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The story
In Japan’s professional baseball draft, players can announce which team they’d like to join, but the actual decision on who gets picked by whom is entirely up to the teams. A 5ch thread saw users questioning the fairness of a system where “you can’t even choose your own employer,” while others countered that “regular job hunting doesn’t guarantee your first choice either.” The debate eventually shifted to whether it’s fair to compare NPB to a single company with each team as a department, with back-and-forth over differing pay scales and players’ contractual standing.
What people said
"I want to join the Giants" → "You've been picked by the Rakuten Eagles"
Apparently stuff like that happens all the time
Just make it a full reverse-order (waiver) draft starting from pick 1
The Giants are strong though
Re: #8
lol
Just switch there later via free agency
In baseball, sometimes it's mutual love and you still don't get in
You mean that whole "interview" ritual…
That's not actually how it works though
But everyone cares about where they're stationed, and about the company's name value and size
If you don't like it, you don't have to force your way into becoming a pro ballplayer
Freedom of occupation exists, you know
It's not a violation at all
No matter which team you belong to, what you actually do doesn't change
But you can get assigned to a department you didn't want, one where raises barely happen too
If it's just a department, the company itself stays the same
With the draft, the company you belong to changes entirely
Pro baseball is the company, and the teams are the departments
That's the kind of sophistry a legal expert would just laugh off
Given the nature of a corporate legal entity,
that logic absolutely doesn't hold up
Just think of each team as a branch office
Experts have already dismissed that as sophistry
If that's the case, they'd need to unify the pay structure
It's basically a rotation system where everyone gets a turn to win eventually
So when exactly do the Dragons get their turn to win?
A BayStars fan in their 30s: "I have never once seen them win in my entire life"
Pro players are basically independent contractors to begin with
Then players should have the right to choose their team too (though of course, if the team doesn't want them, that's the end of it)
There used to be a "preferred team" entry slot, but only for college and corporate-league players
Naturally it died out because of under-the-table money and player tie-ups
The whole point is the companies jointly made rules to stop exactly that and assign players accordingly
If that's the case, they'd need to unify the pay structure
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/baseball/news/2024/10/24/jpeg/20241024s10001728263000p_view.webp
https://www.sponichi.co.jp/baseball/news/2023/10/26/jpeg/20231026s00001173392000p_view.webp
This thread is saying the problem is you can't even knock on that door in the first place
That exact take has already been torn apart earlier in this thread
Background and Key Points of the Debate
Under NPB’s draft system, when multiple teams compete for the same first-round pick, negotiating rights are decided by lottery, while second-round picks and beyond proceed in reverse order of the previous season’s standings (a waiver-style format) — so it isn’t a full waiver system. From the 1990s through the 2000s, a “preferred entry slot” (also called reverse designation) system let college and corporate-league players negotiate with teams beforehand, but it was abolished in 2007 after under-the-table payments to star players came to light. As mentioned in comment #131, a system letting players choose their own team has, in fact, already collapsed once before. What split the thread was whether it’s fair to describe teams as “departments within one company” — commenters repeatedly pushed back on this “department theory,” citing differing pay structures between teams and the view that pro players are independent contracting parties. Whether this can really be equated with a simple case of new-hire job placement is the crux of the disagreement.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyo G) thread “[Mystery] Isn’t it weird that players can’t go to the baseball team they want in the draft?.”
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