"Established Japanese professional players have been coming to Major League Baseball for several years. However, Japan's 12 pro baseball teams are trying to make it so the country's amateur players don't follow suit.

Japan's 12 teams have voted on a conditional ban on any amateur player who signs with an overseas professional team, the Mainichi Daily News reported. The move comes after Junichi Tazawa, a 22-year-old star pitcher, announced his intentions to play in Major League Baseball instead of Japan."

Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3632083

From what the article says, if you go to the US after high school you will have a three-year ban, if you go from college you will have a two-year ban.

Seems kinda pointless, since I doubt any of these players will sign for less than three years. So, you still get your shot in the US, and if you fail, you pretty much can finish your contract and come back to play in Japan.

the article doesn't really clarify whether the ban starts 3 years from the time you sign a US contract, or whether if you want to go back, you have to wait three years after your last US contract.

Either way, it probably won't deter anyone. Worst case scenario, you sign a ml deal and toil in the minors for three years, then you can go back to Japan after the "ban" is over

The article is poorly written, it's three years after they return to Japan. So this is fairly serious, and I say good on them. Tazawa's trying to get around the posting system and NPB has a right to protect their interests. Let's face it, MLB would flip out if Pedro Alvarez skipped to Japan or better said - since this isn't about Tazawa as much as it is about guys after Tazawa - MLB would flip out if a lot of Pedro Alvarezes went to Japan.

NPB can flip out all they want. The best players in the world should have the opportunity to play for the best league in the world, against the best players in the world, and in the league that will pay them the most. Pedro Alvarez isn't going to Japan because he can make more money here.

NPB can go fuck themselves. They don't own the rights to high school kids. They have no right to punish people for choosing to work in another country.

What they're doing is criminal.

It'll be interesting to see if David Stern tries something like this with college kids going to Europe to play a year instead of college. Brandon Jennings didn't think he could meet the requirements for his scholorship at U. of Arizona, so he jumped ship to Europe for a three year deal (whcih can be bought out...)

Linky goodness to that story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/sports/b...ennings.html?hp

So, the NBA could try to ban these players too, like Japan is....

why not make it goes into affect after you get shoved of a MLB roster?

They need to do something to protect themselves, though. If this works out, more and more players will go and their league will suffer for it. They don't exist as a minor league for MLB so why should they sit back and just give up on their best players if they can do something to deter them?

I don't see this as being such a terrible transgression.

Yes. According to the Japanese article, here, players with no professional experience in Japan will face this penalty upon later returning to Japan and trying to sign with an NPB team. As was noted, the freezeout would be 3 years for players that go overseas from HS, 2 years for those that go from college or other amateur leagues.

No. While you are right that NPB certainly has a right to protect their interests, this is just not even close to the way to do it. It really comes across as an almost childish attempt to put a bandaid on a broken leg.

I think gammoseditor nails it, and NPB needs to start to figure out real ways to make themselves more attractive to all players, globally, but especially to Japanese players.

NPB's real (and only valid) qualm here is that NPB teams would only be able to sign Tazawa at the draft, whereas MLB teams have access to him before that. I'm not sure how to solve that one. Allow MLB teams access to the Japanese amateur draft??? Dunno.

In Tazawa's case, he initially didn't sign in NPB because he didn't like the team that was going to sign him. But generally speaking, part of that argument is that Player X doesn't sign because if he does want to shoot for MLB at some stage, he shouldn't have to wait (up to) 8 years to do it. To me, rather than this punitive crap they've come out with, something on the other end might be more productive: max team "rights" period for kids coming out of high school gets cut from 8-->6, and from college/other amateur leagues, from 8-->5. That could have the effect of keeping younger players in the country longer. I don't know - just an idea. But it would leave a better taste in everyone's mouth than this childish bullsh*t. Don't be in a gay porn or we won't sign you. Don't go overseas or we won't sign you. And whatever you do, DO NOT be in a gay porn overseas.

There are obviously a handful of Japanese players that have come back to NPB after a stint in MLB - Shinjo, Kaz Ishii, Masato Yoshii, Nori Nakamura - but I don't think the threat of being locked out upon return would have kept them from going to MLB in the first place. IMHO, as a deterrent, it's a meaningless threat. I could be wrong.

EDIT: thanks to lurker champain2002 for the heads up on this thread

Why would Stern do this though? Why does he care if a player doesn't want to go to school and plays ball elsewhere?

Well by that same token, why does he care if someone enters his league at 18 vs 19? The answer is, he cares enough about his players that he wants them to have at least tried alternate opportunities for their life, or seen a little bit of real life, before committing to a lifestyle and career choice that is high-reward but also high-risk. He doesn't want any burned-out 20-year-olds with no marketable skills or experience in the real world or even in college, who blame the NBA for taking advantage of their own naivete. (having met him and discussed this with him, I actually believe this is what he believes)

The NPB situation is just the old situation of a monopoly trying to guard its market from new entrants because it doesn't want to have to change. It's totally different.

Protectionist, insulative strategies in a global economy are always, ALWAYS counterproductive.

That goes for baseball players, manufacturing jobs, and call center workers. It doesn't matter. The same principles apply. This is, in essence, an export tariff levied against an athlete.

NPB is shooting themself in the foot here. Players are going to flock to the league (and team) that provides them the best opportunity for success and riches. As it should be. Those who run the NPB are kidding themselves if they think some 19-to-22-year-old prospect (ages where young athletes truly believe they're invincible) is going to refrain from taking a shot at the majors because of some long-range fear that they won't be able to play in Japan if it somehow doesn't work out.

Stern would look like an ass if he got rid of his one year in college plan. Of course he wants stars in his league as soon as possible. At face value, he can go out and say "we want these kids to try out college, get the college experience, etc" When the reality is, taking Frisbee 101 for half a year isn't exactly comparable to a college experience.

The NBA could also lose out if these young guys skip college and go right to Europe. Some might just stay over there and not try the NBA. Japan is concerned with the same thing.

There've been "rumors" (although probably only by their respective camps...) that guys like Lebron, Kobe, Wade, etc can get $50 mil a year over there! THEN the US is gonna have a huge problem, probably comparable to the Japanese in baseball.