November 15, 2024 • 48 mins
Adam and Josh discuss the NPB to MLB Pipeline and why it needs to die.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Chirping from the pine.
(00:10):
It's time to rage.
Oh buddy, welcome back to Chirping from the fucking pine.
The best podcast on the internet from the fucking, the bench warmers of podcasting.
(00:34):
Fuck yeah, the worst ideas, the worst takes.
We're the anti-skip bailiffs.
We're the, actually no, we are skip bailiffs because he gives the worst takes.
Hell yeah.
My name is Josh.
I'm here today with Adam.
Greetings.
And today we're going to talk about the NPB to MLB pipeline and why it's stupid.
(00:58):
Or well, Adam's case, why he thinks it needs to change.
I just think it's fucking stupid.
But anyways, we'll get to that.
But before we do, if you want to follow us on YouTube, you can go to game rage magazine
there, like, comment and subscribe.
You can follow us on social media, Instagram and TikTok, game rage magazine, Twitter slash
X, game rage mag.
You can follow Adam at all gas, no trash official on Instagram.
(01:20):
All right, Adam.
So you are the in-house expert on.
How about the expert?
I didn't say you were an expert.
I just said you're the in-house expert because you know the most all right about NPB.
So don't fucking do the little eye thing at me.
So anyways, you want to talk about the NPB sports baseball.
(01:44):
All right, well, go ahead.
Give me what you got.
All right.
So this is turning into something of like, uh, I don't know if it's as bad as the LeBron
going to from Cleveland going on towards Miami, but a lot of people are pissed off about the
(02:05):
Roki Sasaki situation, especially people in Japan who think Roxy Roki Sasaki is being
selfish by leaving early to part ways to end up in the MLB.
Right.
So as it sits right now, he's 23 years old and in order to earn like a full fucking contract,
(02:28):
right?
Not a rookie contract, but like a proper fucking contract.
You wait till you're 25 years old in order to be posted.
So when you get posted, people are able to bid on you and posted to what the international
like players, the talent pool that people can, can get in order to transition over to
(02:53):
the MLB.
Right.
So it's like a T is it only to transition to the MLB or is it to other professional
leagues throughout the world?
Yeah, I don't know about that.
Oh, okay.
All right.
But in this specific case, when it comes to NPB, the Nippon professional baseball league,
(03:14):
when you turn 25, you get, they're all 30 teams can bid on you.
And when you have a contract in line, they get the team that you were on previously in
Japanese baseball, they get 20% of the value of the contract.
(03:37):
So for, so for somebody like Yamamoto, right, 325 million, they ended up adding like another
50 million to the contract basically.
So that 50 million ends up going to the Oryx Buffaloes.
(03:57):
So it's like an additional expense to compensate the team that is, they're not giving away
their player because obviously they're getting something out of it, right?
But it's like you're taking away one of their top players for them to end up in the MLB
and you're getting compensated.
But how do contracts work in NPB?
(04:20):
Is it like MLB where you have like a set number of years for a set number of money or is it
like you're an employee and like you're just here until we get rid of you or you quit?
I don't know.
I couldn't tell you that part.
Because it doesn't make any sense to me.
Like why would, why would I need to pay Japan fucking 25% or 20% of a contract when it's
(04:46):
like, well, what if my contract with, what if, what if Yamamoto's contract with the Oryx
Buffaloes was up, right?
Like what if it was over?
And he's like, okay, cool.
I'm no longer obligated to stay with this team.
So I'm going to go play over in America.
Why would I need to give you assholes fucking 20% to compensate you for what?
I'm done here and I'm leaving.
Our contract is over.
(05:07):
Because if they leave, I think they end up being on a rookie contract.
If they go play for any other MLB team, right?
They have to play for a rookie contract because they're, I think they'd probably be like an
undrafted player, right?
I guess yeah.
(05:27):
So then they have to be signed as a rookie and then three to four years they'd be on
a team and yeah, maybe they end up at a triple A team, but they get immediately moved up
because they're fucking pretty good, right?
So then for three or four years, your contract is just locked into the team's advantage,
right?
(05:48):
You're not going to be paid 30 million as a rookie.
No, you're going to make like your minimum league minimum, right?
So that's why you can't exactly just fucking move on because then you end up playing, like
if you're 27 years old as a, as a Japanese player and you're like, all right, I'm not
going to be playing for any of these fucking Japanese teams.
Like I'm just going to be a free agent and just end up overseas.
(06:12):
If you just end up going overseas as a free fucking agent, you might just end up being
a fucking rookie playing for four years for basically pennies, pennies on the dollar.
Yeah, but I mean, how much were you fucking?
I'm sure the league minimum and MLB is much higher than what it is in fucking NPB.
Yes, but you're, you're, you're essentially starting off as a rookie again.
And if you were looking for the payday, why would you want to pay?
(06:34):
Yeah.
Well, okay.
If you're looking for the payday, why not?
Fuck it.
Well, again, when you get the payday, that's the other thing.
When you get the payday, who gives a shit?
Like once you get the payday, you're good.
Like why, why would I need to pay 20% of my payday to the team I just came from in Japan?
You see what I'm saying?
That's why it doesn't fucking make sense to me.
All right.
So anyways, why would they need to be compensated?
(06:55):
But anyways, all right, good.
All right.
So with this rookie Sasaki deal, what's the issue with this guy?
So because he's under 25, okay.
He's 23 years old.
So under the current posting system rules, he's not going to be able to get his real
payday.
Like he wouldn't be able to make 500 million off his contract because he's still considered
a rookie at 23 years old.
(07:18):
Right.
And because of that, because he's being posted early and depending on what cycle he ends
up on, because the 2024 cycle for signing like amateur baseball players currently, the
cycle ends December 15th for the 2024 class.
Right.
(07:38):
Okay.
So as it sits right now, the Dodgers sit atop the international bonus pool money with two
and a half million dollars.
That's, that's as much as they could sign for him.
So that's as much as rookie, rookie Sasaki could get is two and a half million dollars
from the Dodgers or possibly the Orioles, the next in line to have the second highest
international pool money to sign rookie Sasaki.
(08:02):
But if they wait, if he waits until 2025, January 15th and beyond of next year, then
the field opens up because the, the, the pool of money that each team has is essentially
like reset, right?
Okay.
Yeah.
So that changes kind of everything where now the Dodgers are at the bottom.
They only have like two and a half, two and a half million or whatever.
(08:25):
And then there was like seven or eight teams that have seven and a half million dollars
that they could offer rookie Sasaki.
Right.
So rookie Sasaki could stand to make another five million or four and a half million or
whatever the number is as a rookie player.
But I'm thinking that's kind of shit.
(08:47):
That's kind of shit to force players to stick around until they're 25 in the Japanese league
when they probably don't want to, I mean, maybe, maybe they really do enjoy being in
the Japanese rather the Nippon professional baseball league, right?
Maybe they actually like it, but for the guys that don't, why, why are they getting punished
(09:09):
for wanting to leave early?
So then is there a point in which you leave and then you don't have to pay the team the
money?
Wait, repeat that.
So like, is there a, so once you turn 25, you don't have to pay that 20% anymore?
Oh, you do have to pay that 20%.
So like if you're 40, you got to pay the 20% no matter what.
(09:30):
Well, if you're, I think if you're on a team, I don't remember how it works if you're just
a free agent.
Cause I think if you're a free agent, you're considered like a rookie, right?
Cause if a team signs you, if a team signs you, then you're, I feel like you're considered
a rookie.
Like in the MLB?
As a free agent, like just not tied to any Japanese baseball team, right?
(09:53):
Well, you're not a rookie.
If you've been in the league and then say you say at a five year contract and it ends,
you're not a rookie anymore.
I mean, you're still just a free agent.
Like it's not.
And again, the MLB has the rookie contracts so they can like control you less.
Yeah.
They can, they can pay you less and lock you in for long for like whatever three years
or whatever the rookie contracts are and they can lock you in at that price.
(10:16):
That's low.
So then they can say, okay, you can, you have three years to pretty much prove that like,
oh, you're worth a hundred million or three, whatever the number is.
Whereas I guess with the Japanese, it's like, okay, you kind of now granted these guys are
getting a way better deal because Roki Sasaki doesn't have to come here and at 23 years
old, potentially being at the age where if you got out of college and you'd be getting
drafted, let's say, those guys are, those American guys are getting rookie contracts
(10:40):
because they're not proven, which I don't know what the level of competitiveness between
like division one college baseball and the NPB is.
I don't know if those two, if there's a correlation there that, oh, one's better than the other
or if they're the same.
But if you think about it, a guy from Japan who's been playing instead of going to college,
(11:00):
he's been playing fucking baseball for five years and now he basically did his time there.
Sure.
Now it sucks.
He's got to pay 20%, but instead of getting league minimum three, whatever, I think what's
the league minimum like half a million dollars now or something like that and MLB probably
for a rookie player that, yeah, I mean, if it's a, yeah, if it's that.
(11:21):
The minimum is like five fucking something, I think.
So instead of getting league minimum, he could potentially be getting, like you said, $7 million
if depending on when he posts in the thing.
Yeah.
So whereas if he was a guy in America getting out of college, there's no way he's going
to touch anywhere near that amount of money.
Yeah, but that's, that's like for all the, for the international pool money that a team
(11:43):
has, like, I don't know what the budget is that you, you ultimately get in the end, but
if you're spending all your fucking money on one player, then that, that you're, you're
on the outs for like literally every other fucking country.
Like if you're looking at Dominican Republic for players that are there or Mexico or fucking
Puerto Rico, then that's it.
(12:05):
You committed all your fucking money to one fucking player.
Like the money that's allotted for international players, you, you went all in on one person,
right?
Yeah.
And I mean, look, just cause he's good in, in the NPB doesn't mean it's going to translate
to here.
Sure.
Some of these guys, I mean, Shohei fucking Yamamoto, that's, those guys are like outliers,
(12:25):
man.
I don't think that's the norm.
I think those dudes are like outliers.
Those are your fucking, your one percenters, right?
Yeah.
So is he.
Roki, well, not yet.
We don't know that.
We don't know if his shit's going to translate well to the MLB and fucking perform as he
well as he's doing in, you know, the, and he's also, I mean, how old was Shohei when
(12:47):
he came here?
Was he fucking, did he wait till he was 25?
Well he was definitely younger than 25 for sure.
I don't remember how old he was, but he ended up opting out early.
Yeah.
Well, let me ask you this too.
