Report: Yu Darvish To Be Posted

If you're a fan of a team that's interested in starting pitching, most of the Winter Meetings brouhaha has centered around Mark Buehrle and C.J. Wilson. But a challenger appears! According to a report from Nikkan Sports (via @DaigoFuji), Yu Darvish is interested in coming over from Japan.

The 25-year-old Darvish has been one of Japan's top pitchers since he was 18, and he hasn't had an ERA over 2.00 since 2006. This is even more impressive when you consider that the average NPB ballpark is about 200 ft. to the power alleys. Darvish's stats, via his Wikipedia page.

Nippon Professional Baseball
Year	Age	Team	W	L	W%	GS	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	league ERA
2005	18	Nippon Ham	5	5	.500	14	2	1	94.1	97	37	37	7	48	52	3.53	1.54	4.06
2006	19		12	5	.706	24	3	2	149.2	128	55	48	12	64	115	2.89	1.28	3.62
2007	20		15	5	.750	26	12	3	207.2	123	48	42	9	49	210	1.82	0.83	3.57
2008	21		16	4	.800	24	10	2	200.2	136	44	42	11	44	208	1.88	0.90	3.90
2009	22		15	5	.750	23	8	2	182	118	36	35	9	45	167	1.73	0.90	4.03
2010	23		12	8	.600	25	10	2	202	158	48	40	5	47	222	1.78	1.01	3.94
2011	24		18	6	.750	28	10	6	232	156	42	37	5	36	276	1.44	0.83	2.95
Career			93	38	.710	164	55	18	1268.1	916	310	281	58	333	1259	1.99	0.98

It's not exactly like those stats would just translate right over, but it's worth noting that his numbers -- especially the low walks total -- are superior to the stats that Daisuke Matsuzaka turned into six years and $52 million after the Boston Red Sox paid $51 million just for negotiating rights.

Teams interested in Darvish will have to submit a bid to his current team, the Nippon Ham Fighters, and the highest bid will get the right to negotiate a contract with him. There's a chance that the Matsuzaka experiment will scare teams into a reasonable contract and posting fee, but there's also a better chance that Darvish will get a huge contract from a team. Dude's good.