During next week's winter meetings in Las Vegas, the Orioles expect to have face-to-face discussions with the agents for two Japanese starting pitchers.
John Stockstill, the Orioles' international scouting director, said he has set up tentative meetings with Dan Evans, the agent for Kenshin Kawakami, and Mark Pieper, who represents Koji Uehara.
Orioles officials also are considering other Japanese players, including left-handed reliever Ken Takahashi, although Kawakami and Uehara fit the club's biggest need: starting pitching. Stockstill, who scouted Kawakami and Uehara this season in Japan, has had a brief meeting with Evans and has spoken by phone with Pieper, who also represents Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts.
"I think we have done a lot of work to get prepared for this. And it is turning out that with the very needs the club has, there are two or more [Japanese] players that fit those potential needs," Stockstill said. "So we'll see how it all turns out. At the same time, we are going to evaluate them and be fiscally responsible."
Kawakami and Uehara are both 33-year-old right-handers who have been among Japan's most accomplished pitchers of the past decade. Uehara, of the Yomiuri Giants, is a two-time winner of the Sawamura Award for pitching excellence, and Kawakami, who pitched for the Chunichi Dragons, won the Central League Most Valuable Player and the Sawamura Award in 2004.
Neither is considered more than a mid- to back-of-the-rotation starter in the majors. Some big league teams are looking at Uehara, a closer in 2007, as a reliever.
Millar a part-timer?
In Kevin Millar's ideal world, he would sign a free-agent deal this offseason with a team that would pencil him in as an everyday first baseman and allow him to hit somewhere near the middle of the lineup.
But Millar, 37, who has played the past three seasons with the Orioles, is coming off a season in which he hit .234, the lowest average of his career. That's why Millar called Orioles manager Dave Trembley this offseason and told him he is interested in returning to the club and willing to accept a part-time role.
"Right now, I'm at a point in my career where I understand that nobody is coming to me and saying, 'Hey, you're going to get 600 at-bats and be my No. 4 hitter," Millar said. "I love to play every day, but I would never not come back to the Orioles because I wasn't a starter. It would never be a factor where I said that I'm too good for a bench role."
