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I was going to ignore this story, but it just got interesting.

A couple of days ago, Chunichi Sports and Sponichi came out with reports saying that Yu Darvish’s father, Farzad, had been in touch with agent Arn Tellem. At the time, I dismissed these reports as a) Sponichi rattling the cage again, and b) not really news. Agents reach out to unrepresented players; I have firsthand knowledge that at least one agency talked with Yusei Kikuchi last year. So I waited for Darvish to disavow the reports, which he did via Twitter, saying “It looks something about the majors was in the news. There’s not much there.”

Chunichi Sports came back with another story, pointing out that he didn’t explicitly deny the earlier reports, which was an interesting point but I figured the story was over for this rumor cycle.

Then Chunichi’s writer bumped into Darvish at Sapporo Dome during a pre-game workout, and said, “we annoyed you a bit…”, to which Darvish replied, “that’s ok, don’t worry about it. It builds excitement.” Then a brief interview followed, which I have translated below:

Q: How do you actually feel about the Majors?

Darvish: “Regarding the Majors, I don’t know and I don’t have any comment. I’d always said I wouldn’t go to the Majors. Last year I went to the WBC (in America) and thought it was good. Matsuzaka-san, Ichiro-san, Johjima-san, and Fukudome-san graciously told me what is good, what is tough and a lot of things. But this isn’t will I go or not. I like Japanese baseball and I feel that I want to do my best in Japan.”

Q: But, don’t you have any interest in MLB?

Darvish: “I’ve always liked baseball. I look at how the MLB pitchers throw and what pitches they have, and I’d like to take in the good habits (from the Majors).”

Q: How about your relationship with Arn Tellem?

Darvish: “My father (Farzad) has known guys like Tellem-san and (Scott) Boras-san since I was in junior high school and has a good relationship with them. My father is just friends with them. I don’t know my father met [Tellem] this time. Hmm, but I usually know what’s going on. I don’t think my father met him.”

So there you have it. There are people who are convinced that Darvish will try to be posted after this season. I’m not one of them, though. There’s no public indication that he wants to move this season, and it doesn’t make sense for Nippon Ham competitively. Financially, a struggling US economy and weak dollar would likely mean fewer bidders, and a lower yen value for the resultant posting fee and contract.

Looks like the Hisanori Takahashi saga may be drawing to a close — and that’s OK with me.

Sports Hochi said that of the teams that moved on Takahashi, only the Mets and Dodgers are left in the running. Hochi doesn’t mention the Pirates, but says that the Twins were interested, which I hadn’t heard before.

Takahashi seems to be accepting the fact that he’ll likely have to spend a some time in 3A, and is prioritizing teams that will give him a chance to be promoted to the majors as a starter.

Edit Wednesday, February 10: Just as I alluded to in the original post, this one wound up getting shot down, just like the supposed signings of Shigetoshi Yamakita and Naoya Okamoto. For this one, the Phillies canceled Yamamura’s press conference 30 minutes before it was scheduled to begin. Nikkan Sports quoted Minoru Ichihara, who was inter-mediating the signing, as saying “there are differences between the truth and what’s been reported about this contract, and it feels like Amaro resents that”. Nikkan Sports goes on to explain that there were reports of big-money contract being finalized, but the reality is that the Phillies were planning to bring Yamamura into their minor league camp and let him play before the scouts before finalizing the contract. For his part, Yamamura said “I was thinking that it would be important to put up results in camp, and my frame of mind hasn’t changed. I just have to do my best in America.”

It’s hasn’t been reported whether or not the Phils are still going to have Yamamura in camp. I’m not sure where the errant information came from; the reports I saw when the story broke said that the contract wasn’t done. This Jiji News report from yesterday says so as well. I didn’t read every report on Yamamura so I could have missed it though.

Yakyu Baka has a few thoughts as well.

Let’s throw this one out there and see if it gets shot down… multiple reports out of Japan are saying that the Phillies have agreed to a minor league deal with Osaka University of Commerce catcher Hiroya Yamamura. Commenter John Brooks first passed along Yakyu Baka’s post on the signing, but there have been several subsequent reports.  Yomiuri says the details of the contract are still not finalized, and we have other reports saying that there will be a press conference on the 10th.

Yamamura was not selected in last year’s NPB draft, and only got a tertiary mention in Shukan Baseball’s draft guide, so I don’t know much about him. But (repeating what I put in the comments of another post), according to Draft Reports, he threw out 75% of would-be basestealers over his college career, but his hitting tanked in 2009. 23 k’s in 87 at-bats after controlling the strikezone pretty well the previous two years.

If you find yourself in the minority of people who are more interested in where Hisanori Takahashi winds up than the Super Bowl, this one’s for you.

Sanspo has published a report saying that the Pirates have suddenly emerged as a destination for Takahashi. I’d read earlier that Takahashi prefers the west coast, but he’s also been saying all offseason that he wants a major league deal and wants to start. The Pirates don’t exactly have the strongest rotation in the world, so it’s feasible that they could have MLB starts to offer him this season. Bringing in Takahashi may work for the Pirates if he can eat up a few innings and buy them some time with some of their prospects, plus Aki Iwamura is around to ease his transition. But, you know, that sounds pretty stopgap-ish, and if you’re going to be a stopgap, why not be one in San Diego? Assuming the opportunity is available, of course.

Sanspo also runs down the latest status from Takahahi’s other suitors:

• The Giants made an offer, but never heard back
• The Dodgers are targeting other pitchers
• The Mets were moving towards a MLB contract, but couldn’t reach a compromise on money
• The Orioles were very interested but went in a different direction because Takahashi’s demands were too high

Finally, Sponichi says that Takahashi has traveled to Arizona, and was planning to throw for scouts today.

