Japanese ace on way
BY ADAM RUBIN
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
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Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is ready to hear from the majors' highest bidder. [/SIZE]TOKYO - Daisuke Matsuzaka was so enamored by Major League Baseball, the Japanese righthander made a special trip to the United States to watch the Yankees and Braves meet in the World Series seven years ago. Next season he plans to return, this time as a big leaguer.
Before a crowd of 200 reporters in a ballroom at the Takanawa Prince Hotel, Seibu Lions president Hidekazu Ota confirmed the team's intention to make Matsuzaka available via the posting system.
Once Matsuzaka is posted, major-league clubs will have four days to submit sealed bids. The Lions then have four days to accept the highest bid, which could reach $20 million - $7 million more than the Orix Blue Wave got in 2000 for posting Ichiro Suzuki. (Seibu is supposed to know only the amount, not the winning bidder.) Once the offer is accepted, the Lions will pocket that eight-figure payment, provided Matsuzaka and the major-league team come to terms on a contract within 30 days.
The Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, and Rangers are expected to be among the bidders. According to the Seattle Times, GM Bill Bavasi said the Mariners will not be posting a bid for Matsuzaka.
Matsuzaka announced Scott Boras would represent him.
"During the past two years my feeling to participate in Major League Baseball has grown more and more," Matsuzaka, dressed in a black suit and tie, said through an interpreter as he sat at a dais with Ota. "I've been in Japanese baseball for 10 years, and that seems like a long time. Even last year I thought about my being eligible for posting, but this year seems to be the time."
Matsuzaka, 26, went 17-5 with a 2.13 ERA and 200 strikeouts in 186-1/3 innings this season with Seibu, which also employed Kaz Matsui before the infielder's arrival from the Mets as a free agent. During Matsuzaka's eight pro seasons he's led the Pacific League in wins three times, strikeouts four times and ERA twice. He also has one Sawamura Award, the equivalent of the Cy Young.
The 6-foot, 187-pound Matsuzaka's profile further increased when he accounted for three of champion Japan's five wins at the World Baseball Classic. He held Cuba to one run in four innings in the finals and earned the WBC's inaugural MVP award. "Fans saw how great his performance was in the WBC," Ota said through an interpreter. "And we understand the feeling he has to go to the major leagues. We sympathize with that feeling, and we appreciate his tremendous effort on behalf of the Seibu Lions."
As for potentially landing in New York, Matsuzaka said: "I've talked to a lot of people, and they said it's a city where things are 'happening.'"
He also raved about Yankee Stadium. "You have to say that's a place that's just filled with history," Matsuzaka said. "I could feel that when I was there." Matsuzaka hits 95 mph with his fastball, but it's his two sliders - particularly one that dives downward - that excite observers. He also throws a changeup, forkball and curveball, a devastating array of pitches. Insiders laugh off Matsuzaka's supposed ability to throw a gyroball, a pitch developed by a physicist that conceptually, at least, breaks inward, then outward, on righty batters as it darts toward the plate. "I think I have to raise my level a bit, but I think I have it within me to be able to succeed, and so I'm full of confidence," Matsuzaka said.
Let's all welcome our newest Yankee!! 
