5 responses so far ↓

• 1 Donnie A // Dec 23, 2007 at 12:06 pm

  Ok, so this is what I don’t get. So Darvish is making around $2mil in Japan. Almost. So the best pitcher in Japan is getting paid 1/6th of what Carlos Silva is going to make in his new contract with the Seattle Mariners. What am I missing here?
  I know not everybody does what they do so they can make the big bucks. I don’t work in the job I do just for the money…but we’re talking a difference of probably….in Darvish’s case….AT LEAST $13 million a year. I think it’s fair to say he might fetch a minimum of $15mil. Probably more like $20million. What gives? I know there’s posting and all that standing in the way…I’m not talking about a realistic solution to Darvish playing in MLB. I’m curious, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. I’m talking about a league paying someone something that amounts to a slave wage and not allowing him to make a choice in what to do. Someone needs to blow this system up. Either that or Japanese baseball needs to get with the program (as they seeminly do in every OTHER phase of their economy) and play these guys what they’re worth.
  Can we say his nationhood…or in this case, half nationhood…is worth $13-$18 million a year? Can any of us honestly say that?
  Stupid.

• 2 A.S. // Dec 23, 2007 at 4:36 pm

  Donnie, I tend to agree with you. Unquestionably Darvish could fetch big bucks in the states. Should he be allowed to pursue that if it’s his desire? One would think so. That’s kind of the way the world works–for better or for worse.
  That said, so long as people like Darvish continue to leave Japan, the lower the quality of Japanese baseball becomes. It’s terrible for the league. The onus is absolutely on the powers that be in the NPB to come up with a solution and as far as I can see, the best they’ve come up with is the posting system, which, kind of losens the stranglehold on players, but doesn’t give them enough air so-to-speak.
  It might take someone like Darvish…someone young and great…leaving or threatening to leave to truly bust the thing wide open. Incorporating Japanese teams into the MLB isn’t going to work at this point and time, so every year we’re going to see this increasingly large class of players making the jump until the NPB comes up with something better.
  However, we shouldn’t discount Darvish’s own desire to remain in Japan. I get the impression his family is already wealthy, so the money may mean nothing to him. Maybe his ego is as such that he’s content to be one of the great Japanese pitchers of all time. It is possible. I kind of doubt it, but it’s possible.

• 3 jackson // Dec 23, 2007 at 5:00 pm

  Sorry to keep banging the drum on this one, but this is where a Pan Asian majors would help things. If there were a bidding war among 20 plus teams for Darvish’s services you’d start to see him getting paid bigger bucks.

  Until people start moving towards this, expect more of the same. And don’t be fooled some major league team is gonna dangle enough money in front of Darvish to make it worth his while. MLB teams are salivating over him already and he’s years from free agency. If Carlos Silva is getting 11 million (or whatever it is) what do you think Darvish is gonna when Stienbrenner san decides to open up his wallet?

• 4 simon // Dec 25, 2007 at 5:16 am

  MLB basically doubled revenue over the past 5 years (while keeping salary inflation to about 10% annum), while Asian leagues have been stagnant. The economic gap keeps on growing unless Asian leagues go under drastic economic reform, but this being Asia changes are slow to come by, often requiring backroom consensus that save faces in the short term in expense of long term prosperity.

  I really hope the Asian leagues can get their house in order right quick, but that’s totally unrealistic. And I love international club matchups, so a pan-Asian league would be totally cool, CL, PL, KBL, and CPBL in s slight interlocking interleague schedule and a more fleshed out playoffs (and Asian players not being counted as imports). The Asia League Ice Hockey league is taking this approach out of need (number of pro hockey teams have gradually declined in the three countries, practically forcing the creation of pan-Asian league, but attendance problems are prominent with international matches attracting 1/10 of domestic match crowds. There are most definitely more rich baseball fans, so maybe this wouldn’t be as much of a problem if logistics can be soothed out, and it would definitely have to be a pan-Asian cooperation with long term vision (like J-League’s 100 year plan).

  There’s a grand canyon sized crevasse between dreams and reality for realizing pan-Asian majors. Too many obvious roadblocks, not to mention old stubborn geezers running most NPB clubs, and the feable commissioner.

  Darvish could have taken the high risk high reward route of going through MLB minors instead of accepting the NPB draft. But his lifestyle ain’t very shabby right now either. People have differnet priorities. But I can definitely see him being posted after his 8th year. Hopefully he has Dice-K style rubber arm. Too many Japanese pitchers flame out too early in their careers due to Dusty-like pitcher arm abuse.

  I apologize in advance for my all-niter rambling.

• 5 Yankees After Darvish For 2009? | East Windup Chronicle // Jan 1, 2008 at 11:18 pm

  [...] Well, why the heck would Darivsh want to sign with the Yankees when he can make nearly $2 million big ones playing in Japan?  If the Dice K signing is the “floor,” I shudder to think what the [...]

Leave a Comment