MLB withdrawing proposal for Japan bidding system

“We warned them, told them if this sat too long, there could be shifting winds out there, and suffice it to say there are shifting winds,”

Life in Japan in a nutshell, be it baseball, the TPP, waiting for help on Fukushima, or you name it. It's only when they say, "What happened?" do they realize their hands are numb from sitting on them too long. 'Tis a shame, Tanaka seems to be quite a good pitcher.

“If that’s the way we get Japanese professionals, I think that the 30 major league clubs are prepared to live with that result,” Manfred said."

The owners sat on their hands and Japanese players who want out will be the big losers.

The big losers are the Japanese owners .. the players like Tanaka are going to MLB, whether its this year or next year. The difference is without a posting system the owners cannot auction them off to the highest bidder.

the red sox must still be cringing at bidding so much for matsuzaka.

and this posting system is a joke. why americans agreed to it initially is baffling.

it's a blessing in disguise, MLB can save lot of money and use other means for advertise Base Ball.

Smithinjapan -spot on. Now watch the old fossils from NPB complain that they had no idea. 12 year-old children.

Jamie is right, Dodgers and Angels: both fields have more than 60,000 seats and usually more than 50,000 attendants for least at every game at home. With their huge profits, they have eyes on Japanese players more than trading with other MLB teams. They will go for Korean player, too.Bunch of local ads li. Wo of Dodgers made history for becoming first Korean player as NL championship player. Their ad income is huge.Both teams have Japanese and English ad displays for Nintendo, Nissan, etc. behind of pitchers mound, Well, rule or not, they will get Japanese players with larger contract pay than Eastern teams. Giants, A. Padre can do, too. Our channel 49 is Angels and 50 is Dodgers during season.. Bunch of local (Las Vegas) ads, too.

Is this going to lead to shorter initial contracts with Japanese clubs? It should. Might be time for some American agents to set up some players here out of high school. Get an ex MLB player from Japan worker for you. Can you imagine having Ichiro introducing some MLB agent to a high school kid here? That would shake things up.

@spudman: In USA. MLB teams do not recruit from HS. At least 2 years of University. From Las Vegas. a very brilliant player graduated HS when he was in 10 th grade, then he entered a University. When he finished 2 years of University he was recruited to Washington National. He has been elected to most valuable player every year even he was younger than other players. New recruiters usualy go to play in their minor teams. So. no dice to have Japanese HS graduate in USA Major baseball game teams. Agents are usually retired former players - very well-known, About every MLB players have 4 years of college degrees. They participated on college baseball series. For instance, Calif St Univ Fullertin have many MLBTeam players. Well, the school produce Hollywood stars, directors, producers, so I should not compare with other Univ. Coaches and Mgrs have to work hard on players whose first language is not American English. So I doubt very much Japanese ex-players any team will use to recruit from Japan. It is just unpractical.

toshiko,

Not exactly. Some MLB-hopefuls do play in college, but many also do not - instead going to the minor leagues. Here's what happens: when a graduating high school baseball player is good enough, he can be drafted by a MLB team. Then the player has to choose: whether to sign with the MLB team and go straight to the minor leagues and get paid, or decline to sign and go play in college wherein he could get drafted again in the following years - and even a lot of college players leave school early to sign with MLB team when their stock is high, like Stephen Strasburg.

For example, Derek Jeter was recruited straight from high school to the NYY minors. Meanwhile Gerrit Cole was also drafted by NYY right after high school, but didn't sign, went to college instead, then later left college early to be drafted by the Pittsburgh Pirates.

So yes, if the parties agree, a MLB team could get a Japanese high schooler after graduation and get him started in the minor leagues right away. They do this all the time with Latino players, whether they speak any English at all or not.

@losttune: Read my comment, I wrote about MLB, not Minor League recruit practice since this is story about MJB, not minor league. You are writing about Minor League mainly Have you ever talked with coaches and team managers? they always complain that none-English speaking players on mound, often, they have big problemss on mound. Ptiching coaches have limited time to talk to the pitcher. Converse with any coaches and managers. If you are bilingual, they welcome to speak with you. Female or Male. Good usually when they are in home field.

toshiko,

Almost nobody goes straight to the Majors immediately after high school or college, so there's no sense talking about the Majors regarding recruits almost always go to the minor leagues (and most do not even make it to the Majors). And I'm disputing the fact that you think almost all MLBers have 4-year college degrees (maybe if they go back to school years later) - most who are good enough to be MLB-hopefuls leave college early or skip college altogether and hone their skills in the minors instead.

