All Star Series

The 37th Annual USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series will take place in Japan from July 12-16. I don't know a lot about this series, but you have to wonder how good this thing will really be. Right now, all the best American college players have went through the draft, and most of them are in the process of signing, or have already signed and reported to their minor league team.

Except those guys, the best American college players, won't be participating:

The US National Team was selected after ten days of trials that included intersquad games and practices. The team consists top non-draft-eligible college players in the United States including 1 junior, 14 sophomores, and 7 freshman players including Trevor Bauer (UCLA) and Kolton Wong (University of Hawaii), who were on the Freshman All-America Team.

As I said, I don't know a lot about this series, but I'm curious as to why the draft-eligible players aren't participating. Some of them, most notably, Stephen Strasberg, haven't signed yet. And if you're going to have an All-Star team, shouldn't a guy who is supposedly the greatest pitcher of all time be part of the team.

I guess it could be the eligibility thing, and the fact that a lot of these guys either have been drafted, or weren't good enough to be drafted. But if they aren't signed, aren't they still amateurs? Or is it because they have graduated? Considering this:

The stars of the Japan national team is junior right hander Yuuki Saito (Waseda University) and senior Kazuhito Futagami (Hosei University) who was the MVP in the recent All Japan University Tournament. Seven seniors, who will be eligible for the upcoming draft, will be included in the squad.

If the Japanese team is using draft eligible players, why isn't the U.S.?

Anyhow, here's the schedule:

July 12th: Botchan Stadium (Matsuyama),12pm
July 13th: Tokyo Dome (Tokyo), 6pm
July 14th: Kleenex Miyagi Stadium (Sendai), 6 pm
July 15th: Tsuruoka Dream Stadium (Tsuruoka), 6pm
July 16th: Meiji Jinguu Stadium (Tokyo), 6pm

Updates as they happen.



Thanks to NPB Tracker for the link.