MLB Scouts Watching Ishii

In a light drizzle at Jingu Stadium Sunday night (4/29), scouts for the Seatle Mariners, New York Yankees, and Philidelphia Phillies were spotted in the stands taking a look at Yakult ace pitcher Ishii Kazuhisa (surname first).  Ishii is expected to be put on the bidding block at the end of this season, so the scouts are out.This was actually the second time that the scouts were out in force at Jingu this season, but Ishii didn't make an appearance the last time as he was complaining of sholder pain.

It was reported that after Ichiro and Sasaki teamed up to take three in a row at Yankee Stadium that Steinbrenner (the Watanabe-owner of the MLB) ordered the scouts to put a full effort into finding similar tallent in Japan.

While Phillies' scout Doug Tamagawa said that "Ishii has what it takes to pitch in the Majors" (translation of translation?), the box score didn't really reflect Ishii at his best.  He only struck out 4 in 7 innings, a very low number for him.  In all, though, it was a good outing, scattering 5 Tiger hits over 7 innings while walking 4 and allowing 1 run to improve his ERA to 2.53 for his 3rd win of the season.

Two other names on the scouts' list are "Big Matsui" of the Giants and "Little Matsui" of the Lions.  While the Lions' owner seems willing to put his star shortstop on the block at the end of the season, Watanabe-owner has shown all signs of resistance to the possibility of losing Godzilla.  And money is no object for the Giants, who continue to gather the most expensive players they can buy year after year.  It should make for an interesting bidding war when Matsui becomes a free agent.