Baseball-bilingual is not much an issue regarding Latinos since there are now so many Latino baseball-bilingual personnel in the system, from fellow players to coaches to translators to the managers themselves, all of whom could go to the mound ("baseball-bilingual" means one doesn't need to be fully bilingual in a language, just bilingual in baseball terminologies). However, this would still be an issue with Asian languages though.

lostrune2: After 2 years of college, they can be recruited, I wrote. I did not write about Latino players because this is Japan and MLB talks. You are writing Latino. I wrote about Japanese players since this article has nothing to do with Cuban and other country players. Or you think Latinos are Japanese?

toshiko,

I'm talking about everyone: Americans, Latinos, Japanese, Koreans, Europeans, etc.

MLB definitely recruit from high school and up. That's why they draft high school players and up.

There's no rule preventing the MLB to recruit Japanese high schoolers, save for: (1) the courtesy to the NPB not to poach their young stars, (2) the NPB rule that the J-HSer MLB recruit cannot come back and play in NPB for 3 years, and (3) the Japanese player leaving behind the familiarity and guaranteed money in Japan for the unknown in a foreign land.

If a J-HS player is willing to accept those 3 challenges and is good enough to be recruited by a MLB team, the MLB team could take him and promptly train him in the minors.

@lostrune2: This article is about MLB Japan bidding systtem - nothing with Lation and other countries bidding system. We USA fans watch games, League championship games, WS games and get excited who our favorite teams gave contracts new players. Harper had to get HS degree after he finished 10 years, then went local University and drafted by National and he made history by becoming youngest /MVP, etc. So USA fans know Players can not be in MLB teams without 2 years College education, You seem to be unfamiliar of MLB rules and creating your guess. Have you watched games in USA? //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////. BTW, have you obtained MLB regulation leaflet from MLB office? Or have you ever watched games in USA? The season is over but will begin in Spring. there are bunch of sports magazines and gossip magazines in USA.

!@cracaphat: MLB teams in USA have income from attendance entrance fees and advertisements beside some TV channels (FOX, etc). TV channels have ad incomes for televising sports so they give huge contract to teams. When a team has popular players, attendance increases. A long time ago, when a top player in east had contract with a west coast team, team offered contract that stated how much money plus 5 cent of each attendant over 3 million. Well the team had way over 3 million attendants. I forgot how many but about 1 million more? Nintendo, toyota, Nissan Honda, Bridgestone, Yokohama Tire and a variety of Japan. Inc, rush to get ad contracts. Meaning pay plenty money to team, That is why USA MLB teams are willing to pay so many million dollars contract to each player.

So USA fans know Players can not be in MLB teams without 2 years College education, You seem to be unfamiliar of MLB rules and creating your guess. Have you watched games in USA?

Players do not need 2 years of college to be drafted by a MLB team. I already mentioned Derek Jeter - he was drafted straight out of high school; he never attended college. A lot of Latino players go straight from the local baseball academy (the equivalent of high school) to the minors. There is no 2-year college requirement in the MLB.

(And not only have I watched games, I've been to MLB baseball stadiums to watch games.)

Again, there is no college requirement to go to the MLB. A lot of MLB players do not even go to college.

toshiko Nov. 19, 2013 - 01:56AM JST Meaning pay plenty money to team, That is why USA MLB teams are willing to pay so many million dollars contract to each player.

For MLB teams, the young players that are signed from from latin or any other foreign countries are in high risk category. Lack of maturity, different environment, and lack of English language skills. Most fail. Very few make it to MLB. To sign a young player from Japan requires huge investment by teams for so little return. Chances of landing Ichiro or Darvish from Japan high school or two hear college is almost like finding needle in a haystack. This is why most MLB teams prefers to trade for potential minor league players from other teams.

slip330: you are right. Young players usually go to minor team. For instance LSA Dodgers have triple A and Double A teams, etc. first. Never to MLB first. Brice Harper-National was exception because he already had 2 years of College. . MLB trade quite bit off season, This is another reason teams are not unhappy with this news. They are already began talking. Tommy Lasorda used to say he is not babysitter when he was Dodger Manager. Ditto with Socio. However Harper showed maturity. National had bonanza,. People used to say.

The sides have reopened talks about revamping the posting system so it will get done sooner or later. That said, I can't really blame the NPB owners from balking at a system that promises to cut into their ability to get fair compensation for giving away their stars to deep pocketed MLB teams. Then again, the system as presently constituted, allows teams to effectively block other teams (i.e., division rivals, etc.) from signing Japanese players by submitting a disingenuous bid. Finally, the worst thing is that the player is inevitably screwed as most MLB teams will use the bid as a bargaining tool to negotiate a lower than market value contract.