Daisuke Matsuzaka -Let The Bidding Begin.

[metsmarathon]

of course, that scenario leaves you with two-three extra million dollars in the subsequent years of the deal with which to sign additional players. the risk is greater only for the first year than the subsequent ones.

[nymr83]

i was actually dividing the money up over the length of the contract.

[metsmarathon]

right.

	2007	2008	2009	2010	total value
Matsuzaka	21	11	11	11	54
Zito	13.5	13.5	13.5	13.5	54

see, if they are paid the same over the length of the contract, and using your contract and posting fee assumptions, then in the last three years, we can better afford the risk of matsuzaka than of zito.

[MFS62]

As I said earlier, I've read that the posting fee may be as high as $20-30 million. And I expect Boras will negotiate a salary comparable to the $15 million per that he got for Chan Ho Park. So the lifetime cost of the contract (even at an amortized $20 million figure) would be far greater than what might be paid to Zito.
Yes, he wouldn't have multiple teams to play off against each other. But if Seattle, LA or New York win the negotiating rights, he will have the "large Asian population you wouldn't want to piss off by losing him" card to play.
Later

[Guest Edgy DC]

I think the Mets access to Japanese living in Japan is far more important to them than their access to Japanese Americans living in New York. I think the marektability of Japanese players are worth more to virtually any team that way, except maybe San Francisco.

[metirish]

Do you think baseball teams think like that though, it's common in soccer for a team to buy a player because "he can sell replica shirts in asia",it's the main reason Real Madrid bought Beckam and not Ronaldihno,he was deemed"to ugly to sell shirts" by the then Real president.

[MFS62]

Good point.
Would the Mets (or any team) feed their games to Japan, for them to do studio voice overs? Or would the Japanese carry the games on their own network, with announcers here? I forget which way the MFYs did it with Hidecki Matsui.

Later

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I'm not sure what the story is about telecasts in Japan, but if you look at the blackout rules for MLB.TV, Japan is mentioned explicitly.

In other words, I can't watch Brewers games if I live in the Milwaukee area, or in Japan.

And I can't watch Royals games if I live in the Kansas City area. Or Japan.

I can watch in Uganda and Switzerland and Pakistan and Australia and Korea, but not Japan.

I assume that's because there's some other pay package they'd want me to get if I lived in Japan, but I have no idea what it might be.

[MFS62]

I think Georgie cut a special deal between YES and a Japanese network. Or maybe MLB put in that rule as a result of what George did.
Later

[Frayed Knot]

* I don't believe that individual teams can make TV deals in Japan

* Any media money that is generated overseas is league money - ie. spread around among the 30 teams

[metsmarathon]

but the merchandise sales would go to the team... as well as any royalties for using team imagery in marketing with the player.

[metirish]

BTW,Beltran has pulled out of the Japan tour.

[Frayed Knot]

metsmarathon wrote: but the merchandise sales would go to the team... as well as any royalties for using team imagery in marketing with the player.

Most merchandise money is treated as league-wide money also.

The benefit to a team like the Yanx with a big Japanese star is more indirect than direct. If/when Japanese TV carries games they're more likely to be NYY (or Seattle) games which "spreads the brand name" to a new market.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

When I'm in Japan next month I'll keep my eyes out for signs of Major League Baseball.

When I was in Puerto Rico I frequently saw photos of Hispanic (and not necessarily Puerto Rican) baseball players hanging up in stores and restaurants. I wonder if I'll see similar pictures of Ichiro or Hideki Matsui in Tokyo or Kyoto.

I'll also report back on how much I see of MLB logos and merchandise, other than the Mets cap that will frequently be on my head.

In Italy two years ago I saw almost nothing of the Mets, and refreshingly little of the Yankees. A lot of Red Sox stuff, but they had just won their long awaited World Championship.

[Willets Point]

Last year in Venice I saw two different people in Mets gear.

[nymr83]

even if merchandise money money is pooled (which i didn't think it was) there has to be some benefit to the Mets of having people walking around Japan with Mets hats, creating a generation of Mets fans (or at least people who can identify the Mets before they could identify the Braves/Cardinals)

I have, by the way, seen a Japanese Mets hat, i think i was in Cooperstown at the time

here is the hebrew one, i can't find it in Japanese online but hte idea is the same

[nymr83]

Willets Point wrote: Last year in Venice I saw two different people in Mets gear.

somewhere in Aftica there will soon be a whole village of children wearing Mets 2006 National League Champions shirts.

[Elster88]

So when are we going to sign this guy?

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I think the bidding is going to happen "shortly after November 1."

If he becomes a Met, I'll visit him in Japan and start the orientation process.

[metirish]

I'm so jealous that you are going to Japan Yancy,I'd love to visit,watched "Lost in Translation" again recently...love that flick.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I sure don't want to visit the Japan depicted in Lost in Translation.

