40 big league ballplayers have been born in Japan. Who's the best? (Define your terms!)
| Shigetoshi Hasegawa |  2 (1.47%) |
| Tadahito Iguchi | 1 (0.74%) |
| Akinori Iwamura | 0 (0.00%) |
| Kenji Johjima | 1 (0.74%) |
| Hideki Matsui | 4 (2.94%) |
| Daisuke Matsuzaka | 0 (0.00%) |
| Hideo Nomo | 1 (0.74%) |
| Hideki Okajima | 0 (0.00%) |
| Takashi Saito | 2 (1.47%) |
| Ichiro Suzuki | 125 (91.91%) |
136 votes | 6 featured comments
Final cuts from the list of 10 as shown: Hideki Irabu (who never really
had a chance), Kazuhisha Ishii, Kazuo Matsui, Akinori Otsuka, Kazuhiro
Sasaki and So Taguchi ... if you believe any of them (or someone else?)
should be on the list, make your case and specify who should be cut to
make room!
Apologies to Masanori Murakami, who blazed the trail in the 1960s, and to speedy OF Dave Roberts, who was born in Okinawa but doesn't really fit the legitimate parameters of this question.
And apologies to a variety of Japanese imports such as Kosuke Fukudome, just making their big league debuts in 2008, and not yet on this list. Who among them will be?
Apologies to Masanori Murakami, who blazed the trail in the 1960s, and to speedy OF Dave Roberts, who was born in Okinawa but doesn't really fit the legitimate parameters of this question.
And apologies to a variety of Japanese imports such as Kosuke Fukudome, just making their big league debuts in 2008, and not yet on this list. Who among them will be?
I vote for Otsuka (232 IP, 170 ERA+) over Okajima (81.2 IP, 236 ERA+) and Iwamura (153 GP, 98 OPS+).
I'm looking forward to seeing Fukudome at the Skydome next month.
If he doesn't do enough to achieve number 1, I'm confident he'll at least be number 2 to the obvious leader. Or 3 after the enigmatic Daisuke -- should he attain the superstar greatness thrust upon him.
Yes, I know, Ted's house. The centre of all things cable TV. I can't wait for the building to be renamed again.
If he doesn't do enough to achieve number 1, I'm confident he'll at least be number 2 to the obvious leader. Or 3 after the enigmatic Daisuke -- should he attain the superstar greatness thrust upon him.
Yes, I know, Ted's house. The centre of all things cable TV. I can't wait for the building to be renamed again.
If Hideki Matsui had played his entire career in North America, I think he's probably have cleared 300 homers by now and about 2300 hits - at age 34 and still hitting very well, he'd be about four years away from 400 homers and 3000 hits. A great player, a Hall of Fame quality player.
Yeah, but so what. I am absolutely positive that Ichiro Suzuki would already have 3000 hits if he'd started his pro career in North America at age 20, when he arrived as a great player in the Japanese Pacific League. In his next seven seasons, he had 1242 hits (177 per year); in the seven major league seasons that follow, he has 1592 hits (227 per year). The extra 30 games a season would have helped enormously, and he would be making his charge for Cobb and then Rose.
Counting Japan and North America, he has 3064 hits - I think 3200 is a very conservative estimate for what he'd have if he'd been here all along. He'll be 35 in October, but he's obviously aging very well. He also just seems like the type of player who would age well. If he loses a step, he's got several he can spare.
Yeah, but so what. I am absolutely positive that Ichiro Suzuki would already have 3000 hits if he'd started his pro career in North America at age 20, when he arrived as a great player in the Japanese Pacific League. In his next seven seasons, he had 1242 hits (177 per year); in the seven major league seasons that follow, he has 1592 hits (227 per year). The extra 30 games a season would have helped enormously, and he would be making his charge for Cobb and then Rose.
Counting Japan and North America, he has 3064 hits - I think 3200 is a very conservative estimate for what he'd have if he'd been here all along. He'll be 35 in October, but he's obviously aging very well. He also just seems like the type of player who would age well. If he loses a step, he's got several he can spare.
I woudl like to see this poll with just pitchers since Ichiro makes it into a foregone result (and rightly so!)
Yes, I voted for Ichiro -- I think only he and maybe H. Matsui deserve serious support. Actually, as I wrote the question, I almost replaced "best" with "most important" ... then you'd have to include Murakami in the options, and H. Matsui (for the New York effect) and Ichiro are still probably your leaders ... but a solid argument could be made that the most important Japanese player has been Nomo. Among his career most-similars are names you will know like Hentgen, Petry, Kile and Schmidt. So far he has 123 career wins and he's cost less over that career than 1.5 seasons of Alex Rodriguez!