Category Archives: Baseball

Where’s Yoshinobu?

Thanks to all those who replied on twitter.com to the Central League and Pacific League award ballots I filed Sunday. They generated a lot of interest, primarily about the complete absence of CL home run and RBI leader Kazuma Okamoto of the Giants and Orix Buffaloes ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto failing to get even a third-place vote for PL MVP.

One twitter.com reader wrote in Japanese: “It’s his personal opinion, of course, but I thought, “Kensuke Kondo MVP??? ” Other than that his ballot was normal.”

In another post, I explained the process that led me to omit Okamoto, who I’d have given a fifth-place MVP vote if we had those to give. Now, it’s time to turn my attention to the pitcher who has led the PL in wins, strikeouts and ERA for the past three seasons, and is now likely to be the PL’s MVP for the third straight year.

My estimates start by getting a run and home run adjustment for each team’s playing environment in 2023, that allows me to estimate how many runs a team scores and saves beyond an expected bare minimum. The relationship between marginal runs scored and saved determines how many of each team’s wins are credited to offense on one side, and pitching and defense on the other side.

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Where’s Kazuma?

Thanks to all those who replied on twitter.com to the Central League and Pacific League award ballots I filed Sunday. The most frequent comment and one my wife echoed, was surprise over the omission of CL home run and RBI leader Kazuma Okamoto of the Giants.

Teruyo suggested I left Okamoto off my ballot because she liked him and I was being spiteful. I do have spiteful bones in my body, I’m afraid to say, but that wasn’t why Okamoto failed to make the cut.

Technically, Okamoto was available to be chosen to the CL Best Nine Team at third base, where he played 696 innings and 84 games, or first (492-1/3, 75) or outfield (39, 9). My personal choice as a cutoff for selecting a player at a position was that he play in at least half his team’s game there with 600 or more innings, but for the time being let’s say he was eligible at first as well.

The candidates competing with Okamoto at those positions were Toshiro Miyazaki of the DeNA BayStars and Yusuke Oyama of the Hanshin Tigers.

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