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The story
At MLB’s GM meetings, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes reportedly called Yokohama High School pitcher Oda Shoki (18) “an extremely talented player” and even hinted at a visit to the team’s facilities. Oda has publicly declared his intent to pursue Major League Baseball despite being the Yomiuri Giants’ No. 1 overall draft pick, and the Dodgers are seen as holding a slight lead in the race to sign him. On 5ch, opinions split between those questioning his ability based on his Koshien matchup results and those emphasizing the size of the signing bonus and his own desire to move to America.
Dodgers make no secret of their eagerness to land Oda Shoki — front-office exec gives the 18-year-old amateur a glowing assessment, already leading the race and hinting at a facility visit, with a reception plan fully in place
MLB’s General Manager meetings, where team executives and agents gather, have kicked off, with front-office executives from each club speaking to the press.
Regarding Yokohama High School pitcher Oda Shoki (18), who has declared his intent to pursue MLB despite being the Giants’ No. 1 draft pick, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes (42) praised him highly as “an extremely talented player.” He also hinted at a visit to the team’s facilities, making no attempt to hide his enthusiasm for landing him.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Fixed Sasaki Roki, how exactly?? He hung in there as a starter this season but his numbers were bad.
His rotation spot's still shaky too.
Relief? Can he even go full throttle out of the bullpen?
Komoda threw pitches with real bite, but Oda's stuff looks like straight, flat fastballs with no movement.
There aren't many guys named "Oda" who can throw 157 km/h (97.6 mph).
On top of that, apparently they still haven't even drawn up a development plan for Oda — they'll "present it next time."
For Ohtani, manager Kuriyama personally went and explained the development plan himself to win him over.
He's a Koshien star, so he's a moneymaker.
Remember "Handkerchief Prince" (Saito Yuki, nicknamed for his habit of wiping sweat with a handkerchief)? Given his build, pitching style and type, he was never rated as a monster talent, and he even got injured — yet he still got that kind of treatment in college and the pros. The title of "summer Koshien championship pitcher" carries a lot of weight.
Yeah, fair point. He'd have fetched a higher price if he'd built up his value in Japan first.
Re: #35
>"Unlike the old days, Japanese players in MLB aren't a novelty anymore"
???That's exactly why his value is high. Tons of Japanese pitchers are thriving in MLB right now — and he's Japan's No. 1 high school pitcher in that very era. Normally that'd be first-round-pick, multi-team-bidding-war territory, wouldn't it?
He is starting from the minors though, isn't he?
The plan was to pick Komoda from Yamanashi Gakuin, but they switched to Oda at the last minute. That's why nothing's prepared.
Is Oda really that amazing a talent? I'd get it if he dominated Koshien like a monster the way Matsuzaka did, but he actually got shelled and lost to other high schoolers. I think he's overrated.
Ohtani Shohei got shelled even worse than that — in the Iwate prefectural qualifier, no less. Yamamoto and Imanaga never even made it to the national tournament. Sugano couldn't win much in high school either. Wakui got hammered by a public school in the prefectural tournament.
Whether that style suits him, whether he can endure it — that'll follow him either way, sure. But Oda's only ever known Japan's careful player development up through high school, so it's hard to say how he'll handle anything else. Darvish, who knows this from his own experience, probably factored that in when he advised going through Japan first. Whether the Dodgers develop their promising young prospects the same careful way is still unknown at this point, though.
Age 19: Single-A
Age 20: Double-A
Age 21: Triple-A
Age 22: MLB debut
If things go well, that's roughly the path up.
Single-A has Low-A and High-A.
He probably won't even get that far.
According to his coach, what Oda actually wants is to live in America and play baseball there. So college might even be on the table. Apparently he wants to get used to English on the ground there first. Even if he signs a minor-league deal for 500 million yen and it doesn't work out, he'd probably just keep living in America anyway.
Aren't his parents Japanese? Once reality hits, he'll probably want to come home.
Even if he comes back to Japan, he'd bring hundreds of millions of yen with him. A regional NPB team would probably take him in easily.
MLB teams are fully intent on scouting talent early from now on, so they won't treat him carelessly. If they did, players would stop coming.
Dodgers' Maeda Kenta (nicknamed "Maeken") be like: "Is that so?"
What records exactly? All I remember is a fluke no-hitter.
But he's starting in the minors, right? How much do you even make in the minors?
About 3-4 million yen, which is about the same as the 10 million yen he'd make in Japan anyway. But there's about a 600 million yen gap in the initial signing bonus. Considering that, going to America is clearly the better move no matter how you look at it.
With the high cost of living, plus hiring an interpreter, I'd think life in America gets expensive. Also, it's easier to get in the spotlight in Japan than in MLB. What if his career just ends in the minors?
MLB teams are actually obligated to provide housing for minor-league players.
If he needs one, the team will provide an interpreter, and these days with smartphones and everything else, language isn't really going to be a problem. Plus once he's over there, he'll probably pick up enough for everyday conversation anyway.
As for cost of living, it's just a teenager living alone, so it's not going to cost much.
Even if his career ends in the minors, he still pockets that initial 700 million yen signing bonus. The odds are pretty high he wouldn't even earn 700 million yen in NPB — there are plenty of first-round picks who never pan out.
Background and key points of this discussion
The GM meetings are an annual event where front-office executives from MLB teams gather to exchange information and assessments on top prospects, and it’s rare for an amateur player’s name to come up here. Because pitcher Oda has declared his intent to pursue MLB despite being the Giants’ No. 1 draft pick, his case is unusual — he’s aiming for a direct MLB contract rather than going through NPB first. Where the thread split was over whether ability can really be judged from Koshien matchup results alone. Commenters repeatedly pointed out that players like Ohtani Shohei, Yamamoto Yoshinobu, and Sugano Tomoyuki didn’t dominate nationally in high school either, so a simple equation of “Koshien results = ability” doesn’t hold up. On the other hand, minor-league signing bonuses are said to exceed what a player would get signing with an NPB team by several hundred million yen, and with Sasaki Roki’s performance stalling since his move to the U.S., much of the discussion weighed the financial appeal against the risk of stalling out against real competition. The information that Oda himself is drawn to the idea of simply living in America adds another layer of complexity to the debate.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Geisokuho+) thread “[Baseball] Dodgers make no secret of their eagerness to land Oda Shoki — front-office exec gives an accurate assessment… already leading the race, hinting at a facility visit, with a reception plan fully in place.”
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