Japan's RHP Yu Darvish Coming to MLB in 2012?

[EmpireWF]

It's likely Japan's best pitcher, 25-year old Darvish will make his way to America next year. Factors on his side besides his stats is he has been headstrong from a young age. He survived a cigarette scandal as a teenager and has dealt with Japan's tricky customs since his father is Iranian.

An old Yahoo! article on his popularity and background - http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-japandarvish032308

If he does come over, say hello to the post system again.

Famous postings include:

2000 - Ichiro - Seattle bid over $13 million for negotiating rights and signed him to a 3-year, $14 million deal.
2002 - Kaz Ishii - Dodgers bid over $11 million for neg. rights and signed him to a 4-year, $12.3 million deal.
2006 - Matsuzaka - Red Sox bid over $50 million for neg. rights and signed him to a 6-year, $52 million deal.
2006 - Igawa - Yankees bid over $26 million for neg. rights and sign him to a 5-year, $20 million deal.

The last player to come over using the system was Nishioka (Twins bid over $5 million and signed him to a 3-year, $9 mil deal.)

 

[Sharkweather]

 

[Obst]

These Japs never work out.

Unless the Phillies sign him, then he is the pitcher version of Ichiro.

 

[Woy]

Does he throw a gyroball?

 

[KnightNoles]

27 Complete Games

09-11

 

[Warner2BruceTD]

I want to know more about this cigarette scandal.

But yeah, Jap pitchers, like Jap MMA fighters, never live up to the hype.

 

[Irish]

I want to know more about this cigarette scandal.

But yeah, Jap pitchers, like Jap MMA fighters, never live up to the hype.

I also was interested.

When he was 18, Darvish was caught smoking a cigarette inside a pachinko gambling hall by a gossip magazine photographer. Less than a week later, two anti-smoking doctors announced they would commission a study on the smoking habits of players from all 12 teams in Nippon Professional Baseball, because, they said, “some may be addicted and need to receive medical treatment.”

Major League Baseball has steroids. Japan has cigarettes.

Darvish inspires hysteria, and never was it more evident than during the tobacco scandal of 2005. It was February, a week before his high school graduation, and he was at his first spring training with the Fighters. In the previous six months, Darvish had thrown a no-hitter at the prestigious Koshien high school tournament and gone No. 1 in the draft to Nippon Ham. The last pitcher to jump from high school to Japan’s major leagues with such expectations was Daisuke Matsuzaka.

It is illegal to smoke until age 20, according to the government of Japan, which, by the way, owns a majority of Japan Tobacco. First the Fighters banished Darvish from their spring training facility in Okinawa to the minor league dorm in Chiba for “re-education.” Then Tohoku High School followed by suspending him for five days, causing him to miss the graduation ceremony.

When Darvish arrived at Haneda Airport, more than 200 reporters awaited him. He bowed and apologized, bowed and said he would not smoke another cigarette in his life, bowed and promised to do right by Nippon Ham, the pork company that owns the Fighters.

“I’ve never seen anything in the United States that’s an equivalent to what that young man went through at 18,” Hillman says.

Actually, it happens every day in Los Angeles, the paparazzi chasing starlets and chronicling their foibles. Darvish was their Japanese equivalent, only he spent his days writing in “reflection journals” to convince his school and the Fighters that he recognized the error of his ways.

“He was always thinking he could do anything,” Farsad says. “He learned what came with it. He made trouble, he took responsibility. And I saw growth.”

The school lifted its suspension and mailed Darvish his diploma. The Fighters reinstated Darvish and sent him back to the training site for several months of conditioning. He debuted June 16 and began the game by pitching eight scoreless innings.

 

[Villain]

These Japs never work out.

 

[NAHSTE]

Been waiting on him to make the jump for years. He's like the Ricky Rubio of MLB at this point.

 

[EmpireWF]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFwSzZQ4MVI"]Neil Diamond Coming To America - YouTube[/ame]