Hideki Matsui Declares Major Pursuit

Go Godzilla, go, and good luck!

One thing's for sure: it'll likely create the biggest media scrum since Ichiro.

You just want him gone so he doesn't hit any more homers against the Tigers.

It's true he said he is coming.

Newsday article

Interesting that they call him a "corner outfielder" when Hideki has pretty much played center only for the past two (or has it been three?) seasons. While I've felt that Matsui didn't really have the range of many center fielders, I certainly wouldn't deliberately call him a "corner outfielder" when he hasn't played there for a number of years.

Is Newsday trying to insult his fielding, or are they clueless as to where he plays?

Also, before moving to center, Matsui played right field pretty much exclusively (post high school). Left field will be a new position to him.

I don't think Newsday is trying to insult his fielding. They're just assuming he'll end up with the Yankees, who already have Bernie Williams anchoring CF. Also, due to its short porch in right, LF is generally considered more difficult to play in Yankee Stadium than RF.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. I hope Hideki ends up anywhere but with the Yankees, although that's looking less and less likely.

I'd rather see him on the Mets, Red Sox, or Dodgers than the Yankees.

Godzilla on the Mets? Iya! That team has bad karma and the recent sacking of Bobby Valentine rules them out anyway. I would also fear Mo Vaughn would teach Matsui too much about the poor eating habits of Americans and turn him into other Irabu. It doesn't matter anyway since this has been worked out already. Going to the Yankees allows Watanabe-sama to save some face and even profit from it.

Hi everyone!!!

This is my first post to this forum, although I have been following the topics for a couple of weeks now.

It's a foregone conclusion. Hideki Matsui is going to the Yankees. Everybody in the Yankees front office knows about it. Every sports writer in New York knows about it. You can't even find an article anywhere with Hideki being mentioned with any other MLB team. The Yankees already are the best offensive team in the league without Godzilla!!! Sheesh.

Was there tampering? Of course, there was. George Steinbrenner just doesn't all of a sudden decide to broadcast Giants games on his cable station and vice versa. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, George gets what George wants.

All this notion of the Yankees cutting payroll is BS. Steinbrenner's concept of cutting payroll is finding a sucker to take Raul Mondesi, Rondell White and Sterling Hitchcock off their hands. All these rumors of the Yankees having interest in Red Sox free agent Cliff Floyd is all a ploy so it doesn't become a bidding war for Hideki.

So don't be offended if you don't see me in here cheering for Hideki in pinstripes. It would've been fun reading all the headlines Boston sports writers could've made up for Hideki in a Red Sox uniform though. "Godzilla: Monster from Japan taking on the Green Monster of Fenway." Even though the Green Monster is in left field, lol.

Redsoxfan, you are entirely right about Godzilla coming to the Yanks. First, their line-up was in need of alteration and the best left-handed, power hitter, available was a good fix. Losing to the Halos must really stick in George's gizzard. Second, Mr. Watanabe may have said that he was going to look at speaking with Hideki, but that was, probably, a ploy at soaking more $$$ from George for the broadcast rights to the Giants. Third, the next question should be who else is going to the Yanks from Japan? I figure a pretty good pitcher. They had some problems and issues with their pitchers, e.g. age, etc., and Godzilla could use someone to speak to at times. My son and I saw Godzilla coming to America several months ago. My Roto team is going to first with this one. Thanks Greg...

dapperdan,

The Yanks don't have the dire need for another bat. Their need is to lower the average age of their starting pitching staff and add or re-sign their pitchers in the bullpen.

Steinbrenner insists on bringing back Clemens at age 40 so that he could get his 300th win in pinstripes. David Wells did exceptionally well for them this season but he too turns 40 next year. The bullpen can see Stanton and Mendoza going through free agency. However, it'll be hard to find another lefty setup man like Stanton on the market.

As for your comment on a Japanese pitcher, I think they might want to go after Cuban defector Jose Contreras once he establishes residency in another country and becomes a free agent instead.

