Cubs free agent target: Yoshinobu Yamamoto

Photo by Eric Espada/Getty ImagesUntil recently, the Cubs have not had much luck with signing players from Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) in Japan.

Kosuke Fukudome was (mostly) a bust. Kyuji Fujikawa and Koji Uehara, forgettable relievers. The Cubs did get some good performance from Yu Darvish, but he was a known quantity in MLB before he came to the Cubs.

In general, other than Darvish, Japanese pitchers have not fared well in MLB. Hideo Nomo did, for a time. Daisuke Matsuzaka was supposed to be dominant, but after his first two years he wasn’t very good.

So why would Yoshinobu Yamamoto be any different?

Because Yamamoto is said to be the best pitcher who’s ever come from Japan to MLB. Just look at…