NPB Fumbles at High School Draft

What ever happened to the tried and trusted method of simply drawing a name out of a hat? Why do they have to make it so complicated?

We both know that drawing names out of a hat would be a bit too fair.

More details on NHK news tonight.

The winning card had words to the effect of "negotiating rights established" stamped on them, but both winning and losing cards had the NPB seal affixed to them to indicate that they were the official draw cards. The Orix and Softbank managers saw the NPB seal and assumed that was the sign for "congratulations, you've won." Naturally, they held up their cards in supposed victory.

At this time, no-one from NBP checked the cards closely, and the announcements were made based solely on the Orix and Softbank managers' reactions. Incidently, Yomiuri's Horiuchi-kantoku and Nippon Ham's Hillman-kantoku looked perplexed, but, to their credit, neither made a scene about it.

It was only when the Yomiuri and Nippon Ham tables become hives of activity and furrowed brows did the NPB start to question what was happening.

NPB Commissioner Negoro apologised to the kids and their schools, as well as publicly on TV.

As for the poor kids, the NPB made fools of them with this incident: Chonso Yo had already cried very public tears of joy at his apparent selection for the Hawks, and Tsujiuchi had already been interviewed and said he was happy to be selected by the Giants, who he called a "subarashii kyudan (wonderful baseball club)."

NUB (Nippon Unprofessional Baseball), anyone?

I don't think these guys could even run a bath - let alone a professional baseball league.

Correction. That should have read:

[...] Tsujiuchi had already been interviewed and said he was happy to be selected by Orix, who he called a "subarashii kyudan (wonderful baseball club)."

Sorry about that.

Doesn't the last-place team get to draft first? This doesn't seem to make sense to me. Drawing from a hat, that is.

No, the last place team does not get the first draft. Everybody gets a chance with the first round, as if two or more teams choose the same player, they draw lots to see who gets negotiation rights.

This year has seen the introduction of a two-phase draft system. It was brought about by the players asking that the draft system be updated to eliminate the "reverse designation" draft (whereby a player names the team he wants to play for) and a strict order where the last place team in the league that lost the Japan Series the previous year picks first, then the last place in the other league, followed by fifth places, etc. The system that you know, basically. The owners "compromised" by not meeting either of these demands.

On October 3 was the first round of drafts. This was for high school players only. High school players have never had the right to choose the team they wanted to be drafted by, so their main negotiating right is to refuse to sign with the drafting team and go to play college or Industrial League ball. Some make it clear that they will not sign with any team other than one or two, and other ball clubs steer clear of them so as not to waste a pick. Sometimes clubs gamble and pick a player anyway and it'll pay off. Matsuzaka didn't want to go to Seibu who had drafted him at first, but Higashio-kantoku managed to persuade him to join.

The first round of the high school draft could be waived by a team to get a higher priority in the coming amateur draft in November. Since none elected to do this, it's just a confusing side track that I'll skip over and hope that things become better next year.

In November is the amateur draft which will see the drafting of players in colleges, industrial leagues, and Japanese in various international leagues. The first round is given to players to pick which team they would like to play for. It used to be two players per team, but has been reduced to one this year. (This was the "compromise.") Teams who don't have a player using the gyaku-shimei (reverse designation) rule then get to make their choices in the next round.

I mentioned this in my WSPN interview [9.2MB MP3], yes, the system is geared to give an advantage to the Giants. Funny thing is that a more fair waiver system will actually benifit the Giants next year with their lowly finish this season. The changes this year especially help them out as they don't lose out on the first round of high schoolers due to having a gyaku-shimei player, which has traditionally been their weak spot.

I hope this helps clear up how the draft system works (or doesn't work, depending on your perspective) in NPB.