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| 2019 BBM 1st Version #012 |
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| 2019 BBM 1st Version #232 |
Normally I post the Sawamura award winner here but there wasn't one this season. The committee of five former pitchers that vote for the award didn't feel that any pitcher met the criteria for it this season. This is the fifth time in the history of the award that this has happened - the last time was 2000.
The Rookies Of The Year were Rei Takahashi of the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and Munetaka Murakami of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows:
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| 2019 Calbee #155 |
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| 2019 Calbee #120 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #049 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #019 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #022 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #197 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #025 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #021 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #029 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #134 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #168 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #065 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #290 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #233 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #385 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #268 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #380 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #308 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #240 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #313 |
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| 2019 Epoch NPB #348 |
2 comments:
That is an interesting point about Sakamoto having a shot at Harimoto's record.
I had been kind of wondering if most of the NPB career "counting" records were basically unbreakable thanks to the fact that all the players would could break them going to the US.
Ichiro obviously would have shattered Harimoto's record years ago had he stayed in NPB for example.
Oh's 868 home runs and Kaneda's 400 wins would probably have never been touched regardless. But other records like Harimoto's, or Yutaka Fukumoto's stolen base record could realistically be broken but only by a top tier player who played his entire career in NPB. Given how few of those there are now, its debatable whether they ever could be.
But Sakamoto does give us some hope!
I agree with you that the game has changed enough that it's unlikely that either Oh's or Kaneda's records will be approached by anyone, even if they spent their entire career in NPB. I'd actually throw Fukumoto's stolen base record in there as well - the active career leader in steals right now is Yohei Ohshima of the Dragons with 86(!). Fukumoto stole at a higher rate than ANYONE but there were other guys who had almost that many steals in a season back 30-40 years ago. This year the league leaders were Yuji Kaneko of the Lions with 41 and Koji Chikamoto of the Tigers with 36. It'd take like 30 years to reach Fukumoto's record with those numbers,
It's kind of interesting seeing what other milestones are becoming more rare because of players going to MLB. I've been tracking Takeya Nakamura of the Lions as the most likely player to next reach 500 home runs in NPB - he's at 415 right now. The only other active players even halfway to 500 are Wladimir Balentien (288), Kosuke Fukudome (280) and Nobuhiro Matsuda (275) who are 37, 42 and 36 years of age respectively. None of them are going to get there. The top two players under 30 are Yoshitomu Tsutsugoh with 205 and Tetsuto Yamada with 202. Tsutsugoh is trying to come to MLB this winter and Yamada has been rumored to be wanting to go in the next few seasons. Nakamura could be the last 500 home run hitter in NPB - at least until the game changes again.
Note sure we'll see another pitcher with 200 wins in NPB anytime soon either. Masanori Ishikawa of the Swallows is the active leader in wins with 171. He's 39 and hasn't put up double digits in wins since 2015. Next is 37 year old Tetsuya Utsumi of the Lions with 133. The active under-30 pitcher with the most wins is Takehiro Norimoto with 80 (Tomoyuki Sugano has 87 but just turned 30). Norimoto has expressed interest in going to MLB so it'll probably be difficult for him to get to 200 in Japan.
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