There is so much more to it than that. Any team can do what the Yankees do, the Yankees just have cutting edge management. All this crap about Steinbrenner cutting his dental plans because of the labor agreenment, give me a break. These are things that companies do. Raising ticket prices comes with inflation. The Yankees are just cutting payroll because they have to many bullsh*t players like Hitchcock, Mondesi, White, and Vanderwall. I'll bet money that the Yankees will have their usual 125 million dollar payroll.

And one more thing, I'd rather see the Cubs win a World Series before I see the Red Sox do it. The first thing the Red Sox need to do is build a real ball park. The Green Goblin, or whatever they call it, serves them no purpose.

Last but not least, the Yankee's scout is the one who has been keeping an eye on Matsui for a while now, therefore the Yankees should get him.

LA's out [LA Times - registration required].

Hi redsox fan.

Nobody could blame a RedSox fan if they boo Matsui now that he's in the hated pinstripes. It will be fun to see how he does the first time he has to go to Fenway. He will know the meaning of Yankee-Redsox games quickly.

The question is, would he have still come to America if he couldn't sign with the Yankees? I don't think so. It would be hard to justify leaving the Giants and Japan for any other team.

I heard the RedSox want Hideki Matsui badly, they will make a big run for him.

kevin phillips

> I heard the RedSox want Hideki Matsui badly, they
> will make a big run for him.

Really? I haven't heard anything of it. I have read that they are interested in Little Matsui though. If they have a chance in pursuing Godzilla, I'm all for it.

No offense bostonredsoxfan, though the Boston Red Sox have Cliff Floyd, Manny Ramirez, Benny Agbayani, and Rickey Henderson in Left Field. So I don't think the Yankees are the only spoiled, rich teams.

Anyways, I am very intrested in Matsui starting left field on the Yankees, it would be a pleasure to see real Japanese stars on the Bombers (pfttttt.... That doesn't include Hideki Irabu.)

> No offense bostonredsoxfan, though the Boston Red Sox
> have Cliff Floyd, Manny Ramirez, Benny Agbayani, and
> Rickey Henderson in Left Field. So I don't think the
> Yankees are the only spoiled, rich teams.

I would much rather have Hideki than injury prone Cliff Floyd. The last thing the Red Sox need are more injuries to their key players. But that said, the Sox probably won't even be able to re-sign him.

It'll be fun to see Godzilla batting with Pedro on the mound though. It was funny how Ichiro got an infield hit off Pedro and a Japanese reporter asked Pedro if he fears Ichiro lol. Japanese reporters must be out of work comedians.

Maybe we can get Little Matsui next year. I know, I know. We have Nomar!!! How can I even suggest it? But with Pedro, Nomar, Derek Lowe, and catcher Jason Varitek becoming free agents in 2004, Kazuo would be a nice fallback if Nomar departs. Kazuo can probably be had for much less too. I can't believe he runs faster than Ichiro!!!

The reports I've seen indicate that Boston plans to use Kazuo Matsui at second base.

That's what I hear too. From what I read in here, Kazuo seems to be the best fielding shortstop in Japan. I'm not sure how he compares to Omar Vizquel of the Cleveland Indians who I consider to be the best SS in MLB (he barehands balls hit to him on a regular basis for those of you who don't know), but it sounds like he's better than Nomar who made an incredible 25 errors this past season. Some say Nomar makes most of those errors getting to balls most other shortstops don't even get to, but that's still unacceptable. I'm pretty sure Nomar will balk at the idea of playing second though.

I would love to see Kazuo and Damon batting 1-2 in the top of our lineup, creating havoc on the basepaths like Soriano and Jeter do for the Yankees!!!

Is it Mat-su or Mat-su-ee. Please help. Thanks

Kazuo is faster than Ichiro, hits for power and average, and is a really good shortstop. Dang, that's one good player.

Do the SF Giants have a chance to get Big Matsui? Does he have a good arm (good enough for right or center at Pac Bell?

Japenese baseball is cool.

