Baseball - Matsui Finally Comfortable In Colorado U

Kaz Matsui is still wondering why he was not comfortable while playing for the New York Mets. Matsui is 31 years old and in 2003 he signed a $20.1 million contract with the Mets for 3 years. Unfortunately for Matsui, he could live up to his reputation while he was in New York and this might have been the reason why Mets traded him to Colorado in 2006 in summer.

After coming to Colorado, Matsui spent two months playing at Triple A and getting his game back together. In the 32 games he played for the Rockies, he averaged .345 with a .392 on base percentage and had 8 bases in 9 attempts. This performance was enough to ensure that Colorado re-sign him.

Matsui did not even contemplate about returning to Japan or going to another franchise, he just re-signed with the Rockies for $1.5 million. Now with Matsui, the Rockies have speed in the top order which they did not have for very long.

According to general manager Dan O’Dowd, Matsui is instrumental in bringing a lot of game changing speed besides dynamic speed. He is quite optimistic about Matsui specially since he had a good six weeks last summer. However, O’Dowd wants to wait and see how Matsui performs over the next six months.

From 1995, Matsui played for the Seibu Lions till he signed up with the Mets. According to Clint Hurdle, Rockies’ manager, Matsui may not have been able to perform while he was with the Mets because of the constant spotlight East Coast baseball faces and this could have hindered Matsui in finding his niche in MLB. Colorado Rockies, on the other hand, have tried to make the transition easy for Matsui and allowed him to settle down on his own pace in the team.