Maybe a Phone Call Would Be Nice

33 year-old Japanese pitcher Koji Uehara is coming stateside, and MLB Trade Rumors has linked him to the O’s.  Or, to be more specific, NPB Tracker has.  Here’s NPB Tracker’s profile of Uehara from earlier in the year.  Uehara has been a starter most of his career, but has been a closer the past two years.  And it looks like he’s put up some impressive K/BB numbers.  To look at a very small sample size, he led the inaugural WBC with sixteen strikeouts in seventeen innings, allowing three earned runs on two homers.  He led the Japanese team over China in the first round, held the U.S. team to one run in five innings, and pitched seven shutout innings against Korea to send Japan to the title game.

As far as I can recall, Koji Uehara is the first meaningful Japanese player linked to the O’s since the Hideki Matsui debacle.  But I’m absolutely thrilled to hear the team being associated with a Japanese player, and I’m certainly hoping the rumor is true.  Of course, normally a 33 year-old pitcher with homer issues whose bounced around between the rotation and bullpen is the exact opposite of who I think the O’s should be targeting.  But even counting the unfortunate Aruban experiments, the O’s have had very few forays into the international arena, and almost no successes.  Establishing themselves as a viable contender for top Japanese talent is almost a must to get competitive again.  Plus, again, the team has plenty of space in the rotation to see if he’ll stick.