Mets scouts say that Tazawa will never be any good because he’s only 5’10" and he can barely hit 90.

That’s how you know he’s good.

Japanese teams technically can sign our players before the draft, but most players won’t want to. It’s more likely for a Japanese team to sign a guy like Crow who didn’t sign.

Eventually the two leagues will make some type of agreement that they won’t sign each other’s amateurs.

Now some American prospects will be swayed to Japan for more money.

Would the NPB club own his rights for 9 years, like with Japanese players? If so, I’d think that only fringy US prospects would consider making that move, as they’d miss out on playing in the MLB during their physical prime (and would make a lot less money over that time span).

He’s also never said he’d want to come to America after 200 wins to my knowledge. He has said he wants to win 200 in Japan, but has also stated repeatedly that he has no desire to play here.

the japanese want to come here because they will get more money and play against better competition, the US players that go there turn into studs and they only go there when they are cut and not getting money from mlb teams, the fact you even said this thread with a straight face scares me as to your prospects of ever being listened to again

Go join Mccoveychronicles, you will get a REAL education there!

MLB DOES have an agreement not to sign Japanese high schoolers – Tazawa is a unique case because he is not coming out of high school – he is coming out of an industrial league – which is a lower amateur league apparently equivalent to high minors.. He finished one level of schooling is my understanding – and the NPB (Nippon[Japan] Professional Baseball) teams then passed on drafting him.

After he finished his high school career in Yokohama, Tazawa was not drafted by any of Nippon Professional Baseball’s 12 teams, and joined the company team of Nippon Oil in the corporate league, unaffiliated with the NPB.3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junichi_Tazawa

This is a rare case which is unlikely to have any major ramifications on MLB-NPB relations. There is zero chance Japanese teams start raiding American high schoolers to any extent we would even notice. Simply put, American high schooler dont want to go over there.

 Tazawa changed nothing. He’s an exception to the rules already in place. Very few first round NPB draft talents come from this league – and even less often would a player MLB teams would be interested in come out of this league instead of high school. ALL the best players come out of high school ball. That’s why the rules governing MLB-NPB transactions didnt anticipate this situation. It is not a common occurence.

As to his velocity – his fastball has reportedly been clocked as high as 97mph:

In 2007, he pitched for Japan at the Baseball World Cup in Taiwan, where his fastball was clocked at 97 miles per hour (156 km/h).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junichi_Tazawa

BUT Sox scouts were quoted as saying he works in the low 90’s most of the time:

The Sox have been scouting Tazawa for more than a year, according to the Globe’s Tony Massarotti, but a club official cautioned against unrealistic expectations for Tazawa, who likely needs time in the minor leagues and who might be a comparable talent to someone like former Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners righthander Shigetoshi Hasegawa.

According to [one] source, Tazawa throws in the low 90s — not in the 97-mile per hour range, as some have reported — and possesses a good breaking ball to go along with a changeup.

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/extras/extra_bases/2008/11/reports_red_sox.html

His fastball is also pretty straight – like many Japanese pitchers. Theyre actually taught to throw straight fastballs, actually. Its to make their heater contrast with forks, splitters, shootballs and the rest of the crap they prefer instead of the big breaking balls over here. Think Hideo Nomo.

But please, everyone keep making broad, nonsensical comments about the Red Sox, Japan, MLB, etc… Its really amusing what Im reading above. Just know there is no “Japan Problem.”

I mean, I’m sure professional baseball will continue to exist in some form. But on one level or another, it’ll just be a feeder for MLB. Much moreso than it is today. It’s in MLB’s best interest to allow the young, elite talents to come over when they’re amateurs rather than once they’re established stars and have to be posted a la Matsuzaka, and it’s in the young players’ best interest to get MLB money up front instead of signing for far less and be destined to remain under team control in Japan through their prime years. Because of this, these two parties will work on something that is best for them and account for the Japanese leagues as little as they can.

At this point, the best option for Japanese professional ball would be to establish a firm agreement on how Japanese players can make a path to the majors, using the Japanese leagues as something more than a farm league. I’m not sure how this would work, but I think one solution could be to have an “amateur draft” of Japanese players once they hit 18 (or 16 or whenever they start playing professionally or the equivalent of college ball over there) where MLB teams can establish rights to certain players. However, these players would play in Japanese ball until they were 25 (or 28 or 30 or whatever they decide on), and MLB teams could then purchase the rights to the players they drafted. But the money goes to the team instead of the players here. After being purchased, a player must be placed on the ML 40-man, is cost-controlled for two years, arbitration-eligible for two more, and is then treated as a FA. Players would have two option years. (The number of years, etc. would obviously be up for negotiation; I’m just spitballin’ here.)

This cedes quite a bit of authority to the ML clubs, but at the same time, guarantees that the elite Japanese talent will be in Japan for at least a little while, and, perhaps more importantly, the mediocre talent won’t go to the states when it’s 18 because the money is better, which is what would really kill the Japanese leagues IMO.