Rumors from Taiwan

Not exactly a mega rumor but interesting ...

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/081215/78/1b6ni.html (it's in Chinese)

anyway, the rumor here is that the M's are offering to sign Fu-De Ni to a minor league deal for roughly 150,000 bucks, Ni would be the first player to cross over to the states AFTER playing pro baseball in Taiwan. (all the other current guys in the majors / minors signed before they ever played pro ball in Taiwan)

via l.yimg.com

Ni is (obviously shown in the picture) a lefty pitcher, he's been a swingman most of his time in Taiwan (that happens quiet a bit more than it does in the states though.) this year he started most of the time. he's listed at 183 cm (roughly 6.0 to 6'1) and 78 kg.  with a record of 145.1 IP 3.34 ERA and a pretty impresive 132/32 K/BB ratio (132 lead the league by 22)

Having seen him pitch, he's sort of a lefty sidearmer in the high 80s low 90s. in the majors I'm guessing he would profile as a LOOGY most of the time , though he wasn't all that effective vs lefty in Taiwan (but it was mostly singles. the underlying preriphals were very good,)

One of the main reason that Ni is considering the move is that his team, the China Trust banking Whales, dissolved not too long ago, for a variety of reasons (game fixing scandals, bad economy, the CPBL not overly popular in general) so quiet a few players are on the move recently, Ni, being a lefty pitcher that's actually pretty decent and is still relatively young (1982/11/14), has the best shot of making the jump to the majors amoung the unemployed

http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=966cDP4trsk&feature=related

this is Ni, destroying some Canadian lefties in the Olympics qualifier round.

I'm not sure how he translate to the majors. but there's at least a reasonable chance that he's a servicable lefty out of the pen