COMMISH:Question about Japanese draft

- Could Terahara come to the united states to play or must he be drafted by a Japanese team.

It is possible for Terahara to skip the Japanese draft and elect to play in the U.S., at a university, or in Japan's Industrial League.

However, as explained in this thread, the four teams which he expressed interest in are the only four that have him slated in the first round of the upcoming draft. Therefore, the likelyhood that he'll sign with the team that drafts him is very high.

- Also what players are japanese free agents[?]

Please see the first reply to this thread.

[...] and can you explain me when the draft for japan is and how exactly it works?

The draft this year is divided into two parts. This is an attempt to discourage teams from using the gyaku-shimei system (whereby a university or Industrial League player may specify which team he may be drafted by) to guarantee one player while drawing for another in the first round.

Here's how it's worked in the past. Teams draft players one at a time in reverse order of the standings the previous year. So far, it's the same as the MLB draft, I believe. However, if during the first two rounds, two or more teams wish to draft the same player, and the player has not declared gyaku-shimei (high school students don't qualify), then a drawing is held for that player. The team that draws the lucky lot wins negotiation rights.

Where this has been a problem is that popular teams could guarantee one player via gyaku-shimei in round two, while drawing for a popular high school student in round one. Thus, a new system was set up this year to discourage that.

Under the new system, those teams who wish to pick up players via gyaku-shimei may do so, but to get one that way, they wave their first round selection. To get two gyaku-shimei players is to sit out the first two rounds.

This year's "big prize" is high school ace Terahara, so to chose a single gyaku-shimei player is to be out of the bidding for the "21st Century Monster."

Personally, I don't see this as being all that bad a thing. Collage and IL players are generally more mature and can be used on the top squad much earlier than high school players, so a team often gets a return on their investment much quicker. (Yes, there are exceptions where high schoolers get playing time soon and college/IL players never see the lights of 1-gun.)

From the third round on, the picks cannot be challenged (drawn for), and are done in the standard order, starting from last to first place in the previous year's standings, alternating leagues between the league that lost the Nihon Series (the Pacific League this year) and won, then going back through in the reverse order for the next round.

As mentioned here, the first part was held last Monday, November 12th, while the second part of the draft will be held next Monday, November 19th.