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11/04/2002 Archived Entry: "We Got $12 Million, Do I Hear 13?"
Team Officials Swarm into Japan to Make Offers to Matsui
According to Nikkan Sports, the L.A. Dodgers, who had earlier said that they had no interest in Yomiuri Giants free agent outfielder Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui, have secretly flown Assistant to the General Manager Dan Wilkie into Japan to meet with the slugger. Also expected to show their faces are the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Braves, and San Francisco Giants. An unnamed scout is quoted as saying that the Dodgers intend to go toe to toe with the Yankees over the three time MVP. Moreover, Brian Jordan has requested a trade and that is what may be provoking the Dodgers to renew their enthusiasm for Matsui.
The Seattle Mariners, who seemed as if they were too bound up by financial restrictions to take a shot at the 28 year old star, have dispatched their chief of U.S. scouting operations, Ken Compton, to Japan. Nikkan Sports is insinuating that there is pressure coming from Nintendo, which owns the team, to go after Matsui. The paper also quotes unnamed MLB officials as saying that the Mariners are undoubtedly jumping on the Matsui bandwagon.
In any event, they will indeed have to contend with the Yankees, who, Hochi Sports quotes one NY Post report, are preparing a two year offer worth $12 million a year with a third option year. That would make him the 16th highest paid player in all of MLB, according to that Japanese paper. So much for cutting payroll.
Hot Shots....
Rockies outfielder Mitsuru Sakamoto will be out until well after the start of next season, as he suffered a torn labrum and will soon have surgery to repair it.... Police estimate that over 500,000 turned out for the Yomiuri Giants Japan Series victory parade in the Ginza district of Tokyo Monday. Hochi Sports, a subsidiary of the Yomiuri Shimbun, noted the presence of some fans wearing Yankees hats,including one eight year old boy they talked to....
Moore: Matsui Will Succeed in MLB
See Asahi Shimbun article at: http://www.asahi.com/english/sports/K2002110400127.html
Is Japanese Baseball a Farm System for the Big Leagues?
See Mainichi Shimbun article in english at: http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/archive/200211/04/20021104p2a00m0oa019000c.html
Ex-Baseball Player Runs for Office in Taipei
See Taipei Times story at: http://www.taipeitimes.com/news/2002/11/04/story/0000178268
