MLB Prospects

With the news this week that top Japanese prospect Yusei Kikuchi is contemplating jumping straight from a Japanese high school to American professional baseball, the relationship between Japanese baseball and the major leagues continues to grow complicated. Like Junichi Tazawa last year, Kikuchi is expected to be the first pick in this year's Nippon Pro Baseball (NPB) draft and will probably command a seven-figure bonus in the States.

Like his predecessor, though, Kikuchi is worried about the restrictive transfer agreement between NPB and Major League Baseball hindering his ability to have a full career in America.

In Japan, players are drafted right into NPB after high school, where they remain property of their teams for nine years before declaring free agency. The only way to move to an American team before that deadline is for the player's team to "post" them, allowing American clubs to bid on the rights to negotiate with them.

After being heavily pursued by the Pittsburgh Pirates -- and seemingly no one else -- since early July, Miguel Angel Sano will reportedly sign a $3.15 million deal with the Minnesota Twins. Sano, the 16-year-old Dominican phenom, is a shortstop but is expected to be converted to the outfield eventually.

Pirates general manager Neal Huntington and Latin American scouting director Rene Gayo had been hot on Sano since the international signing period began on July 2. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, though, Sano's agent, Rob Plummer, said the relationship between the two sides became strained in the process.

Every year, the relationship between American baseball and Japanese baseball gets a little more complicated. Reports Tuesday indicate that Yusei Kikuchi, a high school pitcher expected to be the first player picked in Nippon Professional Baseball's amateur draft late next month, is contemplating skipping the draft in favor of coming to America.

Just 21/2 months after the Cardinals agreed to a $3.1 million contract with 16-year old Dominican prospect Wagner Mateo, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is reporting that the club is voiding the deal due to a pre-existing condition that Cardinals discovered during their physical exam. It was originally reported on Friday by ESPN's Jorge Arangure that the physical turned up vision problems that could potentially affect the signing, though the club had not elaborated beyond that initial report.

It's not immediately clear what Mateo's vision problems are or what the Cardinals' plan is going forward with Mateo. The voiding of the contract suggests that it's a serious condition, but it's also possible that the Cardinals are playing it safe given the amount of money and young age of the player involved. If that's the case, Mateo could potentially sign, for much less money, with another team somewhere down the road.

For the most part, when Cuban baseball players defect from their country in the hopes of one day playing Major League Baseball, they usually end up in one of the many nations surrounding Cuba. That is not the case for recent defector Aroldis Chapman. After leaving Cuba's national team while they were in Holland on July 1 this year, Chapman has moved a bit further east to find his new home.

It's a long way from the island of Cuba to the tiny nation of Andorra, but the little European nation tucked between the borders of France and Spain is the new home of Chapman. He's established residency there already, which is a big first step towards getting to the United States. Even if it is a circuitous route.

Angel Villalona, a highly-touted prospect in the San Francisco Giants' system, is the prime suspect in a killing.

The Associated Press is reporting the 19-year-old has turned himself into authorities in the Dominican Republic. He is a suspect in the shooting death of a 25-year-old man, Mario Felix de Jesus Velete, in a La Romana bar.

Villalona could face up to 20 years in prison, if he's found guilty of the crime. He will have a court appearance Monday.

Villalona first signed with the Giants when he was 16. This past season, in advanced Single-A, Villalona hit .267 with nine home runs, 42 RBI and a .704 OPS in 74 games.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Depending on who you ask, Madison Bumgarner's much-anticipated big league debut was a success or a failure.

Bumgarner, who got the emergency start on Tuesday night against the Padres because of Tim Lincecum's back spasms, was good enough to hold down the Padres into the sixth inning. He was good enough to leave with a one-run lead, and to a standing ovation, in a game that Giants would eventually lose 4-3.

However, to anyone who was expecting to see the eye-popping stuff of a premium prospect, the 20-year-old left something to be desired.

Anyone hoping to see Stephen Strasburg in a big-league uniform in 2009 got some disappointing news Tuesday. MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo confirmed that Strasburg's first professional appearances will be with the Phoenix Dirt Dogs in the Arizona Fall League. This shouldn't be surprising news (Andrew Johnson reported that possibility here on FanHouse last Friday), but I think a large group of more casual fans expected to see Strasburg in red and blue almost immediately. That will clearly not be the case.

The reality is that even the most advanced pitching prospects in the past few seasons have made at least some minor-league starts before making their big-league debuts. After being drafted by the Giants in 2006, Tim Lincecum made 14 minor-league appearances in 2006 and 2007 before getting an early call to San Francisco. The Orioles drafted Brian Matusz fourth overall last year and he made his debut in the AFL, then made 19 minor-league starts before the O's brought him up a few weeks ago.

Every Sunday, MLB FanHouse empties out its notebook in Baseball Brunch.

As the No. 1 overall pick in 1990, Chipper Jones signed with the Braves for $275,000.

Even in today's dollars, that's about $450,000 -- or about 3 percent of Stephen Strasburg was guaranteed as this year's No. 1 pick.

And Jones agreed to his deal the night before the draft, while Strasburg came within two minutes of missing last Monday's deadline to sign.

"I think the only way that you're going to get kids signed and get them into the various camps is to put some kind of cap on it," Jones said. "I was always of the belief that you make your money at the big-league level."

That's how the teams want it too. When the current collective bargaining agreement is up in two years, Major League Baseball may pursue an NBA-style slotting system -- with signing bonuses locked in depending on how high a player is picked, as opposed to the current non-binding slot recommendations.

Less than a week after Chris Tillman made his major league debut, another highly-touted prospect will make his first start in an Orioles uniform. Baltimore is set to call up left-hander Brian Matusz Tuesday night to face the Tigers.

Matusz, the fourth overall pick in last year's draft, has been a professional for less than a year, and only made his minor-league debut this season, but his rapid ascent to the major leagues highlights just how talented and polished he is.

The southpaw is 11-2 with a stingy 1.91 ERA across two minor-league levels this year. He has 121 strikeouts and just 32 walks in 113 innings to back up those gaudy numbers.