All the foreign player threads! Seriously though, this one is a much more realistic fit for the Cubs, especially with their expressed desire to add some quality pitching this offseason. For those of you who don't remember, he was almost posted last year but was ultimately retained by the Hiroshima Carp. He makes a ton of sense if the scouts like what they see as he will of course only cost money and depending on where the bidding ends up, offer a draft pick free alternative to a lot of the tier 2 pitchers out there.
And the rotoworld blurb with a nice stats summary: Lastly, his B-Ref page, as I had not realized they did the Japanese leagues as well. Pretty nifty: http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=maeda-001ken