Reuters While the Athletics plan to give Manny Ramirez more time in the minors to get tuned up for major league pitching, the Rays are going a different route with Hideki Matsui.
According to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, Matsui is expected to be added to the Rays’ roster tomorrow. It’s a bit of a surprise to see him join the big league club so quickly, as he’s hitting just .170 (8-for-47) with two doubles, four RBI and a 10/4 K/BB ratio over 13 games with Triple-A Durham.
Of course, the Rays don’t have much to lose if Matsui turns out to be a bust, as he’s set to make a prorated salary of around $900,000 when he is added to the major league roster. The 38-year-old figures to share at-bats with Luke Scott out of the designated hitter spot.
Matsui batted .251/.321/.375 with 12 home runs, 72 RBI and a .696 OPS in 141 games with the Athletics last season.
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- Old Gator - May 28, 2012 at 11:36 PM
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Has Luke Scott begun insisting that Matsui was born in Japan yet?
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- maximusprime107 - May 29, 2012 at 3:37 AM
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He really has fallen off a cliff what a shame. He was one of my favorite players in my younger days
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- jwbiii - May 29, 2012 at 5:22 AM
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In related news, Vlad Guerrero went 2 for 5 with a HR in his debut with the Dunedin Blue Jays.
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- acdc363 - May 29, 2012 at 8:36 AM
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Go go Godzilla!
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- Old Gator - May 29, 2012 at 11:04 AM
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You want gogo Godzilla? I got you gogo Godzilla:
http://killallmonsters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/GojiraDanceParty.jpg
Churchill couldn’t dance. Godzilla could dance!
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- pisano - May 29, 2012 at 9:49 AM
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The guy was great for the Yankees, but it hasn’t been good since. I really don’t understand the move, they already have Luke Scott from the left side.
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- brucewaynewins - May 29, 2012 at 12:57 PM
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My guess is $. I assume they’re making a killing off advertisements from Japanese companies running ads during games because of Matsui. I don’t live in Oakland but everytime I saw them on tv last year they had a ton of ads in Japanese.
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- pisano - May 29, 2012 at 1:19 PM
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You may have hit the nail on the head.
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- brucewaynewins - May 29, 2012 at 4:23 PM
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It’d be interesting to see some numbers on what a team pulls in from ads like that when they get a player like Matsui, Ichirio, Darvish, etc.
