SPORTS
March 17, 2014
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 9
Asians in American sports w Asian Americans in world sports
Tanaka is first NPB player brought
to MLB with new posting agreement
Continued from page one
The new agreement addresses these
issues by changing the posting fee to a
“release fee” (capped at $20 million)
established by the NPB club. Any MLB
team can negotiate with the player, with
the winner paying the release fee only
when the two parties agree on a contract.
Now, players are guaranteed a higher
share of the revenue, NPB clubs are
assured their fee (even if it is capped), and
MLB clubs must bargain in good faith.
Ten days after the new agreement went
into effect, the Tohoku Rakuten Golden
Eagles posted star pitcher Masahiro
Tanaka. Just 25 years old, Tanaka has a
99-35 NPB record over the past six
seasons, including last season’s amazing
24-0 record, as well as a 2.30 overall ERA,
averaging nearly a strikeout per inning
and fewer than two walks per game.
Though many clubs were interested, the
Yankees signed Tanaka to a seven-year,
$155-million contract and paid the $20
million release fee to the Eagles. Tanaka’s
contract is the fifth-highest in major-
league history for a pitcher, and the new
posting agreement means that Tanaka
will receive most of his $175 million
acquisition cost.
If there is one MLB player that Tanaka
should thank for his hefty contract, it’s the
Texas Rangers’ Yu Darvish, who has
singlehandedly revived the east-west
pitchers’ market. Long expected to make
the jump from Japan to MLB, Darvish
boasted similar NPB numbers to Tanaka
before he was signed by the Texas Rangers
prior to the 2012 season.
Although his contract was very similar
to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s in both numbers
TRANSPACIFIC BASEBALL TRAFFIC. Yu
Darvish of the Texas Rangers throws pitches during a
spring training baseball game against the Los Angeles
Angels in Tempe, Arizona. In two seasons, Darvish has
amassed a 29-18 record with a 3.34 ERA. (AP Photo/
Morry Gash)
and length, Darvish has yet to disappoint.
In his two seasons with the club, Darvish
has amassed a 29-18 record with a 3.34
ERA, averaging more than a strikeout per
inning. In 2013, he improved in nearly
every category, leading the league in both
total strikeouts and strikeout rate and fin-
ishing second in Cy Young Award voting.
What Darvish has done for the reputa-
tion of Japanese major-league pitchers,
Hyun-jin Ryu has done for Korean major
league pitchers. Before the Los Angeles
Dodgers signed Ryu in 2013, no other
pitcher had come straight to MLB from the
Korean Baseball Organization (KBO). Ex-
pectations were diminished for the young
lefty, who possessed neither a dominating
fastball nor a good offspeed arsenal, and
his impressive KBO strikeout records
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were disregarded because they occurred
against lesser competition.
Signed to a six-year deal worth $36
million, Ryu finished last season with a
14-8 record, two complete games, 154
strikeouts in 192 innings, and a 3.00 ERA
that was eighth best in the National
League. He will need to show that he can
continue his excellence in his sophomore
season, but Ryu has already proven the
worth of KBO pitchers in MLB.
Successful position players are a
comparative rarity among NPB imports,
with one notable exception being Ichiro
Suzuki. Long a dominant NPB and MLB
hitter, Ichiro is 258 hits short of 3,000 for
his MLB career. While he once collected
nearly that many in a single season, age
and opportunity have diminished his
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skills. Now 40, Ichiro hasn’t hit over .300
since 2010, the last season he collected
more than 200 hits. In addition, his
current team, the New York Yankees,
already has three starting outfielders, so
he may only be able to reach that milestone
if they can trade him.
Like Ichiro, Norichika Aoki is a speedy
outfielder and a good hitter without much
power, but he has leveraged those skills to
great effect in MLB. After a successful
career with the Yakult Swallows, Aoki
played the last two seasons with the
Milwaukee Brewers, hitting .287 with 50
steals atop the Brewers’ batting order.
More impressive was his .355 on-base
percentage, which measures his ability to
take a walk as well as pick up a hit. In the
offseason, Aoki was traded to the Kansas
City Royals, for whom he will also serve as
leadoff man and everyday right fielder as
he continues to establish himself as a
legitimate MLB position player.
It was once possible to cover all of the
Asian MLB players in a single article, but
now there are far too many, including
Taiwan’s Wei-Yin Chen, Korea’s Shin-Soo
Choo, and Japan’s Hiroki Kuroda and Koji
Uehara. Each hit, run, strikeout, save, and
win chalked up by these players further
solidifies the status of Asian players in
MLB. What was once an anomaly has
become commonplace, and the new posting
agreement should grow that transpacific
baseball traffic even more.
Willamette University’s Sixth Annual Cherry Blossom Festival
Sakura Matsuri
Join us for a day of food, fun & culture!
Free performances w Featuring Takohachi
Saturday, April 5, noon to 5:00pm
Willamette University, Putnam University Center
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For more information, e-mail <mtom@willamette.edu> or
visit <www.willamette.edu/org/jssl/sakura_matsuri/index.html>.
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