Darvish to be Posted
If the earlier news about Hiroki Sanada’s failed posting wasn’t exciting enough, we have more.
Yu Darvish is finally getting posted. He’s announced it on his blog, and I’ve translated below.
To all the fans, an announcement
At this time, Yu Darvish has decided to use the posting system.
Because I wanted to relay this to the fans first, I am announcing this here.
I greatly appreciate the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Baseball Club.
Because we’ve only just begun the posting process, I can’t talk about the details now.
I wish to hold a press conference once everything is decided.
Yu Darvish
It is going to be a very interesting couple of weeks!
08/12/2011 at 12:55 am Permalink
Great timing to keep things at maximum interest. Didn’t think he’d go. But he’s not likely to make that much more in the US, so divorce settlement won’t be affected, maybe that was one of the factors?
08/12/2011 at 1:20 am Permalink
Over/Under on Matsuzaka posting fee and contract?
08/12/2011 at 2:35 am Permalink
Didn’t see this coming. I thought he would end up staying in Japan since he never EVER declared publicly he wanted to play in the MLB. Just one concern: contrary to his father, apparently he doesn’t speak a word in english (well, as if it’s something new to Japanese players.)
08/12/2011 at 4:52 am Permalink
Over. 55 million posting fee, 60 million contract for 4 years , blue Jays get him.
08/12/2011 at 8:27 am Permalink
Didion: I thought I read that english was spoken in his home until he was 3 or 4, since his father didn’t speak very good Japanese? Surely, if that’s the case, he knows some words at least.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=darvish
ESPN has been known to be mistaken though, Patrick do you know?
08/12/2011 at 8:36 am Permalink
Didion, although Darvish may not have been personally as interested in pitching in the Majors, I do recall reading somewhere on mlbtraderumors that Nipon Ham had wanted to post him last year and that when they didn’t, they had to “scramble” to find the money to pay his salary. In that sense, it may have been a business decision on the part of the team, more than the desire of the player.
08/12/2011 at 8:36 am Permalink
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/web/COM1192681/2/index.htm
Darvish’s Iranian father and Japanese mother met at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla., but Darvish has lived his entire life in Japan. (According to Hillman, who noted that he hasn’t spoken to the pitcher in nearly four years, Darvish understands English but is shy about speaking it.)
Fun note: I am mentioned on the paragraph that proceeds that one
08/12/2011 at 9:28 am Permalink
>Over/Under on Matsuzaka posting fee and contract?
We talking dollars or yen? I think Patrick has pointed this out in the past, but the exchange rate has gone to hell in the past five years (from the US point of view). The $51.1 millon that the Red Sox paid in the posting fee for Matsuzaka in November of 2006 was worth about 6 billion yen then. That same dollar amount today is only worth around 4 billion yen. You’d need to bid $78 million to match the Matsuzaka bid.
08/12/2011 at 2:10 pm Permalink
>I thought I read that english was spoken in his home until he was 3 or 4
That may be true. But I’ve been watching Darvish interviews for years, some very up close and personal as a high schooler and he didn’t show a hint of english knowledge. I mean, I’ve seen Matsuzaka, whose not an english speaker in the least, fooling around with english on live shows way before his coming to the MLB (particulary I remember him doing question and answer drills in english on a live talk show called smastation and he did suprisingly well.) Darvish is a typical japanese youngster with that unique japanese humor with that unmistakable kansai accent (kinda texan accent to english) so it will be a real surprise to me if all the sudden he starts to talk english.
>I do recall reading somewhere on mlbtraderumors that Nipon Ham had wanted to post him last year and that when they didn’t, they had to “scramble†to find the money to pay his salary.
I don’t know from where such rumor is coming but make no mistake. Nippon Ham is an ubiquitous processed food brand in Japan. Their baseball team may not be as popular as Hanshin or Giants nationwide, but the Nippon Ham is one of the wealthiest teams in the country especially after they moved to remote Hokkaido (they are now second in the league in home attendance.) In October their owner Hiroji Ohkoso declared that he’s willing to pay a billion yen a year (US13 million) to keep Darvish. That might have been a semi-bluff, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually happened.
08/12/2011 at 2:46 pm Permalink
That may be true. But I’ve been watching Darvish interviews for years, some very up close and personal as a high schooler and he didn’t show a hint of english knowledge. I mean, I’ve seen Matsuzaka, whose not an english speaker in the least, fooling around with english on live shows way before his coming to the MLB (particulary I remember him doing question and answer drills in english on a live talk show called smastation and he did suprisingly well.) Darvish is a typical japanese youngster with that unique japanese humor with that unmistakable kansai accent (kinda texan accent to english) so it will be a real surprise to me if all the sudden he starts to talk english.
I wouldn’t base an assessment of Darvish on something someone else did or didn’t do. Your assertion here runs somewhat counter with what Trey Hillman is on the record as saying.
I don’t know from where such rumor is coming but make no mistake. Nippon Ham is an ubiquitous processed food brand in Japan. Their baseball team may not be as popular as Hanshin or Giants nationwide, but the Nippon Ham is one of the wealthiest teams in the country especially after they moved to remote Hokkaido (they are now second in the league in home attendance.) In October their owner Hiroji Ohkoso declared that he’s willing to pay a billion yen a year (US13 million) to keep Darvish. That might have been a semi-bluff, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that actually happened.
Ohkoso did say that, but I think he was blowing smoke. I have heard from a couple of sources that Nippon Ham was pushing to post Darvish. Perhaps that was a convenient myth, according to their annual report the Nippon Meat Packers Corp. seems to be doing alright: http://www.nipponham.co.jp/en/pdf/anual2011all_e.pdf
08/12/2011 at 5:44 pm Permalink
Darvish used to publicly say that he was never going to the majors. That changed 2-3 years ago when he became absolutely mum about the subject. And he has been just utterly dominant over those years. Him wanting a bigger challenge is entirely reasonable.