So then how it, once, is it only based on your first contract, you get 20% of that or
is it like that team gets 20% of whatever the fuck you make for the rest of your goddamn
(13:10):
career?
Uh, well I think post that, I think post.
Like your first contract.
I think your first contract is, is 20% right?
But then if you go to some other team, then it's all you.
It's all you.
Yeah.
It's all, it's all you.
But man, I just signed a one year, I'd be like, listen, if you guys really want me,
you send me to a one year deal league fucking minimum.
(13:31):
All right.
Let me come out, prove my fucking worth.
You're going to give those assholes 20%.
I mean, whatever.
I'm sure league minimum is more than what he's making.
I don't know what he's making in NPB, but like I'm sure league minimum is probably more
than that.
So cool.
And then, and then you fuck those guys for having this stupid rule where they get my
money.
And then after that you say, Hey, I come in, if I do fucking great.
(13:52):
Okay.
Now I don't want that five, $7 million.
Cause once you come here and you've had one contract, now you don't have to pay them out
of the international pool anymore.
Right?
Like it's just that first initial come over.
Yeah.
So then you just be like, Hey, cause I want fucking a hundred million dollars.
Okay.
I want fucking $7 million for whatever the term is going to be a year or whatever.
(14:13):
I want a hundred million dollars over fucking, you know, five years.
So it gives incentive for a, the guy to come over here and perform well.
And B it gets him more money outright in the long run than it does if he were to sign some
contract like that.
So the, the, the crux, the crux of this episode or the problem that occurs is that now that
(14:36):
Roki Sasaki is going to be committed to coming to the MLB, right?
Is that he falls between the two cycles and sure it would work out better for him to wait
until 2025 to make seven and a half million dollars.
Right?
But his team gets 20% of that and they're kind of pissed.
They're like, shit man.
If this motherfucker would have waited till he was 25, they could have made who knows
(14:59):
what the number is, right?
Who knows what the contract would have been valued at if it's a hundred million or $200
million to have this player come over to the U S they would have got 20% of that.
Right?
So here's the other thing.
Is there a limit?
Is there a cap on?
So once you turn 25, then are you know, you no longer have to fall under that international
like that limit that they don't think you, the money, the rookie or the amateur, the
(15:26):
money allotted for amateur players that, that you're not penalized for that.
It's just like straight cash.
Once you're 25, once you're 25, if a team offers you 500 million, that's like all, it's
what I'm saying.
It's like the MLB has that international players money pool, right?
For each team, for each team, right?
Yeah.
So then once you turn 25, it no longer applies to you.
(15:46):
They're not limited to that.
Like the Dodgers said, because you're not, you're not, you're not an amateur at that
point anymore.
I mean, technically the second he signed and played a season with the NPB wasn't an amateur.
He was by definition a professional baseball player.
Yeah.
But when you're seven years in, you, so that was the definition was they, yeah, I don't
know why they came up with seven, right?
(16:08):
But the thing I was getting at is that obviously it doesn't work out if guys want to leave
early, right?
It kind of over the Japanese team that raised this player.
So if they sign for seven and a half million dollars and they're getting 20% of that, they're
getting fucking pennies.
Oh yeah.
So compared to, compared to what an MLB team is going to make off of the player, I mean,
(16:32):
they're probably going to make fucking rip, right?
Who was Yamamoto's fucking first contract with 325 million?
Yeah.
Plus the 50 million for the post.
So they got 50 fucking million dollars off of that.
So for Roki Sasaki to be a generational pitching talent.
Smart.
Good.
That's a smart kid.
So he said, he said, fuck the system.
Good.
I agree.
Immediately after, so this probably means that out of the gate, because he probably knew
(16:55):
he was as good as he thought he was at 18 years old when he signed that he told the
team I'm leaving when I want to.
And he probably said, whatever it may be.
Maybe they decided at 23 years old around this time, they're like, all right, fuck it.
You get to walk, but you're kind of fucking us over because you know, we're not going
to get any of that sweet cash.
That sweet posting fee is going to be like $500,000 as opposed to, you know, $20 million
(17:21):
or $50 million.
So that shit's like, that kind of doesn't work out for that, for the MLB or rather the
MPV team.
So like my thing, I think the way the posting system should change is that there should
be like a sliding scale, a sliding scale for both the international pool money that a team
(17:45):
has to pay for for amateur rookie talent.
If you want to leave earlier, like you commit a sliding scale.
So like as it sits right now, 20% right for Roki Sasaki as a, as an amateur player, he
gets the Chiba Lotte Marines get 20% of his contracts.
So it's like a five, if he signs in 2024, it's $500,000 for two and a half million for
(18:06):
two and a half million for his contract.
Right?
Yeah.
Why not have it be you like the burden becomes on the MLB in order to keep players in MPB
because it is like a legitimate league.
It has merit to it.
Right?
You don't want guys just to fucking leave every five seconds to end up just playing
(18:30):
for the major league baseball.
Cause then it just makes the league look like shit.
Like why the fuck are we playing this fucking leave if everybody's just going to go over
there?
So what I think should happen is that there should be like a sliding scale.
And I don't know what the percentage is, but basically it ends up back to 20%.
Right?
So if you turn 25, if that's the thing that they've decided, all right, fucking leave
(18:53):
it at that.
But if you're 18 years old and a major league team is like, Oh, this guy's the next Shohei
Otani, right?
At 18 years old, you have to pay a 40% posting fee and then it goes backwards.
It scales down.
It's like 30% or, you know, every year it degrades by X amount of percentage until you
(19:14):
end up back at 20% at 25.
Interesting.
I personally think that this is the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard.
And in my opinion, why are, why are we concerned with compensating some other fucking league?
(19:34):
It makes no fucking difference in my opinion, because if the guy wants to leave, he's going
to fucking leave.
And at the end of the day, that these guys coming to MLB are not going to affect the
profitability of what's going on over here because people in Japan are the ones who watch
(19:55):
NPB.
Yeah, sure.
They're watching MLB too, but they're also watching their local teams, the NPB.
Why should the Oryx Buffaloes have gotten 50 fucking million dollars because Yamamoto
wanted to come over here and play in America?
We're the real, again, he came, he wanted to come where the big boys play.
Okay.
He didn't want to play in this fucking big fish, small pond scenario.
He wanted to come over here and fucking play, play where the real fucking, the world-class
(20:19):
talent is at.
I don't think that we should be subsidizing them because of that.
I do think.
It feels like an invoice.
It feels like an invoice for the NPB team to say, Hey, we spent seven years developing
this player.
Pay us our fucking money.
Cause if it were the other way, other way around, I'd be just as pissed.
I'd be, I'd be pissed if I were working for an MLB team to find out that a player that
(20:43):
we raised through our system that benefited from us, that got our teachings and our resources
to make him the best possible player, that we're not getting a cut of his contract.
Like that's kind of.
By that same logic, the Dodgers guy get, sign a kid out of high school.
Okay.
They sign them to a five year fucking deal.
They pay them whatever money.
(21:03):
Okay.
And at the end of the deal, the kid decides, you know what?
I don't want to sign with the Dodgers again.
Should the Dodgers has to be paid a fee from whatever team decides to sign them as a percentage
of his contract?
Because while we spent all this money and resources, you know, raising this kid and
putting them in the system.
You think that is, that should be applied to the MLB?
(21:24):
Yeah.
That's crazy.
That's fucking ridiculous.
That's the, that's what the fuck is wrong with you?
Again, that's, that's the nature of that.
That's called what is, in my opinion is referred to as the cost of doing business.
You either develop this player and do something great and you continue to pay them what they're
worth or someone else is going to pay them more because you don't want to do it.
(21:49):
And if you don't want to do it, that's totally your decision, but you should receive no fucking
benefit of wanting to pay someone less money than what they're worth, in my opinion.
But the MLB does that with the first four or five years with your contract as a rookie,
they control.
Yeah.
But what I'm saying is, is that as a team, I'm not talking about as a team, you should
(22:11):
not be fucking compensated because again, that's the cost of doing business.
You're paying this guy less money upfront.
So when he finally proves that he's worth money and you're like, ah, I don't want to
pay him as much money.
So we'll let him go fucking pay, get more money from another team.
But I don't think you as a team should be compensated because you didn't want to pay
him what he was worth when he proved he was what he was worth and someone else wanted
(22:33):
to give him more money.
Just like at the.
Maybe it's not even the case that the Marines don't want to pay him his, his dude.
He wants to come where the true talent is.
He wants to go play where he wants, which is understandable, but I don't think it's
because they're fucking, they don't want to pay what he wants.
It's just because.
(22:53):
Well yeah, he wants to play where the real challenge is, right?
But I don't think he should have to fucking pay a penalty because of that.
I don't think I should pay 20% of what he's going to get paid because of that shit.
That is literally like slavery.
That's literally indentured servitude.
That's literally what it is.
Oh, you know what?
The slave master, you want to go work for another slave master?
Well guess what?
(23:13):
That slave master, you got to pay me 20% of whatever that slave master is going to give
you.
Like you got to give me 20% of your slave rations in compensation for me losing a slave
essentially.
Fuck that.
All right.
That's bullshit.
I don't want to do this.
This post-it system.
It's like the fucking, it's like the WWE when it was rising through the, the climate of
(23:34):
wrestling.
Yeah.
It's competition.
They're like, oh yeah, let me just absorb everything fucking else.
Yeah.
And let's just bankrupt.
Let's just make every other company fucking look illegitimate.
For the sake of competition to really raise the best players.
I think parody needs to fucking exist.
(23:56):
And I think that's why MPB needs not to get bankrupt by their players just outright leaving
when they did have something of a role to, to developing this specific player.
Okay.
All right.
So every fucking player that comes through MPB doesn't contribute to the posting fee
(24:19):
if it's just fucking zero and they don't get shit.
Everybody's fucking leaves.
What does that do for the other teams?
They're like, well, fuck, well, why, why are we sticking around here?
Then it just means that the MPB like maybe it just ultimately dissolves because nobody
wants to fucking play at, at this fucking league because well, the real, the real competition,
(24:41):
the real money is in MLB.
All right.
Let me tell you, let me tell you why that would never fucking happen.
If you want to grow a sport, I think it has to be legitimate in all ends and it has to
be on equal grounds for all leagues.
I mean, yeah, MPB is never going to be fucking MLB in terms of popularity, but I think if
in order to grow the sport, like there has to be value in fucking every league that exists
(25:05):
in the world.
That's my opinion.
Here's the thing.
The local people, this is why it'll never fucking happen.
