Good morning, folks.
As if this should come as a surprise to anyone, the Yankees have had scouts over in Japan taking a closer look at Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish. It's estimated that he'd cost over $100 million with the posting fee.
Clearly, the Yankees are likely to be gun-shy, given their own checkered history in signing Japanese pitchers Hideki Irabu and Kei Igawa, as well as the difficulty in gauging how a Japanese pitcher's effectiveness will translate to Major League Baseball, due to differences in the baseball, the size of the strike zone and the height of the pitcher's mound between the Japanese and U.S. versions of the sport.
But with Yankees ace CC Sabathia likely to exercise the opt-out clause in his contract sometime in the next week, Darvish could provide an alternative for next year's rotation, along with free agents C.J. Wilson, Mark Buehrle and Edwin Jackson.
We'll see what happens.
In news that doesn't have to deal with the pitching woes, the Yankees will continue to play the Mets in Spring Training starting in 2012.
The teams last played against each other in the exhibition season on March 30, 1996, in Tampa. It was the Yankees’ first year there after many years of conducting spring training in Fort Lauderdale. The longer distance between the camps played a significant role in the discontinuation of the exhibition-season rivalry.
Around the baseball world, the St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers will kickoff Game 3 at 8:05 PM tonight in Arlington, TX. The series is currently tied 1-1 with the pitching matchup set to be Kyle Lohse against Matt Harrison.
Other news:
- Theo Epstein has officially left the Boston Red Sox to become the President of Baseball Operations for the Chicago Cubs.
- David Ortiz backed off his comments about "thinking of playing with the New York Yankees".
"I never said I would sign with the Yankees. No, no, no,’’ he said. "They asked me if I would play with the Yankees. I said I would think about it. I didn’t say I would go to the Yankees. I’m still with the Red Sox, aren’t I?’’
Ortiz, a pending free agent, and the Sox have a 10-day period after the World Series to negotiate. He is believed to be seeking a two-year deal close in annual value to the $12.5 million he earned this season.
Good.
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