Do we need to look overseas for pitching?

[AJAY]

It's amazing to see all the hype for Aroldis Chapman in Cincinnatti. I also noticed that whenever we face the Dodgers, they always seem to have one or two stud Asian pitchers on their roster year after year. They seem to get a lot of talent from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, etc.

 

Considering our starting pitching woes, do you think the Brewers need to be more aggressive at finding pitching in other countries? Are there any hot names out there who might be available? How much would it cost us financially?

 

If anyone has any familiarity with overseas talent, I would love to hear from you.

 

Thanks.

[davego]

North Korea seems to be an untapped market. I suspect we could sign players out of there for club-friendly contract.

[Invader3K]

North Korea seems to be an untapped market. I suspect we could sign players out of there for club-friendly contract.

Does the Dear Leader allow their baseball players to leave, though?

[Tedaldtada]

Along with N. Korea, I def. think Europe and Africa are incredibly untapped. I know baseball is a niche sport across the Atlantic, but why can't we open a baseball acadmey there? Is it really just lack of resources? Or is there zero interest in baseball in Africa? I know the Twins recently signed a young Euro named Max Kepler (I think he is 16). There must be others worth a look.

[Never Outhustled]

The Brewers should have been active in Japan for years, but under Melvin the Brewers don't even scout Japan.

[And That]

The Brewers have signed a number of guys out of Europe/Africa, but none of them have panned out.

 

The Brewers' rationale (not that I necessarily buy it) for not scouting Japan is that, even if they tried, they couldn't compete on either the financial level or the cultural level to bring Japanese players to Milwaukee. Japanese players tend to seem to like to play on the West Coast.

[Tedaldtada]

The Brewers have signed a number of guys out of Europe/Africa, but none of them have panned out.

 

 

I have to say I was not aware of that.

[Invader3K]

I think the Brewers should take the Pirates' approach and focus on untapped markets like India, versus trying to play with the big boys in Japan, etc.

[Baldkin]

The Brewers should have been active in Japan for years, but under Melvin the Brewers don't even scout Japan.

Isn't that more of a case of a lack of resources, due to the exorbitant fees that Japanese teams have been demanding?

[And That]

I have to say I was not aware of that.

They haven't been active recently, though off the top of my head, I remember Michael Franke, Simon Guhring, Paul Bell and Gbenga Olayemi. There have been a few Australians in there too. I guess if you want an answer why they stopped trying to sign guys from those regions is because 99.9% of Brewers fans have never heard of any of those guys. Either they couldn't spend the necessary money on scouting/signing or the talent just wasn't there.

[sveumrules]

Cap'n Lou really thrived at Helena with Gbenga pushing him for starts behind the dish in 2k3 and kind of fell off thereafter, complacent. Maybe if Gbenga would have been breathing down his neck all the way up the ladder he could have really been our catching WHOA SOLVDD.

[TooLiveBrew]

The Brewers should have been active in Japan for years, but under Melvin the Brewers don't even scout Japan.

While you're usually pretty quick to slam Melvin, it should be noted that the Brewers probably scout Canada better than any organization around. They've also been pretty solid in recent years in the D.R., iirc.

[monty57]

Technically, Canada's not overseas :-)

[nate82]

Open a baseball academy in China. The most untapped market though I am not sure how big baseball is over in China. I know basketball is big over there I'm just not so sure about baseball.

 

I really believe the Brewers should just commit more resources to the D.R. than anywhere else. Japan is just way to expensive why buy one Bentley when you can buy 3 or 4 Mercedes?

[davego]

Good point. Connecting with China would break new ground (I think). Plus getting a leg up on that market...think of all the Ball and Glove throwback gear that could be sold!

[dadofandrew]

Japanese players have little interest in playing for a small Midwestern market. How many are in KC? MIN? CLE? CIN?

 

Every dollar can only be spent once. You might be able to make a point that the Crew should scout minor leaguers in Japan and try and get some of them, though I'm not sure how their system works. But any money spent on Japan on the Yu Darvishs of the world might as well be thrown up in the wind.

[Never Outhustled]

The Brewers should have been active in Japan for years, but under Melvin the Brewers don't even scout Japan.

Isn't that more of a case of a lack of resources, due to the exorbitant fees that Japanese teams have been demanding?

 

 

Only 2 (Ichiro and Dice K) of the 11 Japanese players presently in America required posting fees. Mets starter Hisanori Takahashi is playing on a 1 yr/$1 million deal. Okajima and Saito were steals. Kuroda and Uehara have outperformed there contract. Kawakami would be our 2nd best starter. There's bargains to be had there.

[Never Outhustled]

Japanese players have little interest in playing for a small Midwestern market. How many are in KC? MIN? CLE? CIN?

 

Every dollar can only be spent once. You might be able to make a point that the Crew should scout minor leaguers in Japan and try and get some of them, though I'm not sure how their system works. But any money spent on Japan on the Yu Darvishs of the world might as well be thrown up in the wind.

 

KC and Cleveland each had Japanese players last year. The super-stars might care where they play, but the rest just want an MLB paycheck.

[dadofandrew]

But most are not good enough for the majors...So Taguchi for example. They are smaller players with little pop or velocity, while that's a stereotype, it's also true. I have no interest in adding a Japanese middle reliever, for example, the language barrier and cultural stuff makes it tough.

[TooLiveBrew]

I would have loved to have added someone like Hideki Okajima. He was a dominant reliever for his first two seasons, and very good in '09. The language barrier really isn't something anyone should let stop them from acquiring talent. Might as well just stop scouting outside of the U.S. & Canada in that case.

[Never Outhustled]

But most are not good enough for the majors...So Taguchi for example. They are smaller players with little pop or velocity, while that's a stereotype, it's also true. I have no interest in adding a Japanese middle reliever, for example, the language barrier and cultural stuff makes it tough.

Oh, so your saying it might be a good idea to scout them then, so you can tell So Taguchi from Takashi Saito? Since we're looking for pitching, I'd think most scouts could see that Taguchi is an OF. The Dodgers originally signed Saito for $500 K, and he finished that year as their closer. He has a career 2.17 ERA with 361 K's in 294 innings. Who wouldn't want that?

 

[nate82]

I believe that the return on the investment is just not there in Japan like it is in Latin America. It is going to cost more to scout in Japan than it would in the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, etc. While I would love for the Brewers to have a presence in Japan I just don't see the return on that investment being worthwhile. Something would have to be cut in the South America and Latin America budget and I just don't see the return on that investment being more than what would be invested into South America and Latin America.

 

There are better options than Japan that the Brewers could explore like China, Russia, India, and Pakistan that could give you as much of a return on your investment as Japan would or even more.

[homer]

Forget overseas, we need to start scouting underseas:

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRxvPFlyVoRHke7HGduTFkiOMK5VJLG3Mv9CAyHCAUY_AYemiA&t=1&usg=__WHAyLQFvWG1C5l2fUZmEBFGEHhk=

[dadofandrew]

I'm saying most players fit the Taguchi image, small, little power, reserve types. Saito signed with LA, making the point well, they rarely sign in the Midwest.

[Never Outhustled]

I'm saying most players fit the Taguchi image, small, little power, reserve types. Saito signed with LA, making the point well, they rarely sign in the Midwest.

 

Like I said, Japanese players are willing to play in the Midwest. Saito isn't the 1st, and won't be the last.