A New Kind of Moneyball

Matsuzaka, swarmed by media, departs for the U.S. from Narita International Airport, November 15, 2006

On Tuesday, Major League Baseball and the Seibu Lions of the Japanese League jointly announced that the Boston Red Sox had won the the exclusive rights to negotiate with Daisuke Matsuzaka for an astonishing blind bid of $51.1 million.  The offer doubled pre-bidding estimates and exceeded that of the runner-up Mets by more than $13 million.  For the sport, this is a historic moment.  Boston's bid calls to mind nothing if not the exorbitant "transfer fees" European soccer clubs pay to acquire superstar talent--David Beckham, say ($41 million in 2003), or Zinedine Zidane ($65 million in 2001).  For the first time, baseball's international profile, in Asia at least, is sufficiently broad that American teams can spend enormous sums on talent and still (perhaps) see a profit thanks to new foreign revenue streams--cable broadcasts, advertising, merchandising, travel packages, and so forth.  For instance, Scott Boras claims that the ex-Japanese League star Hideki Matsui generates $21 million annually for the New York Yankees.  Not coincidentally, Boras is Matsuzaka's agent.