News from Japan: Colby Lewis Returning, Casey Fossum Going

Two tidbits from the Japanese major leagues (NPB):

Colby Lewis hasn’t signed a 2010 contract with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp and has stated he wants to return to play in the U.S. because someone in his family is sick.

Colby’s a good bet to latch on a 5th starter for at least one MLB team.  He had two fine years as a starter in Japan, and he’s only 30 in 2010.

After two years in Japan, he posted a career NPB line of 26-17 with a 2.82 ERA and 369 K’s and only 46 walks (but 20 hit-batters — he must like to pitch inside) in 354.1 IP.  You’d have to think at least one major league team would take a chance on that, given some of the money that older Japanese pitchers Koji Uehara and Kenshin Kawakami received last off-season.

Meanwhile, the Hanshin Tigers signed major league veteran lefty Casey Fossum for 2010.  Fossum will turn 32 in January, and while he has an ugly career MLB ERA of 5.45, he has loads of MLB experience (237 career appearances including 120 starts) and he was still a good AAA starter last season.

Given his great control and his strong mlb career Ks-to-IP and Ks-to-BBs ratios, Fossum is a good bet for a Japanese NPB team to take.  The biggest knock on Fossum is that he gives up a lot of homeruns (29 per 200 IP in MLB).  Given the smaller Japanese park sizes, this may be a problem for him in Japan also.