Giants to Sign Taiwanese Teenager?
Edit, 7/1: corrected spelling of Yu-Hung Lee
Interesting news being reported by Sanspo & Sponichi: the Yomiuri Giants are moving to sign a 15 year-old Taiwanese pitcher named Lee Yu-Hung. Neither article says much about him, but he hits 92MPH on the gun and will be heading to Japan on July 1 to join the Giants as a practice player. If things work out he could be signed as an instructional player in August. The Giants also have 17 year-old Lin Yi-Hao under contract as an instructional player.
Signing & developing international talent represents a new direction for the Giants, and I hope we’ll see more of this from other NPB teams. NPB relaxed it’s foreign player roster rules a year or two ago to allow more flexibility with Asian players; perhaps the rules can be relaxed again so that players that sign with NPB teams as amateurs won’t count against the limit at all.