<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<document>
<title>Posting system</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>Featured articles</category>
<section id="37703" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
The The agreement is officially called the . In English, the process is most commonly referred to as the "posting system", though it is also sometimes referred to as the "posting agreement". The corresponding Japanese term is most commonly written in katakana as "", though "" is sometimes used. is a baseball player transfer system which operates between Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and the United States' Major League Baseball (MLB). Despite the drafting of the United States - Japanese Player Contract Agreement in 1967 designed to regulate NPB players moving to MLB, problems arose in the late 1990s. Some NPB teams lost star players without compensation, an issue highlighted when NPB stars Hideo Nomo and Alfonso Soriano  to play in MLB after using loopholes to void their existing contracts. A further problem was that NPB players had very little negotiating power if their teams decided to deal them to MLB, as when pitcher Hideki Irabu was traded to an MLB team for which he had no desire to play. In 1998, the Agreement was rewritten to address both problems and was dubbed the "posting system".
Under this system, when an NPB player is "posted", MLB holds a four-day-long silent auction during which MLB teams can submit sealed bids in an attempt to win the exclusive s to negotiate with the player for a period of 30 days. If the MLB team with the winning bid and the NPB player agree on contract terms before the 30-day period has expired, the NPB team receives the bid amount as a transfer fee, and the player is free to play in MLB. If the MLB team cannot come to a contract agreement with the posted player, then no fee is paid, and the player's s revert to his NPB team.
Up to the end of the 2008/09 posting period, thirteen Japanese players had been posted using the system. Of these, seven signed Major League contracts immediately, three signed minor league contracts, and three were unsuccessful in attracting any MLB interest. The two highest-profile players that have been acquired  by MLB teams through the posting system are Ichiro Suzuki and Daisuke Matsuzaka. They attracted high bids of $13.125 million and $51.1 million respectively, and have enjoyed successful MLB careers. However, since its implementation the posting system has been criticized by the media and baseball insiders from both countries.

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<section id="37704" fatherid="0" title="History" lv="" priority="-2" level="1">
<section id="37705" fatherid="37704" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
The first instance of a Japanese-born player playing in Major League Baseball was in 1964, when the Nankai Hawks, an NPB team, sent three exchange prospects to the United States to gain experience in MLB's minor league system. One of the players, pitcher Masanori Murakami, was named the California League Rookie of the Year while playing for the Fresno Giants (the San Francisco Giants' Class-A team).
Giants executives were impressed with this talent and on September 1, 1964 Murakami was promoted, thus becoming the first Japanese player to play in MLB. After Murakami put up good pitching statistics as a reliever, Giants executives sought to exercise a clause in their contract with the Hawks that, they claimed,  allowed them to buy up an exchange prospect's contract. NPB officials objected, stating that they had no intention of selling Murakami's contract to the Giants and telling them that Murakami was merely on loan for the 1964 season. After a two-month stalemate the Giants eventually agreed to send Murakami back to the Hawks after the 1965 season. Thus, after pitching one more season for the Giants, Murakami returned to Japan to play for the Hawks. This affair led to the 1967 United States - Japanese Player Contract Agreement, also known as the "Working Agreement", between MLB and NPB, which was basically a hands-off policy.Whiting 2004, pp. 75-80

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<section id="37706" fatherid="37704" title="Complications" lv="" priority="-2" level="2">
MLB and NPB officials created the posting system as a combined reaction to three cases in the 1990s, involving NPB players who moved to MLB. The first of these occurred in the winter of 1994 when pitcher Hideo Nomo, with the help of agent Don Nomura, became the second Japanese-born player to play in MLB, 30 years after Murakami. Nomo, who was not yet eligible for free agency in Japan, was advised by Nomura that a "voluntary retirement" clause in the Working Agreement did not specify that a player wishing to play again after retiring must return to NPB. Nomo utilized this loophole to void his NPB contract with the Kintetsu Buffaloes and play in MLB. He announced his retirement from NPB in late 1994 and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in February 1995, where he won the National League Rookie of the Year award.Whiting 2004, pp. 102-112 The following year, the Dodgers signed Nomo to a three-year, $4.3 million contract.
In early 1997, after months of negotiations, the San Diego Padres signed a working agreement with the Chiba Lotte Marines that gave the Padres exclusive signing s to another Nomura client, Hideki Irabu. Although both Irabu and Nomura stated that Irabu would only sign with the New York Yankees, neither the Padres nor the Marines consulted Irabu before finalizing their deal. The Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) sided with Irabu, stating that the arrangement unfairly disregarded a player's expressed wishes. However, MLB's executive council ruled that the Padres had not violated any existing rule, and therefore legally held the s to Irabu. Following this decision, Irabu contemplated a number of different options, including playing in NPB until he became a free agent, and taking the matter to the U.S. judicial system. By May, however, the Padres gave in and traded Irabu to the Yankees, who signed him for $12.8 million over four years.Whiting 2004, pp. 130-134
The final incident occurred in 1998, when Alfonso Soriano was unable to leave the Hiroshima Toyo Carp due to contract restrictions. Soriano disliked the intense Japanese practice schedule, and the Carp denied him a salary increase from $45,000 to $180,000 per year. Like Nomo and Irabu, Soriano hired Nomura to help his situation. After first attempting to void Soriano's NPB contract by unsuccessfully arguing that the player was legally a minor when he signed it Nomura advised him, like Nomo, to retire from NPB and pursue a career in MLB. This prompted Carp executives to file an injunction against Soriano, and to send letters to MLB teams demanding that they cease all negotiations with him. After the Nomo case, NPB officials had amended the Working Agreement without consulting any MLB officials in an attempt to prevent the situation from recurring. Since MLB had not agreed to any changes to the agreement, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig declared that MLB would recognize Soriano as a free agent on July 13, 1998, and the Carp backed down.Whiting 2004, pp. 142-144 He signed a 5-year, $3.1 million contract with the New York Yankees the same year.

