As mentioned in the previous post, I’ve hit a snag in my post-season work. To fill in a little bit of that gap before the playoffs start on Saturday, I was curious about which players had the best offensive seasons in NPB this year.
To measure that in a fairly simple manner, I’m borrowing standard wOBA (weighted on-base average) from Tom Tango using the stolen base version.
Here are the leaders in the CL and PL. I’ve included how many road plate appearances each batter had and their road wOBA because some might think their numbers are the product of their home parks. I’ve limited it to players with a minimum of 450 plate appearances.
CL wOBA leaders
| League | Team | Name | PA | 2019 wOBA | Road PA | Road wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CL | Carp | Seiya Suzuki | 612 | .423 | 312 | .414 |
| CL | Swallows | Tetsuto Yamada | 641 | .410 | 325 | .390 |
| CL | Giants | Hayato Sakamoto | 639 | .410 | 320 | .373 |
| CL | Swallows | Wladimir Balentien | 468 | .386 | 223 | .425 |
| CL | BayStars | Yoshitomo Tsutsugo | 557 | .384 | 273 | .352 |
| CL | Giants | Yoshihiro Maru | 631 | .380 | 320 | .354 |
| CL | BayStars | Neftali Soto | 584 | .374 | 293 | .338 |
| CL | Dragons | Dayan Viciedo | 594 | .356 | 297 | .325 |
| CL | Giants | Kazuma Okamoto | 628 | .351 | 325 | .350 |
| CL | Swallows | Norichika Aoki | 565 | .350 | 283 | .351 |
| CL | Giants | Yoshiyuki Kamei | 503 | .345 | 263 | .334 |
| CL | Swallows | Munetaka Murakami | 593 | .341 | 306 | .308 |
| League | Team | Name | PA | 2019 wOBA | Road PA | Road wOBA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PL | Lions | Tomoya Mori | 573 | 0.408 | 277 | 0.423 |
| PL | Buffaloes | Masataka Yoshida | 610 | 0.402 | 310 | 0.419 |
| PL | Eagles | Jabari Blash | 527 | 0.376 | 278 | 0.356 |
| PL | Lions | Takeya Nakamura | 557 | 0.372 | 280 | 0.413 |
| PL | Lions | Hotaka Yamakawa | 626 | 0.372 | 315 | 0.367 |
| PL | Lions | Shogo Akiyama | 678 | 0.368 | 340 | 0.358 |
| PL | Eagles | Hideto Asamura | 635 | 0.368 | 336 | 0.365 |
| PL | Hawks | Alfredo Despaigne | 519 | 0.367 | 252 | 0.349 |
| PL | Fighters | Kensuke Kondo | 600 | 0.366 | 313 | 0.368 |
| PL | Lions | Shuta Tonosaki | 621 | 0.363 | 312 | 0.359 |
| PL | Marines | Takashi Ogino | 569 | 0.360 | 292 | 0.363 |
| PL | Fighters | Haruki Nishikawa | 651 | 0.354 | 333 | 0.346 |
| PL | Marines | Seiya Inoue | 509 | 0.347 | 250 | 0.347 |
| PL | Marines | Daichi Suzuki | 614 | 0.345 | 316 | 0.330 |
| PL | Marines | Brandon Laird | 553 | 0.340 | 289 | 0.328 |
| PL | Eagles | Eigoro Mogi | 648 | 0.340 | 339 | 0.372 |
