The Japanese baseball commissioner has stripped the Seibu Lions of part of the rights to pick high school players in this year's amateur draft and fined the Pacific League club 30 million yen for illegitimate scouting activities.
Commissioner Yasuchika Negoro said Tuesday he also has issued a stern warning to the Yokohama BayStars, who paid pitcher Takumi Nasuno a 530 million yen signing bonus, well in excess of the maximum amount allowed of 100 million yen. The latest decision will prohibit Seibu from picking future prospects in the first and second rounds of this fall's draft aimed at high school players — the first such punitive action since the amateur draft was introduced in 1965.
The fine imposed on the Lions matched the record amount handed to the Daiei Hawks in 2000 when they failed to guarantee the availability of their home stadium for the Japan Series.
"The old rules in baseball are no longer acceptable in that sense," Negoro said. "I hope the problems Seibu faced this time will teach a good lesson to establish better compliances for the future of baseball and we'll also try to boost the transparency (of scouting activities)." The scouting scandal has rocked both professional and amateur baseball in Japan since the revelation two months ago that former Waseda University player Katsuhito Shimizu had been involved in a secret scouting deal with Seibu.