Igawa home after disastrous Yankee years

I hope he has great years ahead of him. Nice of Ron Guidry to ruin him and get him banished forever.

i could suffer five years of torture and collect $46 million. No problem at all. He is a lucky man.

Please. Who can feel sorry for him. He's set for life. My "good" job is far worse, has 50-60 hour workweeks as the norm, and pays far less than 0.5% of the pile that this guy made while "banished" to playing a child's game with costumes, bats and balls in smalltown America.

Guidry did not ruin him. Like many other players from Japan, he was not nearly as good as advertised. No excuses.

@chap2: I never heard anything about Guidry, but I`d like to read more about it. Looks like Orix is continuing to sign more or less has beens!

He's still young, and he just collected $46 million. And all he lost are the best years of his career. But if those are his best years; yet he still couldn't cut it...............

I doubt he got all (or even most) of that $46 million. He only won two games and was sent down to a minor league team. Contracts that big are loaded with "incentives," which means you get all that money only if you hit certain performance milestones. And it doesn't sound like he hit any of them.

Igawa was basically a fly ball pitcher that couldn't pitch up in the zone in the MLB. He was nothing but a typical AA level minor league pitcher. Yankees tried to return him to Japan, too. Igawa refused to go. Igawa was getting paid alot of money (millions) to basically do nothing or anything with any expected outcome other than I guess pitch as long as he can go and the team can take him in there. Why on earth would Igawa want to live in Trenton or Scranton for five months a year? Do your job there, party it up in Manhattan?

@JohnBecker - Igawa's contract was not laden with performance bonuses...he was guarenteed that 46 million (before taxes in NY) over that 5 year period. He did have a few performance bonuses (innings pitched, make allstar team, # of strikeouts) that could have increased it but like you say...he didnt hit any of em.

he didnt get 46million. it was 5yr 20million. 26million posting fee.

@ OkiMac2011 -

46 million dollars is broken down into $26,000,194 paid to the Hanshin Tigers, and $20,000,000 over 5 years for Igawa.

Just as fdgzdfg said.

Let's just say that Igawa won a large lottery pay out and leave it at that. We certainly did not see him play much baseball.

He had no shot ever getting in a Yankee uniform again even after winning more games in Scranton than anyone. Girardi and his ego had no place for him. Should have made sure they traded him to San Diego, a dead ball park when the inquiry came in. Peter Gammons, late of ESPN discussed that Guidry changed his windup and killed whatever mechanics he had. He was never the same and got whacked everywhere in the MLB. Too bad.

@chap2 Thanks!

chap2Apr. 03, 2012 - 09:05AM JST. Peter Gammons, late of ESPN discussed that Guidry changed his windup and killed whatever mechanics he had.

The problem is not Guidry. The problem is Igawa. He is a lousy pitcher that pitched up in the zone. Igawa has always given up alot of homeruns in Japan and pitching in MLB made it look alot worse. Igawa is a minor league pitcher at best. Yankees were looking for alternatives after Boston signed Matsuzaka and signed Igawa. What a mistake by the Yankees.