Orioles closing in on Japanese lefty Tsuyoshi Wada (Update: Wada is signed)

[NewMarketSean]

Let's hope the last 14 years gets lost in translation or else this guy will turn us down too.

[Frobby]

According to this we are also interested in Chen Wei-Yin. DD loves that international market.

I'm fascinated by how heavily DD is committing to the international market so quickly. It's almost like he is "re-branding" the Orioles as a "go-to" team for international players. That could either be a big success or fail miserably.

How cool would it be to sign these two pitchers and bring Koji back? And then there's Darvish.....

[Lester Freamon]

According to this we are also interested in Chen Wei-Yin. DD loves that international market.

Yeah this guy is quite intriguing as well. A good bit younger than Wada, Chen Wei-Yin is just 26 and supposedly he can reach the mid-90's with his fastball. It is mentioned, however, that other teams are in on Chen Wei-Yin as well. But it appears that the O's have been very aggressive here so maybe they have a shot at getting both?

[Frobby]

Here he is in action....His pitches vary between @ 79 and 87 mph in this clip.

Nice, smooth delivery. I bet he pitches quickly, too.

[Justinlstn]

from wiki

Wada is a 179 cm (5 ft 10 in), 77 kg (170 lb), left-handed pitcher with an unorthodox delivery, throwing from a high three-quarters arm slot (nearly over the top) but deceiving hitters by keeping his throwing arm back and delaying its swing as he drives to the plate with his lower body.

Wada's four-seam fastball has good late life but decidedly below-average velocity, topping out at 146 km/h (91 mph) and usually sitting at 135 to 141 km/h (84 to 88 mph). He compensates for this with his deceptive arm swing and late release point, complementing it with a solid-average slider,and a changeup.

While Wada has good command of his pitches overall, recording a career walks per nine innings rate of 2.54 (until 2010 season), he has established somewhat of a reputation as a pitcher who is prone to throwing mistake pitches and giving up a large number of home runs. However, he has shown marked improvement in this area since making his professional debut, giving up progressively fewer homers in every season of his career except for 2005.

that worries me a little.

[Frobby]

And if he can locate like that, it doesn't matter how fast his fastball is. Nice slider and change-up - I think he'll play in the AL East.

Well, these are highlights. You could make a clip of DCab's best 10 pitches that would make it appear he had excellent commend.

[Lester Freamon]

I just can't help but cite the 3-year rule whenever Darvish's name comes up. I think Duq is gonna go with these lesser-tier international targets rather than a hugely expensive target like Darvish. I could be wrong, but the 3-year rule just keeps saying "hello".

Yeah I know, the three year rule does make me put Darvish outta mind in terms of the O's going after him. However, with Darvish still being so, relatively, young I wonder if the 3 year rule wouldn't be applied to him? Still, not going to get hopes up on Darvish. If the O's "shock the world" I'll just be happy that it happens.

[xKHx]

Dr. K hits Bmore. I like it.

[Lester Freamon]

Here's the MLBRumors post that mentions the possible Wada deal as well as the O's interest in the Taiwanese pitcher Chen Wei-Yen - some interesting info there on Yen.

[DrungoHazewood]

This is awesome. When I was in Fukuoka in '05 all kinds of people in the stands were wearing Wada jerseys. I may have actually seen him pitch - it was hard to tell, since the scoreboard was all in Japanese characters and (strangely) they didn't announce the players over the PA system. The only recognizable player from halfway up the right field bleachers was Tony Batista.

[markdublya]

"Soft tossing left hander" who throws in the mid-to-high 80's but his K rate is good -- sounds like a LH Koji.

Or Rick Krivda II

I like the aggressiveness overseas though, hope we find some gems.

[Hooded Viper]

I like this signing, assuming it happens and I would love to add Chen and Darvish. If we could add all three, I would be fine going into the season with no other changes!

Edit: But I am not holding my breath on Darvish

[Lester Freamon]

Thank you for the video on Chen. I missed out, somehow, on the fact that he was lefty. Fastball looked pretty consistent low 90's.

[Slappy]

DD definitely wasn't blowing smoke when he talked about going international. It's good to see, hopefully these guys can be as good for us has Koji was.

[Sports Guy]

There is some upside here.

If it is a cheap signing, you may be able to get very good value.

Doesn't cost us a draft pick either.

I like this idea(and Chen as well) much better than guys like E Jackson and Saunders...Yes, those guys are established here but based on the likely production of all of them, the difference in cost will not be justified IMO.