A because there's a limited number of, there's only 32 teams in the MLB, right?
30.
30 teams with what fucking, what's the roster on the MLB team?
30.
Is it 30 something?
It's 26 people, but it's like total, like 40.
Yeah.
40 man roster, right?
(25:25):
Okay.
So 40 times fucking 30 is what 700.
So there's 700 guys.
40 times 30.
Yeah.
Isn't that what it is?
Or is that seven?
I don't know.
I don't know math.
I'm an idiot.
That's 700, right?
Yeah.
No.
Or no, 7,000.
I don't know.
No, you're fucking wrong.
(25:46):
It's not 40 times 30, right?
12.
It's a 12.
It's a 12.
30.
Yeah.
What's the number?
Yeah, it's 1200.
Okay.
So there's 1200 guys a year per year in the world that are allowed to be on MLB teams.
Yes.
In the league.
Okay.
The MLB does not have the system or the resources to accommodate if there were going to be,
(26:07):
if everyone in Japan decided, oh, we're all going to just try to go play for the MLB.
Well, guess what?
No, you're not.
No, you're fucking not.
Cause they can only take 1200 fucking guys to have on an MLB team.
And sure, maybe you multiply that and then you figure in with their minor league system,
their farm systems, you can take guys in.
Sure.
Maybe it's 20,000 guys in the United, in the world can be, well, there's a capacity for
(26:28):
like 20,000 people to be signed to an MLB team and be in some point of their system,
right?
Of their farm system or whatever.
So that system's already capped.
Like it's already fixed.
Like there's no increasing that system.
So if you have an influx of guys coming from Japan that want to try to make this money
because they're not going to be having to get paid these fees or whatever, it'll still
(26:48):
never happen.
They're only going to take 20,000 people a year and it's not like they're going to dump
a shit ton of guys just to take in a few extra Japanese players that maybe could be better
or maybe even what are they going to take an unproven Japanese high school student that
just graduated and draft him to a, to a rookie contract instead of an American kid who again
(27:13):
has played baseball in the system in which baseball is played here in America and has
proven, okay, there's potential here.
There's proven potential.
I don't think there's going to be any kids at high school getting drafted by the MLB
in Japan if this system were to go away.
Because at this point, if you were an MLB kid and you wanted to, or if you were a Japanese
kid and you want to come play for the MLB direct and not even go to the NPB, you could
(27:34):
do that and pay nobody any fees.
Cause who you going to fucking pay?
You weren't on a team.
You ain't got to pay nobody.
So, but, but the reason why that doesn't happen is because the MLB ain't interested in fucking
signing high school kids out of fucking any foreign countries.
Cause they need to prove themselves, which is why they let them play in their systems
for five years or whatever, four or five years, however long until they say, okay, the MLB
(27:57):
is essentially using the foreign professional baseball leagues as a, an international farm
system essentially where they have to pay no money.
They're not paying this guy's salary.
None of that shit.
We're going to use you, use this as a farm system, look at their stats.
And again, there is still a huge risk on the whatever MLB team is going to sign them as
part, because no matter how much money you're going to pay this guy, even if it's for a
(28:18):
rookie contract, let's say, and you're making a league minimum, that's still an abject risk
that the team is taking to play for a guy that is, you have no idea how he's going to
perform when he comes here.
Because again, the pace and the play and the style of baseball in other countries is different.
It's not the same.
It's not a one-to-one fucking comparison in terms of the type of people that play there
(28:40):
in terms of what they, what they're capable of, the talent level.
It's very different across the board throughout the world.
America is the number one premier fucking baseball league, which is the MLB.
There's no doubt about it.
That's the top tier, highest level of baseball that you can play in, in, in the world, in
terms of like professional sport for baseball.
(29:02):
There's no other league that comes close to the MLB in terms of sheer talent, right?
So that's where everybody's going to want to go.
But the MLB is a closed circuit system.
You can't, you're not, you're not just going to get all these international assholes jumping
in just because, oh, nobody's going to be paying fees.
If they got rid of this posting system and just said, Hey, anybody can come play in the
MLB or, or put themselves into the draft to be drafted or whatever you want to say it,
(29:25):
or put themselves in to get sent over to the MLB at any time and no one has to pay any
fees.
You're still not, you're not going to see this huge influx of Japanese guys coming in.
Sure, it may be a little higher than normal, what would normally be around.
Because I do think that the thing you were talking about with the system of like a limit,
like a limiting how much each MLB team can spend every year on international pool or
(29:48):
international players.
I think that's good for the, an internal regulation for the league so that you're not going to
go and pick up like a Dominican.
You're not going to go buy a whole Dominican team and just be like, Oh, we're going to
just have a whole, a whole team of Dominican guys that are like 30, they're like 30, 30
fucking years old and they're seasoned, but we're going to say that they're fucking 19
(30:11):
or whatever.
Right.
Like you could do that.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a, I mean the international pool money is basically a way to control.
It prevents the Dodgers from just being the top or pretty much any team that's anybody.
Yeah.
Like, take it all the top guys.
It's like, okay, this is the only money that you're allotted to signing a player.
(30:34):
You can't just throw $500 million at a rookie and say that he's yours because then it just
turns into a bidding war.
Like the teams that are smaller markets are just going to get priced out in every situation.
So it's, that's why I think maybe, I mean, aside from your point, if we're just talking
about like what it would take to make things better, if it, if it were to come to a situation,
(31:00):
like especially with this rookie Sasaki thing, that if a feel, if a team feels like they
need to be compensated more fairly, if a player walks away, you know, earlier than they should,
that my theory is that you have, like you have a sliding scale.
Like the tier, yeah.
It's like a tiered system.
You have a sliding scale, a percentage of what a posting fee is going to be.
(31:21):
Yeah.
If you have it be 40% from the get-go at 18 years old, you want a rookie, rookie Sasaki.
It's 40, I'm just making up a random number.
Maybe there's a fair number, but it's basically to discourage any, any MLB team to say, all
right, you are rookie Sasaki at 18 years old and you want to just use the, the, the budget
(31:46):
of a proper MLB team.
Like what, if it's a billion dollars, all right, go ahead and pay him 40% of what the
contracts value.
You want to pay him a hundred million.
All right.
You owe him for the, you owe the Chivalotte Marines $40 million, right?
That's 40%, right?
So then it's, I think it's a way to curb teams just like, you know, just poaching talent
(32:16):
right away.
You you're, you're, you're, you would essentially encourage MLB teams to be like, all right,
we know this kid's the shit, but we need to keep him here long enough to prove his worth.
Like, okay, obviously he wants to go play for the MLB, right?
At eight, eight at 18 years old.
Well, it's not going to happen unless you want to pay the extreme cost of a 40% posting
(32:42):
fee of the contract.
You can go ahead and do that, but it's going to cost you a lot of fucking money, especially
for an MLT's MLB team's budget.
So you could leave at any fucking time you want, but it's going to cost you a fucking
arm and a leg, right?
I think you should also, there's, there should be a sliding scale depending on where they're
(33:04):
at.
I feel like you should also be punished for the international pool money.
So the further you get closer, closer to 25, you're also committing a bit of your international
pool money.
So if it's at 18 years old, then you're going to be committing some of your international
pool money to pay for his contract, but you're also going to be paying some of the MLB team's
(33:28):
budget, including with that, so that you don't just fucking get to buy international pool
players, but you're also not going to just be able to pick up whoever the fuck you want
based on an MLB team's budget for players.
True.
Like it's general.
Yeah.
So what do you think about this then?
Okay.
(33:49):
So people are fucking creative in their assholes, right?
So like what would, what would stop somebody, let's say from evading the system altogether?
Yeah.
So yeah, like we're talking about gaming the system.
Well, like rookie Saki right now saying like going to whoever and saying, Hey, listen,
let's say he goes to the Dodgers and he's like, listen, man, cause you can, you can
fucking have conversations with these teams.
There's nothing.
(34:09):
You can't.
Why not?
Because until you get into, once you get into the pool, can't you then?
It's colluding.
It's like you're, you're, it's there, there are rules for that.
Like the Dodgers could talk to Roki Sasaki about fucking anything, right?
Okay.
But they can't set up deals before they even have their fucking, you know, if they were
(34:29):
actually going to sign them, but they talked about it four years ago, like, oh yeah, well,
I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is like right now, once he gets put into the system, and he's getting
courted by teams.
Yes.
Okay.
Let's say the Dodgers are one of them.
Okay.
And he says, Hey, listen, I don't want to fucking, like I said earlier, I don't want to, I don't
want to pay a shit ton of money of my percentage to these guys.
(34:50):
Cause fuck them.
Why don't you sign me to a league minimum contract, which is able to be done.
And then you don't have to pay them, you just pay them fucking 20% of my league minimum.
And that's cool.
I'm cool with eating that.
That's not a big deal.
I'll eat it.
And then, uh, you sign me to a one year deal and then fucking, nobody has to pay a shit.
(35:11):
Like if, if they would have fucking, if the Dodgers would have, if Yamamoto would have
been, well, he, he got the Dodgers to eat the fucking $50 million.
But if you are like, like this Roki Sasaki, just say, listen, uh, you've only, and plus
you've only got a limited amount of money.
This is, this is a great risk factor for everyone involved.
(35:31):
It makes the guy come here and prove himself.
And then you don't have to pay these other teams barely any fucking money.
And then at the end of it, he's free and clear to negotiate whatever the fuck he wants on
his next contract the next year.
Yes.
But it's also like four or five years after the fact that he signed.
So it's like, if you wanted to gain the system, if you just, cause now let's say the rule,
(35:53):
let's just say the rules change to what I'm recommending, right?
It's 40% or whatever.
Yeah.
So then guys are gonna be like, fuck that.
I'm not going to get drafted by the MPB because then that just, I'm basically getting punished
to join.
Right?
So then, all right, you go about your own way and you decide, I'm going to go to college
in the U S and then I'll get drafted in the MLB draft.
Just proper.
(36:13):
Now I gotta pay anybody anything.
But then you're sending yourself back because now you're, you have to sign a rookie contract
for four or five years.
And so it's like, you're getting punished for coming here and gaining the system or
maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you're 18 years old and you go as an undrafted player and
sign for a fucking signed to a triple A team and then you work your way, your way up.
(36:35):
So why not just wait the three or four years or the two or three years, build up your resume,
your accolades in MPB, then fucking try to gain the systems.
I feel like this whole thing kind of, I don't know.
