With a handful of their premier players, such as Ichiro Suzuki and Kazu Sasaki, having shown that the Pacific Ocean can be crossed successfully, Japanese baseball may be losing another of its monster stars.
Godzilla.
Hideki Matsui, the seven-time Japan League All-Star and two-time MVP whose power and prowess have earned him the nickname of the kitschy Japanese film dragon, could be posted and come to play in the United States next season.
And his hitting, a lightning bat that produced 42-homer seasons in 1999 and 2000 as well as 1,223 hits and 782 runs batted in in 1,128 career games, is not the only mega-factor in the potential move.
Godzilla Matsui is the right fielder of the Tokyo Giants, often called the Yomiuri Giants.
“If he came over, it would have tremendous impact on Japanese baseball,” said Ted Heid, the Mariners’ superscout for the Pacific Rim. “It would be like Derek Jeter leaving the New York Yankees, the best-known player on the U.S.’s best-known team.”
Yomiuri is Japan’s legendary team, the team made famous by Tetsuharu Kawakami, Sadaharu Oh and Shigeo Nagashima, that nation’s DiMaggio, Gehrig and Ruth.
Deepening the intrigue, Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe–who also owns the Yomiuri Shimbun, the world’s largest newspaper at 10 million daily circulation–is said to feel threatened by U.S. encroachment into the Japanese game, now at a dozen players.
Pitchers, led by Hideo Nomo and Hideki Irabu, started the eastward shift. Last year, Suzuki proved pure hitters could thrive here.
“Major League Baseball is spreading the net wider and wider,” a National League scout said. “It’s only natural that a country with a baseball history like Japan would be a big source. Most teams over there realize they can’t stop the inevitable. If they get the chance, their players want to play here, even if it means less money.”
An AL scout said: “Yomiuri losing Matsui would be a full roundhouse punch to Japanese baseball. But the Japanese people don’t feel the same way. If Matsui left Yomiuri, they’d love it.”
Matsui could bring another facet, a power hitter trying to translate success in Japan into similar production here.
“Some power hitters can’t react to all pitches,” Suzuki said. “(Matsui) can.”
Suzuki, who knows hitting better than most, was referring to Matsui’s renowned bat speed, so good that when he was in high school before being the first player taken in the 1992 draft, he was said to have better bat speed than any of Japan’s pro players.
Mariners reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa faced Matsui “only a few times in Japan,” but he applied a pitcher’s perspective.
“It is tough to say how he will do here since no Japanese power hitter has ever come over before,” he said. “I think he can, since a good hitter there should maybe be a good hitter here. It depends on adjustments.
“Any Japanese hitter coming over here needs to make adjustments. Ichiro’s success last year was based on the adjustments he made. If Matsui comes and does not make the necessary changes, he won’t be a success. Obviously baseball here is at a higher level.”
Hasegawa noted also that the baseball itself is different here. “The seams are higher, so the ball won’t carry as far.”
If Matsui adjusts, however, that might not affect him. The four homers he hit in last year’s Japan Series all went farther than 450 feet.
In addition, in the words of an NL scout, Matsui has the advantage of getting his power “from his technique, not only from his strength.”
“I think he’ll be successful because as a power hitter he’s not a muscle guy,” the scout said. “He reminds me of Jim Edmonds.”
Hasegawa agreed.
“I remember him as a technique hitter, and that will help him here. But he has to have brains to come here and use his technique. If you have technique and are not smart about it, you won’t be successful. It would be fun to see Matsui come here.”
Kazuhisa Ishii, a Japanese pitcher in his first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, would not predict Matsui’s chances for success here, citing his own newness to U.S. baseball.
“I usually don’t care how another player might be doing,” Ishii said, “but I want to know how a Japanese slugger will do in major-league baseball. I only hope he thinks carefully about his decision.”
Scouts say Matsui’s stance is a bit unorthodox, upright. He can hit the ball out to every field, even when fooled, and his phenomenal bat speed allows him to wait on the breaking ball and hit that out too.
He reportedly has a good arm but is only average in the field and on the basepaths.
There is constant talk that the Yomiuri company, with great influence in the country, might ask the government for assistance to dissuade Matsui from exporting his talents, as the Brazilian government once named soccer great Pele a national resource.
Watanabe reportedly is enticing Matsui to stay with a unique offer to the outfielder: “Sign for as many years as you want for as much as you want.” Risky as that might seem by U.S. standards, Yomiuri may safely assume the player would not take outrageous advantage.
Said Heid: “Matsui is a stoic kid, with great character and a great family. He is not only deeply religious but generous and very close to his family.”
The Mariners are thought to have a strong interest in Matsui, with their close connections to Japan and their success at following them up through the work of Heid and former scout Jim Colborn, now Los Angeles pitching coach and a key player in the Dodgers’ acquisition of Ishii.
If Matsui moves, the competition could be fierce, with at least two of U.S. baseball’s heavy-hitting franchises involved.
With Yankees owner George Steinbrenner known to have berated his scouts last year for not getting Suzuki, count New York in, big-time.
Atlanta recently had a half-dozen team officials and scouts at an exhibition game in Sapporo, where Matsui hit two homers, giving him four for the spring.
Matsui has kept his options open by refusing a five-year, $35 million contract that would have made him the highest-paid player in the history of Japanese baseball. He signed to play the 2002 season at $6 million, slightly more than Suzuki’s best-paid year with Orix. He can be a free agent after the season.
“I want to go to an East Coast team where there’s some pressure to perform,” Matsui said.
However, he reportedly also has talked of going to a contender or a West Coast club if that team “can help me develop further as a player.”
“There would be great pressure on Matsui to perform if he came over,” said a scout. “First, he would be expected to succeed as Ichiro did; then, he’s coming from Yomiuri. There would be more pressure on him than there was on Ichiro, and those expectations were unbelievable.”
