Thursday, May 26, 2011

Nippon Professional Baseball Seeks Change in MLB Posting System

The Japanese baseball league's executive committee met in May to discuss current issues surrounding the posting system which allows players to transfer from Japan to the United States' MLB. The system in place has been criticized before, but the most recent call for change is connected to the breakdown in negotiations that occurred between the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles' pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma and the Oakland Athletics late last year. The American League West team had won the sole rights to negotiate with Iwakuma's agent, but the two parties could not agree on a deal within the 30-day signing period and thus the starting pitcher returned to his NPB team for another season. After the initial expectation of joining the majors in 2011 fell through, a disappointed Iwakuma later voiced his frustrations with the current posting system. His agent Don Nomura and his current Japanese club agree that there are severe limitations with the somewhat dated system. At the Nippon Professional Baseball executive committee meeting on May 16th, Rakuten Golden Eagles representatives suggested letting the three highest bidders from the majors negotiate with any one posted player, rather than rewarding just one MLB team the sole rights to discuss a future contract with a star Japanese player. Following the meeting, it was reported that Japanese baseball might approach Major League Baseball about altering the current system that has been in place since 1998.


Last winter marked only the first time that negotiations to sign a Japanese player have fallen through since the adoption of the posting system. Although this has only occurred once, NPB is rightfully concerned about the process heading into the future, as more and more Japanese league players will want to cross the Pacific and see how their play stacks up on baseball's biggest stage. Given the small market makeup of the Oakland Athletics franchise, it is little surprise that the team did not want to budge from it's initial offer made to Iwakuma's agent and thus pay more than they wanted to for the starting pitcher"s services. Simply put, the team with a $65 million payroll did not want to get deep into contract disputes after paying $19.1 million to win the bidding war to negotiate with Iwakuma in the first place. It became clear that the Oakland A's had a specific budget in mind for the whole process (the cost of the posting fee and the one or two year contract combined). Thus, the team's front office refused to stray far from that said plan and after a while they chose not to continue talks with Mr. Nomura, thereby frustrating the agent and Iwakuma. However, it is not this fact of the matter that had Rakuten and Iwakuma feeling so betrayed after the 30-day signing period had passed without success. Rather, it was how lopsided the whole affair seemed. Agent Don Nomura expressed his dissatisfaction by saying, "this system is extremely one-side. The team (that acquired negotiating rights) can offer a minor league contract (and break off negotiations) without losing anything. The player’s side is at a disadvantage.”


Reports say that at first, Iwakuma seemed fine with the starting offer made by the A's. However, his agent sought a better deal for the pitcher who went 10-9 with a 2.82 ERA in 2010. Then things completely fell apart as the Athletics boldly stated that the initial contract offer was the only one available, no further discussions about it. That response from the MLB organization made Iwakuma feel unwanted and thus extremely unhappy with the situation. He felt that if they had wanted him badly enough they would have done what was necessary to get him in green and gold.


In the end, the Oakland ball club did not make a big enough offer and thus Rakuten lost out on the $19 million they were set to receive. Instead, the Eagles get Iwakuma for another year but they will lose their ace starter to international free agency after this year (Iwakuma is most likely going to the Bigs in 2012 seeing that he is 3-2 with 47 innings pitched and a 1.72 ERA so far this season) and Rakuten will not receive any compensation, which is especially distressing for the team's executives. All these events attribute to the Golden Eagles' increased distrust of the posting system and thus the NPB organization's appeal to change it (or create a player transfer set up with a fee that would go back to the NPB club that loses a given player) so that a Japanese player could have the opportunity to negotiate a contract with more than one available MLB team. That possible scenario seems very player-friendly, while the current posting system gives any single MLB team (the winning bidder for the rights to negotiate) a lot of power and control over the player's future, which is exactly what some NPB executives dislike about it. Who knows, maybe a little further down the line, MLB might allow an NPB star to negotiate with the top two bidders, but that seems unlikely due to the fact that talks after the bidding process have only ever broken down once and because Major League front offices want to preserve the upper hand they currently have. Another alternative is to set up a future player transfer window (a.k.a transfer period) in which international players from Japan move between professional baseball leagues and compensation is paid to the previous club for the player's rights, similar to the transfer fees used in European club soccer.


In assessing the situation, it is evident that the posting system is a complicated entity that involves a lot of different parties. Thus, a long process would be needed for both sides to negotiate a new set of rules for posting a player. My guess is that the NPB, knowing the complications involved, will decide to leave things the way they are seeing that under the current agreement, Japanese pro teams still stand a good chance of making a lot of money off posting a certain player. For example, when the Seibu Lions gave Daisuke Matsuzaka permission to join MLB, the bidding rights were won by the Red Sox who paid 51 million dollars (a sum two times the Lions' payroll). I just hope that the Iwakuma signing failure together with Rakuten missing out on a hefty sum of cash doesn't influence lots of NPB teams to decide not to accept posting fees from small market MLB teams (like the A's) in the future because of fears that a contract wouldn't come together. This would put small budget teams at even more of a disadvantage because most Japanese superstars would, in that case, be available almost exclusively to the Yankees, Angels, Phillies, and other top payroll MLB franchises.