I think it's, I definitely think it's going to change the posting system because I don't
(36:56):
think at least for Japanese teams that they're like, well shit, we have one of our best players
probably in the last decade going to the league and he's going for pennies on the dollar and
we're not going to get shit off, off of this.
I'm pretty sure by the end of next year, like pretty much right around this time, something's
going to be decided.
Like, you know what?
This posting, posting systems, fucking dog shit.
(37:18):
We can't, you know, it is dog shit.
They need to just get rid of it all together in my opinion and just do, you don't even
need a posting system.
Just have the posting system be okay.
If a player wants to declare his intention to be available for MLB service.
All right.
You can do that whenever the fuck you want.
And then, okay, sure.
(37:39):
I think there should be a penalty if you're under contract with a team and you want to
do that.
Yes.
Then I see what you're saying that I think that would be okay because then you're breaking
your contract and there's gotta be a penalty for that.
Now, if you wait until your contract is up, you're free to go.
You can do whatever the fuck you want.
You ain't got to pay nobody any money.
Yeah.
And that's the end of it.
That's how I think it should be.
Yeah.
Fair is fair.
(38:00):
But anyways, fuck this system.
This system is wack.
So you're predicting by next year, this is going to be changed.
They're going to change this.
I think based on just, just how much, just how much.
What is the controversy though of this?
Is it because he's, he's a.
Cause they're seeing it, they're seeing it as him being selfish that he's only proven,
(38:22):
he's only done five years in MPB, right?
Okay.
And sure, he's been one of the better pitchers in MPB, but he also hasn't won the numerous
awards that Yamamoto achieved.
He got like back to back to back, sour more awards, which is like the equivalent of a
young, right?
So then that allowed him to build merit on his, you know, his talent, right?
(38:49):
So when he comes here, it's like, all right, 325 million seemed like a fucking a lot.
But then you look at the fact that they won the world series and he contributed to that.
All right.
It's justified.
And then that's coming over here younger with seemingly less accolades.
And it's obviously for like selfish reasons, but it's like, I'm on your side when it comes
(39:12):
to players that like, yeah, whatever the team says, like if you're here to prove you're
the best, like where are you going to go?
You're going to go to the fucking MLB.
Yeah.
Like, so why the fuck does it matter what a team says?
Okay, sure.
You're under contract for X amount of years for this team.
Go, you want to go to the MLB.
(39:35):
There should be no punishment for like that.
You should just go wherever you want.
So by that same token, the people calling him like selfish or whatever, you're just
a fucking idiot.
People that are saying it's selfish.
What, what do you mean?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Does he have to live his whole career in service of others?
Like, are you not allowed to do whatever the fuck you want to do?
Like why should, oh, you don't have as many accolades.
(39:57):
Okay, well he's not a $325 million fucking player right now because he doesn't have those
accolades.
Okay.
The accolades just get you more fucking potential money.
But here's the other thing.
That's a risk on his part too.
What if he doesn't win those accolades?
Right?
What if he stays under two or three years and doesn't win the, the, the NPB Cy Young
(40:17):
three years in a row?
What if he doesn't win that?
And that's, and again, that's what's saying is there's tiers of levels and I think Shohei,
Yamamoto, they're skewing the tiers right now because now everybody thinks that everybody's
going to be a fucking caliber level of that.
Shohei Otani is, is the billion dollar man, right?
That's an outlier.
(40:38):
That's not going to be, there's not going to be a bunch of dudes coming from Japan getting
fucking a hundred million dollars a year over 10 year contracts.
It's not going to happen.
Yeah.
It's not going to fucking happen.
There's not going to be a bunch of dudes from Japan coming over here and getting $325 million
contracts over what?
What's Yamamoto's contract?
Five years?
(40:58):
No, it's like, it's like a decade plus.
Okay.
There's not, there's not even going to be guys getting those level of, of contracts
here.
Yeah.
Those guys are outliers.
Roki Sasaki will come here and he'll make a good amount of money.
Okay.
He'll make a good living.
He's not going to make that kind of money.
Well, not yet.
Well, maybe again, that's the difference.
If he comes here and proves himself and does, does well, then he can become that guy, but
(41:22):
he's, it's not, it's not going to be, oh, there's not a bunch of guys in the NPB that
are going to have that.
There's again, they're two skewing the tiers.
There are tiers of level of players.
There's your S tier, which is like your Shohei.
And then you got maybe like your A or B tier, which is like where Yamamoto's at.
And then you got this kid where he's maybe in like your C or your D tier of Japanese
player that's going to be brought over to America.
(41:44):
He's not worth a shit ton of money.
Even if he waits two or three years, he may never, he may not be worth $325 million.
I don't think it's the talent, but the talent, the talent's obviously there.
But the other problem was the numerous criticisms that have been said about him is that he's
injury prone, which he's, he hasn't played like a full fucking season since he's fucking.
So it's like, that's a risk.
(42:05):
Yeah.
So it's like the kid is basically gambling on himself to come here as a rookie, which
is fucking ballsy as fuck because if he doesn't perform here, he's not going to get that contract.
No.
So he's going to shoot himself in the foot as opposed to waiting two additional years
and playing full seasons in Japan and, and that's true.
(42:28):
Figuring shit out.
He could have gotten the guaranteed money knowing his arm is probably going to fucking
deteriorate.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, well that's the MOB's problem.
Like, you know, but now he's coming here and wants to prove his worth.
And if his art falls off in those four or five years that he's a rookie, oh man, that
is well, it's not even that bad because they're signing him for a rookie contract.
(42:50):
But for him, if by the end of it, if his arm falls off, well, he's fucking shit out of
luck.
Yeah.
But also if they get him to pay him fucking five or $10 million or a year or whatever
for a couple of years and then his arm falls off, well still he made out of his money.
Yeah.
I'm sure like the money that he's going to make is not really off of the contract.
Well, obviously it's not going to be off the contract.
(43:11):
It's going to be off of the number of endorsements he'll make.
I think if anything, like I hate to say it, but I think the Dodgers have the best chance
of signing him.
Even with the fact that he comes, let's say he comes in the 2025 class for the international
players.
Okay.
(43:32):
So what?
This motherfucker signs for seven and a half.
Let's say the most money he can make off of his rookie contract is seven and a half million
dollars, right?
Who the fuck cares if he signs for seven and a half million dollars?
He signs with the Dodgers for two and a half million, but the money that he actually makes
is off of the endorsements that he makes.
So it's like, what, what is it?
(43:52):
What does the millions of dollars really mean if like the most money he's going to make
immediately is off of his own personal brand?
I don't think that motherfucker is going to go play for the Tampa Bay Rays or the fucking
Detroit Tigers.
Like I don't know.
With Disney building this new stadium for the Rays and it's going to be all digital
(44:14):
and sweet.
Maybe he's into that.
Maybe he's like, Oh, that'd be cool to play there.
So what?
Yeah.
You didn't hear about that?
No.
Okay.
So the fucking Disney owns the Tampa Bay Rays now.
Okay.
And then what they're doing is they're building a stadium at Walt Disney World that they're
going to move them to.
And they're going to, they said the stadium is going to be the first of its kind where
(44:35):
it's everything is digital.
Everything is screens.
So their plan, which this is genius, is they're going to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Yeah.
The Tampa or I don't know if it's going to be, they're called something now.
Like I don't know if they're going to be called that.
They were talking about calling them the Disney D 23s or something like that.
I don't know which is stupid, but could end up playing home games at Disney.
(45:00):
Yeah, they're going to like that's, that's already pretty much been like confirmed.
Like that they're going to like Disney, Disney is already building out the space and they're
removing space to build the stadium for the fucking thing.
And then their whole, their whole concept is what they want to do to fucking merchandising
is they're going to, every home game is going to be a different theme Jersey.
(45:21):
So like every home series is going to be like, Oh, it'll be star Wars themed.
And the, the Rays will have like a Darth Vader themed Jersey.
And then they're going to sell those, like those themes.
I've seen like mockups of them and stuff and it's fucked crazy.
Like Disney is fucking like, I wish they would have bought the angels again and made them
so cause they're going to dump a shit ton of money into this shit.
(45:43):
Devil Ray, Devil Ray or Rays or whatever the fuck they're, man, Devil Rays was a good fucking
name to Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
But now they're just the Rays split between Disney and Tropicana.
Yeah.
Wait, what?
There's like the Disney's involved.
Like they're an owner or I don't know if they're the majority owner now or something.
Like they're going to the for spring training.
I don't think they're going to, you know, in the meantime, while Tropicana, if it's
(46:08):
going to be rebuilt, they're going to throw that shit back.
No, there's Disney's Disney's doing it at fucking Disney's going to do.
I'm telling you right now.
No, they're not.
Disney world is going to fucking do it.
Why would they not?
No, it says in 2028, the Rays are playing in a new stadium is what it says.
Their contract, their deal is up and they want to fucking, they want a new stadium and
Disney is going to be, I don't see.
(46:29):
I don't see anything that says that.
It just says that they're going to be splitting time between spring training at the Steinbrenner
field.
The fucking spring training for the spring training location for the Yankees.
But I don't see where it says anything about Disney.
I don't know.
I have to look into that.
Yeah, that was some shit that I saw.
(46:52):
Fucking yeah.
Cause they're, they're fucking, their stadium got fucking destroyed from the fucking.
What a shit stadium too.
I fucking hate that scene.
It is.
Tropic can't feel with this.
It looks like a prison.
It looks like a fucking prison of a baseball stadium.
It is, it is a prison.
That's, that's actually what they, it's actually what they do.
(47:12):
Where is it?
It's fucking.
All right.
All right.
This thing's not opening.
I got, I found the article, but whatever.
But anyways, that was it, I guess.
All right.
Well, that's the end of the episode.
Yeah.
Ball's a tug.
I think we'll have some Rokis Sasaki used by net.
Well, who the fuck knows when they're going to post him.
So I'm sure we'll be talking about that at some point, but also I might have another
(47:37):
episode for sports.
Oh, sweet.
All right.
Well, fuck it.
Let's do that.
All right.
Well, go check out guys.
This is this turned into a long one.
Yeah.
But it, but it was good.
It was, it was well-deserved, I think because the topic was, was good.
But anyways, all right.
Game Rage magazine on YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok.
Fucking all gas, no trash official, whatever.
Just fuck off.
Just, just go do it.
Do it.
(47:57):
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
That was churpin from the pine.
The game rage sports podcast.
You can follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok at game rage magazine.
(48:20):
Follow us on X at game rage mag.
You can go to our website www.gameragemagazine.com
Chirping from the pine.
