Mariners await word on Japanese pitcher
SEATTLE – Daisuke Matsuzaka became an instant legend in Japan in 1998 as a teenager, when his three-day performance in the hugely popular National High School Baseball Championships was of mythic proportions.
Competing at the hallowed Koshien Stadium near Kobe, Matsuzaka won the quarterfinal game for his Yokohama team by pitching all 17 innings of an extra-inning game – 250 pitches’ worth.
The next day in the semifinals, with his right pitching arm wrapped in bandages, according to Time magazine, Matsuzaka played the outfield until the ninth, when he took the mound to save the victory. In the championship game the following day, Matsuzaka pitched a nine-inning no-hitter and has been a Japanese hero since.
Now Matsuzaka is poised this winter to be the next Japanese star to try the major leagues – provided that his Japanese team, the Seibu Lions, lets him make the move after their season ends.
Whether Seibu will do so is an open question that draws considerable variance of opinion. Because Matsuzaka will not be a free agent until after the 2008 season, his only route to the United States before then is if Seibu agrees to “post” him – the same method by which Ichiro Suzuki joined the Seattle Mariners after the 2000 season.
In a survey of major league officials, scouts and media with knowledge of Japanese baseball, there was nearly a 50-50 split of opinion on whether Matsuzaka will be posted this winter by Seibu – which has twice already denied his request to be posted.
The Mariners are intensely interested in the outcome of this issue. While most teams in baseball will vet Matsuzaka, the consensus is that it will ultimately come down to the Mariners, the most successful major league team in mining Japanese talent, and the New York Yankees, who have already begun laying the groundwork for a massive Matsuzaka pursuit.
The Yankees, as revealed recently by Sankei Sports and Newsday, have hired Shoichi Kida as an associate scout based in Japan. Kida went to the same high school as Matsuzaka and was his teammate for a time with the Lions.
If Matsuzaka is available this winter, he will instantly join Oakland’s Barry Zito as the most coveted pitcher on the market – with both players represented by uber-agent Scott Boras. Just 25, Matsuzaka has long been considered the best pitcher in Japan and is in the midst of another strong season.
Those who believe that Matsuzaka will be posted point to the ongoing financial problems of the Seibu group, whose owner, Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, was convicted in 2005 of insider trading and received a suspended prison sentence.
The reasoning goes that Seibu can’t afford to miss out on the huge posting fee they would receive. If they force Matsuzaka to wait for free agency, he would leave without any compensation for the Japanese club, as happened a few years ago with Kazuo Matsui.
“Seibu, it is clear, wants to post Matsuzaka,” Robert Whiting, author of the seminal book on Japanese baseball, “You Gotta Have Wa,” said via e-mail.
“One indication of that is all the complete games they are letting him pitch. They want to get as much use out of him as possible now – and then get money for him by posting.”
Those who believe that Matsuzaka won’t be posted note that he is the Lions’ most visible and popular asset, and attendance would plummet without him.
“I doubt he will be posted,” said one person with close ties to the Japanese league. “Seibu has regrouped and consolidated its hold on the team, and Matsuzaka is their only drawing card. He is worth more to them than almost any posting offer.”
Many believe it might come down to whether Seibu wins the Pacific League title and makes it to the World Series.