MLB Scouts Watch Chen
Sports Hochi is reporting that a number of MLB scouts were on hand to take in Chunichi Dragons ace Wei-Yin Chen’s latest win, a two-hit shutout over Hanshin at Koshien. Among them was Steve Wilson, the Cubs’ Director of Asia Pacific scouting, who commented “of course we know Chen, but I can’t talk about specific players.” A scout from an unnamed AL East team said that if he were available, “about 15 teams would move on him.” Chen is in the midst of a dominating season (8-3, 1.45 era, 142.1 ip). I have every intention of doing a full profile of him, I can say that he features a fastball that reaches the mid-90’s and a sharp slider.
The new bit of information in this article is that Chen is on a single year contract, and thus eligible to change teams after the season. Chen, 24, signed out of Taiwan in 2004 after small bidding war between Chunichi, Daiei (now SoftBank) and MLB clubs. Since he’s a member of the NPB players’ union (most foreign players are not), I always thought he was under a standard NPB entry contract. If that’s not the case that he’ll certainly attract attention this season.
09/09/2009 at 1:12 am Permalink
This is a very interesting case of a foreign player being brought up in the NPB system. Didn’t know about being part of the players’ association and how that affects contracts.
09/09/2009 at 9:12 am Permalink
Since he’s a member of the NPB players’ union (most foreign players are not), I always thought he was under a standard NPB entry contract. If that’s not the case that he’ll certainly attract attention this season.
If true, yeah I though he be subject to the posting system right? Though I was reading this link:
Though I know, NPB was talking about instituting a rule where they would allow 1 player from South Korea, Taiwan, and China. Though nothing came of that I think. Now it shows here that he signed as a foreign free agent. I know that players that foriegners that qualify for free agency should be able to apply to be a member of the player’s association(Tuffy Rhodes ?) since they dont count against the foreign player limit.
09/09/2009 at 4:04 pm Permalink
1.45 ERA, 1.96 BB/9, 7.71 K/9, 0.90 WHIP… amazing young talent getting paid only 35,000,000 yen for a single year contract… if a MLB club can sign him as FA, it is better investment for the team than paying millions of dollars for posting fee or signing with 30 plus years old FA Japanese pitchers
09/09/2009 at 8:09 pm Permalink
Some bullet points:
– There was a rumor that he turned down an offer from the Giants last year.
– Chen’s patron, Taihoh, is quoted as saying that he wants Chen to stay in Japan for a few more years.
http://tw.nextmedia.com/applenews/article/art_id/31914957/IssueID/20090904
– The Dragons has had three Chens (陳) in its history, none of whom had their family name in the Chinese character as a registered name in the NPB. This is said to be because the Dragons advised them not to use it, since the Japanese reading of it sounds like a slang word for the male genitalia a la Wang, a Yankee.
09/09/2009 at 9:39 pm Permalink
He also has had some injury in the past and spent some time as an ikusei player before making it back to the normal roster.
10/09/2009 at 7:55 am Permalink
chen has been very sharp this year. he will make more money with the amazing era if he joins mlb. but the question is he had been treated well by the chunich dragons during the recovering time. if not for the dollars, i think he will stay with chunichi dragons next year. but i also concern about his arm as he has already had 4 shutout games this year. the japanese baseball teams seem never care about pitchers’ arm problem just like what they did to dice-k when he was in npb.
10/09/2009 at 8:25 am Permalink
what they did to dice-k when he was in npb.
What specific incident are you referring to?
10/09/2009 at 8:30 am Permalink
but NPB starters only pitch once a week. (though they probably throw more between games.)
10/09/2009 at 10:31 pm Permalink
here is dice-k ‘s state in npb：
AGE YEAR W L G GS CG SHO IP BB SO
19 1999 16 5 25 24 6 2 180 87 151
20 2000 14 7 27 24 6 2 167.2 95 144
21 2001 15 15 33 32 12 2 240.1 117 214
22 2002 6 2 14 11 2 0 73.1 15 78
23 2003 16 7 29 27 8 2 194 63 215
24 2004 10 6 23 19 10 5 146 42 127
25 2005 14 13 28 28 15 3 215 49 226
26 2006 17 5 25 25 13 2 186.1 34 200
compare to joba, dice-k had pitched 1000ip in npb when he was 24ys old, joba is 24 this year, and he has only pitched 264ip as a yankee. look at the number of CG, it’s really hard for a young arm. traditional japanese pitchers they like to challenge CG or SHO. these guys they are now the coaches or managers, that is why chen and dice-k has so many CGs.
10/09/2009 at 10:53 pm Permalink
Yeah, but you have to factor in the college and minor league innings Joba has thrown too. I’ll concede that those aren’t likely to be as stressful innings as MLB, but they still count. But it’s still apples & oranges.
Also, I believe that Daisuke’s heavy workload in 2001 played a role in Osamu Higashio’s departure as manager.