Is Yu Darvish Going to Come to the United States?

Yu Darvish, widely considered one of the best Japanese pitchers currently playing, has hired agent Arn Tellem and Don Nomura to represent him.

This had led many baseball people to assume that Darvish is considering signing with an American baseball team, which would put him on schedule to debut in the Majors in the 2012 season.

Darvish is believed to be planning to negotiate with MLB teams while his current team, the Nippon-Ham Fighters, also tries to retain the star pitcher. The upside for Darvish in MLB is a strong one. As USA Today points out, The hard-throwing right-hander is projected by scouts as a top-of-the-rotation starter. In seven seasons in the NPB, he is 90-35 with a 2.05 ERA and has won 15 or more games in four of the last five seasons.

He turned a lot of heads with his play in the 2009 World Baseball Classic, so it’s safe to assume he’ll attract a lot of interest (and a high posting price, not unlike that of Daisuke Matsuzaka) from big league clubs.

This time next year, we could be discussing Darvish’s first full season in the Major Leagues and comparing him to past Japanese imports such as Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, and Daisuke Matsuzaka, among others. We’ll see what happens…

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2. Should Major League Baseball have a USA vs. Japan All-Star Game?
3. Japan and Major League Baseball – a complicated relationship
4. Japan wins Little League World Series
5. New York Yankees bring World Series trophy to Tokyo