(00:10):
It's time to rage.
Oh buddy, welcome back to Chirping from the fucking pine.
The best podcast on the internet from the fucking, the bench warmers of podcasting.
(00:34):
Fuck yeah, the worst ideas, the worst takes.
We're the anti-skip bailiffs.
We're the, actually no, we are skip bailiffs because he gives the worst takes.
Hell yeah.
My name is Josh.
I'm here today with Adam.
Greetings.
And today we're going to talk about the NPB to MLB pipeline and why it's stupid.
(00:58):
Or well, Adam's case, why he thinks it needs to change.
I just think it's fucking stupid.
But anyways, we'll get to that.
But before we do, if you want to follow us on YouTube, you can go to game rage magazine
there, like, comment and subscribe.
You can follow us on social media, Instagram and TikTok, game rage magazine, Twitter slash
X, game rage mag.
You can follow Adam at all gas, no trash official on Instagram.
(01:20):
All right, Adam.
So you are the in-house expert on.
How about the expert?
I didn't say you were an expert.
I just said you're the in-house expert because you know the most all right about NPB.
So don't fucking do the little eye thing at me.
So anyways, you want to talk about the NPB sports baseball.
(01:44):
All right, well, go ahead.
Give me what you got.
All right.
So this is turning into something of like, uh, I don't know if it's as bad as the LeBron
going to from Cleveland going on towards Miami, but a lot of people are pissed off about the
(02:05):
Roki Sasaki situation, especially people in Japan who think Roxy Roki Sasaki is being
selfish by leaving early to part ways to end up in the MLB.
Right.
So as it sits right now, he's 23 years old and in order to earn like a full fucking contract,
(02:28):
right?
Not a rookie contract, but like a proper fucking contract.
You wait till you're 25 years old in order to be posted.
So when you get posted, people are able to bid on you and posted to what the international
like players, the talent pool that people can, can get in order to transition over to
(02:53):
the MLB.
Right.
So it's like a T is it only to transition to the MLB or is it to other professional
leagues throughout the world?
Yeah, I don't know about that.
Oh, okay.
All right.
But in this specific case, when it comes to NPB, the Nippon professional baseball league,
(03:14):
when you turn 25, you get, they're all 30 teams can bid on you.
And when you have a contract in line, they get the team that you were on previously in
Japanese baseball, they get 20% of the value of the contract.
(03:37):
So for, so for somebody like Yamamoto, right, 325 million, they ended up adding like another
50 million to the contract basically.
So that 50 million ends up going to the Oryx Buffaloes.
(03:57):
So it's like an additional expense to compensate the team that is, they're not giving away
their player because obviously they're getting something out of it, right?
But it's like you're taking away one of their top players for them to end up in the MLB
and you're getting compensated.
But how do contracts work in NPB?
(04:20):
Is it like MLB where you have like a set number of years for a set number of money or is it
like you're an employee and like you're just here until we get rid of you or you quit?
I don't know.
I couldn't tell you that part.
Because it doesn't make any sense to me.
Like why would, why would I need to pay Japan fucking 25% or 20% of a contract when it's
(04:46):
like, well, what if my contract with, what if, what if Yamamoto's contract with the Oryx
Buffaloes was up, right?
Like what if it was over?
And he's like, okay, cool.
I'm no longer obligated to stay with this team.
So I'm going to go play over in America.
Why would I need to give you assholes fucking 20% to compensate you for what?
I'm done here and I'm leaving.
Our contract is over.
(05:07):
Because if they leave, I think they end up being on a rookie contract.
If they go play for any other MLB team, right?
They have to play for a rookie contract because they're, I think they'd probably be like an
undrafted player, right?
I guess yeah.
(05:27):
So then they have to be signed as a rookie and then three to four years they'd be on
a team and yeah, maybe they end up at a triple A team, but they get immediately moved up
because they're fucking pretty good, right?
So then for three or four years, your contract is just locked into the team's advantage,
right?
(05:48):
You're not going to be paid 30 million as a rookie.
No, you're going to make like your minimum league minimum, right?
So that's why you can't exactly just fucking move on because then you end up playing, like
if you're 27 years old as a, as a Japanese player and you're like, all right, I'm not
going to be playing for any of these fucking Japanese teams.
Like I'm just going to be a free agent and just end up overseas.
(06:12):
If you just end up going overseas as a free fucking agent, you might just end up being
a fucking rookie playing for four years for basically pennies, pennies on the dollar.
Yeah, but I mean, how much were you fucking?
I'm sure the league minimum and MLB is much higher than what it is in fucking NPB.
Yes, but you're, you're, you're essentially starting off as a rookie again.
And if you were looking for the payday, why would you want to pay?
(06:34):
Yeah.
Well, okay.
If you're looking for the payday, why not?
Fuck it.
Well, again, when you get the payday, that's the other thing.
When you get the payday, who gives a shit?
Like once you get the payday, you're good.
Like why, why would I need to pay 20% of my payday to the team I just came from in Japan?
You see what I'm saying?
That's why it doesn't fucking make sense to me.
All right.
So anyways, why would they need to be compensated?
(06:55):
But anyways, all right, good.
All right.
So with this rookie Sasaki deal, what's the issue with this guy?
So because he's under 25, okay.
He's 23 years old.
So under the current posting system rules, he's not going to be able to get his real
payday.
Like he wouldn't be able to make 500 million off his contract because he's still considered
a rookie at 23 years old.
(07:18):
Right.
And because of that, because he's being posted early and depending on what cycle he ends
up on, because the 2024 cycle for signing like amateur baseball players currently, the
cycle ends December 15th for the 2024 class.
Right.
(07:38):
Okay.
So as it sits right now, the Dodgers sit atop the international bonus pool money with two
and a half million dollars.
That's, that's as much as they could sign for him.
So that's as much as rookie, rookie Sasaki could get is two and a half million dollars
from the Dodgers or possibly the Orioles, the next in line to have the second highest
international pool money to sign rookie Sasaki.
(08:02):
But if they wait, if he waits until 2025, January 15th and beyond of next year, then
the field opens up because the, the, the pool of money that each team has is essentially
like reset, right?
Okay.
Yeah.
So that changes kind of everything where now the Dodgers are at the bottom.
They only have like two and a half, two and a half million or whatever.
(08:25):
And then there was like seven or eight teams that have seven and a half million dollars
that they could offer rookie Sasaki.
Right.
So rookie Sasaki could stand to make another five million or four and a half million or
whatever the number is as a rookie player.
But I'm thinking that's kind of shit.
(08:47):
That's kind of shit to force players to stick around until they're 25 in the Japanese league
when they probably don't want to, I mean, maybe, maybe they really do enjoy being in
the Japanese rather the Nippon professional baseball league, right?
Maybe they actually like it, but for the guys that don't, why, why are they getting punished
(09:09):
for wanting to leave early?
So then is there a point in which you leave and then you don't have to pay the team the
money?
Wait, repeat that.
So like, is there a, so once you turn 25, you don't have to pay that 20% anymore?
Oh, you do have to pay that 20%.
So like if you're 40, you got to pay the 20% no matter what.
(09:30):
Well, if you're, I think if you're on a team, I don't remember how it works if you're just
a free agent.
Cause I think if you're a free agent, you're considered like a rookie, right?
Cause if a team signs you, if a team signs you, then you're, I feel like you're considered
a rookie.
Like in the MLB?
As a free agent, like just not tied to any Japanese baseball team, right?
(09:53):
Well, you're not a rookie.
If you've been in the league and then say you say at a five year contract and it ends,
you're not a rookie anymore.
I mean, you're still just a free agent.
Like it's not.
And again, the MLB has the rookie contracts so they can like control you less.
Yeah.
They can, they can pay you less and lock you in for long for like whatever three years
or whatever the rookie contracts are and they can lock you in at that price.
(10:16):
That's low.
So then they can say, okay, you can, you have three years to pretty much prove that like,
oh, you're worth a hundred million or three, whatever the number is.
Whereas I guess with the Japanese, it's like, okay, you kind of now granted these guys are
getting a way better deal because Roki Sasaki doesn't have to come here and at 23 years
old, potentially being at the age where if you got out of college and you'd be getting
drafted, let's say, those guys are, those American guys are getting rookie contracts
(10:40):
because they're not proven, which I don't know what the level of competitiveness between
like division one college baseball and the NPB is.
I don't know if those two, if there's a correlation there that, oh, one's better than the other
or if they're the same.
But if you think about it, a guy from Japan who's been playing instead of going to college,
(11:00):
he's been playing fucking baseball for five years and now he basically did his time there.
Sure.
Now it sucks.
He's got to pay 20%, but instead of getting league minimum three, whatever, I think what's
the league minimum like half a million dollars now or something like that and MLB probably
for a rookie player that, yeah, I mean, if it's a, yeah, if it's that.
(11:21):
The minimum is like five fucking something, I think.
So instead of getting league minimum, he could potentially be getting, like you said, $7 million
if depending on when he posts in the thing.
Yeah.
So whereas if he was a guy in America getting out of college, there's no way he's going
to touch anywhere near that amount of money.
Yeah, but that's, that's like for all the, for the international pool money that a team
(11:43):
has, like, I don't know what the budget is that you, you ultimately get in the end, but
if you're spending all your fucking money on one player, then that, that you're, you're
on the outs for like literally every other fucking country.
Like if you're looking at Dominican Republic for players that are there or Mexico or fucking
Puerto Rico, then that's it.
(12:05):
You committed all your fucking money to one fucking player.
Like the money that's allotted for international players, you, you went all in on one person,
right?
Yeah.
And I mean, look, just cause he's good in, in the NPB doesn't mean it's going to translate
to here.
Sure.
Some of these guys, I mean, Shohei fucking Yamamoto, that's, those guys are like outliers,
(12:25):
man.
I don't think that's the norm.
I think those dudes are like outliers.
Those are your fucking, your one percenters, right?
Yeah.
So is he.
Roki, well, not yet.
We don't know that.
We don't know if his shit's going to translate well to the MLB and fucking perform as he
well as he's doing in, you know, the, and he's also, I mean, how old was Shohei when
(12:47):
he came here?
Was he fucking, did he wait till he was 25?
Well he was definitely younger than 25 for sure.
I don't remember how old he was, but he ended up opting out early.
Yeah.
Well, let me ask you this too.
So then how it, once, is it only based on your first contract, you get 20% of that or
is it like that team gets 20% of whatever the fuck you make for the rest of your goddamn
(13:10):
career?
