Mike Cyclone Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 The Red Sox signed Junichi Tazawa right out of school from Japan (which caused a bit of an uproar at the time, as NPB teams were afraid MLB teams would start making this a regular thing and sign away all the best players). It worked out pretty well there, though the Sox had several Japanese translators on staff from having Matsuzaka and Okajima at the time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Well, the kids from the Dominican at least have a pretty big network of players and coaches they can talk to in any franchise at any level. It will be awhile before any team would be willing to invest in that much talent (including coaches) for a few Japanese high-schoolers. It would take a certain amount of vision and planning to get an entire farm system ready enough to overcome the increase failure rate from burnout and cultural isolation or whatever. Like, people at every level if you want to have even a dozen Japanese youth prospects in your system. All for maybe getting one eventual big-leaguer out of a dozen unproven 18-year-olds. I just think the MLB clubs aren't particularly well-known for making those kind of big changes at the rookie-league through AAA levels. Good point. The Latin American guys will always at least have a few guys on their rosters at every level that speak the same language, even if they're from another country. Doubtful that would ever be the case with the Japanese guys. And there's also a lot more investment in having Spanish-speaking coaches and staff at every level on just about every team, too. Of course, the Rangers found out two years ago that drafting a whole bunch of Latin American players and giving them a great support network doesn't matter if they're all a bunch of immature screwups. They had so many behavioral problems with the guys here in Spokane that they literally made a change in philosophy within the organization to draft older, North American dudes. It was a mess here - multiple host families kicking guys out of their houses (for the first time ever after hosting for 15+ years), guys stealing, all kinds of nonsense. The organization actually went back to some families with "make good" offers and the like and they were so mad that they refused to let players back into their homes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 The thing is its certain to happen eventually if the trend of kids playing baseball kept falling here and kept steady in Japan. The talent pool will shift. It would be inevitable that some GM would make the investment, and if it paid off with three or four guys five years later, everyone would start doing it. BUT...with the concussion stuff in football, it seems like Baseball might be on the verge of a comeback as sport of choice of American kids to play (or at least their parents' preference). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuetsar Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Can someone explain to me why with this new MLB rule about home-plate collisions, I get the point of whats the point of giving up a player for one run in May, but what if that one run is in a tied game in the bottom of the 9th of game seven of the world series? The catcher will go down in the playoffs, but whether a ump will have the balls or inclination to call out the runner is another matter. . . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LethalStriker Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 Dominicans at least have players from not only their home country but also Puerto Rico, Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela and Panama that speak their same language. And it's a lot easier for a spanish speaker to learn english then a japanese speaker to learn english. Spanish and english have a lot more in common with each other, a lot of the words are just slightly different versions of each other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 18, 2013 Share Posted December 18, 2013 The Cubs signed Jose Veres. Hold on, I need to clear my throat for this... MEH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cubbymark Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 At least they didn't resign Kevin Gregg, which given the hissy fit that happened towards the end of the year wasn't going to happen. Perhaps they'll trade Veras at the deadline for a High A prospect or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianS81177 Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Braves acquire Ryan Doumit from the Twins for Sean Gilmartin. And the Mariners have re-signed Franklin "my body is made of that breakable sugar glass they use in the movies" Gutierrez to a 1 year deal for 1 million + incentives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Marlins Sign Casey McGehee By far the biggest signing of the off-season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Reports out of Japan today are that Rakuten Golden Eagles will not post Masahiro Tanaka. Instead they are apparently are going to offer him $8 million a year (he currently makes $4 million). The Golden Eagles own his rights till the end of 2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 That will end well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Hopefully as well as Luke Scott playing in Korea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Reports out of Japan today are that Rakuten Golden Eagles will not post Masahiro Tanaka. Instead they are apparently are going to offer him $8 million a year (he currently makes $4 million). The Golden Eagles own his rights till the end of 2015 It's still up to Tanaka though, I thought. Rakuten said they would honor Tanaka's request, whatever he chooses. If they try to woo him by offering him $8 million a year, I still don't see him taking it because A) He's going to make way more than that over here, and B) If the reports are true, he feels he's accomplished all that he could in Japan. It would be really shitty for them to suddenly renege. