Tazawa to sign with Red Sox

[MaineDem]

Junichi Tazawa has decided the next phase of his baseball career will be spent with the Boston Red Sox.

The right-hander for corporate team Eneos is expected to ink a deal at the beginning of next week, the Yomiuri Shimbun learned on Friday, with the Red Sox, who signed veteran pros Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima in 2007.The Red Sox beat out three other teams to make Tazawa the first high-profile amateur to dodge Nippon Professional Baseball's draft and sign with a major league club.

Boston's offer, according to Eneos manager Hideaki Okubo, was not as good as the Texas Rangers' "in terms of length or financial terms," but the pitcher felt the Sox's superior development program and working conditions made their offer No. 1.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/sports/20081130dy02.htm

[joeybee12]

1. Good news...

...their pitching failed them against the Devil Rays.

[rockymountaindem]

3. I don't know

I think Francona managed game 7 quite poorly. There were some bunting and baserunning decisions I couldn't understand for the life of me. On the other hand, giving up 13 runs in one game is not a good way to roll up the Ws.

[joeybee12]

4. I meant overall, not specifically game 7...

...they pitched lousy in games 2, 3 and 4...5 also, but somehow they won that game.

[MaineDem]

2. Tazawa officially in fold for Red Sox

BOSTON -- The Red Sox ended their lengthy and discreet courtship of Junichi Tazawa on Thursday by announcing the signing of the 22-year-old right-hander from Japan to a three-year contract.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but reports have put the contract at $3 million.

While rumors were rampant in recent weeks that Boston was the front-runner to land the talented yet untapped pitcher, the Red Sox had never so much as mentioned Tazawa by name in any interviews with the media.

It was in similarly quiet fashion that the Sox pursued Daisuke Matsuzaka and Hideki Okajima two years ago, and both of those Japanese pitchers played big roles in Boston's World Series championship of 2007.

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081130&content_id=3695971&vkey=news_bos&fext=.jsp&c_id=bos

He hasn't pitched professionally. He'll spend his first year in the minors. We'd love to have him in Portland.

[rinsd]

5. Credit to the Red Sox for continuing to develop this new pipeline of talent.