@Buster_Espn : Not sure the source of confusion, but I reported the Yankees DID post a bid on Darvish.
Texas could be the worst possible place for this kid to end up. Hot humid summers and an absolute band box.
@DKnobler (CBSSports baseball): Still don't know what the number of winning bid for Darvish was, but sources say the Fighters were very excited by how high it was Looks like Fighters will be accepting bid.
SF Chronicle reporting the neither the Giants or A's sent in a bid so my prediction of San Francisco was wrong. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/14/SPR31MC90M.DTL It is also known that the Mets, Angels, Marlins, Rays and Twins did not bid. Jon Heyman said the Yankees bid was modest and apparently the bid was "sky high" and The Ham Fighters are going to accept the bid. Jeff Passan of Yahoo says that teams might have been hesitant to bid because Darvish is ok going back to pitch in Japan if a contract is not reached. Darvish appears to have a strong preference for the West Coast. Passan feels that the higher the posting fee gets, the less likely Darvish is to sign. Could the Mariners have made a huge offer for him?
SI is reporting that the Yankees will get a few chances a year to smash this guy as apparently the Blue Jays have won the bidding http://tracking.si.com/2011/12/16/r...igh-bidder-for-yu-darvish-negotiating-rights/
Good. Enough with overpaying for Japanese players [by the Yanks]. Noesi for the rotation campaign effective immediately.
That's why I used the word apparently, it's all speculation until the Ham Fighters announce the highest bid. The real question is will Darvish want to pitch in Toronto? What's crazy is he doesn't even know who put the bids in, they just say look at the bids without a name attached and then they go with the highest still not knowing who the team is. It's not until later that they find out what bid is attached to what team. Not sure how King has this information and nobody else but that joke Bleacher Report is running with it.
SI.com reporting that the winning bid surpassed the record for Dice-K. As mentioned by Barry, it's also believed by most baseball folks that Toronto posted that winning bid.
CBS and FOX are reporting that Nippon Ham will announce the winning bid and team tonight. Expected to be Toronto or Texas.
I hope it's Toronto, Texas would be a disaster for this kid. I don't think too many Japanese pitchers are built to withstand playing in an outdoor stadium in Texas. At least in Toronto they can close the roof on days when he pitches. Wasn't it Nomo who was electric with the Dodgers and then went to Texas and was awful? Humidity, long summers, shorter rest period and hitters park = bad place for Japanese pitchers.
Well if we are going to use racial climate stereotypes....He's half Iranian, It';s hot in Iran. Therefore he will be amazing in heat. [/sarcasm]