2008 High School Draft

Although it's been mentioned in the other thread, I guess I will bring it over here.

This draft system really needs some tweaking. Even though it's pretty fun when I play it on video games, this "picking a number out of hat" system used when multi teams want the same player is just ridiculous.

Yes, the way the draft is carried out is a farce. The lottery drawing for players, like the gyaku shimei (where a player chooses his own team) were put into place to appease the Giants in an era when what was good for the Giants was good for NPB. That era has now passed, but it's hard for the owners to acknowledge that.

The Players Association has been trying for years to get draft reform. They even resorted to threatening litigation if the owners continued to ignore them. (This has been the traditional way the owners have handled issues they didn't want to discuss, ignore them until they went away. But the players have been more persistent in recent years.) Finally, a committee for draft reform as assembled and their conclusions were released a couple of days ago. That was the announcement that they will be returning to a single draft rather than dividing the high schoolers from college and amateur drafts. While moving to a full waiver system has been requested by many parties (including most of you), that part still hasn't been decided upon.

I have been hearing rumors that the Giants are starting to look at the bigger picture for NPB and are looking at ways to promote more cooperation between teams. This is very much out of character for Japan's Team, and I'll start believing these rumors when I see something like the waiver system for the draft actually come into play.

There is one other variable to the draft reform debate that the strictly waiver proponents should possibly consider. That is preventing prospects from going to North America. If Japanese teams are limited to offering 1-oku yen signing bonuses to draftees, could an MLB team offer more? Furthermore, if a player really wants to play for a specific team (like the Giants) but gets drafted by the Buffaloes, a high schooler has the option of going to the Industrial Leagues or college for a few years' further training, but that isn't very realistic for college students and/or Industrial League players getting up there in age. The gyaku-shimei system provided a way to make such players happy to enter indentured servitude. Eliminating that option may hurt more than just the popular teams.

What do you mean by "waiver system"?

By "waiver system" I mean the same system as is used in many other drafts. That is, the last place team in the league that lost the Nippon Series has the first choice in the first round, going in reverse order as finished in the standings, alternating leagues, until the Japan Series champion. That order is then reverses going back through in the second round.

"Waiver (ウエーバー)" is the word used in the Japanese media. Is there a different word for it in English?

I was going to say that this is the system used in MLB, but the MLB has their own warped system whereby draft picks can be traded. As with the special rules imposed by NPB, the basic reason is so that influential teams who finish high can still get access to higher picks in the first rounds via a proxy.

- I was going to say that this is the system used in MLB, but the MLB has their own warped system whereby draft picks can be traded.

Currently, there is no such rule that MLB teams can trade draft picks. MLB has explored the possibility, but it isn't happening anytime soon if at all.

- Currently, there is no such rule that MLB teams can trade draft picks.

That's odd. I guess I've been misinterpreting what is meant when I read articles stating that so-and-so was traded for x-million dollars and a first round draft pick. I admit that I don't follow MLB that closely, so I suppose that the meaning of that statement isn't necessarily what I thought.

You may be mixing that up with the NFL, where draft picks are effective and often valuable bargaining chips, Westbay-san.

Errr, no, what they mean is in free agent signings, sometimes a team will get compensated with a draft pick. Signed, not traded. (This system is changing, too, though.)

They had what they called "A" rank players and "B" rank players, and if you sign an "A" player away from their team, then that team would get your first-round draft pick unless you were in the top 14 teams to pick, or something like that, and they'd also get a "compensation" pick in between the first two rounds. I think if you signed a "B" player away, then the other team would just get a compensation pick.

This is not exactly accurate, but it worked something like this in 2002 with the A's:

Their normal pick would have been 26th. But three of their top rank free agents were signed away from them, so they also got three first-round picks and three compensation picks.

• They received the 16th pick from the Red Sox when they signed away Johnny Damon.
• They received the 24th pick from the Yankees for signing away Jason Giambi.
• They received the 30th pick from the Cardinals for signing away Jason Isringhausen.

Then they received the 35th, 37th, and 39th compensation picks as well, for these three signings.

Thus they had 7 first-round picks in 2002, and Michael Lewis ended up writing a book about them called Moneyball.

