From our other sites
The story
It’s been decided that the Yomiuri Giants’ formal greeting meeting with pitcher Shoki Oda of Yokohama High School — their first-round draft pick — will take place on November 10. At a press conference on October 15, before the draft, Oda said a minor-league contract with an MLB club or enrolling at a U.S. college were both options on the table, and right after the Giants picked him first overall, he told TBS in an interview, “My resolve to take on America hasn’t wavered one bit.” On 5ch, discussion split over whether this “forced pick” made sense, with users citing signing bonuses, agents’ cuts, and real examples of players who’d gone to the U.S. before, debating whether joining the Giants or heading straight to MLB was the smarter move.
It was decided on the 8th that the Giants will hold a formal greeting meeting on the 10th with pitcher Shoki Oda (18) of Yokohama High School, whom they picked first overall in the draft.
At a press conference on October 15, Oda stated that, in addition to a minor-league contract with an MLB club, enrolling at a U.S. college was also an option.
Even so, the Giants went ahead and picked him first overall at the draft meeting on the 22nd. Right after being selected, appearing in an interview on TBS, which was broadcasting the draft live, Oda said, “It’s an honor to be picked, but my resolve to take on America hasn’t wavered one bit,” making clear his intention to challenge American baseball remained unchanged.
Source: hochi.news / Original article here
What people said
If it comes to that, that's just how it goes — he'd probably be fine with that outcome himself.
Someone should make him read that Slam Dunk story (the basketball manga) about the guy who figured he'd magically get better just by moving to America — and flopped.
There's already a guy who did exactly that — his name's Roki Sasaki.
If that's true, yeah, he's going.
Even if it doesn't pan out, 700 million yen is basically a win on its own.
He's from a single-mother household, so he's got his mom and sister's futures to think about too.
Though the Giants would still pay a 100 million yen signing bonus.
That's not really what Darvish was saying though.
No way the Giants let a talent they picked first overall just rot away in A-ball or Double-A.
These days meals and gear are covered by the club, so it's not that different from NPB.
Actually in NPB, players pay for most of their own gear.
Sponsors only cover it for a handful of star players.
Satozaki (a former NPB catcher, now a TV commentator) said the same thing.
The Giants, player development? Don't make me laugh.
He'd be way better off going to Chunichi.
'Chuni-Dora'? lmaooo (slang for the Chunichi Dragons)
Well, 500 million yen at most.
That said, over half of it disappears to taxes and the agent's cut.
Factor in the cost of living in the minors in the U.S., and there's not that much breathing room left.
Minor league pay itself is peanuts, and there's no second helping.
If he wants to make life easier for his mom and sister, succeeding in MLB is the only way.
The agent's cut isn't actually that big.
Obviously the Giants would just pile money onto the agent.
Nowhere near as bad as taxes, sure.
But even 5% isn't nothing.
That works out to tens of millions of yen off the top.
Add in all the other expenses and it really starts to add up.
He's only saying his resolve to eventually try the majors won't waver. In other words, he'll still be demanding something from the Giants down the line when it comes to posting him.
Most high-school draftees in America get a post-retirement scholarship, so they can still go to college afterward.
They get recommended into a school, with tuition and living costs covered by the club.
Morii, for instance, was guaranteed a 39 million yen scholarship from the Athletics after he retires.
They'll even help find jobs for his sisters, and if his mom wants to remarry, they'll line up a decent match for her too.
Keep playing in the majors — I mean the first team — and they'll hook him up with a Nippon TV announcer for a wife, plus a front-office job waiting after he retires.
Women from Kyushu tend to stay local, especially in Fukuoka.
That's why there's a surplus of single women there.
No need for a Tokyo team to play matchmaker.
His mother went along with him, so maybe they're a Japanese-American family.
And he's been at Toho since elementary school, too — must come from a good family.
In America, even players who get into college on a baseball scholarship often turn pro and then keep taking classes during the off-season, aiming to eventually graduate.
The club covers tuition during that time.
There's a well-developed system for letting guys go to college after they retire.
Aside from Nei, they're actually developing pretty well.
The back half of this season was decent, content-wise.
If the pitching and hitting click, next year they'll be fighting Hanshin for the A-class spot (3rd place) — with the Giants 1st and the Baystars 2nd.
Kudo became manager at a good time, in a way; next year they can be competitive no matter who's managing.
If 'developing pretty well' is the ceiling, that's still below the Giants lol
Guess they genuinely believe a real top prospect wouldn't just get buried and forgotten there.
They'd be pouring a huge chunk of their entire under-25 bonus pool just into Oda — that's special treatment.
The Rangers, of all teams, brought over 10-plus staff and even the guy nicknamed 'Korea's Otani,' a hugely touted prospect, just to sit in on their meeting with Oda.
Background and Key Points of This Debate
Under NPB’s draft system, a club can go ahead and pick a player even if he’s publicly stated he wants an American baseball career. Being picked doesn’t obligate a player to sign — refusing restricts his ability to play in Japan for a set period, but it doesn’t block him from signing with an overseas club. Without knowing this, it’s easy to misread the situation as “he got picked, so his own wishes don’t matter,” but a formal greeting meeting is really just the opening move in negotiations — it doesn’t mean his path is locked in. Where the thread split was over whether joining the Giants would end up being a shortcut to the majors or a detour, with one side citing hard numbers like signing bonuses, agents’ cuts, and minor-league living costs, and the other arguing his own wishes should simply be respected. The repeated references to real precedents like Roki Sasaki and Yu Darvish show this kind of debate has played out before.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Geisoku Sokuho+) thread “Giants to hold formal greeting meeting with Yokohama’s Shoki Oda on the 10th — forced first-round pick despite stated intent to challenge MLB… in talks with multiple MLB clubs.”
Leave a Reply