Daisuke Matsuzaka to the Red Sox?

[catman]

The Red Sox have 30 days to reach an agreement with him and his agent, Scott Boras, or he will return to the Seibu Lions for another season.
Here is a story on this and other Red Sox issues: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/6166608

[doublee]

It will be interesting to see if the Sox have any real intentions of signing him or if they did this just to keep the Yankees from getting him.

[doublee]

Holy Crap! They bid $51 mil which was more than the speculated 42 that was being reported a few days ago:

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2662193

[catman]

Right. And that is just for the right to negotiate with him and Boras. If no deal is reached, no money will be paid to Seibu, as I understand.

[doublee]

Yep, that is the way I understand it as well. But still if they do sign him $51 mil is an awful lot of cash to surrender for a guy who is only going to play every fifth game.

[catman]

I do not believe any weapons were present during the dealing. If this guy is signed and is as good as advertised, it may be money well spent. If he flops, it will be money wasted. We'll see how he does.

[bama4256]

Do the Red Sox plan on signing any very good starting pitcher in the majors already? If so who is available or who comes to mind first?

[Marc]

It's going to be hard for him to meet expectations like this. Ichiro was an immediate success from Japan, but these guys are far from sure-things. Plus, he's not all that young, from what I hear. But I will be interested in watching him for sure.

[catman]

I don't believe the Red Sox are quite done yet. They plan to move Jonathan Pappelbon into their rotation, leaving a hole at the end of the game.