Daisuke Matsuzaka whips MLB all-stars
DMZ · November 11, 2004 at 10:42 am · Filed Under Mariners
Complete game, one-run outing. I haven’t found a box score yet, but it looks like he struck out six, walked no one, and gave up five hits. The ESPN article mentions that he’s still a candidate to come over this year, but doesn’t offer any quotes or evidence to back that up. I’ve read differently elsewhere, so I’m not sure exactly what’s going on.
Added by Dave: No one in an MLB front office believes he’s getting posted. He’s almost certainly staying in Japan.
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12 Responses to “Daisuke Matsuzaka whips MLB all-stars”
Does anyone know if this is on TV? If it is, I would like to see it (the games).
I got an idea. What if Scott Boras and his free agent clients bought the Washington Nationals and took paycuts to be part owners.
Magglio LF
Beltran CF
JD Drew RF
Varitek C
Beltre 3b
Vidro 2b
Wilkinson 1b
Carroll SS
bench
Johnson
Rivera
Chavez
Millwood SP
Lowe SP
Armas SP
Livan SP
Patterson SP
If owning the team is where it is at then why wouldn’t they?
Interesting… but there would have to be some conflict of interest, right?
That’d be a pretty nice team though.
Scott Boras needs a shortstop.
Good call. Boras is a genius, he could find some way to get ARod out of his Yankees contract and return to SS for the Washington (Secret?) Agents, and thus add another solid ownership partner. As the scientists in the Guiness commercials would say. . . “Brilliant!”
Damn! I’ve been staying up till 4am every night this week listening to the games on mlb.com (and wanting to STRANGLE the announcers, who can’t pronounce Japanese names to save their life), and last night I didn’t see an audio link for the game so I went to sleep early. That sounds like it was an awesome game. (And I’ve been reading the mlb coverage of the games, which are entirely MLB-centric and Clemens-centric and whatnot — I’m not even sure they included any game details about game 5 where the NPB finally won.)
Damn, damn, damn. I hope Matsuzaka stays in Japan for a while, though, honestly. It’s depressing thinking how much better the NPB all-star team would have been if they hadn’t lost several of their best players to us.
BTW, they really should be making a bigger deal out of Hisashi Iwakuma. He’s put up some pretty damn good numbers the last few years; he’s only 23 years old, and he gave up like 2 hits in 7 innings against the MLB team in Game 5. The guy went 15-2 this season with a 3.01 ERA playing on a team that finished in second-to-last place and is merging with the last-place team next year. Now *he* should be on the Mariners in 5 years, maybe 🙂
If you can read Japanese, here is a box score of game 6. Your numbers (complete game, 5 hits, struck out 6, walked none) are correct.
Actually, it isn’t impossible that he may be posted. Matsuzaka was quoted this week in the Japan Economic Times as saying that he really wanted to be playing in the US and that he’s play in the majors tomorrow if he could.
Now, why, you ask, would the Japan Economic Times be running an interview with a pitcher? Well, the parent mega-company of Matsuzaka’s Seibu Lions is in deep financial trouble due to stock fraud and other financial shenanigans that have caused the Seibu Railroad to lose more than half its share value inthe past couple of weeks. To try to stop the bleeding, they’ve put the Seibu Lions on the market but haven’t had any acceptable bids. Of course, they do happen to have a highly saleable commodity on their hands with a 95 mph fastball and 10 complete games in a short season last year…
I know it sounds crazy that he’d be posted. After all, how can you sell the team profitably without its biggest star? But even with Matsuzaka last year, Seibu drew terribly at the gate. So how much less would the team be worth in a firesale without him? And that Yankee/Mariner posting money is guaranteed money, right here right now, to a company fighting to stave off liquidation.
So…has the take on this from MLB front offices cahnged any in the past few days? Or is the Japan Economic Times blowing smoke?
Seibu has always drawn poorly at the gate though, haven’t they? Just because the team’s won like, 15 pennants in the last 25 years doesn’t mean anyone actually goes out to Tokorozawa to see them. (Heck, I still haven’t, and I even trekked to Chiba to see the Marines.) It’s kinda like the Oakland A’s — they have a depressingly low fan base for the high quality of the team. And akin in another way, in that BOTH teams are consistently fighting low attendance numbers due to a team called the Giants playing nearby…
I think it’s clear that the Seibu management *will* post Matsuzaka before he becomes a free agent. I just dunno that they’ll do it this year. Of course, it depends on whether they’re able to sell the team, especially with conditions like “must continue to play in Seibu Dome”. But hey, if the Lions take a dive into the second division, maybe one of the other teams (like the Fighters, who are way overdue, and improving a ton) will be able to take a PL pennant. That’d be cool.
Yo you two,
Janet and Deanna, just keep on postin’. Any news and views on what’s up with baseball West of the Moon over there are a big plus.
Seibu Lions just won the Japan Series. After that, there is a rumor saying Matsuzaka wants to stay in Japan in order to enjoy the championship once again. This news is not confirmed, though quite understandable.
Personally I hope to see him coming to the US as soon as possible. From MLB’s point of view, this young arm has been very overloaded since he joined NPB. Many Japanese managers/coaches in high schools and professional baseball still believe that a good pitcher should be able to and should pitch a lot. 150P per game in Japan is not uncommon at all. Matsuzaka’s body is much stronger than average Japanese pitchers. But this doesn’t mean he can keep over working. To see the full potential of this monster, I hope he can come to the US to face a different level of challenge and to avoid being overloaded.
Does anyone remember the name of the SS who didn’t end up getting posted last year?
Matsuzaka just also won his 5th Golden Glove, announced today. Tsuyoshi Shinjo, for those that remember him, also won his 8th Golden Glove.
Nobuhiko Matsunaka, more impressively, won his first Golden Glove, *and* the Triple Crown this year.
(Michael Westbay posts this stuff all the time. His site is a great read if you are interested in Japanese baseball.)
I can’t think of any shortstops that didn’t get posted offhand… Tadahito Iguchi, maybe? A decent ex-shortstop who has been mostly playing second base lately, I think he had talked about moving over, and I don’t remember the details about why not, but perhaps it had something to do with the Hawks winning the Japan Series last year and all. I’m not sure Sadaharu Oh is too fond of the idea of letting any of his awesome players go.