Interesting

[happybat4]

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/26797380/pitcher-skips-mlb-draft-japan-deal

 

Essentially a prospect signed with a Japanese team instead of being drafted. 7 million guaranteed and he will be a free agent at age 25, which is better than he would have received by MLB. I wonder if more top prospects might take this route.

[T.G.]

Leave it to Scott Boras... it's an interesting plan for sure.

[Jay]

Hope it works out.

It's a bold move for a 19-year-old American kid to move to Japan.

 

[eaterfan]

I really hope it works out. It's really the only leverage players will have in collective bargaining with the owners. 

I don't think it will be a popular choice, it's difficult to convince American kids to go to abroad. According to the article Boras has been pushing the idea for years and this is the first bite. It also points to Brandon Jennings, and in basketball kids aren't skipping college en masse to get paid in Europe.

If he's successful there and makes big money as a 25 year old FA we may see more of it. But I suspect there will be pressure from the owners not to sign this guy when he's a FA. Also suspect MLB will put pressure on the Japanese leagues to change their agreements with the US to close this loophole.

[T.G.]

1 hour ago, Jay said:

Hope it works out.

It's a bold move for a 19-year-old American kid to move to Japan.

 

Players from central and south American countries come here as kids all the time.

[floplag]

Not lost on me that the discussion of how he has performed was basically a footnote, but his velocity and spin rate were front and center.  

[T.G.]

5 minutes ago, floplag said:

Not lost on me that the discussion of how he has performed was basically a footnote, but his velocity and spin rate were front and center.  

Is his spin rate as elite as Josh Bard's?

[Jay]

2 hours ago, Jay said:

Hope it works out.

It's a bold move for a 19-year-old American kid to move to Japan.

 

42 minutes ago, True Grich said:

Players from central and south American countries come here as kids all the time.

Are we in Japan?

[VariousCrap]

I have thought for years that doing this would be a great idea, but simply for all those Japanese women.

 

[T.G.]

6 minutes ago, Jay said:

 

Are we in Japan?

Kid goes to Japan... doesn't speak the language and faces a different culture.

Same thing when kids from other countries come to the U.S  to play baseball. 

Both are "bold" moves... maybe you mean something else and I misunderstood you.

Edited May 22, 2019 by True Grich

[Jay]

8 minutes ago, True Grich said:

Both are "bold" moves

ok whatever

 

[TroutField]

4 minutes ago, Jay said:

ok whatever

 

I mean he did make some solid points.. ha 

[T.G.]

7 minutes ago, Jay said:

ok whatever

 

I took your comment to mean it's bold for a kid to go to another country to start his baseball career - given all the challenges that come with it... Maybe you just meant it's bold for him to go to Japan to by-pass the draft.  All you have to do is clarify it for me... instead of getting bent out of shape.

Edited May 22, 2019 by True Grich

[Taylor]

6 minutes ago, Jay said:

ok whatever

[TroutBaseball]

Buster Olney and Keith Law talked about this in detail

 

http://play.podtrac.com/espn-baseballtonightwithbusterolney/c.espnradio.com/audio/3641699/baseball_2019-05-22-111639.64k.mp3

[Jay]

16 minutes ago, True Grich said:

I took your comment to mean it's bold for a kid to go to another country to start his baseball career - given all the challenges that come with it... Maybe you just meant it's bold for him to go to Japan to by-pass the draft.  All you have to do is clarify it for me... instead of getting bent out of shape.

Probably doesn't need any clarification but here goes.

The topic is about an American kid from the U.S. moving to Japan.

I made a simple comment about how that would be a bold move. I meant exactly what I said.

Then you tried to compare it to some other kid moving to the U.S. from central/south America.

Apparently you think the two are equivalent. That really has nothing to do with my comment but "ok whatever."

I've already said about 10x more about it than I originally intended.

 

[T.G.]

[Catwhoshatinthehat]

Plenty of 18-19 year old's have gone off to other countries for various reasons (school, work, military) and 99.9999999% of them don't have a $7M cushion.  Saying it's a bold move in this context made it seem like it was in regards to the kids career as a ballplayer.  In that regard I don't blame the kid for taking the money which is the sure thing.   That's also happened in basketball where players who want to avoid the 1 year of college ball rule sign a contract to play in China for one year.  Emmanuel Mudiay did that in 2014, made $1.2M then got drafted 7th overall the next year and just had his best year as a pro.    

[aznhockeyguy]

I hope it works out for the kid.  Screw the draft.

[nate]

3 hours ago, Jay said:

Hope it works out.

It's a bold move for a 19-year-old American kid to move to Japan.

 

Japan is safer and a better quality of life, and considering he got more than the $7m, I am thinking the kid is probably doing quite well.

[eligrba]

I guess Borass is finding new suckers to sign his clients since the teams here have caught on to his bullshit.

[m0nkey]

Japan is awesome.

[arch stanton]

I don't know the current rules but last I followed the Japanese teams were allowed 2 non-Japanese players per team. If that's still the rule then this is a pretty limited trend

[UndertheHalo]

He got 7 million dollars.  So it’s absolutely the right thing for him to do.  It also illustrates the significant risk of not accepting millions of dollars when it’s offered to you.  Good for him that it worked out.  I’m not sure that this is a good model for other top 10 picks to follow. 

Edited May 23, 2019 by UndertheHalo

[TroutField]

1 hour ago, arch stanton said:

I don't know the current rules but last I followed the Japanese teams were allowed 2 non-Japanese players per team. If that's still the rule then this is a pretty limited trend

That’s some pretty racist shit lol