To reply

To compliment my response to Steady B's response to my response to Steady B, here is some more on the contract, taken from this insider article (thanks again, Dorf!):

"So I expect that the Red Sox are going to offer something in the four years, $9 million-a-year range," said the official, "but maybe try to work out a six-year deal in order to get the average annual value of the total package down -- say, like six years at $10 million, which would get the AAV down below $20 million [$51.11 million bid, plus $60 million in salary].

"Boras basically is in an impossible situation, because nobody wants the negotiations to break down and have this guy go back to Japan. Seibu doesn't want him back, because they want to keep the $51 million. Matsuzaka doesn't want to go back, and a $10 million a year offer is a 300 percent raise for him over what he made in Japan. Major League Baseball wants him to stay, of course, because of the interest he's generated."

"The only way Boras could get real leverage in the negotiations, besides threatening to return to Japan, would be if commissioner Bud Selig determines that the Red Sox are not acting in good faith in negotiations; Selig is the only party in this matter with the power to award negotiation rights to another team. "And do you think that the commissioner is going to step in and say that an offer of four years, $36 million is not fair to Matsuzaka?" said the official. "Of course not. He's livid about the bidding to begin with, about the possible overall cost being far more than $20 million a year. Do you really think he would step in to rescue Scott Boras?"