That’s the question Jackson Broder asks at East Windup Chronicle. He profiles several hitters and pitchers playing in Japan’s NPB who could make the jump to North America.
Kosuke Fukudome of the Chunichi Dragons has been getting a fair amount of play as a potential impact outfielder should he cross the pond. Jackson compares him to Bob Abreu, with the caveats that Fukudome recently underwent elbow surgery and that some of his power could be lost in translation on moving to MLB (sometimes you get Hideki Matsui, sometimes you get Kazuo Matsui).
The pitching side is less clear. As Akinori Otsuka, Shingo …read more

Rich at Baseball Analysts has laid out a position-by-position look at the 2007-2008 free agent class. He’s done the hitters today and he’ll touch on the pitchers in a separate article.
There are a few bonafide studs available — Jorge Posada, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Rodriguez, Bob Abreu, Mike Cameron, Adam Dunn, Torii Hunter, Andruw Jones — as well as a bunch of guys who are potentially useful. And of course, we’re all waiting to find out where Julio Franco ends up next year. My money is on the Lido deck, playing shuffleboard.