Numbers Games

From an AP article at SI.com about the winter meetings:

Boston bid $51,111,111 just for the right to negotiate with ace pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka under baseball's posting system with the Japanese Leagues, and the New York Yankees offered $26,000,194 for Kei Igawa, projected as a No. 4 of five starter. The contracts for those two likely won't be resolved until later in the month.

Have the Red Sox and Yankees been doing too much eBay sniping? Perhaps someone can explain the significance of that collective extra $111,305.