Red Sox sign RPH Junichi Tazawa

The Red Sox announced today the signing of right-handed pitcher Junichi Tazawa to a three-year Major League contract extending through the 2011 season.The 22-year-old joins the Red Sox organization after a four-year amateur career with the Nippon Oil ENEOS of the Japan Industrial League. With the addition of Tazawa, Boston now has 39 players on its Major League roster.This past season, Tazawa was 13-1 with 5 saves and a 0.80 ERA in 21 games/11 starts. He struck out 114 batters and walked just 15 over 113.0 innings pitched.

In November he led the ENEOS to the semifinals of the league's corporate championship and in his last start of the competition, a quarterfinals matchup in Osaka on the 21st, Tazawa allowed just four hits and struck out 10 in a complete-game shutout, one of four during the 2008 campaign.In September, Tazawa helped Nippon Oil win the 32-team Intercity Baseball Tournament for the first time in 13 years. He appeared in all five of the ENEOS' games from September 1-9, and earned the event's Most Valuable Player award going 4-0 with one save and a 1.27 ERA. He tossed 8.0 innings or more with double-digit strikeouts in each of his first two tournament appearances, including a complete-game, five-hit effort on September 4.

Sox may be after Junichi Tazawa,

Japanese starter Junichi Tazawa, whom the Red Sox have scouted extensively, was passed over in yesterday’s draft of amateur players in Japan, and is now available to Major League Baseball teams.

Tazawa is bidding to become just the third Japanese-born player to play in the majors without playing pro ball in his native country. He asked Japanese teams to bypass him in order to more easily sign with an MLB team.

The Sox and Chicago Cubs were among the most interested teams scouting Tazawa when he pitched Nippon Oil to the corporate championship. His fastball is said to touch 97 mph, though some scouts believe that to be an exaggeration.

One baseball executive noted while Tazawa is now free to sign with any MLB team, there were “unspecified issues” at play that will prevent him from signing anytime soon.