Japanese baseball info

[Agente Libre]

Do any of our followers of Japanese baseball know anything about this new four-team Japanese independent league ("Kansai") starting in 2009? This league was in the news today because one of its teams drafted a 16-year-old girl.

Mainly, I'm curious if this is seen as a serious pro-level league, with solid investors, good player salary budgets, etc., or if it's just a low-level, barely-above-amateur type of operation.

I found websites for several of the league's teams, but none have an English version, and no top-level league site could be found with a quick Google search. Thanks.

[chazbukowski]

I don't have that on hand. I think maybe michael westbay, the "commissioner"/webmaster of japanesebaseball.com might. You can post a message there without doing so much as giving him any info.

I'm sure it's less, but how much is the question. Funny thing is, many of the stars who come over take a pay cut to do it.

Jim Albright

I believe Tyrone Woods is the highest paid player in Japan, making about $6MM. Was talking to him at a celebration, and he somebody mentioned that he was offered $3-$4MM to play in MLB. He said he was not taking that pay cut.

[jalbright]

I believe Tyrone Woods is the highest paid player in Japan, making about $6MM. Was talking to him at a celebration, and he somebody mentioned that he was offered $3-$4MM to play in MLB. He said he was not taking that pay cut.

That comparison is to a gaijin, or non-Asian player. Those that succeed in Japan often wind up with better deals there, largely because the Japanese see the recent success there while the MLBers still remember the difficulties they had which caused them to go to Japan. I stand by the assertion that many Japanese stars have taken pay cuts to come to MLB.

[chazbukowski]

That comparison is to a gaijin, or non-Asian player. Those that succeed in Japan often wind up with better deals there, largely because the Japanese see the recent success there while the MLBers still remember the difficulties they had which caused them to go to Japan. I stand by the assertion that many Japanese stars have taken pay cuts to come to MLB.

Not really disputing that though I would be curious as to which Japanese players took pay cuts. I was just addressing the question of the salary structure in Japan, which is, undoubtably, much lower than in MLB. In 2007, the average salary was around 35 million yen (a bit under $400,000).

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0...-falls-in.html

[jalbright]

I've done annual reviews of guys who might come over, and have included their salaries at that time. I keep in touch with what's going on in Japan at japanesebaseball.com, and I know that quite a few guys have taken less to go to the majors than they would have gotten in Japan. Unfortunately, I haven't got a listing of all that information in one place, so I can't give you chapter and verse on it.

That said, there's no question that overall the Japanese pay scale is lower than that of the majors. These guys would make more money if they had their whole careers in the majors. What happens, though, is the guys who are good enough to go to the majors are ones the teams try to keep, so they tend to bid more at or near the point where they can reach free agency. Also, the exchange rate makes this comparison a bit awkward, as they're paid in yen in Japan, dollars in the majors.

[Imgran]

They used to have one, but in one of the more boneheaded, xenophobic decisions in NPB history (of which there have been many), they took it down. They're Japanese-language only now. I don't see the point, since the majors can certainly hire people with expertise in the language, so the move doesn't protect anything, just denies information. Score one for the idiotic fuddy-duddies who run Japanese baseball!

Jim Albright

Just resurrecting this to muse on the irony of it. After all, they use the Latin alphabet for their uniforms but not their website?

Exactly why DO Japenese teams use Latin lettering on their uniforms? Why not use Japanese letters?

[NewEnglandAmazins]

NPB's English website:
http://www.npb.or.jp/eng/

[Rich the Giants fan]

Does anyone have a list of the current Top 10 or even 20 in NPB in career home runs? I have a list through '06 but I know it's out of date. I was also wondering if anyone has a list of the top hitting streaks in NPB history?

[Mischa]

Does anyone have a list of the current Top 10 or even 20 in NPB in career home runs? I have a list through '06 but I know it's out of date. I was also wondering if anyone has a list of the top hitting streaks in NPB history?

For the top 30 in HR through 2008: http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/careerleaders.html - probably some change since then, as Rhodes, Nakamura, Akira Etoh, Kanemoto and Yamasaki are all still active.

For the longest 5 hitting streaks:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bu...hitting_streak - scroll down to the bottom of the page.

[Rich the Giants fan]

For the top 30 in HR through 2008: http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/careerleaders.html - probably some change since then, as Rhodes, Nakamura, Akira Etoh, Kanemoto and Yamasaki are all still active.

For the longest 5 hitting streaks:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/bu...hitting_streak - scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Thanks, I should have checked that first sight before I asked. Last time I looked, it hadn't been updated.

I have those hitting streaks listed, though, but was wondering if anyone had any more? I am compliling an extensive list of all hitting streaks I can find and would love to add more to my NPB list.

