Courtesy of Google’s Japanese-to-English translation service (hey, we’re doing what we can here people) comes this announcement from the personal blog of Japanese right-hander Yu Darvish:
This time, having decided that Darvish posting system to use. The announcement will convey to everyone here, because most of the fans. The baseball team Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters I really appreciate it. However, just because it still took a posting procedure can not speak for more at this stage. I would like the conference will be all fixed.
In other words, Darvish is leaving Nippon Professional Baseball and heading to the major leagues, and will address any questions at a press conference soon. He’ll become available for posting bids on Thursday and is expected to draw offers from some of baseball’s biggest spenders.
Darvish, 25, posted a stellar 18-7 record, 1.44 ERA and 276/36 K/BB ratio across 232 innings this past season for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He had a 1.99 career ERA in seven total NPB seasons.
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UPDATE: Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker has a far better translation of the Darvish blog post and was kind enough to let us use it. Patrick’s site does a great job of tracking NPB headlines. Check it out.
To all the fans, an announcement
At this time, Yu Darvish has decided to use the posting system.
Because I wanted to relay this to the fans first, I am announcing this here.
I greatly appreciate the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Baseball Club.
Because we’ve only just begun the posting process, I can’t talk about the details now.
I wish to hold a press conference once everything is decided.
Yu Darvish
