Report: Tazawa to sign with Red Sox

BOOM! Very nice acquisition.

O yea! Dice K freinds and Family plan.

Konichiwa, baby. Welcome to titletown.

My Japan-based nephew, Tommy-san, has seen Tazawa pitch, and claims he can hit a ton, too.

So it's settled. If Varitek comes back (hopefully not), this kid can hit and Francoma can DH for the Captain. Ya think?

Well, well. Maybe this is the upside of our new economic reality: not chasing the money, a guy chooses instead to follow his heart. Amen

Why would the sox sign someone that isnt a proven major league pitcher to this type of contract? Looks like craig hanson all over again. Unless this kid throws in the high nineties (becket type of arm) its too big a risk for the money. My guess is this kid will lose velocity instead of gain over time. Japanese pitchers have lots of wear an tear on their arms even at his young age (22). Dice-K was billed as someone with a mid-nineties fastball which never materialized. You got to remember that the ball is lighter and smaller there.

Dice-K for 6. Taz pitches the 7th. Oki pitches the 8th. Paps closes. Sounds like a lot of wins right there as long as Dice-K can start going 6 innings! Another solid arm in the system, WTG Sox.

The Sox already have an international flair, how about some local talent that will spend their salary in the USA!!

Japanese bullpen

I like this move, hopefully this will keep us away from paying Burnette way too much money

Will Scott Bora now renegotiate with the Sox for a Daisuke "halo effect" incentive?

We will need the young arm in a few years when the Sox trade away Bucholtz or Bowden to grab a young catcher. I trust Theo , no questions asked.

Great job by the sox. They are creating an impact on Japanese baseball with dice-k, and oki.

I hope this improves our chances of getting Yu Darvish next year.

what a nice addition
all we need to complete this off-season is Mark Texiera

There's been lot's of speculation as to the actual speed of Taz's fastball. The answer is low 90s. Not mid 90s. All you had to do was view his games on YouTube...and make the conversion to Miles Per Hour. Then, you'd see his fastball is not so fast. However, due to his motion, the fastball does appear to be rather sneaky fast and he had some pinpoint accuracy on the outer edge of the plate to righties. Pitches from the stretch as opposed to the windup so coming out of the pen would not be a reach mechanics wise.

@larry... "local talent" as in players only from the USA? That is discrimination and borderline racism. 13 of our current 40-man roster was born outside the US. Do you want to get rid of guys like Ortiz, Dice-K, Okie, Lowell or Bay (Canada) because they might bring some money back home? I think most of these players move their families here anyway.

To Larry, your comment is useless and border line racist. Who the heck cares if we have a lot of International flair as long as they can contribute to the team? Manny Delcarmen is local. I'm not sure if we want more Manny's in the bullpen. Get a brain.

Tora Tora Tora

I hope this guy is good!! If he is, great pick up! I just hope they do not give Burnett all that money.

larry, wouldn't local talent spend their salary in the USA on foreign-made goods?

I like the Red Sox

Winning the Dice-K sweepstakes with the $51,111,111.11posting fee paid additional dividends here - and perhaps it will continue with more players in the future.

makes the dice-k contract look like a better deal if it in fact persuades the top japanese prospects to sign with the sox for less money. brilliant signing theo!

//If Varitek comes back (hopefully not), this kid can hit and Francoma can DH for the Captain.//

Interesting that someone who calls the manager an insulting name is too stupid to realize that you can't DH for a position player.

for all who said we (Sox) paid too much for Daisuke, you now have to realize that this is only one fringe benefit and will pay for itself in time

Well since Matsuzaka got the nickname "Dice K", I guess Tazawa will get the obvious one in "Taz".

Re-sign "Tek" for 2 years I say, he's got to hit better than last season and even if he doesn't he is still so damn valuable calling a game. Especially if they can sign Texiera (which I think they will and trade Lowell for some prospects) they can hide Varitek's offense by giving Papi some protection he lost when Manny was traded.
Imagine this lineup next year.

CF Ellsbury
2B Pedroia
DH Ortiz
1B Texiera
3B Youkilis
RF Drew
LF Bay
SS Lowrie
C Varitek

Dice-Taz-Oki-Pap. Translation: Saˇyoˇnaˇra Baby!

rickb101- You say why pay someone this kinda contract when they are not a proven major league pitcher , but ya know what, either was dice k and he got over 100 million pretty much. This is the same kind of deal a team would give their first pick in the draft. Paps wasnt a proven mlb pitcher at one point either, but look how he turned out. big picture my friend

It's a risk, but relatively low dollar compared to signing someone like AJ who has a very real possibility of pulling a Pavano on someone.

Heck, 3 years of potential for 75% of the cost of 1yr of paying Schilling to sit on the DL. Good gamble.

As an aside, many japanese don't like this guy because he is 'dishonoring' Japanese baseball by jumping to the mlb. They hope he fails so others don't follow his precedent.

How does this effect the Red Sox relationship with Japanese teams? I'm sure they are not going to be happy that we plucked one of their potential "stars" from them.

No mention that the Sox and a few other teams are infuriating Japanese officials by violating a decades old agreement that MLB clubs would not go after Japanese players who have yet to play in Japan's major leagues? If the Yankees were doing this Red Sox Nation would be screaming bloody murder.

I have a feeling this is wasted money. Was just reading about this guy on ESPN and the article said he rarely hit 90mph on the gun and suggested he would get hit harder and harder as he progressed up the minor league levels.

"The Sox already have an international flair, how about some local talent that will spend their salary in the USA!!"

How bout they sign the guys they think will perform best for them instead of engaging in some twisted reverse welfare scheme?

Dice K 2.0

How awesome would that be. A guy that can pitch and hit?!! Two players for the price of one.

