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Stockstill spent about 50 days there scouting. The O's also sent one of their Major League scouts over and purchased an extensive video collection of Japanese players.

"We have thoroughly scouted Japan," Stockstill said. "Come the middle of October we'll have all the players ranked from top to bottom.

"When players get posted this year, we're ready. We've had our top scouts see anyone we would be interested in. In past years we could have done in a short period of time the work needed to pursue a player like Fukodome. To say we weren't ready at all before is not accurate. It's commitment. Andy (MacPhail) has committed us to worldwide scouting."

The Orioles need only look in their own division to see the importance of signing players from Japan. The Yankees have Hideki Matsui; the Red Sox, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima; and Tampa has added second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

The Dominican Republic and Venezuela still produce by far the most foreign-born Major Leaguers, but it's been the top quality of some of the Japanese players that has attracted American scouts, and now the O's have joined the party.

The process to sign a Japanese player begins when that players' team in Japan "posts" its international free agents. Posting usually takes place from late October to mid-November. That means the club has made the player available to the Major League team that wins the bidding rights for that player. Also, any player with nine years service in Japan can become an international free agent without being posted.

So a Major League team must first win the posting rights before negotiating with the player on a contract. If the team fails to sign the player the U.S. club gets its posting fee returned.

It cost the Red Sox $51.1 million in November of 2006 to win the posting rights to Matsuzaka. He was then signed to a six-year, 52 million dollar deal that could reach 60 million with incentives. On the other hand, Tampa paid the Yakult Swallows $4.55 million as the posting fee for Iwamura, who shortly after signed a three-year deal worth $7.7 million in December of 2006.

"In Japan it's a fairly well kept secret who will post until it happens. You try to stay keyed in with your grass roots scouting, just be ready when it happens," Stockstill said.

He said some teams never post players and usually only a small number of players are posted, anywhere from four to six on average per year.

"I've seen every club play and have visited with different general managers. From Tokyo you can get to five or six parks on a daily basis," Stockstill said.

"In Japan there are four heavy hitter clubs in there and four more that do a very good job. Where we came from was probably the bottom five last year and now we're in the middle of the pack. We really have to increase our efforts to get into the top eight. Some clubs spend a lot of money there, it gives the appearance they're involved and they have the money to do that, but they are not really on the key players."

Like the United States, there are two leagues in Japan. Both the Pacific and Central Leagues have six teams each, and there is some interleague play. There are 28 players per roster and about 70 in each team's farm system.

Scouting Japan is different because of the disparity in talent on a team from its top players to those on the bench.

"In Japan you can watch their number one starter, he may be very good, then you watch their number five starter and he might not pitch mid week for an NCAA Division II team," added Stockstill. "There are some top of the line Major League guys all the way down to guys who wouldn't make a college team here."

As the O's look to take the next step and actually sign a player from Japan, they must consider some of the usual factors, but new ones as well. What is the total cost of the player, meaning posting fee and salary? Will the club need to hire an interpreter to follow the player all year, as the Rays did for Iwamura? Will the player adapt to American culture, and how will that impact his performance?

Stockstill has had extensive talks with American players in Japan who provide their own assessment of teammates. They also give insight into the character of a player and opinions on whether the player can adapt to the American Major Leagues.

Make no mistake. There are Major League-ready players playing in Japan now. It's just a matter of which players will be made available.

"In Japan there are probably about 100 that could play in some capacity in MLB right now. There are probably 20 to 30 players that most clubs would target, they could be first or second-year players or some that could be 35 years old. Some could make a difference next year depending on what your clubs' needs are."

I asked Stockstill if there are any elite, Ichiro or Matsuzaka types playing in Japan right now.

"There are some (real top players there now). I won't name names, but there's good starting pitching. I'll go that far, but don't want to say if I feel there any elite players there now. But it will be up to each club to decide how they fit with their club here. Andy has to decide out of all of this, Asia, Carribean, the rest of the world, which markets do we want to be in and how heavy we want to be there."

Stockstill said two main goals of O's international scouting for 2008 were to physically get into Japan with their scouting, which has been accomplished, and two, decide for the future how the O's want to use their scouts and money. For instance, they need to decide in which countries they need the biggest scouting efforts and how to best use their international scouting budget.

But the O's took a big step forward in Japan this year and say they are serious about pursuing players there in the future.

"The interest we have shown is greatly noticed in Japan. We know the league probably as well as we know our Major League structure. We now know the league and the players. We know how we feel about their talent level. Then we'll decide their value and whether we will sign them over the next two months. And that's Andy's decision"

The O's certainly need to improve in signing players from around the world. Of the 46 players who are currently on the O's 40-man roster or 60-day disabled list, just four non-American born players were originally signed by the club.

Daniel Cabrera - Dominican Republic, signed March 15, 1999
Fredy Deza - Dominican Republic, signed September 20, 1999
Radhames Liz - Dominican Republic, signed February 14, 2003
Adam Loewen - Canada, drafted in round one in 2002

Stockstill said he expects the club to add some scouts to work in international scouting as the O's move forward.

Coming soon
Check back soon for part two of this MASNsports.com two-part series on Orioles international scouting. In part two, Steve Melewski takes you to the Dominican Republic and other key baseball regions of the world to see what efforts the O's are making abroad.

About John Stockstill
Stockstill, 48, is in his third season with the Orioles. He joined the club in January of 2006. Prior to coming to Baltimore, John spent his entire career as a player, scout and front office executive with the Cubs.

A tenth-round pick in the 1978 draft, John played in the Minors in places like Sarasota, Phoenix and Davenport, Iowa. He was named the Cubs director of scouting on September 1, 2000. With the Cubs and O's, he has spent about 16 years working with Andy MacPhail.

John's brother, David, is the Orioles Director of Player Development, heading up the Orioles' Minor League operations. David has been with the Orioles for 13 years.