The Rising Baseball: Ichiro Drafted Earlier.

In 2001, Ichiro Suzuki was posted to the Seattle Mariners by Orix Blue Wave. He was only the second everyday Japanese position player.

In Japan, Ichiro was a 7-time All-Star, 3-time MVP, and a Japan Series champion, playing from 1992-2000.

In the US, he was the American League MVP in 2001, has won 9 Gold Glove, and has set the single-season hit record.

My question is this: What if Ichiro was chosen by a US team in 1992? Would he be as big of a superstar in Japan? Would he have been as effective of a ballplayer? If he's chosen by the Mariners, does his addition help Seattle win the ALCS, and possibly the World Series in 1995?
If he is chosen in 92, and is as effective as he is, is he approaching Pete Rose's hit record now?
 
Mr Oh

What if Sadahoro Oh or one of the oter Yamauri Giants of the 60's got a chance in MLB ? Might we have had more Japaneese players much sooner? Note: All spellings of Japanese words are wrong.
 
There's an agreement between NPB and MLB that MLB (with their titanic edge in cash) won't draft or seek to sign Japanese players before they reach free agency per NPB rules so there was no way Ichiro was coming to the U.S. right out of high school or even after five years in the NPB. The NPB teams get as much as they can out of the truely special talents (Ichiro, Hidekei Matsui) then post them up in order to get a big payoff from the MLB team that signs them, rather than get nothing when they walk as free agents.

If MLB could operate in Japan like it does in Latin American countries (sign whoever they want, sometimes as young as 15-16 years old as free agents) they'd wipe out NPB in about a generation or worse, turn NPB into nothing but a developmental league for Japanese born players until they're ready to play in the U.S.

Better for it to be what it is.

Besides, Ichiro will, in all likelihood, wind up with over 3,000 career hits in the shortest MLB career of all members of the 3,000 hit club and will still end up being recognized as the greatest pure hitter of his generation, if not all time, so he doesn't really lose anything by playing in Japan (other than a shot at the MLB all-time record, but, that's the way it goes.) and more than likely became the hitter he is because of his time in NPB.
 
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