News source: The Japan Times

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Nippon Professional Baseball Logos

Here's a quick post on the style and evolution of Japanese league team logos. Compared to classic American and National League teams' logos in the Majors, some Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) logos appear to be cartoonish, adorable insignias that are uniquely Japanese in nature. Take the newer Chiba Lotte Marines logo (adopted in 2001) for example. It is a white bird (possibly a seagull) that has cute and amiable facial features such as adorable big eyes and a slight smile (up to interpretation). The hawk used in the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks logo is quite similar in that the bird appears to be smiling and has goofy, friendly looking eyes. You would be hard pressed to find a logo of this sort in any American professional sport today. There were logos of a similar style back in the 1970s and 80s, but they have mostly been updated over time. For example, the San Diego Gulls, formerly of the West Coast Hockey League, changed their team logo from a drawing of a happy ice skating big bird to a streamlined serious looking gulls logo that a had an angry style eye in the early 1990s. The logo evolved even more five years later, when this intimidating Gulls logo appeared. Similarly, the Arizona Cardinals changed their helmet insignia to make the red bird look more fierce sometime last decade. One can predict that the NPB logos will change in a similar fashion over the next decades, but you never know. One thing is for certain: a lot of the NPB logos are, like the style of play across the Pacific, uniquely Japanese, and for that you've gotta love 'em. I much prefer the incredible 1990s Marines' logo, which has a Hartford Whalers kind of feel about it, and is much more old school looking:


Other examples of cutesy looking Japanese league logos are the Chunichi Dragons logo (which appeared in 2000) and the Yokohama BayStars logo that has been used since 1993. The Dragons logo might appear downright ridiculous to an American sports fan's eye because it is practically just a cartoon rendition of a dragon, and a very benign one at that. Like the Marines white bird, the Chunichi Dragons logo features large, cute looking eyes. One would think that designers would create an aggressive looking, fire breathing dragon instead of a smiling, youthful looking "beast," but that's just how it is in Japan. Logos that may look amateur and out of place to American baseball lovers are simply accepted and ingrained across the Pacific. I included the BayStars logo because it is extremely cartoonish in nature. That logo, like the ones mentioned above, is absolutely one of a kind.

Here are some classic Japanese baseball logos:


This one has been used since by the Tokyo based Giants since 1947 and has characteristics similar to the old New York Giants patches:
Another NPB classic that is still in use today is the Hanshin Tigers logo that seems to be modeled off one of the original Detroit Tigers logos:



Other Japanese baseball logo standouts include:










And last but not least, the Central League logo which was designed in 1949 and is still in use today:





Wednesday, May 18, 2011

MLB Roundup: May 17th

Welcome to my first MLB Roundup. These posts will focus on the daily performances of various Japanese baseball stars around the league. Leading off the Roundup for Wednesday, May 17th is Ichiro Suzuki's day (quite fittingly). Ichiro provided a 1 for 4 performance that included a 2-out RBI single in the 5th inning that kept his batting average above the .300 mark (he's currently hitting .302). #51 is a career .330 hitter in the Major Leagues and has 573 RBIs. That run batted in proved to be the only one of the game for the M's and wasn't enough as Suzuki's team fell to the struggling Twins (who had lost 9 straight), 2-1.

Elsewhere on the West Coast, Hideki Matsui got only one of the 15 hits collected by Oakland A's batters yesterday, as he went 1 for 5 with a run scored. Godzilla is off to a slow start this season (hitting .233), as he adjusts to his 3rd different team in as many years for the first time in his career. Japanese pitcher Hisanori Takahashi pitched in this game for the Angels, coming into the game when the score was 14-0 Athletics. He had a 1,2,3 8th inning.

Further down the coast, Hiroki Kuroda shut down the Brewers in L.A., tossing seven plus scoreless innings for his fifth win of the year (thus lowering his ERA from 3.21 to 2.80). One can make the argument that he is the best Japanese pitcher in The Bigs right now (his MLB career ERA is 3.52). He is in his fourth season in the league and continues to provide a reliable veteran presence in a respectable Dodgers rotation.

The right hander (Kuroda) in action for the Hiroshima Carp, circa 2006


In Cincinnati, Kosuke Fukudome went 1 for 4 with a walk hitting in the leadoff spot for the cubbies, and his batting average is standing at .323.

In more disappointing news, it was announced on Wednesday that Dice-K has been placed on Boston's 15-day disabled list. He is 3-3 with a 5.30 ERA in 2011.

Also R.I.P. Harmon Killebrew. "Hammerin' Harmon" was a tremendously strong slugger who hit more homers during the 1960s than even "Hammerin' Hank" Aaron. It was fitting for him to wear number 3 on his back.