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 At least they didn't resign Kevin Gregg, which given the hissy fit that happened towards the end of the year wasn't going to happen. Perhaps they'll trade Veras at the deadline for a High A prospect or two. For what it's worth, Gregg's fit was largely due to Dale Sveum being an idiot and a poor communicator. Theo and/or Jed had to smooth things over with Gregg and it was probably a good example of why they released Sveum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Reports out of Japan today are that Rakuten Golden Eagles will not post Masahiro Tanaka. Instead they are apparently are going to offer him $8 million a year (he currently makes $4 million). The Golden Eagles own his rights till the end of 2015 It's still up to Tanaka though, I thought. Rakuten said they would honor Tanaka's request, whatever he chooses. If they try to woo him by offering him $8 million a year, I still don't see him taking it because A) He's going to make way more than that over here, and B) If the reports are true, he feels he's accomplished all that he could in Japan. It would be really shitty for them to suddenly renege. Nope - since they own his rights, he can't play anywhere until after 2015 And in another example of the different mindset The hurler nevertheless appears ready to accept whatever decision Rakuten comes to. "If the team tells me, 'We're not going to post you. Please stay,' the professional thing to do is give it your all and get back to pitching," Tanaka told reporters this week. "I'm ready to do that." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChesterCopperpot Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 So before they sign Beltran – the Yankees offered Shin-Soo Choo a 7 year $140million deal – which Boras turned down as he wanted Ellsbury money http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shin-soo-choo-remains-the-riddle-of-the-free-agent-market-165809610.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Well, ok then. I guess the next best player from Japan would be Maeda, would it not? Also, in news that applies to all sports, but mainly frustrates the hell out of me for baseball and football, the FCC may eliminate blackout rules. That would be awesome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 So before they sign Beltran – the Yankees offered Shin-Soo Choo a 7 year $140million deal – which Boras turned down as he wanted Ellsbury money http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shin-soo-choo-remains-the-riddle-of-the-free-agent-market-165809610.html FUCK I guess that means the Cubs won't be signing him either. Stupid offseason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Well, ok then. I guess the next best player from Japan would be Maeda, would it not? Also, in news that applies to all sports, but mainly frustrates the hell out of me for baseball and football, the FCC may eliminate blackout rules. That would be awesome. Calm down. The only blackout rule the FCC has jurisdiction over is the attendance-based one, which really only affects a handful of NFL teams eachyear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Well that's a bummer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 Well, ok then. I guess the next best player from Japan would be Maeda, would it not? Also, in news that applies to all sports, but mainly frustrates the hell out of me for baseball and football, the FCC may eliminate blackout rules. That would be awesome. Well, ok then. I guess the next best player from Japan would be Maeda, would it not? Also, in news that applies to all sports, but mainly frustrates the hell out of me for baseball and football, the FCC may eliminate blackout rules. That would be awesome. Calm down. The only blackout rule the FCC has jurisdiction over is the attendance-based one, which really only affects a handful of NFL teams eachyear. More importantly, the NFL's own rules will keep said blackouts in place for the foreseeable future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tabe Posted December 19, 2013 Share Posted December 19, 2013 So before they sign Beltran – the Yankees offered Shin-Soo Choo a 7 year $140million deal – which Boras turned down as he wanted Ellsbury money http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/10-degrees--shin-soo-choo-remains-the-riddle-of-the-free-agent-market-165809610.html He should get more than Ellsbury - he's a better player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Apparently the Os deal with Grant Balfour is in danger of not happening because Balfour failed his physical Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Lucia Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 Kevin Youkilis is going to Japan. Man, talk about falling off quick... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RIPPA Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 So much for him wanting to play closer to home... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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