[Phils20]

Posted on Fri, Nov. 7, 2008


Phillies interested in Japanese pitcher

By Frank Fitzpatrick
Inquirer Staff Writer
DANA POINT, Calif. - A day after it was reported that the Atlanta Braves had made an offer for Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa, the Phillies' general manager indicated that his club also has some interest in the 22-year-old righthander. "We know of him," Ruben Amaro Jr. said yesterday before departing the general managers meetings. "We've seen him, but we haven't made an offer."
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and ESPN.com reported that the Braves had made a formal offer, but that terms hadn't been not revealed. They listed the Phillies, Red Sox, Cubs, Tigers, Marlins and Mariners as other teams with interest.
"It's an exciting opportunity," Braves GM Frank Wren, who saw Tazawa pitch three times in Japan in September, told the newspaper. "We think he has the potential to be a major-league starter."
What also makes Tazawa attractive is that he isn't playing in the Japanese majors, so there is no team to compensate. The Red Sox paid Daisuke Matsuzaka's Japanese club $51.1 million for the right to negotiate with the pitcher.
Despite being a top prospect, Tazawa went undrafted after he announced that he planned to play in the United States.
The reports noted that he was committed to his industrial-league team through mid-November and could not sign with a U.S. team until then.
Paperwork. Leftfielder Pat Burrell and starting pitcher Jamie Moyer filed for free agency.
The move is a formality. Amaro said Wednesday that the Phillies would begin negotiating shortly with Moyer and lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre. The Phillies don't seem inclined to rush into negotiations with Burrell.
World Series wrap. Jimmie Lee Solomon, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of baseball operations, noted that baseball had worried that if the Phillies won the World Series at Citizens Bank Park, the fans' enthusiasm might spill onto the field.
"I thought there was going to be a problem possibly if Philly won the World Series," Solomon said, "but if you noticed the crowd, they were very content. They were Philly fans, who are very excitable and express themselves in a very boisterous fashion. . . . But I thought security did a great job."
This year's World Series games were, on average, 25 minutes faster than those played in 2007 - 3 hours, 21 minutes compared with 3:46.
The GMs did not discuss preventing a recurrence of Game 5, Solomon said. That game was suspended by rain after 51/2 innings and completed two nights later. Technically, the game was already official, but commissioner Bud Selig said it would have been suspended even if the Phillies hadn't allowed the tying run in the top of the sixth.
No new replays. Solomon said MLB officials were thrilled by the success of the league's instant-replay program, used only for disputed calls involving home runs.
"It was used seven times," he said, "and on five occasions, the call on the field was upheld."
Baseball expressed no desire to expand it, Solomon said.
"We've got to take baby steps with this," he said. "I can tell you there's no way we'll ever expand it to on-the-field" calls.

[Full Cougar]

It can be a risky move to get a pitcher as young as he is out of Japan. I see it though as he might spend time in the Minor leagues like other young pitchers might.