the japanese baseball market has been good to us americans lately

allowing us to steal their all stars, and their fans

the japanese media is coming over 30 fold at a time just to watch one player in a game.  this takes up time and money from the Nippon League (Japanese equivalent of MLB) and puts more focus of MLB

i think this is a good thing thats happening

anyway here are some players who could come over from japan this offseason

                      Ken Takahashi

Ken Takahashi is a lefty reliever for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp.  He was used as a starter during the prime of his career averaging about 9 wins per year for a team that hasnt won a championship since 1991.  He was moved back to the bullpen in 2005 due to age and has had an ERA around 4.10 since.

                                                           Ryoji Aikawa

Ryoji Aikawa is the current catcher for the Yokohama Bay Stars.  He is not known as a tremendous hitter, only a .259 career average.  However, behind the plate, Aikawa’s defense is nothing short of excellent.  He represented the champion Japan in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006 and helped them win a bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

                                                     Kenshin Kawakami

It has been said that Kenshin Kawakami may have the best cutter in Japanese Baseball.  The righthander for the Chunichi Dragons also mixes in a low-90′s fastball, a big, slow curve, and perhaps a fork and a shuuto.  Kawakami won at least 11 games 6 times in his career, has a career ERA of around 3.30 and averages 141 strikeouts in years where he pitches at least 20 games.  The 33 year old won Rookie of the Year for Chunichi in 1998 and has won the Sawamura Award (similar to Cy Young Award) twice in his career.

                                                            Koji Uehara

Koji Uehara’s won Central League Rookie of the Year Award in 1999, putting up a 20-4 record, 2.09 ERA and 170 K’s.  That was actually better than fellow rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka (16-5, 2.60, 151), who won Pacific League ROY.  Since then, Uehara hasn’t had quite a strong showing, but has had a 73-38 from 2000-2006.  He was used out of the bullpen in 2007, racking up 32 saves, then in 2008, was used more as a spot starter, going 6-5 with a 3.81 ERA and 72 K’s.  Uehara’s ERA has ranged between 1.74 and 4.02.  Uehara missed the entire 2005 season.