Edit Monday 17:46 PST: Reports of these signings have been debunked by the Phillies.

According to Daily Sports, the Phillies have reached basic agreements on minor league deals with former Yokohama BayStars pitchers Shigetoshi Yamakita and Naoya Okamoto. Both lefthanded, Yamakita (32) and Okamoto (26) will report to the Phils’ minor league camp in March. Neither saw time at the top level last year, but you can see their minor league stats on NPB’s official site.

For the second year in a row, we have a lefthander named Takahashi looking for an MLB job. We could have had two, but Ken decided early in the offseason to return to Hiroshima. So here’s the latest on Hisanori:

• Offer the weekend, multiple sources reported that Takahashi revealed that he had a major league contract offer, but didn’t say which team it was from. This report from Sports Hochi says that the Angels had been interested, but I think they may be overthinking Takahashi’s Hideki Matsui connection.
• Sponichi just published a report saying that there’s a growing possibility that the Orioles will make Takahashi an official offer in the next few days. Baltimore has another former teammate, Koji Uehara, under contract.
• And David Waldstein of the New York Times says that the Mets reached out to Takahashi’s agent.

I posted a profile of Takahashi a couple of months ago. In a nutshell, he has a good screwball but don’t expect him to be a huge innings eater.

Update, Wednesday night: Igarashi has indeed signed with the Mets.

Yesterday, I passed along (via Twitter) a Sponichi report saying that the Red Sox were in the lead for Ryota Igarashi with a two-year deal worth $2-3m. This ran counter to the NY Times report from earlier in the day saying that Igarashi was near a deal with the Mets.

Twitter, being limited to 140 characters per post, doesn’t allow for much detail, so here’s some context from the Sponichi article:

• Igarashi spent a day training with Daisuke Matsuzaka in Arizona. Sponichi doesn’t mention this, but I’ve read elsewhere that they had planned to train together for two days.
• Igarashi got to ask Matsuzaka quite a bit about Boston’s camp and training programs. Said Igarashi: “the things we talked about were interesting, and I enjoyed it. I only know a little bit, but it’s totally different [from Japan]. It reduced my stress.”
• Sponichi also points out that “diving into a new environment on a team that already has three Japanese pitchers, Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Junichi Tazawa is an appealing point.” This is a quote from the article, not Igarashi.
• This might be a function of the limitations of Twitter, but the term I translated as “Red Sox in the lead” comes across more directly as “Red Sox one step ahead”.

And a couple of other things to consider…

• Sports Hochi reported over the weekend that the countdown was running toward a deal with the Mets.
• Igarashi let it slip on his way to America that he had received multiple offers, including one from the team he was hoping to play for. Sponichi seems to be hinting pretty strongly that the team might be the Red Sox.

These are just my observations based on what’s been in the media — I don’t have my own sources on this one. As an observer, I could see this going either way. Both Boston and New York are appealing destinations, every team needs bullpen depth, and the dollar figures being reported are peanuts to either team.

Ryota Igarashi has departed to Arizona for offseason training. On his way out, he let it slip that he had received an offer from a team he wanted to play for, but didn’t say which team it was. Nikkan Sports speculates that he’s received at least four offers already. Nikkan Sports also says that he wants to close in MLB, which I hadn’t read before.

Igarashi appears to be getting healthy amount of interest, and he’s arguably most attractive free agent reliever still remaining unsigned (he’ll come cheaper than, say, Fernando Rodney). Last week I ran down his current suitors, and haven’t seen anything since to suggest we need to add to this list.

Nikkan Sports and others are reporting that Hiroshima Carp ace Colby Lewis has turned down the team’s offer and will return to MLB for 2010. Lewis cited family health problems as his decision to leave the Carp.

Lewis leaves big shoes for Hiroshima to fill. He stepped in to the ace role that Hiroki Kuroda vacated, and in some ways outperformed the current Dodger. In 54 NPB games, Lewis went 26-17 with a 2.83 era, and led the Central League in strikeouts in each of the last two seasons. More impressive was his command of the strike zone, which was not his strength at the MLB level. In Japan, Lewis only walked 46 over 354.1 innings pitched. Somewhat weirdly however, he did hit 14 batters in 2009.

Lewis looks like an interesting back-rotation MLB starter to me, and could be very effective if his command makes the trip back. Please see our data site to get a feel for his arsenal.

The respective markets for Ryota Igarashi and Hisanori Takahashi seem to be heating up.

First on Igarashi… I’ve seen Arn Tellem quoted in a couple of places as saying “discussions are progressing. It looks like we’ll have a decision sooner than I thought.” Here’s the breakdown:

• Sports Hochi says the countdown is running toward a move to the Mets, and that Omar Minaya is getting his intelligence on Igarashi from none other than Bobby Valentine.
• An earlier Hochi report said that Igarashi’s camp negotiated with the Orioles on the 9th, who would pair him up in the bullpen with Koji Uehara. Hochi also named the Padres and Diamondbacks as interested.
• Sponichi throws the Yankees in the mix, saying that he could backfill for Brian Bruney or, in the event he is traded, Joba Chamberlain. This feels the most speculative of the rumors we have so far, but Sponichi does quote the projected line on Igarashi’s contract is two years, $2-3m. It wasn’t clear if that $2-3m is annual or cumulative, but either way, two years at $1-3m seems like a reasonable range.

Takahashi is getting less ink but things do seems to be starting to move for him.

• Sports Hochi has an article saying that his representatives have gotten interest from multiple teams, including the Nationals, Mets and Dodgers.
• Sanspo is saying that the Orioles are interested, which we’ve seen before.
• Takahashi is reiterating that he wants to remain a starter after moving MLB.