Well, it's possible the Saga Kita guys just didn't enter the draft. I didn't really read up on it, but I'd seen profiles on Kubo and Soejima in the draft issue of Shube a few weeks ago, so I just assumed they were going up for it.

Another observation I just had is that Atori Ohta wasn't taken in the first round? Crazy - he seemed like one of the better talents in this year's high school draft as well. Congrats to the BayStars for getting him in the second (OK, third) round.

Just to clarify, MLB now goes in a strict reverse order of finish regardless of league. Up until 2 or so years ago, they used to alternate picks between NL and AL, but no more. The team with the worst winning percentage will pick first overall, and this continues throughout each round.

There are exceptions which include designating draft picks to compensate for lost free agents and awarding supplemental picks and such, but we're getting into the minutiae of the first-year draft.

I can't understand why in this day and age anyone would like Japan's outdated system. Wouldn't it be more fair if Hiroshima, Yakult, and Orix had first shots to draft Nakata, Satoh, Tanaka, etc.? I think that would be more fun than hoping and waiting on some players you think may develop down the road.

In my previous post I forgot to clarify that there is no trading of picks in MLB (unlike the other North American sports leagues), but that doesn't necessarily have to apply to Japan. Should they choose to reform their system, I can see a provision where a player who is set on playing for one team could be picked and traded to his intended destination. Compensation could range from picks, rostered players, money, or a combination of all.

Knowing what little I know about the above selections, it seems as if Westbay-san should be very happy. I suppose Yokohama had a great (if not the best) draft based on projections.

I was keeping a list of potential draftees, and only a handful were chosen. I don't know if some on my list didn't enter or weren't eligible. I'm just not that familiar with the rules surrounding this event.

I had three players from Saga Kita on the list (none selected), but Deanna spoke up and rightfully earned the keen eye prize!

Well, while other people were spending their time arguing over whether the draft should exist, I went and translated more information about this year's draft class from Sponichi. There's still a few open spots where they had no hometown listed, but here you go:

Name                  Pos  School              B/T   DOB          Ht/Wt        Hometown
--------------------  ---  ------------        ---   ----------   ----------   --------

Giants
1 Daisuke Fujimura     IF  Kumamoto Kogyo      L/R   07/25/1989   173/66       Kumamoto
3 Daisuke Nakai        OF  Uji Yamada          R/R   11/27/1989   180/78       Mie
4 Yuuki Takeshima      P   Namegawa            L/L   10/12/1989   182/76       Toyama

Dragons
1 Kazuyuki Akasaka     P   Urawa Gakuin        R/R   09/04/1989   184/83       Kanagawa
3 Ken Higuchi          P   Onomichi            R/R   12/02/1989   180/72       England

Tigers
1 Takuya Takahama      IF  Yokohama            L/R   07/06/1989   183/77       Saga
3 Issei Morita         IF  Kanzei              L/R   08/04/1989   185/88       Okayama
4 Daiki Kiyohara       P   Joso Gakuin         R/R   06/11/1989   180/75       Ibaraki

BayStars
1 Kenjiro Tanaka       P   Tokoha Kikugawa     L/L   09/18/1990   180/79       Aichi
3 Atori Ohta           P   Teikyo              R/R   08/12/1989   186/91       Okinawa
4 Shoma Satoh          P   Bunsei Gendai       L/L   08/18/1990   174/71       Tochigi
5 Takuya Sakamoto      OF  Kashiwa             L/L   05/07/1989   178/80       Ibaraki

Swallows
1 Yoshinori Satoh      P   Sendai Ikuei        L/R   12/05/1989   179/75       Sendai
3 Hitoshi Yamamoto     P   Sakata Minami       R/R   07/10/1989   179/78       Osaka

Carp
1 Tomohiro Abe         IF  Fukuoka Kogyo       L/R   06/24/1989   180/80       Fukuoka
3 Yoshihiro Maru       OF  Chiba Keizai        L/R   04/11/1989   177/77       Chiba
4 Ken Nakamura         P   Kyoto Subaru        L/L   09/27/1989   186/82       Kyoto