Anyways, similar situation as Matsuzaka. Darvish will not earn more than $10m a year because he has no leverage in the negotiation.
08/12/2011 at 6:55 pm Permalink
I’m well aware of Nipon Ham as a brand. Here’s the link:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2011/12/darvish-likely-to-be-posted-after-winter-meetings.html
Ken Rosenthal reported, citing a scout in Japan as a source. Granted, Deadspin has noted as of late that Rosenthal is more than willing to throw stuff against the wall and see if it sticks. Darvish’s 2010 salary of $4.2m is far from $13m, so I’m inclined to side with Patrick that this is smoke-blowing. Of course, all of this is moot because Darvish is being posted.
08/12/2011 at 7:20 pm Permalink
Darvish’s 2011 salary:
5 oku yen = 500 million yen = $6.43m
Someone got the exchange rate backwards it seems.
I doubt he’ll earn much more than that signing with an MLB team because he’ll have no leverage in the negotiation. Much like Matsuzaka-Boras.
08/12/2011 at 9:52 pm Permalink
If anything, this will be a relief, because it’ll be the end of all the ‘will-he-won’t-he’ talk that’s dominated every hot stove league over the last five years.
In terms of Darvish’s leverage, it just got higher than it was a few days ago with the signing of CJ Wilson. Darvish can always turn heel and make his $7 million in Japan next year, so he doesn’t have to take an offer if the money isn’t there. In this sense, his long-held ambivalence and guarded public stance to playing in the US could play in his favor.
08/12/2011 at 10:17 pm Permalink
Yeah, Rosenthal’s articles about Darvish, especially that one referenced above, have sucked. I was kind of hoping Darvish would drag it out a little longer just to annoy Rosenthal.
09/12/2011 at 2:38 pm Permalink
From Yahoo JP
Yu Darvish and his agent are expecting 20 million dollar salary per year. MLB teams are consider 8 million dollar per year. Since there is a 12 million dollar gap, the deal would not be made and Yu will stay in Japan at least this year.
09/12/2011 at 3:31 pm Permalink
That is speculation at best.
09/12/2011 at 7:37 pm Permalink
I’m excited about this. I hope he ends up somewhere on the east coast so I can see him pitch. I haven’t seen him in person since 2008. I hope he does well in America.
10/12/2011 at 2:00 am Permalink
>Chady
Thanks for the link.
About its content, well, it’s plain laughable. I mean, what if some japanese reporter comes up with a story, like, actually STL didn’t want to re-sign Pujols and all that previous negotiations were just “sorry fans but we tried our best” stunt (and citing anonymous japanese scouts in America as sources?) That would be highly unlikely to say the least because a) noone has been talking about it, especially Pujols agent b) how the hell somebody from the other side of the world knows better than the locals?
All these years Fighters wanted to sign a multi year contract (as Giants tried with Matsui) and Darvish always refusing it with a very politically correct “I don’t want to accommodate myself with a long-term contract but challenge myself on yearly basis” (this phrase is becoming prety much a cliche here.) After Shinjo’s retirement (easily the most popular player in Fighters history dispite playing just 3 seasons there) Darvish has been THE franchise player, the Fighters sole figure with national recognition, their cash-box. Sure 50+ million US dollars is a pretty handsome amount, but it is hard to believe that they wanted to throw him away when they can profit many times more through coming years considering his age. This is no MLB but still a big big market. I mean, this country may have 1 quadrillion yens in public debt (13 trillion US dollars) but they have 1.4 quadrillion yens (18.5 trillion US dollars) in cash savings plus 500 trillion yens (6.5 trillion US dollars) in foreign assets. Per capita-wise it’s arguably the richest country in the world.
You may ask so why they can’t keep their stars. The “problem” is that this is a pretty socialist country. Unlike MLB the NPB has a pretty reasonable minimum wage (around 4 million yens or 50.000 US dollars a year) and they still praise equality in general. Hell, the president of Toyota’s salary is 30 million yens (350.000 US dollars.) Meanwhile I watched once a report about minor leaguers on the japanese tv NHK and saw guys getting paid 3000 US dollars a YEAR so they have to work multiple jobs to survive. But that’s another story, one country’s business is no other country’s business.
Anyway I just translated the link and posted in a japanese baseball forum (adding that it’s from a very respectful media down there.) Just got joking replies (like “what else they’re saying? that he actually was born in kenya?”)
PS. About his english, maybe I’m wrong. I checked his tweets and on 4-5-2011 he replied to one fan’s “can you speak english?” with something like “if I have absolutely no other choice, then I can speak. (LOL)” He didn’t say “I will speak” so I dunno what he meant…
http://twitter.com/#!/faridyu/status/65746670033448960
10/12/2011 at 10:13 am Permalink
Actually Darvish did have a three-year contract, that covered 2008-2010. The total amount was JPY 800m.
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/sports/news/111018/bbl11101823180026-n1.htm
Can you share a link to your forum posting? I’d love to see the reactions.
11/12/2011 at 2:09 pm Permalink
Thanks for the insight into NPB economics, Didion! The majority of my knowledge about the current NPB comes from what I’ve seen on the major American outlets and some of the stuff Robert Whiting’s written (You Gotta Have Wa, etc–I originally studied baseball in the Meiji period for a little while), where NPB teams are generally characterized as cash sink-holes for their parent corporations–with the exception of a couple major teams like Yomiuri and Hanshin.