[MFS62]

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I'll visit him in Japan and start the orientation process.

Isn't that redundant? Or unnecessary?

Later

[Frayed Knot]

It's just politcally incorrect.

The proper term is now Asianization process

[MFS62]

="Frayed Knot"]It's just politcally incorrect. The proper term is now Asianization process

Funny.

IIRC, the use of the word "orient" as a verb does not mean how it is commonly used, as in "I will orient you in the proper way to do this" (probably a poor example).
To orient someone is to bury them with their head toward the East.
You don't say "oriention" when it should be "orientation".

In the example I gave above, and the comment Yancy correctly made, the proper word is to orientate someone.

But , if FK is correct about the new PC word, its all moot. They will be using that new term jutl like people now use the word impact because they don't know whether effect or affect should be used.

Later

[soupcan]

JUDGMENT DAI
By JOEL SHERMAN

October 26, 2006 -- ST. LOUIS - Daisuke Matsuzaka is about to add a big arm, a huge financial commitment and a giant mystery onto the major-league landscape.

Matsuzaka, arguably Japan's best starter, is going to be posted by his Japanese team in the next few weeks. Essentially that means, every team will have 72 hours to make a blind bid not to sign the 26-year-old righty, but merely to gain the exclusive rights to negotiate with him for 30 days and have his Japanese team, the Seibu Lions, accept the bid.

If Seibu accepts after the U.S. Commissioners Office passes along the high bid, then Scott Boras takes over. And the hard-bargaining agent said yesterday that "Matsuzaka's value is that he is a No. 1-type starter, and that is the basis of negotiations."

So the price of doing business for a player who has yet to pitch in the majors could be staggering. The most commonly quoted price you hear for just the posting bid is $20 million. But one NL GM whose team plans to participate said his staff has made the "under-over $33 million." There is a feeling that one rogue owner, a Tom Hicks from Texas, for example, could simply decide he wants the player so much that he bids extravagantly to assure gaining negotiating rights.

There also is a school of thought that the team that wins the posting exclusivity gains leverage because either Matsuzaka accepts whatever that club offers or else he has to return to play for Seibu for one more year before he gains complete free agency, and that could be humiliating for the player to return. However, Boras, who does not cede leverage to any adversary, said, "Obviously, you look at pitcher like this, he is very young, he's going to come over on his term or wait. [Playing here] is an option for him, not a necessity."

So is Matsuzaka worth this kind of outlay, possibly in the five-year, $75 million range on top of the posting cost if he is really treated as a true ace? Yankees assistant GM Jean Afterman, the executive most versed in the organization on Japanese baseball, has visited the country several times in the last year, including in the last week, to gain as much intelligence as possible. Over the summer, Mets GM Omar Minaya dispatched one of his most trusted aides, Russ Bove, to watch Matsuzaka. Both New York clubs are going to be players, and there is an industry feeling that the Yanks will go hard for this pitcher, as will the Mariners. The Dodgers, Red Sox and Rangers also are expected to be among the many teams that bid for Matsuzaka.

Here is why: "He is a world-class pitcher," said Bobby Valentine, manager of the Chiba Lotte Marines. "He has very good off-speed stuff and terrific command. He has a fastball between 90-95 [mph], pitches at about 90. He has a curve, slider, change and split. His change is one of the best in the world. He likes to compete and his only problem would be the number of pitches thrown in his life. This year he was a notch below the past two seasons. He had minor injuries and had more hittable pitches than before, but I think it was because of the [World Baseball Classic]."

Valentine's assessment matches that of just about every executive questioned about Matsuzaka's skills. An NL GM described Matsuzaka as "in the discussion about the top 10 pitches in the world." An NL scout said, "He's a no. 1 starter. He has command of five pitches. Across the board he has nasty stuff. If he were here this year for the Yankees, he starts Game 1 of the playoffs." Multiple officials made note of Matsuzaka's "gyro" pitch, a slider-sinker hybrid that baffles hitters.

The only doubts on Matsuzaka were expressed by an NL director of international scouting who loves the pitcher, but said, "Can he adjust to pitching in a five-man rotation instead of pitching once a week as he does in Japan? And, despite, his age, he has thrown a lot of innings and pitches in his career."

[Guest Edgy DC]

I guess there's not much but mutual mistrust stopping the interested parties from colluding --- getting together and opening their sealed bids to one-another, so the high bidder goes no more than a million over the next guy.

But I don't think they'll try that.

[Guest Yancy Street Gang]

I don't either. Never underestimate the power of mutual mistrust.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Or, on second thought, of retribution if the honor-bound Japanese get wind of it.

[metirish]

Is that a lot of innings for a 26 year old...1,402....

EDIT - Zito has 1430+ innings..so I guess it's not.

[nymr83]

back page of the Post today: "YENKEE" with Matsuzaka's picture... god i hope they lose the bid, i really dont care to who.