikuchi gave him a steady diet of two-seams, and while the run did come around (seeing eye single), the bunt was quickly fielded and the batter erased. He would continue to rely on it for the rest of the game. Also, I don't know if it's a common thing for him, but I did see him start out a batter in the first with a hilarious eephus pitch.

...

If we were looking at the same pitcher in a high school in the U.S., he'd be talked up at a potential first-round pick too. He looks like a kid who could add velocity in the future and everything else that you could ask for is present already. I would still put him as being three to four years out, easily, ... but I can say that he would be a top ten, or even top five prospect in most systems.