Daisuke Matsuzaka?

[Dam8610]

I could see the Yankees coughing up $30 million for the negotiating rights.

[DirtyKash]

$15 million/year + $30 million is worth it to get Matsuzaka as his marketing value would be worth that much to the Mariners, almost Ichiro-level.

[Porter]

The Mariners need to sign a Ace pitcher. BUT NOT FREAKING JASON SCHMIDT. Get a guy that can stay 4-5 years with Felix.

[catman]

I'm not sure the Yankees would be willing to put up that sort of cash for an "unproved" player. They have been burned by lots of guys like this -- Contreras did not pan out. El Duque did all right, but did not set the world on fire. Irabu was very disappointing.
I see the Yankees making a play for established major-league pitching, not taking a flyer on this guy.

[DirtyKash]

I see the Yankees making a play for established major-league pitching, not taking a flyer on this guy.

They already tried to go the "established major-league pitching" route by getting Carl Pavano
and Randy Johnson
and Jaret Wright

[Porter]

I think the Yankees will go after a guy like Jason Schmidt before the M's do.

[catman]

They already tried to go the "established major-league pitching" route by getting Carl Pavano
and Randy Johnson
and Jaret Wright

It did not cost King George $30M just to negotiate with these guys. That is the negotiation fee for Matsuzaka, and then you have to pay him the entire contract.
I've read that the Mariners have dropped out, for now, so where does he end up?
By the way, you forgot Jeff Weaver. He washed out in NYC as well.

[Porter]

You also forgot Javier Vazquez.

And Seattle is mass STUPID for not trying to get Matsuzaka.

[nyjunc]

I'm not sure the Yankees would be willing to put up that sort of cash for an "unproved" player. They have been burned by lots of guys like this -- Contreras did not pan out. El Duque did all right, but did not set the world on fire. Irabu was very disappointing.
I see the Yankees making a play for established major-league pitching, not taking a flyer on this guy.

They are 1 for 3 for hig profile foreign players but they should be 2 for 3. It didn't work w/ Irabu, it worked w/ Matsui and they gave up on Contreras too soon.

I do believe they'll make a strong bid, apparently they are very high on this guy and another high profile Japanese player means more marketing opportunities in japan and ways to make even more money off him.

[catman]

I don't think Contreras was ever comfortable in New York. Too much pressure on him and maybe too many distractions. Some people are just not supposed to play there and he was one of them.
Matsuzaka may be a "New York" guy, but we do not know yet. It'll cost $30M just to negotiate with him and that puts most teams out of the running for his services. He'll demand a long-term (5-7 years) contract with a huge signing bonus and guaranteed money, which will put a few more teams out of the running. The Mets, Yankees, Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox, Angels and Orioles are the only teams with owners willing to do these sort of deals, IMO, and the Mets and Angels appear to be wanting to go with Latin players, as opposed to Asians. This leaves us with the Yankees, Dodgers, Padres, Red Sox and Orioles. All but the Orioles will be in contention next season, but signing this guy would help the Orioles keep some of their other players happy.

[catman]

By the way Porter, Ken Rosenthal has something to say about why in his column today: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6132704.

[Porter]

Jason Schmidt or Matsuzaka. Id take Mats for just being younger. Ichiro wants to win. THEY HAVE TO GET MATSUZAKA. The probably could get some value for Sexson.

[DirtyKash]

The Yankees plan to wait until about five minutes before Wednesday's 5 p.m. deadline to make a bid on Daisuke Matsuzaka.
The winning bid could be announced Thursday then agent Scott Boras would have 30 days to finalize a deal. It could take $60 million or more to land the Japenese hurler.

..

[DirtyKash]

Heh.

At least three teams have attempted under-the-table negotiations to obtain Daisuke Matsuzaka from the Seibu Lions, Sankei Sports reported.
The report quoted an unnamed Seibu executive making the charge, and he refused to identify the teams. "It is tampering, so I refused to meet them," the executive said. It's been reported in the past that the Mariners paid only a fraction of the $13 million they bid for Ichiro Suzuki six years ago because of an agreement they had with his club in Japan, the Orix Blue Wave. It could be that some teams are trying to pull off the same thing here, which is another reason the posting system needs to be fixed or thrown out.

[missionhockey21]

The deadline for making bids on Seibu's Daisuke Matsuzaka was Wednesday. Although the commissioner's office prohibited teams from saying if they did so, it's believed the Indians did bid on the MVP of the World Baseball Classic.

Link

The suspense is getting to be pretty killer. I read last night that Rangers supposedly had the winning bid but there was no source with it. Anywho, we have the Yankees, Mets, Cubs, Red Sox, Indians, Rangers and anyone else?