It's pretty easy to understand how I missed the signing of 20-year old Taiwanese pitcher Po-Yu Lin last week. The only outlet to report it was the Taiwan Baseball blog. And I only found it on Soxtalk after someone had seen it on WSI.
See, I'm always right on top of the news. It might be 3rd or 4th hand, but I've always got the scoop. ;)
According to Taiwan Baseball, the Sox signed Lin to a bonus of around $300K, which probably wouldn't even crack the top 30 bonuses handed out to international players this year. Still, it's nice to see the Sox finally starting to make an effort overseas.
We won't know what we have in Lin until the end of spring training when minor league assignments are handed out. I suspect he'll get his first action in Rookie ball, but if he earns a full-season assignment, we might have ourselves a nice prospect here.
YouTube video of Lin pitching in HS after the jump.
Update [2007-3-31 19:55:11 by The Cheat]: Noticed some increased traffic on this page lately, so I thouht I'd include an update. Po-yu Lin has disappointed the Sox -- at least initially -- as he didn't come close to reaching the advertised 90MPH this spring.