"Orioles close to signing Taiwanese LHP Wei-Yin Chen"

[Matt P]

Ken Rosenthal
@Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal

Source: #Orioles close to signing Taiwanese LHP Wei-Yin Chen to multi-year deal. 26 yo hard thrower, pitched for Chunichi in Japan. #MLB

[TuckerBlair89]

Count me as a fan of this!

[ofahn]

Count me as a fan of this!

Ditto.

[ofahn]

Ken Rosenthal
@Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal

Source: #Orioles close to signing Taiwanese LHP Wei-Yin Chen to multi-year deal. 26 yo hard thrower, pitched for Chunichi in Japan. #MLB

Thanks for posting this. I missed it because I don't tweet or bleet or beep or boop or ...... Well, you get the picture. Social media and I have issues.

[Matt P]

So, I guess we have our third "lock" for the rotation. Guthrie, Wada, and Chen.

Spring Training will be very interesting. Britton, Arrieta, Matusz, Tillman, Hunter, Bergesen, Simon, and Eveland all battling for the final two spots in the rotation.

Or, maybe now they feel they can trade Guthrie? I don't know, DD keeps talking about needing our starters to pile up innings and Guthrie is our best at that.

Does this signal the end of the Jair Jurrjens trade rumors? Do they now ask for just prospects in any trade rather than trying to get a major league starter or major league ready starter in a trade return?

One thing is for sure, DD is not impressed at all with the "cavalry".

This signing has me excited because of the all the questions that now need answers.

[Don]

I wrote this on BSL as well.

Chen took a bit off in order to improve his fastball command, as he use to live and die up in the zone. It worked down more from my reports and the improved location helped his off-speed to work even better. I like his split finger change/forkball a good deal. He has smaller hands and gets a nice wrist action drop on it (how I have no clue).

He is the only pitcher outside of Darvish that can come to the US and see success with a mixed arsenal and strength that could lead him to maintain a starter. At worst like Wada, he could be an effect lefty out of the bullpen and you can never have enough of those in your pocket.

Chen and Wada could both realistically fit in the rotation to start the season. It will be interesting to see if the gain maintain separation on this arsenal and keep throwing off-speed for strikes or have them at a quality in this league to get swing and miss.

There are many things that pose problems for mainland or Japanese pitchers to come over to the US with success. It is nice they can get additional pieces on top of Wada to improve there odds that one can be a solid back of the rotation option over a longer stretch.

In my eyes, you likely have two 4/5 or swing man types. These two have a better sense of pitching over the Jo-Jo Reyes of the world and hopefully there crafty styles can surprises some.

[Matt P]

Ken Rosenthal
@Ken_Rosenthal Ken Rosenthal

Source: #Orioles close to signing Taiwanese LHP Wei-Yin Chen to multi-year deal. 26 yo hard thrower, pitched for Chunichi in Japan. #MLB

Thanks for posting this. I missed it because I don't tweet or bleet or beep or boop or ...... Well, you get the picture. Social media and I have issues.

No problem. I don't have a facebook or myspace or anything like that but I do have a Twitter that I use for following sports reporters to get updated news. I would recommend making one to follow guys like Rosenthal who break news throughout the off season.

[TuckerBlair89]

I also posted your scouting report in the blog don.


But this seems to be a good move imo. It also seems the Orioles lost out on Maholm as well so this was probably either their backup plan or Maholm was the backup plan. (he is close to an agreement with the cubs apparently.)

[Matt P]

I also posted your scouting report in the blog don.


But this seems to be a good move imo. It also seems the Orioles lost out on Maholm as well so this was probably either their backup plan or Maholm was the backup plan. (he is close to an agreement with the cubs apparently.)

I can't imagine Chen was a backup plan to Maholm. They have been rumored to be going hard after Chen all off season. DD loves him some international players.

[TuckerBlair89]

I also posted your scouting report in the blog don.


But this seems to be a good move imo. It also seems the Orioles lost out on Maholm as well so this was probably either their backup plan or Maholm was the backup plan. (he is close to an agreement with the cubs apparently.)

I can't imagine Chen was a backup plan to Maholm. They have been rumored to be going hard after Chen all off season. DD loves him some international players.

I agree. But you never know. It does seem more plausible that Maholm was the backup plan to Chen

Also:

So do we call him Chen Wei-Yin, Wei-Yin Chen, or does it really matter?

[Matt P]

I also posted your scouting report in the blog don.


But this seems to be a good move imo. It also seems the Orioles lost out on Maholm as well so this was probably either their backup plan or Maholm was the backup plan. (he is close to an agreement with the cubs apparently.)

I can't imagine Chen was a backup plan to Maholm. They have been rumored to be going hard after Chen all off season. DD loves him some international players.

I agree. But you never know. It does seem more plausible that Maholm was the backup plan to Chen

Also:

So do we call him Chen Wei-Yin, Wei-Yin Chen, or does it really matter?

Hopefully, we can refer to him as Ace.

[TuckerBlair89]

Hopefully, we can refer to him as Ace.

I like your thinking. At this point, I'll take referring to him as #3

[Matt P]

Hopefully, we can refer to him as Ace.

I like your thinking. At this point, I'll take referring to him as #3

Yeah, I guess I'll take that too

[ofahn]

I'm beginning to become optimistic that DD will be a serious player when the Cubans become available.

[Matt P]

I am hoping they sign Soler. I think long term he would be a better fit. If we got Cespedes on a 4 year deal we aren't likely to be contenders during those 4 years. At least Soler (from what I've read on him) would likely come up around the same time as Machado and Schoop and would be part of a solid core group.