Fighters
1 Sho Nakata           OF  Osaka Toin          R/R   04/22/1989   182/95       Hiroshima
3 Taiki Tsuda          P   Kurashiki           R/R   06/16/1989   181/75       Wakayama
4 Seiichi Ohhira       OF  Hasami              L/R   04/08/1989   183/91       Nagasaki  
5 Suguru Matsuyama     P   Yokohama Shodai     R/R   09/08/1989   179/73       Kanagawa
6 Akiyoshi Toyoshima   P   Hokuriku Otani      L/L   01/16/1990   169/69       Ishikawa
7 Toshinori Asanuma    P   Asahikawa Minami    L/L   07/21/1989   181/72       Asahikawa

Hawks
1 Sho Iwasaki          P   Funabashi Shiritsu  R/R   10/21/1989   186/76       Chiba
3 Akira Nakamura       IF  Teikyo              L/L   11/05/1989   176/82       Saitama
4 Tsubasa Fujii        IF  Sakurai             L/R   02/23/1990   189/83       Toyama

Marines
1 Yuki Karakawa        P   Narita              R/R   07/05/1989   180/78       Chiba
3 Masatomo Uematsu     P   Konko Osaka         L/L   11/27/1989   183/80       Osaka
4 Kazunari Abe         P   Omuta               R/R   05/19/1989   182/72       Fukuoka

Lions
4 Shota Takekuma       P   Asahikawa Kogyo     L/L   11/24/1989   178/75       Kita Hokkaido
5 Naomichi Umeda       IF  Sabae               L/R   06/28/1989   185/80       Fukui
6 Shota Nakata         C   Naruto Kogyo        R/R   02/22/1990   182/76       Hyogo
7 Shogo Saitoh         OF  Kasuga Kyuei        L/L   05/14/1989   180/87       Saitama

Rakuten
1 Ryuhei Terada        P   Sapporo Minami      S/R   06/20/1989   185/76       Hokkaido
3 Takashi Ishida       IF  Tokai Gyosei        L/R   06/13/1989   180/80       Fukuoka
4 Yasunori Kikuchi     P   Tokiwadai           L/R   09/18/1989   180/80       Ibaraki

Buffaloes
1 Masaya Niwa          OF  Gifu Johoku         R/R   04/18/1989   178/84       Aichi
3 Hikaru Itoh          C   Meitoku Gijiku      R/R   04/23/1989   180/73       Aichi
4 Masataka Yamazaki    P   Funabashi Shiritsu  R/R   05/09/1989   183/75       Fukuoka

[Admin added missing birth places on Oct. 5, 2007 4:08 PM JST from Nikkan Sports (paper edition)]

Sorry for being late to the party (I've been away from HS Baseball dealing with other things at home).

I think perhaps the reason why the Saga Kita kids weren't aggressively drafted is because (1) they shared time with each other, possibly losing status as a long starter, (2) while they did win the Koshien tournament, only 2 games really stood out (Teikyou and the championship vs. Kouryou), and were for all intents and purposes dead versus Kouryou if not for the late inning grand slam.

With regards to Teikyou's Oota, I personally thought that his prior Koshien appearances diminished his value rather than helped it. I think it was the 2006 summer Koshien where I first saw him, and in his first game he was dominant. However, in the subsequent game, he was shaky, lost control and was pulled. Since then, he has proven inconsistent and was even relegated to a reliever's role where he struggled there as well. It's quite possible that he has mental block issues that could prevent him from being a top of the line starter.

Personally, my surprise is Honda-kun from Kyoto Gaidai Nishi. At least to me, he became well known as a late inning reliever/closer for KGN and I thought would be a great pickup for a team in a closer role - especially since the Marines and the Golden Eagles lost their closers.

Has there been any progress in reforming the amateur draft? I think I heard that a straight waiver system had been proposed, but there was some resistance.

Good question. It's been quite a while since I've read anything about it. I think it's being considered along with the free agency reform, of which no resolution has been completed. But I may have missed something.

Just for everyone's records, Yuki Takeshima of the Giants went to Namerikawa High School. Sorry just had to add that as my wife's nephew went there, too.