Shintaro Fujinami has left the building, and has signed with the Athletics, which makes sense because he has potential to have some value but his he’s a high risk — and therefore low-cost option.

I typically write profiles of pitchers’ stuff when they’re headed to the States, but didn’t in his case, so a blog post will have to do.

Fujinami was a marquee amateur who was swarmed by the media as a rookie, and the one or two times I spoke with him came after his career took a sharp downturn. By that time, I found him to be humble and friendly.

I don’t know a lot about him and can’t say anything about his character or makeup as a player, although the following notes might be of interest.