[Rich the Giants fan]

I am also looking to find any NPB hitting streaks of at least 15 games or longer recorded by Ichiro during his time in Japan. If anyone has anything, that would be a great help, thanks!

[Mischa]

I have those hitting streaks listed, though, but was wondering if anyone had any more? I am compliling an extensive list of all hitting streaks I can find and would love to add more to my NPB list.

Try asking at japanesebaseball.com's forums; someone there may be able to help

[Rich the Giants fan]

Try asking at japanesebaseball.com's forums; someone there may be able to help

Just did that last night, thanks!

[quinnystar27]

hey jalbright i have question that maybe you can help me in because you are a expert in japanese baseball. I have played in Venezuela, USA and Japan. And I always get batting tips on my swing. I just finished playing university baseball in japan as part of a exchange program i doing with my home university. And one thing I noticed is batting instruction. So my question is when a young high school japanese baseball player is growing up do he get a lot of individualized japanese instruction from a batting coach or does he develop his swing technique on his own?

While playing university baseball here we didnt have a coach it was ran by our team captain. Other teams have coaches but we didnt. So we relied on each other for training tips. But one thing i noticed nobody ever commented on swinging. We do a lot of tee batting were we focus on hitting the ball on the sweet spot and getting inside the circle, then do free batting were we were suppose to hit the ball well to get over the infielders. But never did i really notice someone stop a player and say hey try this swing or look at your stance. I even tried out some weird stances to see if people reacted but all that matter is if i hit the ball.

I asked one guy on the team, he said in chugaku he learned proper basic swing technique but after that he never really got individual coaching about his swing. He said his kokogaku coach would give him tips after a game but never really sit down with him and go through the swing technique. Which is weird to me cuz when i was in the USA and Venezuela during my school years i always got individualized coaching on my swing. Some guys even hired batting coaches to help them keep a short path to the baseball, level head, no upper cuts and a smooth fluid motion. Yet in japan my friends tell me that they never really got batting coaches to teach them how to hit, they did a lot of free batting, insane amounts of T batting (during breaks players on my team just go do t batting, always before and after practice) and long tee.

I am not saying japanese players are bad hitters they are in fact very good they always hit the ball on the sweet spot and dont get late on the ball often, but when i look at the hip motion and front leg extension i see some room for improvement. Once i told a friend to bring his leg down earlier or shorten the extension of his front leg (as i was taught) and he really helped him get to the ball on time and improve his average. But it seems to me that any batting coach worth his salt would have suggested that too him at a much younger age.

[jalbright]

quinnystar--
I don't live in Japan and never have, so that kind of detail isn't a strength of mine. My real expertise is in the professional game there. I participate in the forums at japanesebaseball.com, and have learned a fair amount that way. They have some pretty sophisticated high school and college programs, so I'd think at least some of them have hitting coaches. Beyond that, I can't say, but if you want to know more, ask at that site.

[geezer]

Does anybody know how many players have hit 4 home runs in a game in the Nippon Baseball League history?

[jalbright]

There are five listed on this page: http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/homerfeatscycle.html You have to scroll down a bit to find it. The last listed is in 2003.

[titorondon]

There are five listed on this page: http://www.japanbaseballdaily.com/homerfeatscycle.html You have to scroll down a bit to find it. The last listed is in 2003.

The first ever to hit homers from both sides of the plate in one game was also the last batting champion in the first stage (1956-1967) of the Nicaraguan Pro League, Richie Scheinblum.

[jalbright]

Interesting article on Otani and the rule intended to keep Japanese players from signing with the majors before NPB is here: http://www.japanball.com/news.phtml?id=23607

[Herr28]

Wow, a lot of info in here! Thanks! So is the site japanbaseballdaily.com the place to go to get all the career/season stats of the former MLB guys that played there? I saw an earlier post from 6 years ago asking about Reggie Smith, etc, and was just wondering if that is still the place to go to see their stats? Just in case another site has popped up since then with more on it.

Back in the early 1990s I heard that guys like Randy Bass and Larry Parrish were big HR champs over in Japan, was that true? I can't wait to be able to look up their stats and see just how good some of our former players did over there!

Thanks again for putting all this together! Years ago I tried using Google to look up the NPB and never really found what I wanted.

[Joltin' Joe]

I was just looking at the stats leaderboard from the 2012 season and it seems as it is certainly a pitcher's era right now in Japan. A lot of guys with sub 2 ERAs, and very few guys hitting over .300.

[Roundin' third]

I was just futzing around on the Internet and inadvertently came across this website devoted to photos of Negro and Nippon League players. The Jananese players seem to start on the 21st page, which is where the link takes you.
http://www.ootpdevelopments.com/boar...layers-21.html