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Japanese Are Irked by U.S. Interest in Pitcher

nytimes.com — As the first high-profile Japanese baseball prospect to spurn his nation’s leagues to entertain offers from the U.S., Junichi Tazawa has strained relations between leagues on two continents.

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 21, 2008

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  • YokohamaGaijin, on 11/21/2008, -4/+32Trust me, 90% of the people here don't give a *****.
  • k3rfuffl3, on 11/21/2008, -0/+11"World Series" might actually make some sense now.
  • manjy90, on 11/21/2008, -0/+11They can have Bonds, we'll take this guy.
  • nobleexperiment, on 11/21/2008, -1/+10Japan should ban Scott Boras from entering the country before he signs the kid to the Yankees, Sox, Dodgers or Angels.
    Just a thought.
  • Autodidaddict, on 11/21/2008, -0/+3Ummm.....probably not the Yankees:

    FTA:

    Many Japanese baseball officials are outraged that United States teams are courting Tazawa, a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher, because they insist it is long-established practice for amateurs like him to be strictly off limits to major league clubs. Even some American general managers, including the Yankees’ Brian Cashman, agree.

    AND THEN:

    “I’m old school — there has been an understanding,” said Cashman, whose team has a formal cooperative relationship with the Yomiuri Giants, a team particularly upset with the Tazawa affair. “There’s been a reason that Japanese amateurs haven’t been signed in the past, so we consider him hands off.”
  • DaviDTC, on 11/21/2008, -0/+3Can I send you my math homework? You seem really good with numbers.
  • inactive, on 11/20/2008, -0/+3Mo Money. Mo Problems.
  • treed, on 11/21/2008, -0/+2No, but it's not part of ours, therefore there are two continents involved.
  • kangy3213, on 11/21/2008, -0/+2"irked" you say.

  • Maksx, on 11/21/2008, -0/+2dugg for use of the work "irk", like "glib" highly underused
  • PinkoCommie, on 11/21/2008, -0/+2The leagues are on 2 continents... MLB is not only in the US and I honestly don't know if the Japanese league has teams outside Japan.
  • Jeffler, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1He was already 26 when he got here though.
  • stevenjchang, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1um, yes and no....well, to my best understanding, i'm arguing your understanding to mine, not sure who's right, just giving my view of it.

    i would not say he "legally" dodged the draft, didnt sound that way to me, at least not the second time.
    i am fully assuming the japanese and american baseball drafts are similar, in that they are not like basketball drafts. meaning, the player does not have to declare themselves to enter the draft. any baseball player in the country automatically "qualifies for the draft", the player doesn't get to make the decision, or a "declaration", as they call it in basketball or football. there is a huge risk involved in drafting someone who has made it explicitly known that he will not sign with the team who drafts him (effectively wasting a pick). Ofcourse if a Japanese club had "wasted" a pick, they would have ensured that he would not be allowed to sign with the US, but i guess no club decided to do that (i dont know why).

    I think the Jap's have the correct take on it, IMO,
    I'm a yankees fan, and i definitely take Cashman's take on all of this. This is pandora's box, because major league teams haven't yet cross the line, but as soon as one does....THEY ALL WILL,

    If no one does it, fine, but if someone does it (and it helps put their team over the top), then all teams will have to do it to stay competitive, and i don't like where that's going.

    you'll start to see agents and scouts trying recruit players and trying to "help" them find their own loopholes.
    i dont see it as a good idea, but we'll see
  • loki2029, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1Yeah mainly I was just questioning the wording of the sentence, but I see that it makes sense. PinkoCommie makes me wonder though, anyone know of the structure of Japanese baseball? I tried looking up where the teams are all located but my geography in that region is a bit off.
  • stevenjchang, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1lol ***** ya
    ban him
    sick of him taking up espn airtime, can we PLEASE talk about something else on talk radio and sportscenter, PLEASE
  • fatas, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1Gentleman's agreement sounds similar to the ***** that went down with the steroids.
  • smacksaw, on 11/21/2008, -2/+3I was wondering how this would shake out...I think this "gentleman's agreement" is a major screwjob for Japanese players. If you're good enough for MLB, play there. If you have a contract, that's the league you're in. But if you're not good enough, go to another league. And if you're under contract, you can't play until it's expired or transferred.
  • loki2029, on 11/21/2008, -3/+4Japan's a continent?
  • painting, on 11/21/2008, -1/+2because you hate Japan.
  • Tegurit34, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1That's the thing -- they don't. They're just scared of future talents following Tazawa's lead.
  • smackydoodle, on 11/21/2008, -2/+3I can't say I blame them for being "irked". MLB is treating their baseball market as if they are just an expansion of their minor league systems. If the Japanese players wanted to play here they would. Baseball is huge in Japan and if the US keeps plucking their main talent it'll kill the market. I'm sure if there was another nation taking away Labron James type people away from American sports every year we'd be "irked" too.
  • ButtSmudge, on 11/21/2008, -1/+2So the only reason he is in the Industrial league is because he wasnt drafted by any Nippon League teams. And if the Industrial league is not affiliated with the Nippon League, why do they have say in players signing with American teams? Its like if an American player wasnt drafted by any ML team, and decide to play in the Independent league, and Japan decide to sign him, and we have a big fuss about it.
  • mal1964, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1The fans are more upset about how to fill there picture taken void from all the useless photos he was good for.
  • Spoomeister, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1They're just pissed that we found a way to get around the asinine posting system, thus depriving one of the Japanese teams an obscene windfall after an overly complicated and silly blind bidding process.
  • Wittyfish, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1Oh damn. We are so strained now... No, wait.... I really don't care.
  • yeahblah, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1No, it doesn't. Fans in the Korean league, etc. might be "irked" by the suggestion.
  • induren, on 11/21/2008, -1/+2continents?
  • FolkTheory, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1yes
  • treed, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1And? He wasn't high-profile? He didn't spurn his nation's leagues to come to the States?

