The Dukes of Asia

So the Nats signed themselves a left-handed import, who threw up a 5+ ERA in Japan and who hasn't had 100 IP in a season since 2002.

Great!

It gets better:

The Orix Buffaloes said Sunday they have suspended left-hander
Katsuhiko Maekawa indefinitely after he was arrested for his
involvement in a hit-and-run accident in Osaka the previous day.

While driving a car without a license, the 28-year-old Maekawa
hit a woman on a bicycle at a crossing, causing minor injuries,
according to police...

Maekawa had his driver's license revoked in 2002 for road
traffic law violations, including speeding.

He had an argument with the woman after the accident, but fled
the scene when a police officer asked him to produce his driver's
license, police said.

When the judge handed him his two-year suspended sentence, he lobbed out this zinger, saying that the pitcher has a "remarkably low respect for social morality." Bang! Zoom!

Eh... it's a low-cost move with no real downside other than [insert cheap Bowden driving joke.] The team's certainly doing everything they can to prove that chemistry doesn't matter one farkin' bit, huh?

I hear that the Nats are also interested in Jerry Priddy, Denny McClain, Ugueth Urbina, Steve Howe, and Ruben Rivera.

Someone doesn't appreciate all the anonymous sources the writers use around here. (There's also an interesting side discussion there about the use of "Asian Market" when we don't lump various Latin American or Caribbean markets into one big non-homogeneous basket.

Nats also lost Enrique Gonzalez on waivers (after having claimed him off waivers last season). Notable only in that he was one of the warm bodies on the SP depth chart, making the need for a veteran SP all the more important.