Uh, well I think post that, I think post.
Like your first contract.
I think your first contract is, is 20% right?
But then if you go to some other team, then it's all you.
It's all you.
Yeah.
It's all, it's all you.
But man, I just signed a one year, I'd be like, listen, if you guys really want me,
you send me to a one year deal league fucking minimum.
(13:31):
All right.
Let me come out, prove my fucking worth.
You're going to give those assholes 20%.
I mean, whatever.
I'm sure league minimum is more than what he's making.
I don't know what he's making in NPB, but like I'm sure league minimum is probably more
than that.
So cool.
And then, and then you fuck those guys for having this stupid rule where they get my
money.
And then after that you say, Hey, I come in, if I do fucking great.
(13:52):
Okay.
Now I don't want that five, $7 million.
Cause once you come here and you've had one contract, now you don't have to pay them out
of the international pool anymore.
Right?
Like it's just that first initial come over.
Yeah.
So then you just be like, Hey, cause I want fucking a hundred million dollars.
Okay.
I want fucking $7 million for whatever the term is going to be a year or whatever.
(14:13):
I want a hundred million dollars over fucking, you know, five years.
So it gives incentive for a, the guy to come over here and perform well.
And B it gets him more money outright in the long run than it does if he were to sign some
contract like that.
So the, the, the crux, the crux of this episode or the problem that occurs is that now that
(14:36):
Roki Sasaki is going to be committed to coming to the MLB, right?
Is that he falls between the two cycles and sure it would work out better for him to wait
until 2025 to make seven and a half million dollars.
Right?
But his team gets 20% of that and they're kind of pissed.
They're like, shit man.
If this motherfucker would have waited till he was 25, they could have made who knows
(14:59):
what the number is, right?
Who knows what the contract would have been valued at if it's a hundred million or $200
million to have this player come over to the U S they would have got 20% of that.
Right?
So here's the other thing.
Is there a limit?
Is there a cap on?
So once you turn 25, then are you know, you no longer have to fall under that international
like that limit that they don't think you, the money, the rookie or the amateur, the
(15:26):
money allotted for amateur players that, that you're not penalized for that.
It's just like straight cash.
Once you're 25, once you're 25, if a team offers you 500 million, that's like all, it's
what I'm saying.
It's like the MLB has that international players money pool, right?
For each team, for each team, right?
Yeah.
So then once you turn 25, it no longer applies to you.
(15:46):
They're not limited to that.
Like the Dodgers said, because you're not, you're not, you're not an amateur at that
point anymore.
I mean, technically the second he signed and played a season with the NPB wasn't an amateur.
He was by definition a professional baseball player.
Yeah.
But when you're seven years in, you, so that was the definition was they, yeah, I don't
know why they came up with seven, right?
(16:08):
But the thing I was getting at is that obviously it doesn't work out if guys want to leave
early, right?
It kind of over the Japanese team that raised this player.
So if they sign for seven and a half million dollars and they're getting 20% of that, they're
getting fucking pennies.
Oh yeah.
So compared to, compared to what an MLB team is going to make off of the player, I mean,
(16:32):
they're probably going to make fucking rip, right?
Who was Yamamoto's fucking first contract with 325 million?
Yeah.
Plus the 50 million for the post.
So they got 50 fucking million dollars off of that.
So for Roki Sasaki to be a generational pitching talent.
Smart.
Good.
That's a smart kid.
So he said, he said, fuck the system.
Good.
I agree.
Immediately after, so this probably means that out of the gate, because he probably knew
(16:55):
he was as good as he thought he was at 18 years old when he signed that he told the
team I'm leaving when I want to.
And he probably said, whatever it may be.
Maybe they decided at 23 years old around this time, they're like, all right, fuck it.
You get to walk, but you're kind of fucking us over because you know, we're not going
to get any of that sweet cash.
That sweet posting fee is going to be like $500,000 as opposed to, you know, $20 million
(17:21):
or $50 million.
So that shit's like, that kind of doesn't work out for that, for the MLB or rather the
MPV team.
So like my thing, I think the way the posting system should change is that there should
be like a sliding scale, a sliding scale for both the international pool money that a team
(17:45):
has to pay for for amateur rookie talent.
If you want to leave earlier, like you commit a sliding scale.
So like as it sits right now, 20% right for Roki Sasaki as a, as an amateur player, he
gets the Chiba Lotte Marines get 20% of his contracts.
So it's like a five, if he signs in 2024, it's $500,000 for two and a half million for
(18:06):
two and a half million for his contract.
Right?
Yeah.
Why not have it be you like the burden becomes on the MLB in order to keep players in MPB
because it is like a legitimate league.
It has merit to it.
Right?
You don't want guys just to fucking leave every five seconds to end up just playing
(18:30):
for the major league baseball.
Cause then it just makes the league look like shit.
Like why the fuck are we playing this fucking leave if everybody's just going to go over
there?
So what I think should happen is that there should be like a sliding scale.
And I don't know what the percentage is, but basically it ends up back to 20%.
Right?
So if you turn 25, if that's the thing that they've decided, all right, fucking leave
(18:53):
it at that.
But if you're 18 years old and a major league team is like, Oh, this guy's the next Shohei
Otani, right?
At 18 years old, you have to pay a 40% posting fee and then it goes backwards.
It scales down.
It's like 30% or, you know, every year it degrades by X amount of percentage until you
(19:14):
end up back at 20% at 25.
Interesting.
I personally think that this is the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard.
And in my opinion, why are, why are we concerned with compensating some other fucking league?
(19:34):
It makes no fucking difference in my opinion, because if the guy wants to leave, he's going
to fucking leave.
And at the end of the day, that these guys coming to MLB are not going to affect the
profitability of what's going on over here because people in Japan are the ones who watch
(19:55):
NPB.
Yeah, sure.
They're watching MLB too, but they're also watching their local teams, the NPB.
Why should the Oryx Buffaloes have gotten 50 fucking million dollars because Yamamoto
wanted to come over here and play in America?
We're the real, again, he came, he wanted to come where the big boys play.
Okay.
He didn't want to play in this fucking big fish, small pond scenario.
He wanted to come over here and fucking play, play where the real fucking, the world-class
(20:19):
talent is at.
I don't think that we should be subsidizing them because of that.
I do think.
It feels like an invoice.
It feels like an invoice for the NPB team to say, Hey, we spent seven years developing
this player.
Pay us our fucking money.
Cause if it were the other way, other way around, I'd be just as pissed.
I'd be, I'd be pissed if I were working for an MLB team to find out that a player that
(20:43):
we raised through our system that benefited from us, that got our teachings and our resources
to make him the best possible player, that we're not getting a cut of his contract.
Like that's kind of.
By that same logic, the Dodgers guy get, sign a kid out of high school.
Okay.
They sign them to a five year fucking deal.
They pay them whatever money.
(21:03):
Okay.
And at the end of the deal, the kid decides, you know what?
I don't want to sign with the Dodgers again.
Should the Dodgers has to be paid a fee from whatever team decides to sign them as a percentage
of his contract?
Because while we spent all this money and resources, you know, raising this kid and
putting them in the system.
You think that is, that should be applied to the MLB?
(21:24):
Yeah.
That's crazy.
That's fucking ridiculous.
That's the, that's what the fuck is wrong with you?
Again, that's, that's the nature of that.
That's called what is, in my opinion is referred to as the cost of doing business.
You either develop this player and do something great and you continue to pay them what they're
worth or someone else is going to pay them more because you don't want to do it.
(21:49):
And if you don't want to do it, that's totally your decision, but you should receive no fucking
benefit of wanting to pay someone less money than what they're worth, in my opinion.
But the MLB does that with the first four or five years with your contract as a rookie,
they control.
Yeah.
But what I'm saying is, is that as a team, I'm not talking about as a team, you should
(22:11):
not be fucking compensated because again, that's the cost of doing business.
You're paying this guy less money upfront.
So when he finally proves that he's worth money and you're like, ah, I don't want to
pay him as much money.
So we'll let him go fucking pay, get more money from another team.
But I don't think you as a team should be compensated because you didn't want to pay
him what he was worth when he proved he was what he was worth and someone else wanted
(22:33):
to give him more money.
Just like at the.
Maybe it's not even the case that the Marines don't want to pay him his, his dude.
He wants to come where the true talent is.
He wants to go play where he wants, which is understandable, but I don't think it's
because they're fucking, they don't want to pay what he wants.
It's just because.
(22:53):
Well yeah, he wants to play where the real challenge is, right?
But I don't think he should have to fucking pay a penalty because of that.
I don't think I should pay 20% of what he's going to get paid because of that shit.
That is literally like slavery.
That's literally indentured servitude.
That's literally what it is.
Oh, you know what?
The slave master, you want to go work for another slave master?
Well guess what?
(23:13):
That slave master, you got to pay me 20% of whatever that slave master is going to give
you.
Like you got to give me 20% of your slave rations in compensation for me losing a slave
essentially.
Fuck that.
All right.
That's bullshit.
I don't want to do this.
This post-it system.
It's like the fucking, it's like the WWE when it was rising through the, the climate of
(23:34):
wrestling.
Yeah.
It's competition.
They're like, oh yeah, let me just absorb everything fucking else.
Yeah.
And let's just bankrupt.
Let's just make every other company fucking look illegitimate.
For the sake of competition to really raise the best players.
I think parody needs to fucking exist.
(23:56):
And I think that's why MPB needs not to get bankrupt by their players just outright leaving
when they did have something of a role to, to developing this specific player.
Okay.
All right.
So every fucking player that comes through MPB doesn't contribute to the posting fee
(24:19):
if it's just fucking zero and they don't get shit.
Everybody's fucking leaves.
What does that do for the other teams?
They're like, well, fuck, well, why, why are we sticking around here?
Then it just means that the MPB like maybe it just ultimately dissolves because nobody
wants to fucking play at, at this fucking league because well, the real, the real competition,
(24:41):
the real money is in MLB.
All right.
Let me tell you, let me tell you why that would never fucking happen.
If you want to grow a sport, I think it has to be legitimate in all ends and it has to
be on equal grounds for all leagues.
I mean, yeah, MPB is never going to be fucking MLB in terms of popularity, but I think if
in order to grow the sport, like there has to be value in fucking every league that exists
(25:05):
in the world.
That's my opinion.
Here's the thing.
The local people, this is why it'll never fucking happen.
A because there's a limited number of, there's only 32 teams in the MLB, right?
30.
30 teams with what fucking, what's the roster on the MLB team?
30.
