MLB Free Agency: Can Yu Darvish Beat the Dice-K Curse?

One of the biggest names floating around this MLB offseason has been Yu Darvish. 

Darvish is currently a starting pitcher for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters. He is currently one of the top pitchers in Japan and at the age of just 25 years old, is making his transition to the MLB. 

The bidding war for the rights to sign Darvish was won by the Texas Rangers who will be looking to replace former ace C.J. Wilson with the young right-hander. Darvish follows 43 other Japanese-born players who have played at least one game in the MLB through 2010. 

Japanese players have found mixed results in their transition to the MLB. 

The last big-name Japanese player to make the jump to American baseball was the Boston Red Sox' Daisuke Matsuzaka. "Dice-K" was hyped up to be the Japanese pitcher that would dominant American baseball. His mythical "gyro ball" was suppose to baffle hitters of any nationality. 

As we know now, Matsuzaka didn't pan out the way he was expected to. 

He has a career record of 46-27 with a 4.18 ERA. One of Matsuzaka's biggest issues has been his control, which leads to him walking far too many hitters. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka's lack of success in the MLB didn't stop the Texas Rangers from throwing out a huge bid on Yu Darvish. The Rangers reportedly bid $51.7 million for the right to negotiate with him for 30 days. 

While the mystique of the dominant talents from the Far East have always intrigued baseball fans and teams alike, there have only been a few that have really found great success once they reached "The Show."

The most successful Japanese player of all time is without a doubt Ichiro Suzuki. 

Suzuki has been one of the most dominant hitters in the league since he joined the Seattle Mariners 11 seasons ago. Ichiro has a .326 career batting average and has complied an astounding 2,428 hits. 2011 was the only season Ichiro did not make the American League All-Star team. 

Ichiro was an instant success his "rookie" year when he hit .350 leading the league with 242 hits and stole 56 bases. He captured both the American League Rookie of the Year award and the MVP that year. 

Ichiro is a lock to become the first Japanese-Born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Other Japanese-born players have found success in the MLB, but have had a difficult time continuing it over the course of a full career.

Hideo Nomo entered the MLB in 1995 and beat out Chipper Jones for the National League Rookie of the Year. He put together a solid season in 1996 as well, going 16-11 with a 3.19 ERA and a 1.16 WHIP. Nomo highlighted that season by becoming the first Japanese-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter in the MLB.

Players like Hideki Matsui and Koji Uehara have found some solid success in the MLB, but they haven't made the huge splash that Ichiro did. Other talents like Takashi Saito and Hideki Irabu have followed similar paths.

Yu Darvish is just the next big-name talent that is supposed to transfer his dominance from Japan to the United States. His numbers in Japan are incredible, as he carries a 93-38 record with an astounding 1.99 ERA. 

Can Darvish really break the long line of unsuccessful conversions to American baseball?

The truth of the matter is we won't know until he gets here. Ichiro was one of the greatest hitters ever in Japan and his game carried over just fine to the MLB. Hideki Matsui was a top power in Japan, but while his home runs numbers here were good, they were nowhere near what he did overseas.

It appears as if hitters have had a greater amount of success making the jump to the American game. For some reason Japanese pitchers just can't find the same success. 

Yu Darvish may be the one to break that trend.

I won't be convinced until I see him take the mound in a major league ballpark and prove it.