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« The folding of Rumsfeld | Main | Anybody remember Fathom? (It sank) » Monday, November 13, 2006The spin zoneThe word on the street is that the Red Sox will be revealed, probably later today, as the high bidders for the services of Daisuke Matsuzaka, the young (26) ace of Japan's Seibu Lions. ESPN.com has reported the Sox may have offered between $38 and $45 million. Mind you, this is not salary we're talking -- this is just for the "posting fee" necessary to compensate the Lions for letting him come to the States. Sox fans warming their hands by the hot stove are naturally curious whether Matsuzaka is worth it. (Unless you paid very close attention to the World Baseball Classic, you probably haven't seen this guy pitch.) The Globe's Nick Cafardo seems to think the answer to that question is yes. But there's another question that's starting to get more attention: So does this guy really throw a gyroball? (Also: what's a gyroball?) Back in August, Lucas Hanft wrote a piece for Ideas exploring whether a Japanese physicist had indeed invented a new baseball pitch, as much Web buzz (and some rather grainy Web footage) suggested. Slate has now dedicated an explainer column to the pitch, which is a good bit less skeptical of it than Hanft was, and the pitch is popping up in all the coverage of the Matsuzaka bidding war. But the mystery remains. Newsday reporter David Lennon caught up with Tadahito Iguchi, the White Sox second baseman, who faced Matsuzaka when he played in Japan. Asked about the gyroball, Iguchi responded through a translator, "I don't know what a gyroball is or what you're talking about." The question of whether or not Matsuzaka will be packing a new pitch when he comes to the Majors is still an open one. Boston fans, however, will be heartened by the rest of Iguchi's repsonse: "I can tell you this about Matsuzaka -- he's got a great fastball. Even when he's behind in the count, he's got so many pitches that he can throw to get the count even. He's got so many pitching sequences that we all don't know what he will throw because his form is so similar all the time. His pitches are just so dominating." Posted by John Swansburg at 11:47 AM
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