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08/24/2003 Archived Entry: "Japanese Baseball News: Seibu Accuses Angels of Tampering"
Superstar Shortstop Becomes Eligible for Free Agency Today
According to Hochi Sports, a spokesman for the Seibu Lions accused the Anaheim Angels of tampering today with regard to a statement made by their Japan scout about Kazuo Matsui. "That absolutely was tampering," the spokesman began. "If this continues, we're going to file a complaint with the [MLB] commissioner's office."
What the spokesman was alluding to was a statement that Angels Japan scout Tak Kawamoto, who is in Sapporo right now with Angels scouting official Clay Daniels, that Anaheim was prepared to offer the Lions superstar shortstop a three year deal for a total of in excess of $15 million, making it seem that the southern California outfit was attempting to open negotiations with the PL Gakuen grad through the press. Matsui accumulated enough service time under Japanese rules today to officially qualify for free agency.
When asked about all this at the game with Nippon Ham at Sapporo Dome earlier today, Daniels tried to cover the team's tracks: "I came here [to Sapporo] to check Matsui out. Matsui is a player that is important to the Lions. I won't talk about money or length of contract." Daniels will next be leaving for Korea and will be coming back to Japan on October 31st to see an Asian qualifying tournament for the Athens olympics.
What makes it especially odd about Kawamoto disclosing the Angels intended salary position for Matsui is that scouts don't normally do that. That's usually a front office responsibility and one has to wonder if Kawamoto was put up to this so that if the fecal matter hit the fan, they can garner some plausible deniability as bad information from a flunky.
At a press conference to discuss his free agency, Matsui said that he only wants to play shortstop, bad news for Boston and the Yankees, who want to put him at second. However, in bad news for all MLB teams who are seeking his services, he also said that he wants to play at Athens since he has never represented his country before in international play, leading to a lot of headlines in the Japanese sports press saying, "Is Matsui Ruling Out the Majors?" But then again, Hideki Matsui expressed a similar desire and then put his hanko (a kind of Japanese signature stamp) on the dotted line of a Yankees contract.
The most recent reports indicate that between nine and 11 MLB squads are interested in bring Matsui into their fold. The ones most often mentioned are the Dodgers, Mariners, Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Padres while the Diamondbacks, Cubs, San Francisco Giants, and Braves are rumored to possess at least some fascination with the switch hitting record setter. And now the Angels appear to be willing to jump in with both feet here, though they may eventually find themselves sanctioned for it. And the Yomiuri Giants will be in there as well, though they want to move him to the outfield. If Matsui is sincere about wanting to remain a shortstop, he just torpedoed Yomiuri's hopes of getting him. So this shoudl be the most interesting free agent deal of the coming offseason.
