Dusting off the cobwebs

Today we are taking a look at a post I had previously written back in 2018 http://cpblstats.com/revisiting-deferred-dream-asian-foreign-player-limit/ where I had been a little over-zealous in this idea in allowing all Asian players to be exempt from foreign player spots. It was too beneficial for the NPB overall and eventually inspired this new idea.

My new idea is much more subdued in that foreign players who have achieved Major League free agency in their home country wouldn't necessarily count towards the traditional foreign player slot but could instead counts towards an "Professional Foreign player" spot and there would be one spot, others would count towards the foreign player limit. One example of such would be Adam Jones of the Orix Buffaloes of the NPB. Matt Moore of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks is another, as are Gerardo Parra of the Yomiuri Giants, Jose Lopez of the Yokohama DeNa Baystars, Alcides Escobar of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and Leonys Martin of the Chiba Lotte Marines. 

Daisuke Matsuzaka wouldn't count as he was originally posted by an NPB team. Shin Soo Choo would count for this unless he went in through the KBO draft. Chien Ming Wang would have also counted in such a situation had he not gone through the CPBL draft in such a situation. 

Once again, the CPBL should do this first to improve the overall competition in the CPBL towards KBO and NPB levels while also helping improve the revenue coming in from Jersey sales and ticket sales as fans would love to see an MLB veteran on their favorite team. Although, there aren't that many players who have gotten the requisite amount of service time at least for the MLB. Eventually, when the KBO and NPB choose to put this rule into effect they'll be able to attract higher quality foreign players for the Asian leagues. 

This idea should help extend baseball careers for players like Denard Span and James Shields. Miguel A Gonzalez, Cliff Pennington, Bartolo Colon, and so many more over the last few years. This idea should also in turn, help player development in other leagues like the KBO and CPBL since the NPB has very good player development as far as I have seen over the last half decade of following the NPB and KBO. Even better than the MLB in some cases. 

Admittedly, I have been following the CPBL for nearly three years now. Ever since I read https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-top-mlb-prospects-of-asia/#more-274733 which was written by Sung Min Kim who was a writer for Fangraphs and is currently working for the Lotte Giants of the KBO. The part about Po-Jung Wang was what captured my interest in the CPBL initially. What expanded my interest in the CPBL was seeing Henry Sosa sign with the Fubon Guardians heading into the 2019 season in addition to C.C. Lee entering the CPBL draft during the 2018 season. 

Thanks for reading this, please share with your fellow baseball fans and comment anything else you might be curious about or anything you'd like me to take a crack at writing an article on. 

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