In honor of Tazawa overtaking Scott Atchison as the Sox’ best pitcher (by WAR) in 2012.

Atchison's 1.2 IP, 1 K outing has apparently vaulted him back into the lead. I guess this passes for late-season excitement in Fenway this year.

Try to be a little more respectful of tradition when speaking of the Red Sox. We shouldn't forget the many decades where this sort of thing defined late-season excitement in Fenway.

The scouting didn't seem that adventurous. The guy went to a game in the mountains and had to walk a few miles in the cold downhill.

So does Tazawa go back to starting? I inferred that from Speier's tone. The most dominant pitcher on team now throwing in the mid-90's after Tommy John seems like he is headed to starting.

The scouting didn't seem that adventurous. The guy went to a game in the mountains and had to walk a few miles in the cold downhill.

I thought that, too, when I first read it. I mean, by the time he declared for MLB, many teams were familiar with him and interested. Scouting him first helped to land him, but the cloak and dagger stuff wouldn't have made much of a difference there.

But thinking about it a little more I think it was huge. It's not that they prevented attention from MLB teams; rather, they prevented attention from NPB teams. If Tazawa had entered NPB the Red Sox would still be waiting for him now, with no advantage over any other team. If NPB teams had learned the Red Sox were scouting Tazawa, he surely would have suddenly received massive attention from NPB teams that previously had been disinterested.

Being the only westerner, completely out of place in that environment, shooting video of Tazawa, could easily have been a huge red flag in Japan. Anything else to raise suspicion - even the mode of transportation, which would be a tip-off of how far he'd travelled or how "important" he was - was a risk. Whether his efforts were overblown, I don't know; but he successfully averted the downside.