A's Close to Signing Japanese Pitcher

[SharksandAsFan]

There have been multiple reports (Rotoworld.com, Tri-Valley Herald among others) that the A's are close to signing 36-year old starting pitcher Keiichi Yabu. Yabu went 6-9 with a 3.02 ERA last year for the Hanshin Tigers. Yabu had about a 2/1 K/BB ratio in 116 innings last year. The A's are apparently close to signing him to a 1 year/$1 million contract with an option for 2006. It appears he'll be paving the way for Dan Meyer to start around July or August, as Yabu hasn't made 20 or more starts since 2000.

[Arsenal]

He'll probably suck like all the rest (except Ichiro)
Ichiro has been the only real good Asian player recently I can think of. I'm a Yankee fan and I still don't think he's all he was supposed to be. People said he was going to break HR records and stuff. I think Ichiro's gone down too.
Feel free to name someone to prove me wrong, I don't think you can though.

[twins15]

He'll probably suck like all the rest (except Ichiro)
Ichiro has been the only real good Asian player recently I can think of. I'm a Yankee fan and I still don't think he's all he was supposed to be. People said he was going to break HR records and stuff. I think Ichiro's gone down too.
Feel free to name someone to prove me wrong, I don't think you can though.

Hideki Matsui, Hideo Nomo, Kaz Matsui, Shingo Takatsku, Kaz Ishii is decent.

[Mike4235]

wow 36 year old rookie...

[badbladez8]

whats with teams signing older pitchers from japan that dont even sound that good, atleast not stats wise.

[Mike4235]

Well they are deceptive and usually quite successful at first...

[Arsenal]

Hideki Matsui, Hideo Nomo, Kaz Matsui, Shingo Takatsku, Kaz Ishii is decent.
Decent, but not as good as the media hyped them up to be.

[Cardinal Optimist]

Ishii had one season where he was absolutely lights out.....i remember because dominated the dbacks :(