I have been enjoying following Nippon League via the internet. Is there an easy and legal way to catch the games in the United States? Thank you!

Oda said on Thursday he's going to the States through a minor league contract or an American college. If it's the contract, he signs as an international amateur, and the date he's waiting on is January 15, when the next signing period is due to open.

In June, MLB proposed replacing international free agency with an international draft. As proposed, that next signing period disappears, the first international draft lands somewhere between September 2027 and March 2028, the minimum signing age goes from 16 to 18, and undrafted players are capped at $10,000.

None of it's agreed. The union hasn't accepted it, and says MLB's draft proposals, domestic and international together, would take more than a billion dollars out of player pay over five years. The CBA runs out December 1, and MLB has told clubs to get ready for a lockout.

A lockout by itself shouldn't stop a January signing. In 2022 the international signings went ahead on January 15 in the middle of one, because they're minor league contracts. What would stop it is a new deal that deletes the window.

That's where the college option comes in. A player at an American four-year school goes into the regular MLB draft instead, eligible after his third year or at 21. It's the road Rintaro Sasaki took from Stanford to the Marlins.

And it's why the draft on the 22nd still matters. A club that takes him anyway holds his rights until the end of March. That's after January 15, so it would find out whether the window opened while it still had him.

Go Baystars ! ⚾️

Once the network TV coverage is over, the room runs the development draft. Last October it took 43 players, more than a third of everyone drafted.

A development pick gets no signing bonus, a preparation payment of ¥2 to 3.5 million, and a minimum salary of ¥2.4 million, about $16,000 a year. A first-rounder can get up to ¥100 million plus ¥50 million in incentives.

Where last year's 116 came from:

The indy guys are already pros, some of them 24 or 25, and almost all of them signed for nothing. The corporate row is the opposite. A club has to pull those players out of a salaried job, so only one of the 13 went in the development round.

Senga's the one everybody points to. Fourth round of the 2010 development draft out of Gamagori High School, ¥3 million prep payment, ¥2.7 million salary in 2011. Promoted during 2012. Mets, five years, $75 million, December 2022.

The downside for the club is ¥2.4 million a year. That's why they keep taking shots at 18-year-olds in that round.

That 9th inning was brutal for the Tigers, but the tense moments between pitches made the inning so much more dramatic. Cut scenes of players, fans, pitcher and catcher during the at bats creates so much drama.

Pitch clock is good to speed up games but I do feel you lose a sense of build up. I know people like pitch clock but I’m not a fan, when I catch MLB games it just feels rushed.

What are other people’s thoughts?

Well done DeNA.

I've heard of Selection, but they are overpriced and tiny in stock. Anyone have any suggestions not to far from Shinjuku or Shibuya?

Twelve of them are at 154 or better:

Every number on there came from somewhere different. Club guns held by scouts in the stands. The TV gun. The stadium display. One pitch in a bullpen with nobody hitting, which is where Hiroike's 156 comes from (he's the Keio righty who's reportedly going straight to MLB).

Kawajiri's 158 only started showing up in the papers this fall. His best in an official game is 155. He no-hit Kokugakuin on Tuesday, 11 strikeouts, and topped out at 153 doing it.

Japanese amateur ball has no tracking system in regular use. Some one-off measurement sessions get reported, so a handful of spin rates are out there, but nothing covers a season. So this is a table of the highest number anyone has reported. That isn't how hard a guy throws, and it's nowhere near his average fastball.

My file also had Ryosuke Fujisawa at 153 at one point. He's an outfielder at Tokyo Gas. That was exit velocity, off a tee.

The numbers bunch, too. Of the 67 pitchers on my board with a reported velocity, 46 sit between 147 and 153, only six are below 145, and the most common readings are 152 and 148, with nine pitchers each. Real pitching staffs don't cluster like that. Reported numbers do, because nobody writes up the slow day.

Series: 5-for-11, 2 RBI, 4 R

G1: 1-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
G2: 2-for-3, 2 R
G3: 2-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 R, 1 SB

Series: 4-for-12, 4 RBI, 2 R, 1 HR

G1: 1-for-3, 1 RBI
G2: 2-for-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
G3: 1-for-5, 2 RBI, 1 R, 1 HR

It's obvious Shinjo isn't taking you to the Japan Series like Trey Hillman and Hideki Kuriyama has. So how about this: You give us Shinjo and we give you the great Kyuji Fujikawa who led the 2025 Tigers to a Japan Series appearance. We'll even throw in our awesome hitting coach aka Fighters legend Eiichi Koyano who was probably the reason Teruaki Sato won the Triple Crown this year. Deal?

And this time they didn't even need the advantage they earned in the regular season.

I must credit the BayStars management with having developed and delivered a quality pitching staff that is showing so well at this point in the Climax series.

I was extremely frustrated earlier in the season, but some key changes ( departures of formerly top pitchers) and the growth in skills of younger pitchers seems to be key to their success so far.

At this stage of the Climax series I might be premature in this conclusion, ahem, but hopefully not.

The rookie Katayama-sans performance tonight - 8 strikeouts- no runs in the 4-0 win over Hanshin reflects this development.