From MLB Traderumors.com:

A report has surfaced in today’s Los Angeles Times that says that the Dodgers, just as the Mariners did, sent a contingent to Japan to meet with Hiroki Kuroda. The contingent (the only word the baseball media seems to use for these things) included none other than closer Takashi Saito, whose agent Steve Hilliard also?represents Kuroda.

Hmmm.

Accompanying Saito were director of Asian operations Acey Kohrogi and Keiichi Kojima.

There was also an article on MLB.com linking the Royals to Kuroda. Apparently Trey Hillman has been in Tokyo. Why he’s still in Tokyo one can only speculate. Though, he doesn’t strike me as the Tokyo-housewife-mistress type.

“That’s something we are very, very interested in,” Royals manager Trey Hillman said on Tuesday from Tokyo in reference to Kuroda. The article also says the Royals have a tentative agreement with Yasuhiko Yabuta that will be finalized Wednesday provided he passes a physical examination.

Lastly, and most humorously, this article says the D-backs put in a $10 million/3-year offer for Kuroda 10 days ago. No coterie-contingent-gang-o-war was sent to Japan and….

Kuroda has yet to respond in any fashion.

Keep those lines open boys.

If their temperament is anything like their fans perhaps the D-backs brass will litter the parking lot of a local Habachi restaurant in protest.