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<section id="37707" fatherid="37704" title="Resolution" lv="" priority="-3" level="2">
In 1998, Orix BlueWave general manager Shigeyoshi Ino rewrote the 1967 United States - Japanese Player Contract Agreement, when he drafted the "posting system".Whiting 2004, p. 146. Selig and NPB Commissioner Hiromori Kawashima signed this new agreement in December 1998. It seeks to address each of the problems brought up by the Nomo, Irabu and Soriano cases, by requiring MLB teams to place "bids" for NPB players. These bids become the basis of transfer fees that are paid   as compensation to NPB teams whose star players sign for the MLB. NPB players are also allowed to negotiate with MLB teams over the terms of their new contracts. Presently, the agreement is in effect on a year-to-year basis, terminable at the option of either the MLB Commissioner or the NPB Commissioner provided notice to terminate is given by June 18th of any given year.
The system only applies to players currently under contract with a Japanese team, although players who have nine or more years of playing service with NPB are exempt. It does not apply to free agents, or to amateur players who have never played in NPB. Currently, Mac Suzuki and Kazuhito Tadano are the only Japanese players to have played in MLB without playing in NPB. In late 2008, amateur Japanese pitcher Junichi Tazawa, who was not drafted into NPB, began to draw the interest of MLB teams. Tazawa bypassed NPB and the posting system to sign directly with the Boston Red Sox. The system does not work in reverse; it does not regulate MLB players, such as Alex Cabrera, who moved to NPB.

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<section id="37708" fatherid="0" title="Process" lv="" priority="3" level="1">
When a player under contract with a Nippon Professional Baseball team wishes to play in Major League Baseball, he must notify his current team's management and request that they make him available for posting during the next posting period (November 1 - March 1).  The NPB team can reject this request, and the player will not be posted. However, if the team consents, the player is presented to the MLB Commissioner. The Commissioner then notifies all MLB teams of the posted player and holds a four-day-long silent auction during which interested MLB teams submit sealed bids in U.S. dollars to the Commissioner’s Office. After the allotted four days have passed, the Commissioner closes the bidding process and notifies the posted player's NPB team of the highest bid amount but not who the bidding team is. The NPB team then has four days to either accept or reject the non-negotiable bid amount.
If the bid is rejected, the NPB team retains s to the player. If it is accepted, the successful MLB team is granted the exclusive s to negotiate with the player for 30 days. If the player and the MLB team agree on contract terms before the 30-day period has expired, the NPB team receives the bid amount as a transfer fee within five business days. The player is then free to play for his new MLB team in the coming season. The transfer fee is not included when calculating an MLB team's total payroll, which is subject to a luxury tax when it exceeds $155 million. If the MLB team cannot come to a contract agreement with the posted player, then no fee is paid and the s to the player revert to his NPB team. A player can request to be posted again in subsequent years, and the process is repeated with no advantage to the club that had won the bidding the previous year.

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<section id="37709" fatherid="0" title="Past postings" lv="" priority="-4" level="1">
Of the 41 Japanese-born players who have played in MLB, seven have entered the league using the posting system. Since the system's creation in 1998, the thirteen players that have used it have experienced a range of success. Of the thirteen, seven were immediately signed to Major League contracts. These contracts range from $1.4 million to $52 million. Of the remaining six, three were signed to Minor League contracts and three were unsuccessful in drawing bids from any Major League clubs. The following tables outline each posting and its outcome.
This was Otsuka's second attempt to play in MLB after an unsuccessful posting the previous year.Though MLB teams traditionally disclose bid amounts after negotiating s have been won, the Dodgers chose not to publicly reveal their amount.This specific amount was chosen by Red Sox owner John Henry because he deemed it lucky.The final three digits, 194, represent Igawa's total strikeout count for his 2006 season.This player is a pitcher.
This is the only instance that a player has posted more than once in the same posting period.This player is a pitcher.

