Are the Texas Rangers purusing Japanese right-hander Junichi Tazawa (pictured)?According to MLB.com's T.R. Sullivan, the Texas Rangers have joined a growing collection of teams that have expressed some degree of interest in Japanese right-hander Junichi Tazawa, with team officials confirming that they have indeed scouted the 22-year-old free agent while declining to disclose specifics.

No fewer than a half-dozen teams -- including the Braves (who have tendered Tazawa a formal contract offer, though he is prohibited from signing with anybody until a mid-November tournament he is required to participate in by his Japanese Industrial League squad is completed), Red Sox (who were reported to be front-runners by the Boston Herald last week), Mariners (who are expected to meet with Tazawa this week), Phillies, Tigers, Pirates, and Cubs -- have been linked with the foreign flavor of the moment, whose availability to big league clubs this winter was sealed when all 12 teams in Nippon Professional Baseball passed over the talented hurler during the league's amateur draft on October 30th.

Reputedly armed with a low-to-mid 90s fastball that has been clocked as high as 97 mph, a split-fingered fastball and a "big, old-school 12-to-6 curveball" that has evoked natural comparisons to Tim Hudson (albeit with a "better curveball," according to one unnamed team official), the 5' 11", 180-pound Tazawa would not require a posting fee to sign, but could well command a Major League deal -- which would entail committing a valuable 40-man roster spot -- and a signing bonus in excess of $5 million in order to settle on a specific stateside destination.

One anonymous scout was decidedly less bullish in his assessment of Tazawa, who has pitched at what David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently described as being roughly equivalent to "perhaps A-ball or borderline Double-A ball," with Braves general manager Frank Wren likening it more to college-level competition: "His fastball is 88 to 93 [mph] ... he has a forkball, a curve, but the command of his fastball is so-so. His lower body is stiff."

It is hoped that the presence of director of Pacific Rim operations Jim Colborn -- who possesses many powerful contacts throughout Japan, where he served as the pitching coach of the Orix Blue Wave from 1990-1993 and as the Mariners' director of Pacific Rim scouting from 1997-2000 -- in the region will amplify the Rangers' chances of emerging as a powerhouse in terms of being able to acquire serious Far East talent, though they have only South Korean right-hander Tae-Kyung Ahn to show for their efforts thus far.

The consensus around the game appears to be that Tazawa's talent level is comparable to that of a first-round pick in MLB's amateur draft, but a bidding war could conceivably send his price soaring into Pedro Alvarez territory and beyond -- a princely sum that not even affluent clubs like Boston and New York would indiscriminately meet without careful deliberation beforehand.

Offered below for your perusal is a video of Tazawa in action during a Japanese Industrial League contest:

[Direct link available here.]

It remains to be seen whether the Rangers' seemingly vague interest will translate into a legitimate pursuit (and, for that matter, if a successful pursuit would net a pitcher more capable of vanquishing opposing hitters than Kazuo Fukumori, last winter's failed high-profile international signing), but it's certainly something worth keeping an eye on as we inch ever closer to the onset of free agent madness.