This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
From what I can gather through the various sports newspaper articles about the proposed system, Japanese players on NPB clubs are leased to MLB clubs for a pre-determined number of years, and after the lease is up the players would return to Japan, back to the clubs that leased them out. For those of you that can read Japanese, here's one of the articles I'm talking about, from Sponichi Annex (Japanese only).
I realize nothing is set in stone, but I'd just like to hear opinions about this proposed system, and also I'd love to hear from people who have any other information to add about this possibility. I'm wondering how MLB will view this, and if this becomes a reality, whether the time spent abroad by the Japanese players will go towards their Free Agency acquisition.