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<section id="37710" fatherid="0" title="Criticism" lv="" priority="5" level="1">
<section id="37711" fatherid="37710" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
Since its implementation in late 1998 the posting system has been heavily criticized. Ichiro Suzuki's agent remarked that "the player literally gets zero advantage from the posting system... the Japanese teams benefit by holding the players hostage". Don Nomura called the process a "slave auction". Much of the criticism of the system stems from its forcing NPB players to negotiate their contracts solely with the MLB team that submitted the highest bid. The Japan Times columnist Marty Kuehnert believes that since no other team is allowed to submit competitive counter-offers, negotiations result in salaries below the player's market value. Kuehnert also believes the system fosters a "take-it-or-leave-it" situation; if the team and the player have not finalized contract negotiations by the end of a 30-day period, the team can make a low offer knowing that the player's only other option is to play in Japan for another year. It has been suggested that this is a violation of the Anti-Monopoly Act, a Japanese antitrust law that prohibits parties from signing "an international agreement or international contract which contains such matters as constitute an unreasonable restraint of trade or unfair business practices".Siesta 2008, p. 1092.
The Japanese Professional Baseball Players Association (JPBPA) was not consulted before the system was implemented by NPB club owners, and did not subsequently ratify it.Whiting 2004, p. 147. Since its introduction JPBPA has expressed many concerns, likening the process to "human trafficking".Siesta 2008, p. 1095. Agreeing that the system  takes unfair advantage of NPB players, the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) offered to help JPBPA fight the posting system in court. However, according to one JPBPA official, the Japanese court process is too long and involved; therefore, the "problem can't be helped".
Yomiuri Giants club representative Hidetoshi Kiyotake has expressed dislike of the system, because it enables Major League Baseball to poach players from Japan. By using the posting system, he says, Japanese teams make a profit in the short term, but by allowing Japan's best players to be sold to MLB, NPB teams and Japanese baseball suffer in the longer term. When Giants pitcher Koji Uehara asked to be posted in 2005 Kiyotake denied his request, saying: "We don't recognize the posting system. I've said from the beginning that this is out of the question."

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<section id="37712" fatherid="37710" title="2006/07 controversy" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
The posting system was criticized by MLB insiders and by the U.S. media, after the controversial 2006/07 posting period. Before the posting of the period's first player, Daisuke Matsuzaka, in early November 2006, there was speculation that he might draw bids as high as $30 million-more than twice the previous record bid  that Ichiro Suzuki had garnered in 2000–01. After his silent auction was closed, it was revealed that Matsuzaka had drawn a bid of $51.1 million, shocking American and Japanese baseball executives. The Boston Red Sox's winning bid was more than $11 million higher than the next largest.
With the negotiations between Matsuzaka and the Red Sox at a stalemate as the negotiation period neared its close, The Washington Post Dave Sheinin questioned both parties' intentions. Sheinin believed that the Red Sox had foreseen the contractual stalemate and had submitted a high bid simply to deny the New York Yankees an opportunity to negotiate with Matsuzaka. However, after Matsuzaka's agent Scott Boras threatened to take Matsuzaka back to NPB if his price was not met, Sheinin theorized that Boras intentionally wanted to hinder contract negotiations. ESPN The Magazine's Tim Kurkjian described the situation as "the most obvious game of chicken ever." Sheinin suggested that, should the negotiations fail, Boras could take legal action on the grounds that the requirement of MLB teams to pay large transfer fees to NPB teams artificially depressed the player's personal contract. Boras did not believe that the transfer fee should affect the player's compensation.
Despite the negotiation difficulties, the Boston Red Sox eventually signed Matsuzaka. The team paid approximately $103.1 million in total, including the transfer fee and contract, to acquire the pitcher. Kurkjian believes that with fees and contracts this high, small-market teams could not afford to compete with large-market teams for the s to negotiate with some posted Japanese players. Kurkjian blames the posting system's use of a blind bidding system as the cause of Matsuzaka's "outrageous offer." He also postulates that Matsuzaka's high bid amount helped to inflate the bids for Kei Igawa who was posted two weeks later, perpetuating the problem further. After winning the negotiation s to Igawa, Yankees' general manager Brian Cashman told reporters that "the posting system, clearly with what took place this winter, might not necessarily be the best system". Kurkjian claims that other MLB executives already believe that a traditional free agent structure, where the highest bidder wins, would be better than the current system. Cashman and Yankee's team president Randy Levine met with NPB team officials in early 2007 to discuss the posting system, among other things. These meetings did not result in any immediate changes.

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<section id="37713" fatherid="0" title="See also" lv="" priority="-6" level="1">
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<section id="37714" fatherid="0" title="Notes" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
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<section id="37715" fatherid="0" title="References" lv="" priority="-8" level="1">
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<section id="37716" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
Category:Baseball in Japan
Category:Major League Baseball labor relations
Category:Nippon Professional Baseball
Category:History of baseball

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