A little more on Uehara
Not long after the O's 2008 season ended I wrote a series of articles about the Orioles' international scouting. I also wrote about the O's extensive scouting of Japan last year for the first time ever.
O's director of international scouting John Stockstill spent 50 days in Japan himself and other O's scouts made their way to Japan as well.
With other AL East teams having already signed key Japanese talent, the O's were late to the party, but at least they made it in the door. It's nice now to see the fruits of their labor with the Uehara news. It's a start for the O's in this market.
Reports say Uehara throws four pitches with excellent control and a fastball that sits between 86 and 92. There was no posting fee for this player since he was not posted by his Japanese team, the Yomiuri Giants. As a player with nine years of service time in Japan, Uehara could become an international free agent and play in the United States, which he has chosen to do.
The O's may have had a negotiating edge with Uehara in that they see him as a big-league starter while some other clubs projected him in the bullpen. Uehara saved 32 games in Japan in 2007. In his rookie year of 1999, he outpitched Daisuke Matsuzaka to win the Sawamura Award, Japan's version of our Cy Young award.
There are reports that his team sent him to the Minors last year. I have heard that was partially due to Uehara's intention to head to the Major Leagues after the 2008 season. In a sense it was retribution of sorts by his team when they learned the news they might lose him to the U.S.
It's nice to see the O's efforts, late or not in this market, bear fruit so to speak.
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Categories (click for archive)Steve Melewski |
Jack, how can you say that macphail hasnt picked up any good pitchers? tillman, matusz, sherrill, albers and patton? and that was all in 1 year. no one is saying izturis is the future. otherwise, he wouldve been signed to more than a 2 year deal.
everyone knows the orioles are going to be bad in july and august. the FO didnt go into this offseason trying to be good in july and august of 2009. the FO is playing for 2010, 2011 and beyond.
how can you critisize macphail for signing weiters, arrieta and matusz? how can you critisize macphail for trading for tillman, jones, scott, sherrill and albers? how can you critisize macphail for getting rid of the dead weight that was jay gibbons, ramon hernandez and miguel tejada? you cant!
also, your david price example was way off-limits. price is a phenom. he is sooooo much better than penn, liz and olson. the reason the o's put liz and olson in is because they were better than bergesen. plain and simple. thats why they started out at AAA and bergesen and hernandez and tillman started at AA. macphail doesnt have to improve the rotation through free agency when theres tillman, erbe, patton, bacsom, arrieta, matusz, hernandez and bergesen bound to come up in the next 1-2 years. again, the FO isnt playing for 2009.
just wait in 2010 and 2011. derek lowe will be a shriveled up prune. aj burnett will be riddled with injuries and mark teixeira will be striking out to, 1. tillman, 2. guthrie, 3. arrieta, 4. erbe and 5. hernandez. in 2011, you will be happy macphail stuck to this plan. unfortunately, for right now, your unintelligence and lack of faith is mind-blowing...
I'm glad the O's finally signed someone from Japan. I've been wondering when the O's were going span the globe.
Steve....With the O's scouting players in Japan, where else do you see them scouting? I know the Koreans did very well in the World Baseball Classic. They had some solid pitching and hitting. Would Korea be another place to tap for some more pitching talent or even some position players? Is there any scouting done in the Dominican or in Latin America? I know there is a lot of young talent in Latin American that could also help stock the farm system even more.
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The largest number of foreign-born Major Leaguers come from the Dominican and Venezuela. The O's have also been in Korea, Australia, Mexico, Taiwan, China and Japan to name some of the places. Under Andy MacPhail they are in year two of overhauling international scouting and deciding where best to use their resources there. - Steve
Kudos .... Iftyg33
Great signing but there's still a lot to be done. Steve, why are we not looking at a pitcher like Colon? Low risk and could probably be had cheap.
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Probably, the past injury factor. - Steve
I thought Uehara was the communications officer on the enterprise.