    He was a huge deal at the time.
  • ashes0, on 11/21/2008, -0/+1Japanese kick ass at baseball.
  • Ajajadude, on 11/21/2008, -1/+2Maybe the U.S. should ban Scott Boras, too.
  • uzm2000, on 11/26/2008, -0/+0As a Japanese and big fan of MLB, I hate our old, narrow-minded, backward-thinking Japanese Baseball League... they are afraid of more and more local talents kissing the local league good-bye for better life and career but that's how it is. They better not tighten or bend any existing rules to keep young japanese talents shackled, which they just did, but work their old lazy asses to try to make their own league more attractive or competitive and START allowing unlimited number of foreign-born players to play in the league. They only allow a limited number of such players to be registered in one team so that one team will not be full of foreign-born players... resulting in local talents without a job it's not different than MLB back in the day not having allowed African American players in the league...

    Whether anyone is aware or not, in the case of Tazawa, Japanese baseball league JUST put in a new rule to KEEP HIM out of the Japanese professional league for a few years IF HE comes back from MLB for whaterver reasons... This is damn ridiculous... They are retarded... and I wish any JP players wanting to go overseas to be granted to get the hell out of such a doomed baseball league...
  • avirk86, on 11/21/2008, -1/+1This is just what happens in a globalized world. Just ask; European soccer leagues, the NHL, and now MLB.
  • inactive, on 11/21/2008, -1/+1Well all fair's in love and baseball. Especially when there's a big pay check.
  • Tetrator, on 11/21/2008, -3/+3I'll save everyone the time.

    Guy in Japaneese minors has a lot of talent.

    MLB clubs want to sign said guy because of talent.

    Japaneese major league clubs don't want this guy to leave because it sets a disturbing precedent that may undermine their ability to retain quality talent guys. They claim there has been a unspoken agreement with MLB to not recruit guys from their minor league clubs.

    Guy wants to sign with MLB

    Since money talks, I'm sure there will be another article forthcoming in the future months about this guy signing with and MLB club.
  • treed, on 11/21/2008, -1/+1What about Hideo Nomo?

    From WP:

    Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄 Nomo Hideo?, born August 31, 1968 in Minato-ku, Osaka) is a Japanese former right-handed pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball. He achieved early success in Japan, where he played with the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1990 to 1994. He then exploited a loophole to free himself from his Japanese contract and became the first Japanese-born Japanese major leaguer to permanently relocate to Major League Baseball in the United States. His successful debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 is often credited with paving the road for the subsequent "wave" of Japanese players entering Major League Baseball.[1]
  • ViSHiX, on 11/21/2008, -7/+7why did i click this story?
  • iammzac, on 11/21/2008, -1/+1i thought it said jerked.. lol
  • IRAcarbombs, on 11/21/2008, -2/+2Hmmm whos the first to bid??? Yankees or RedSox ?
  • inactive, on 11/21/2008, -0/+0While US sucks ass at baseball.

    At least some teams do... I know one. Mariners.
  • Tegurit34, on 11/21/2008, -1/+1No they're not. The agreement between MLB and NPB about signing players is that MLB can't touch any players out of high school or college. *But if they drop out of high school then they're fair game for anyone in the world to recruit. It's actually very rare for a Japanese amateur to do this because it excludes them from playing in Koshien, which is the biggest baseball stage in the country (imagine March Madness x10), and *is something every young boy looks forward to competing in by the time he learns how to tie his cleats.

    (* = to my understanding)

    But back to the point, Tazawa legally dodged the NPB draft, which was completely in his own right, in order to be eligible to sign with a Major League club. He didn't break any of the rules. The NPB is having a ***** because he's a great pitching talent, but if they wanted to avoid this kind of thing then maybe they should have set the rules differently.

    Will more young amateurs follow suit? It's yet to be seen, but it's what the NPB is deathly afraid of, so maybe it's time for them to start treating their players more fairly when it comes to their system of arbitration and free agency. Compared to MLB's 6 years of club control, the NPB has 9 over their players, and that means 95 percent of players that have a career prosperous enough to make it to free agency at all are already way past their prime to play in the Majors like many of them so desire.
  • FENWAYFREAK, on 11/21/2008, -2/+1"If the Japanese players wanted to play here they would."

    Well, apparently, they do wanna play here...
  • seibed, on 11/21/2008, -3/+1And that's still higher than the percentage of Americans that give a *****.
  • tommyny04, on 11/21/2008, -6/+2too many words to read ...

    buried
  • scoottie, on 11/21/2008, -5/+1good the more Japanese players America takes the more foreigners Japan has to let play.
  • krnldmp, on 11/21/2008, -8/+1Baseball? Isn't that some kind of new Asian game?
  • Autodidaddict, on 11/21/2008, -11/+3I like most things Japanese...but it is a little hypocritical to embrace capitalism so much yet not understand that free markets apply to baseball prospects too......
  • inactive, on 11/21/2008, -10/+1If Japan won't shut up, USA will turn them into a glass parking lot again.

    Now if you excuse the USA, they are going back at being outraged Iran is building nukes.

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