Is it 30 something?
It's 26 people, but it's like total, like 40.
Yeah.
40 man roster, right?
(25:25):
Okay.
So 40 times fucking 30 is what 700.
So there's 700 guys.
40 times 30.
Yeah.
Isn't that what it is?
Or is that seven?
I don't know.
I don't know math.
I'm an idiot.
That's 700, right?
Yeah.
No.
Or no, 7,000.
I don't know.
No, you're fucking wrong.
(25:46):
It's not 40 times 30, right?
12.
It's a 12.
It's a 12.
30.
Yeah.
What's the number?
Yeah, it's 1200.
Okay.
So there's 1200 guys a year per year in the world that are allowed to be on MLB teams.
Yes.
In the league.
Okay.
The MLB does not have the system or the resources to accommodate if there were going to be,
(26:07):
if everyone in Japan decided, oh, we're all going to just try to go play for the MLB.
Well, guess what?
No, you're not.
No, you're fucking not.
Cause they can only take 1200 fucking guys to have on an MLB team.
And sure, maybe you multiply that and then you figure in with their minor league system,
their farm systems, you can take guys in.
Sure.
Maybe it's 20,000 guys in the United, in the world can be, well, there's a capacity for
(26:28):
like 20,000 people to be signed to an MLB team and be in some point of their system,
right?
Of their farm system or whatever.
So that system's already capped.
Like it's already fixed.
Like there's no increasing that system.
So if you have an influx of guys coming from Japan that want to try to make this money
because they're not going to be having to get paid these fees or whatever, it'll still
(26:48):
never happen.
They're only going to take 20,000 people a year and it's not like they're going to dump
a shit ton of guys just to take in a few extra Japanese players that maybe could be better
or maybe even what are they going to take an unproven Japanese high school student that
just graduated and draft him to a, to a rookie contract instead of an American kid who again
(27:13):
has played baseball in the system in which baseball is played here in America and has
proven, okay, there's potential here.
There's proven potential.
I don't think there's going to be any kids at high school getting drafted by the MLB
in Japan if this system were to go away.
Because at this point, if you were an MLB kid and you wanted to, or if you were a Japanese
kid and you want to come play for the MLB direct and not even go to the NPB, you could
(27:34):
do that and pay nobody any fees.
Cause who you going to fucking pay?
You weren't on a team.
You ain't got to pay nobody.
So, but, but the reason why that doesn't happen is because the MLB ain't interested in fucking
signing high school kids out of fucking any foreign countries.
Cause they need to prove themselves, which is why they let them play in their systems
for five years or whatever, four or five years, however long until they say, okay, the MLB
(27:57):
is essentially using the foreign professional baseball leagues as a, an international farm
system essentially where they have to pay no money.
They're not paying this guy's salary.
None of that shit.
We're going to use you, use this as a farm system, look at their stats.
And again, there is still a huge risk on the whatever MLB team is going to sign them as
part, because no matter how much money you're going to pay this guy, even if it's for a
(28:18):
rookie contract, let's say, and you're making a league minimum, that's still an abject risk
that the team is taking to play for a guy that is, you have no idea how he's going to
perform when he comes here.
Because again, the pace and the play and the style of baseball in other countries is different.
It's not the same.
It's not a one-to-one fucking comparison in terms of the type of people that play there
(28:40):
in terms of what they, what they're capable of, the talent level.
It's very different across the board throughout the world.
America is the number one premier fucking baseball league, which is the MLB.
There's no doubt about it.
That's the top tier, highest level of baseball that you can play in, in, in the world, in
terms of like professional sport for baseball.
(29:02):
There's no other league that comes close to the MLB in terms of sheer talent, right?
So that's where everybody's going to want to go.
But the MLB is a closed circuit system.
You can't, you're not, you're not just going to get all these international assholes jumping
in just because, oh, nobody's going to be paying fees.
If they got rid of this posting system and just said, Hey, anybody can come play in the
MLB or, or put themselves into the draft to be drafted or whatever you want to say it,
(29:25):
or put themselves in to get sent over to the MLB at any time and no one has to pay any
fees.
You're still not, you're not going to see this huge influx of Japanese guys coming in.
Sure, it may be a little higher than normal, what would normally be around.
Because I do think that the thing you were talking about with the system of like a limit,
like a limiting how much each MLB team can spend every year on international pool or
(29:48):
international players.
I think that's good for the, an internal regulation for the league so that you're not going to
go and pick up like a Dominican.
You're not going to go buy a whole Dominican team and just be like, Oh, we're going to
just have a whole, a whole team of Dominican guys that are like 30, they're like 30, 30
fucking years old and they're seasoned, but we're going to say that they're fucking 19
(30:11):
or whatever.
Right.
Like you could do that.
Yeah.
I mean, it's a, I mean the international pool money is basically a way to control.
It prevents the Dodgers from just being the top or pretty much any team that's anybody.
Yeah.
Like, take it all the top guys.
It's like, okay, this is the only money that you're allotted to signing a player.
(30:34):
You can't just throw $500 million at a rookie and say that he's yours because then it just
turns into a bidding war.
Like the teams that are smaller markets are just going to get priced out in every situation.
So it's, that's why I think maybe, I mean, aside from your point, if we're just talking
about like what it would take to make things better, if it, if it were to come to a situation,
(31:00):
like especially with this rookie Sasaki thing, that if a feel, if a team feels like they
need to be compensated more fairly, if a player walks away, you know, earlier than they should,
that my theory is that you have, like you have a sliding scale.
Like the tier, yeah.
It's like a tiered system.
You have a sliding scale, a percentage of what a posting fee is going to be.
(31:21):
Yeah.
If you have it be 40% from the get-go at 18 years old, you want a rookie, rookie Sasaki.
It's 40, I'm just making up a random number.
Maybe there's a fair number, but it's basically to discourage any, any MLB team to say, all
right, you are rookie Sasaki at 18 years old and you want to just use the, the, the budget
(31:46):
of a proper MLB team.
Like what, if it's a billion dollars, all right, go ahead and pay him 40% of what the
contracts value.
You want to pay him a hundred million.
All right.
You owe him for the, you owe the Chivalotte Marines $40 million, right?
That's 40%, right?
So then it's, I think it's a way to curb teams just like, you know, just poaching talent
(32:16):
right away.
You you're, you're, you're, you would essentially encourage MLB teams to be like, all right,
we know this kid's the shit, but we need to keep him here long enough to prove his worth.
Like, okay, obviously he wants to go play for the MLB, right?
At eight, eight at 18 years old.
Well, it's not going to happen unless you want to pay the extreme cost of a 40% posting
(32:42):
fee of the contract.
You can go ahead and do that, but it's going to cost you a lot of fucking money, especially
for an MLT's MLB team's budget.
So you could leave at any fucking time you want, but it's going to cost you a fucking
arm and a leg, right?
I think you should also, there's, there should be a sliding scale depending on where they're
(33:04):
at.
I feel like you should also be punished for the international pool money.
So the further you get closer, closer to 25, you're also committing a bit of your international
pool money.
So if it's at 18 years old, then you're going to be committing some of your international
pool money to pay for his contract, but you're also going to be paying some of the MLB team's
(33:28):
budget, including with that, so that you don't just fucking get to buy international pool
players, but you're also not going to just be able to pick up whoever the fuck you want
based on an MLB team's budget for players.
True.
Like it's general.
Yeah.
So what do you think about this then?
Okay.
(33:49):
So people are fucking creative in their assholes, right?
So like what would, what would stop somebody, let's say from evading the system altogether?
Yeah.
So yeah, like we're talking about gaming the system.
Well, like rookie Saki right now saying like going to whoever and saying, Hey, listen,
let's say he goes to the Dodgers and he's like, listen, man, cause you can, you can
fucking have conversations with these teams.
There's nothing.
(34:09):
You can't.
Why not?
Because until you get into, once you get into the pool, can't you then?
It's colluding.
It's like you're, you're, it's there, there are rules for that.
Like the Dodgers could talk to Roki Sasaki about fucking anything, right?
Okay.
But they can't set up deals before they even have their fucking, you know, if they were
(34:29):
actually going to sign them, but they talked about it four years ago, like, oh yeah, well,
I'm not saying that.
What I'm saying is like right now, once he gets put into the system, and he's getting
courted by teams.
Yes.
Okay.
Let's say the Dodgers are one of them.
Okay.
And he says, Hey, listen, I don't want to fucking, like I said earlier, I don't want to, I don't
want to pay a shit ton of money of my percentage to these guys.
(34:50):
Cause fuck them.
Why don't you sign me to a league minimum contract, which is able to be done.
And then you don't have to pay them, you just pay them fucking 20% of my league minimum.
And that's cool.
I'm cool with eating that.
That's not a big deal.
I'll eat it.
And then, uh, you sign me to a one year deal and then fucking, nobody has to pay a shit.
(35:11):
Like if, if they would have fucking, if the Dodgers would have, if Yamamoto would have
been, well, he, he got the Dodgers to eat the fucking $50 million.
But if you are like, like this Roki Sasaki, just say, listen, uh, you've only, and plus
you've only got a limited amount of money.
This is, this is a great risk factor for everyone involved.
(35:31):
It makes the guy come here and prove himself.
And then you don't have to pay these other teams barely any fucking money.
And then at the end of it, he's free and clear to negotiate whatever the fuck he wants on
his next contract the next year.
Yes.
But it's also like four or five years after the fact that he signed.
So it's like, if you wanted to gain the system, if you just, cause now let's say the rule,
(35:53):
let's just say the rules change to what I'm recommending, right?
It's 40% or whatever.
Yeah.
So then guys are gonna be like, fuck that.
I'm not going to get drafted by the MPB because then that just, I'm basically getting punished
to join.
Right?
So then, all right, you go about your own way and you decide, I'm going to go to college
in the U S and then I'll get drafted in the MLB draft.
Just proper.
(36:13):
Now I gotta pay anybody anything.
But then you're sending yourself back because now you're, you have to sign a rookie contract
for four or five years.
And so it's like, you're getting punished for coming here and gaining the system or
maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe you're 18 years old and you go as an undrafted player and
sign for a fucking signed to a triple A team and then you work your way, your way up.
(36:35):
So why not just wait the three or four years or the two or three years, build up your resume,
your accolades in MPB, then fucking try to gain the systems.
I feel like this whole thing kind of, I don't know.
I think it's, I definitely think it's going to change the posting system because I don't
(36:56):
think at least for Japanese teams that they're like, well shit, we have one of our best players
probably in the last decade going to the league and he's going for pennies on the dollar and
we're not going to get shit off, off of this.