Kazuo Matsui (pronounced Mah-tsu-ee) is an excellent defensive shortstop. I think he's made only like 19 errors total over the course of the last two seasons. He's not as spectacular as Vizquel, but he has very good range, gets rid of the ball extremely quickly and can gun it (I've seen some claim that he can throw better than Ichiro -- this is wrong). He would go in as perhaps the sixth best shortstop in baseball in terms of an offensive/defensive combination after A-Rod, Nomar, Tejada, Jeter, and Larkin (though Barry is pretty washed up now, but I'm talking about him in his prime). Note, though, that his pattern is to hit about a buck fifty for the first month and then he catches fire.

I would agree with the assessment that Nomar does get to balls few others can. I think this season he may have been loading up trying to compensate for his wrist problem and that lead to the wild throws. Bill Russell would do that, too. He would range deep into the hole and then from the outfield grass, fire it into the second row behind first base. The guy had an absolute cannon, but it would get away from him once in a while.

> I'm not sure how he compares to Omar Vizquel
> of the Cleveland Indians who I consider to be the
> best SS in MLB (he barehands balls hit to him on a
> regular basis for those of you who don't know)

I don't know about Vizquel "barehanding" balls hit to him on a regular basis other than the slow rollers. You make it sound like Vizquel doesn't need a glove all that often.

> I would love to see Kazuo and Damon batting 1-2 in
> the top of our lineup, creating havoc on the
> basepaths like Soriano and Jeter do for the
> Yankees!!!

I too am a Red Sox fan and if the Sox are able to land Kazuo Matsui (likely next year if at all) I'm sure he wouldn't lead off due to his exceptional power. No reason to have a leadoff guy slugging 30 homers when you've got a guy like Damon in the mix. But, wow, would Little Matsui be a welcome addition to the roster, especially if Big Matsui goes to the Yanks. Which he will. Cutting payroll my tuchus.

- I don't know about Vizquel "barehanding" balls hit to him on a regular basis other than the slow rollers. You make it sound like Vizquel doesn't need a glove all that often.

I'm not saying he doesn't use a glove, but he does barehand balls if that split second counts in making the out. These are not slow rollers either. Obviosly you don't catch too many Indians' games or watch ESPN's Baseball Tonight Web Gems.

- Kazuo...I'm sure he wouldn't lead off due to his exceptional power. No reason to have a leadoff guy slugging 30 homers when you've got a guy like Damon in the mix.

Yeah, but the Yankees are doing it with Soriano and and he was just 1 HR shy of 40HRs-40SBs. Damon is a pretty good contact hitter. That gives Kazuo the chance to steal bases. If he hits ahead of Nomar, I don't see him stealing too many bases, because Nomar hacks at the first pitch so much. I don't see Kazuo taking the 3 spot from Nomar either. Nomar hits for more power and usually for higher average than he did this season. Nomar tried to pull too many balls instead of spraying balls throughout the whole field like he did before his wrist injury.

With Damon and Kazuo, there could be a whole lot of double steals. All the runs scored from 2nd on singles and chances of going from 1st to 3rd on singles to right will make me plenty happy.

Nomar makes 25 errors a season for multiple reasons:

1 - he has range. Jeter has none. Vizquel's in another class.

2 - Derek Lowe. Chances. You look at Nomar's error rate, it's not any worse than Jeter's. Nomar's ZR and RF were above-average this year. The errors is mainly due to trying to make outs on singles. Remember, fielding percentage is probably the worst statistic when trying to evaluate how good a fielder is. You might as well try to evaluate a hitter by using only his strikeouts.

Matsui would be very handy at 2B. You aren't really implicitly hurting the team by playing Nomar at shortstop, so why change him and tick him off? I wonder if Matsui has a good arm, he might be able to play third base, unless the Red Sox trade Hillenbrand for Millar and Lowell, in which case, who cares.

True. Why make Nomar mad? He still is one of the best fielding shortstops in the Majors even when you take account of those errors. I was just comparing his skills to Kazuo's who may be even better at shortstop. I still need to see it to believe it though. If Kazuo is comfortable playing second then who cares. However, some aren't comfortable with that transition.

Do note that many shortstops who lose their range when they age convert to second base. Long time Toronto Blue Jay Tony Fernandez is one example.