If he works out as a reliever after time in the minors, then Masterson could go on the rotation. BTW, how fast does Masterson throw, mid-nineties?

What ever happened to the long rumored acquisition of Niitakayama Nobore? Or Higashi No Kaze Ame? Alas, it will be a cold day of east wind and rain before we see these guys in the bull pen......

Bust!!

I know what you meant larry. today everyone likes to make people out as having some kind of hatred towards other races and ethnics groups. im sure there are many guys in the US (african american, white, japanese-american, etc.) that are just as talented as this guy that will never get a shot... but thats how it goes.

I do like the signing tho! cheap investment in todays market with a potentially big upside. and please dont waste any money on lowe or burnett! one only performs when his contract is up(burnett) and the other had a +5 ERA last time he was in the A.L. (lowe)

Geez, Yankee fan like you guys follow any rules of tehics & conduct.

i want furcal for the redsox

What's between the ears is every bit as important as throwing in the mid to upper nineties. Case in point: Manny Delcarmen throws very hard and he can not get anybody out with any consistency. Sometimes I think too much emphasis is placed on MPH. Guys like Jimmy Key, Bruce Hurst, Mike Mussina, Bill Lee, Gregg Maddox and many others rely on deception and the ability to throw any pitch at any time for a strike. I'll take that style of pitching over Manny's 96 MPH fastball right down the middle of the plate any day!

I think now, more than ever, it is apparent that the Sox sign Tek. You use Clay Buchholz or Masterson in a trade with the Rangers to get Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Tek to groom! Tek has been with the team for 11 years and is our captain, and lets not forget that he speaks Japanese. Give him a 2 year deal at $10mill a year. So what if it is over paying for him! He has earned that as our captain! You let him make his $10mill a year for 2 years (catching roughly 90 games per) and then offer him a coaching position in the minors! Tek has dedicated himself to the Sox for over a decade.....GIVE THE MAN HIS MONEY! I don't care about his declining offensive numbers. Look how far we went this year with him batting .220! Clearly didn't hurt that much! Salty will be ready to be the everyday catcher by the time Tek's contract is up and BOM! Set for the future!

51 million buys you more than you think these days! Paying off already. Go Sox.

how 'bout lowell a at 2b and ped at ss? makes room for tex at 1b and keeps the
big bats in the line-up. i hate the thought of letting mike go.

Good to see all the baseball scouts posting on the Globe message board.

This one clearly comes under the category of "throw enough crap against the wall and hope some of it sticks". Hard to get real excited about a completely unproven young pitcher. Been there too many times with the Sox.

Score one more for baseball economics....The huge dividend in Red Sox baseball paraphernalia in Japan (thanks Dice K and Okie) will be reinforced. More bucks earned there means more to spend on other needs (like keeping up with the unreal Yankee bankroll)...also helps keeps the Sox eye fixed on Japanese/international talent...and the guy might be good..

How is $6M too big a risk? Trust me, if he was a sure thing he'd cost a lot more than that. The Sox have scouted him for over a year and they have a pretty good track record in evaluating young talent. Regardless--those going overboard on both sides: how can anyone state at this point anything other than "interesting signing"? He could be a footnote, or he could be replacing Okajima in 2 years--no one knows. As for him barely hitting 90; we all know that fact alone means "not a lot." How's his control? As for the Sox infuriating the Japanese--I'm guessing no more than when they got Millar to reneg his contract--that was nearly an international incident...and they survived that quite nicely. This is an interesting transaction that has potential--nothing more; nothing less. Everyone, please chill out.

i think its a great signing he has a lot of upside either as a reliever or starter. he is only 22 and could develop into a nice player. i love that its a fairly low risk move even if 6 milli is a little steep. it makes you wonder what the rangers saw in him to offer more. keep stocking up on young arms and sign marky boy.
next on the agenda
1. sign mark texiera
2. sign d lowe (not for zito money)
3. trade for salty
4.sign tek for 2 years
5.trade lowell
if we can do this you can just hand us another title and set ourselfs up for years of success.

i think its a great signing he has a lot of upside either as a reliever or starter. he is only 22 and could develop into a nice player. i love that its a fairly low risk move even if 6 milli is a little steep. it makes you wonder what the rangers saw in him to offer more. keep stocking up on young arms and sign marky boy.
next on the agenda
1. sign mark texiera
2. sign d lowe (not for zito money)
3. trade for salty
4.sign tek for 2 years
5.trade lowell
if we can do this you can just hand us another title and set ourselfs up for years of success.

The Red Sox scouts are professional. They found Oki, who was thought to be a lefty-lefty specialist against Yankees sluggers. His talent showed far beyond that. Dice-K won 15, and 18. No more question about Sox scouting ability. Let's wait one year, Taz is just 22. Thanks to Red Sox, we have another dream dreams for tomorrow.

I love how all the American Boston fans are Chanting "We want more Japs" on our team.. Pathetic...

"Dice K 2.0"

UM is that a good thing? lol all we need now is another 5 inning nibbler! Dice K is great and all but I want Tazawa to go more than 5 innings per a game

soxfanfromjersey: You couldnt be more wrong about your comparison. Dice-K performed very well in the Japan Major Leagues and was one of there top pitchers. If you also remember, he showed he could pitch against major league talent in the world baseball classic. This kid hasnt shown us anything. He has no better arm (in terms of velocity) than bowden. Would you sign Bowden to this contract? He doesnt have the arm to justify this signing. I hope he develops into something good but I would rather spend my money on a proven free agent.

If our primary requirement is to throw mid 90s, bring up Bard.
Our guy in Japan has seen him pitch and recommended him.
Sounds like a good chance of getting a another arm. Only time will tell as always is the case.