I'm pretty sure by the end of next year, like pretty much right around this time, something's
going to be decided.
Like, you know what?
This posting, posting systems, fucking dog shit.
(37:18):
We can't, you know, it is dog shit.
They need to just get rid of it all together in my opinion and just do, you don't even
need a posting system.
Just have the posting system be okay.
If a player wants to declare his intention to be available for MLB service.
All right.
You can do that whenever the fuck you want.
And then, okay, sure.
(37:39):
I think there should be a penalty if you're under contract with a team and you want to
do that.
Yes.
Then I see what you're saying that I think that would be okay because then you're breaking
your contract and there's gotta be a penalty for that.
Now, if you wait until your contract is up, you're free to go.
You can do whatever the fuck you want.
You ain't got to pay nobody any money.
Yeah.
And that's the end of it.
That's how I think it should be.
Yeah.
Fair is fair.
(38:00):
But anyways, fuck this system.
This system is wack.
So you're predicting by next year, this is going to be changed.
They're going to change this.
I think based on just, just how much, just how much.
What is the controversy though of this?
Is it because he's, he's a.
Cause they're seeing it, they're seeing it as him being selfish that he's only proven,
(38:22):
he's only done five years in MPB, right?
Okay.
And sure, he's been one of the better pitchers in MPB, but he also hasn't won the numerous
awards that Yamamoto achieved.
He got like back to back to back, sour more awards, which is like the equivalent of a
young, right?
So then that allowed him to build merit on his, you know, his talent, right?
(38:49):
So when he comes here, it's like, all right, 325 million seemed like a fucking a lot.
But then you look at the fact that they won the world series and he contributed to that.
All right.
It's justified.
And then that's coming over here younger with seemingly less accolades.
And it's obviously for like selfish reasons, but it's like, I'm on your side when it comes
(39:12):
to players that like, yeah, whatever the team says, like if you're here to prove you're
the best, like where are you going to go?
You're going to go to the fucking MLB.
Yeah.
Like, so why the fuck does it matter what a team says?
Okay, sure.
You're under contract for X amount of years for this team.
Go, you want to go to the MLB.
(39:35):
There should be no punishment for like that.
You should just go wherever you want.
So by that same token, the people calling him like selfish or whatever, you're just
a fucking idiot.
People that are saying it's selfish.
What, what do you mean?
Oh, I'm sorry.
Does he have to live his whole career in service of others?
Like, are you not allowed to do whatever the fuck you want to do?
Like why should, oh, you don't have as many accolades.
(39:57):
Okay, well he's not a $325 million fucking player right now because he doesn't have those
accolades.
Okay.
The accolades just get you more fucking potential money.
But here's the other thing.
That's a risk on his part too.
What if he doesn't win those accolades?
Right?
What if he stays under two or three years and doesn't win the, the, the NPB Cy Young
(40:17):
three years in a row?
What if he doesn't win that?
And that's, and again, that's what's saying is there's tiers of levels and I think Shohei,
Yamamoto, they're skewing the tiers right now because now everybody thinks that everybody's
going to be a fucking caliber level of that.
Shohei Otani is, is the billion dollar man, right?
That's an outlier.
(40:38):
That's not going to be, there's not going to be a bunch of dudes coming from Japan getting
fucking a hundred million dollars a year over 10 year contracts.
It's not going to happen.
Yeah.
It's not going to fucking happen.
There's not going to be a bunch of dudes from Japan coming over here and getting $325 million
contracts over what?
What's Yamamoto's contract?
Five years?
(40:58):
No, it's like, it's like a decade plus.
Okay.
There's not, there's not even going to be guys getting those level of, of contracts
here.
Yeah.
Those guys are outliers.
Roki Sasaki will come here and he'll make a good amount of money.
Okay.
He'll make a good living.
He's not going to make that kind of money.
Well, not yet.
Well, maybe again, that's the difference.
If he comes here and proves himself and does, does well, then he can become that guy, but
(41:22):
he's, it's not, it's not going to be, oh, there's not a bunch of guys in the NPB that
are going to have that.
There's again, they're two skewing the tiers.
There are tiers of level of players.
There's your S tier, which is like your Shohei.
And then you got maybe like your A or B tier, which is like where Yamamoto's at.
And then you got this kid where he's maybe in like your C or your D tier of Japanese
player that's going to be brought over to America.
(41:44):
He's not worth a shit ton of money.
Even if he waits two or three years, he may never, he may not be worth $325 million.
I don't think it's the talent, but the talent, the talent's obviously there.
But the other problem was the numerous criticisms that have been said about him is that he's
injury prone, which he's, he hasn't played like a full fucking season since he's fucking.
So it's like, that's a risk.
(42:05):
Yeah.
So it's like the kid is basically gambling on himself to come here as a rookie, which
is fucking ballsy as fuck because if he doesn't perform here, he's not going to get that contract.
No.
So he's going to shoot himself in the foot as opposed to waiting two additional years
and playing full seasons in Japan and, and that's true.
(42:28):
Figuring shit out.
He could have gotten the guaranteed money knowing his arm is probably going to fucking
deteriorate.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, well that's the MOB's problem.
Like, you know, but now he's coming here and wants to prove his worth.
And if his art falls off in those four or five years that he's a rookie, oh man, that
is well, it's not even that bad because they're signing him for a rookie contract.
(42:50):
But for him, if by the end of it, if his arm falls off, well, he's fucking shit out of
luck.
Yeah.
But also if they get him to pay him fucking five or $10 million or a year or whatever
for a couple of years and then his arm falls off, well still he made out of his money.
Yeah.
I'm sure like the money that he's going to make is not really off of the contract.
Well, obviously it's not going to be off the contract.
(43:11):
It's going to be off of the number of endorsements he'll make.
I think if anything, like I hate to say it, but I think the Dodgers have the best chance
of signing him.
Even with the fact that he comes, let's say he comes in the 2025 class for the international
players.
Okay.
(43:32):
So what?
This motherfucker signs for seven and a half.
Let's say the most money he can make off of his rookie contract is seven and a half million
dollars, right?
Who the fuck cares if he signs for seven and a half million dollars?
He signs with the Dodgers for two and a half million, but the money that he actually makes
is off of the endorsements that he makes.
So it's like, what, what is it?
(43:52):
What does the millions of dollars really mean if like the most money he's going to make
immediately is off of his own personal brand?
I don't think that motherfucker is going to go play for the Tampa Bay Rays or the fucking
Detroit Tigers.
Like I don't know.
With Disney building this new stadium for the Rays and it's going to be all digital
(44:14):
and sweet.
Maybe he's into that.
Maybe he's like, Oh, that'd be cool to play there.
So what?
Yeah.
You didn't hear about that?
No.
Okay.
So the fucking Disney owns the Tampa Bay Rays now.
Okay.
And then what they're doing is they're building a stadium at Walt Disney World that they're
going to move them to.
And they're going to, they said the stadium is going to be the first of its kind where
(44:35):
it's everything is digital.
Everything is screens.
So their plan, which this is genius, is they're going to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Yeah.
The Tampa or I don't know if it's going to be, they're called something now.
Like I don't know if they're going to be called that.
They were talking about calling them the Disney D 23s or something like that.
I don't know which is stupid, but could end up playing home games at Disney.
(45:00):
Yeah, they're going to like that's, that's already pretty much been like confirmed.
Like that they're going to like Disney, Disney is already building out the space and they're
removing space to build the stadium for the fucking thing.
And then their whole, their whole concept is what they want to do to fucking merchandising
is they're going to, every home game is going to be a different theme Jersey.
(45:21):
So like every home series is going to be like, Oh, it'll be star Wars themed.
And the, the Rays will have like a Darth Vader themed Jersey.
And then they're going to sell those, like those themes.
I've seen like mockups of them and stuff and it's fucked crazy.
Like Disney is fucking like, I wish they would have bought the angels again and made them
so cause they're going to dump a shit ton of money into this shit.
(45:43):
Devil Ray, Devil Ray or Rays or whatever the fuck they're, man, Devil Rays was a good fucking
name to Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
But now they're just the Rays split between Disney and Tropicana.
Yeah.
Wait, what?
There's like the Disney's involved.
Like they're an owner or I don't know if they're the majority owner now or something.
Like they're going to the for spring training.
I don't think they're going to, you know, in the meantime, while Tropicana, if it's
(46:08):
going to be rebuilt, they're going to throw that shit back.
No, there's Disney's Disney's doing it at fucking Disney's going to do.
I'm telling you right now.
No, they're not.
Disney world is going to fucking do it.
Why would they not?
No, it says in 2028, the Rays are playing in a new stadium is what it says.
Their contract, their deal is up and they want to fucking, they want a new stadium and
Disney is going to be, I don't see.
(46:29):
I don't see anything that says that.
It just says that they're going to be splitting time between spring training at the Steinbrenner
field.
The fucking spring training for the spring training location for the Yankees.
But I don't see where it says anything about Disney.
I don't know.
I have to look into that.
Yeah, that was some shit that I saw.
(46:52):
Fucking yeah.
Cause they're, they're fucking, their stadium got fucking destroyed from the fucking.
What a shit stadium too.
I fucking hate that scene.
It is.
Tropic can't feel with this.
It looks like a prison.
It looks like a fucking prison of a baseball stadium.
It is, it is a prison.
That's, that's actually what they, it's actually what they do.
(47:12):
Where is it?
It's fucking.
All right.
All right.
This thing's not opening.
I got, I found the article, but whatever.
But anyways, that was it, I guess.
All right.
Well, that's the end of the episode.
Yeah.
Ball's a tug.
I think we'll have some Rokis Sasaki used by net.
Well, who the fuck knows when they're going to post him.
So I'm sure we'll be talking about that at some point, but also I might have another
(47:37):
episode for sports.
Oh, sweet.
All right.
Well, fuck it.
Let's do that.
All right.
Well, go check out guys.
This is this turned into a long one.
Yeah.
But it, but it was good.
It was, it was well-deserved, I think because the topic was, was good.
But anyways, all right.
Game Rage magazine on YouTube, Instagram and Tik Tok.
Fucking all gas, no trash official, whatever.
Just fuck off.
Just, just go do it.
Do it.
(47:57):
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
That was churpin from the pine.
The game rage sports podcast.
You can follow us on Instagram and Tik Tok at game rage magazine.
(48:20):
Follow us on X at game rage mag.
You can go to our website www.gameragemagazine.com
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.