Yearly Archives: 2020

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2020 Awards

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Pacific League

MVP: Yuki Yanagita, OF, SoftBank Hawks, 2nd

Rookie of the year: Kaima Taira, RHP, Seibu Lions

Best Nines

PositionPlayerNo.Team
PKodai Senga2SoftBank Hawks
CTakuya Kai2SoftBank Hawks
1BSho Nakata3*Nippon Ham Fighters
2BHideto Asamura5*Rakuten Eagles
3BDaichi Suzuki1*Rakuten Eagles
SSSosuke Genda3Seibu Lions
OFYuki Yanagita5SoftBank Hawks
OFMasataka Yoshida3Orix Buffaloes
OFKensuke Kondo1Nippon Ham Fighters
DHTakumi Kuriyama1*Seibu Lions
Notes: Nakata has 2 OF awards, Asamura has 1 award at 1B, Suzuki has 2 awards at SS, Kuriyama has 3 OF awards

Central League

MVP: Tomoyuki Sugano, RHP, Yomiuri Giants, 2nd

Rookie of the year: Masato Morishita, RHP, Hiroshima Carp

Best Nines

PositionPlayerNo.Team
PTomoyuki Sugano4Yomiuri Giants
CTakumi Oshiro1Yomiuri Giants
1BMunetaka Murakami1Yakult Swallows
2BRyosuke Kikuchi2Hiroshima Carp
3BKazuma Okamoto1Yomiuri Giants
SSHayato Sakamoto6Yomiuri Giants
OFKeita Sano1DeNA Baystars
OFYoshihiro Maru6Yomiuri Giants
OFSeiya Suzuki5Hiroshima Carp

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Giants want DH — but CL isn’t Ready to Switch

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Japan’s Central League resoundingly rejected a Yomiuri Giants proposal to adopt the designated hitter rule on Monday.

The Yomiuri idea is interesting because it’s novel. The Giants, Japan’s oldest existing pro baseball team, although not its first as Yomiuri likes to pronounce, have a history of pretty much doing whatever they want.

When Yomiuri thinks change is in its selfish best interest at the expense of its business partners, then it’s time to be progressive. Whenever a change threatens the team’s monopoly on power or influence, then Yomiuri falls back on how baseball is all about tradition.

Twenty-seven years ago, Yomiuri forced the other teams to adopt free agency because the Giants wanted to skim off other clubs’ veterans, never mind that it would cause other clubs’ salaries to jump. Free agency destroyed the Hiroshima Carp’s dynasty, but that was a price Yomiuri was willing to pay for the sake of giving players their just desserts.

The proposal stated three reasons: 1) the extra stress imposed by the coronavirus, 2) CL pitchers got hurt more this year, and 3) fans don’t want to see pitchers giving away their at-bats by swinging fruitlessly or keeping their bats on their shoulders. This last one, the proposal said was unacceptable from the standpoint of a professional organization.

No. 3 is probably the most likely, and for the reason Hara suggested–that the Giants, having not won a Japan Series for eight straight seasons, a franchise record, need to get away from tradition in order to rectify that situation. The DH, I would argue, is a small part of the puzzle, but far from the only one.

The gap – why is the Pacific League stronger?

The idea that a DH would make Japanese professional baseball stronger is probably true. But there are other things that would make pro baseball stronger that the Giants are dead set against, such as joint licensing and marketing, because they would diminish the Giants roles as the kings of Japan’s small pro baseball hill.

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