Other players who were placed at shortstop but proved that they played at the wrong position end up as a second baseman. Julio Franco was a terrible fielding shortstop while with the Texas Rangers. Converting him to 2B helped his career.

The only major concern for a SS to play 2B is the double play pivot: the 2B plays the more DIFFICULT double play pivot.

As for Little Matsui, playing 2B should pose few problems.

Assuming that his statistics in MLB match those in Japan, Little Matsui's leading off and playing next to Nomar could help the Red Sox win a wild card spot. That will happen if the AL West teams slump.

Personally, I'd like to see the Mastuis, as well as other premier Japanese players, in an Oakland A's uniform.



Redsox fan, let's hope he and Godzilla do NOT go to the Yankees.

Lil Matsui has only expressed interest in the Mariners.

I think Little Matsui would be a perfect fit at shortstop for the Dodgers, even though I tend to hate LA teams, this is where I see him fitting in, because the Red Sox already have a second baseman - Rey Sanchez.

- I think Little Matsui would be a perfect fit at shortstop for the Dodgers, even though I tend to hate LA teams, this is where I see him fitting in, because the Red Sox already have a second baseman - Rey Sanchez.

Well, Little Matsui will fit in a lot of teams, not just the Red Sox and Dodgers. The same goes for Godzilla. I thought Rey Sanchez did exceptionally well this season and would love to see him sign a one year contract. However, if you're comparing him to Kazuo. Let's get real. Kazuo brings a lot more offensive skills with him and he won't be batting in the 9 hole like Sanchez did. Sanchez only had a OPS of .663 this year. No doubt, Kazuo will steal more than 2 bases as well.

Anyone have any thoughtful predictions on what Big Matsui will do in his Rookie year? I'm predicting 20 to 25 home runs and a solid .300 average.

I think it would be a big dissapointment if Matsui hits only 20 homers. I hope he can reach the 30 homerun plateau in his first year. A .300 average may be asking too much .280 - .290 is reasonable.

NO WAY!!!!

He will not have the Yomiuri Giant umpires that will force pitchers to throw strikes or the Tiny Tokyo Dome (no air) to hit in. Any Giant player who has attempted to go outside the Yakuza Giants have failed. He will be a flop in MLB.

- He will not have the Yomiuri Giant umpires that will force pitchers to throw strikes or the Tiny Tokyo Dome (no air) to hit in. Any Giant player who has attempted to go outside the Yakuza Giants have failed. He will be a flop in MLB.

Force pitchers to throw strikes... you mean call pitches that are out of the humongous strike zone "balls"? And it's not as if he plays 140 games at the Tokyo Dome, which is no smaller than any other ballpark over here. You want small? How about Hiroshima Shimin Kyujo? I wonder why Kanemoto's HR totals aren't higher...

Also, would you mind providing examples of Giants who were successful with Yomiuri and flopped elsewhere? And I don't mean in the broadcast booth...

If he goes to the Yanks (ugh) the short right porch will certainly help, but Matsui can go the other way as well, making a park like Fenway fit his game as well (he may not hit it out to left, but he'll have his share of doubles off the Monster).

Hey Giants' band wagon, mark my word he will FLOP in Major League Baseball!!

The Giants can no longer protect him. If you hate the Yanks so much, this Giant-flop should make you feel better.

All right, who let the trolls out?

I don't like predictions, but I have worked out major league equivalencies of what he has done in the past several years. In the last 3 years, his worst numbers are 25 HR, .295 average, .402 on base percentage, and .514 slugging average. His best is 2002, with 35 HR, .311 average, .418 on base percentage, and .551 slugging. The only real caveat is there are no park adjustments, either for the park in Japan, or the park he's going to (Yankee Stadium seems likely, but you never know until the deal is official). Once I get the full data on a couple of players, I'll post the article detailing all the leading free agents and posted players at baseballguru.com.

Jim Albright

Personally I would like to see him go to the Giants or the Dodgers. Keep him on the west coast.

As I'm not a fan of any particular MLB team, I'd just like to see him go somewhere where he'll be up against high quality pitching. If he were to face the Johnsons and Schillings of the MLB, then we'd really get to see how well he can compete at the top level.

This past season, Hideki Matsui batted .334 with 50 homeruns and knocked in a surprisingly low 107. Does anyone have a line on his batting average with runners in scoring position? Did he happen to hit a lot of solo homeruns and not get many other RBI opportunities? 107 seems terribly low to go along with 50 dingers.

Just wondering if he has one yet? I assume he has someone.

Godzilla hit in the mid-.290's with runners in scoring position. One thing that might account for his low RBI
percentage was Tomohiro Nioka's 24 homers from the two hole. Then after him, you had Yoshinobu Takahashi or, for a while anyway, Shinnosuke Abe. Moreover, with men on base, especially with a base open, they tended to pitch around Matsui (over 100 walks). So you put those factors together, along with a poor September, and you
have a relatively low RBI total despite 50 homers.

It has been reported that Yankee management will be in Japan next week to try to wrap up a deal with Godzilla. It seems like this will happen really fast. If anyone is wondering why the Mariners are not going after Godzilla, I can tell you as a Mariner fan there was no interest (even from Nintendo). The Mariner's can't even afford to pay Dusty Baker to manage. We also have Randy Winn to fill out our OF. I also never really believed that there were other suitors for Godzilla. I think this deal was done in a backroom a while ago. I guess I'll have to get a Yankee Godzilla jersey for Christmas.

That, and the fact that he wouldn't be able to have the same power numbers at Safeco Park. He's not the type of player that the Mariners neccesarily need (for that type of money). Randy Winn is a more compatible player for the team. Godzilla would fit well into Yankee Stadium, and I believe he should be able to reach the 30 homerun plateau with around a .280 average.

- This past season, Hideki Matsui batted .334 with 50 homeruns and knocked in a surprisingly low 107. Does anyone have a line on his batting average with runners in scoring position? Did he happen to hit a lot of solo homeruns and not get many other RBI opportunities? 107 seems terribly low to go along with 50 dingers.

He was walked a lot, probably with RISP like Bonds. As for his agent, he should get Scott Boras (: The problem with equivelency averages is that they don't take handling pressure into account. While predictions are certainly interesting, I don't like to spend a lot of time thinking about them.

You are correct bro!! I think he will flop in MLB.

If Matsui wants to play for a winner, he'll sign with the Cardinals. Then he and Taguchi can hang out and turn St. Louis into "Little Tokyo." Nakamura will crash the party with "Little Godzilla" Matsui and help us break this lowsy 20 year World Series drought. Yay!

By the way, if Hideki Matsui is coming to the States to prove he can succeed, then is he going to come cheap or will he try to fill the lining in his pockets? If money was an issue, was it wise for him to turn down that 8 million per year offer from the Giants?

The NY Post reports that the Yankees are prepared to offer Matsui $24 million over two years.

- The NY Post reports that the Yankees are prepared to offer Matsui $24 million over two years.

That story quotes the abominable Nabetsu as saying he hoped that Matsui would go to the Yankees. Now there's a reason to go anywhere BUT the Bronx.

Also in that article Yomiuri Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe says he wants Matusi to go to the Yankees. If this is accurate then it is a done deal since Matusi would never do anything to offend the Giants. 2 years, maybe with an option for a third, sounds about right. If Godzilla flops or is an average player than he can come home in two years and save face. If he's a dominant player than he'll likely stay with the Yankees for at least 5 years or longer.

> If this is accurate then it is a done deal since
> Matusi would never do anything to offend the Giants.

Like, oh say, declare free agency and go to the Majors?

It seems that Godzilla is all over the New York media. Front page on the NY Times and a new one from the Post that says Godzilla will definitely be a Yankee.

From the article, "the rich get richer." I take it that nobody in MLB think's that Godzilla will be just a .260, 25 home run, 75 RBI hitter.

I just heard over the radio, San Francisco, CA KNBR, that the Yankees are going to offer Matsui $24,000,000 for two years. WOW ... That's a lot of zeros

The Yanks are making desitions that are seemingly dumber and dumber. First Hitchcock, White, and Mondesi, now Matsui. He deserves about $8 million. Anything more is stupid. But if you're rich who care$.