Former catcher Jason Kendall and former infielder Akinori Iwamura talked Tuesday about how major league baseball in both Japan and America could be better if Major League Baseball and Nippon Professional Baseball opened their eyes wider to the way other countries do things.

The two were among a host of former major leaguers who converged on Tokyo Dome for MLB’s opening games last week. Kendall, a three-time all-star who led his league in games played as a catcher eight times, wished more Japanese catchers would come to the United States because of the fundamentally sound approach they would bring.

Kendall said one perk of coming to Tokyo, where he took part in a clinic for youth baseball coaches, was getting to see Japanese catchers in action, and contrasted the basic fundamentals Japanese baseball demands with the variable fundamental skills he sees now in American ball.

“There are a lot of good catchers (in America), but the way they’re doing things now, it’s different,” he said. ” But the fact that they’re so fundamentally sound over here, I think one of the biggest things for me is getting to see some of the Japanese catchers because your first priority is the pitcher. That’s it.”

The simple reason we don’t see more Japanese playing key defensive positions in MLB is because Japanese baseball’s priorities work against players here having the offensive skills needed to compete in America.

Japan’s focus on defense and fundamentals filters out catchers who cannot earn the trust of their pitchers. Thus, it is rare for high-quality hitters to earn regular major league playing time as catchers, and helps explain why only one Japanese has so far caught in MLB, where athleticism often trumps fundamental knowhow in the eyes of front offices.

As a former catcher, Kendall reasoned that Japanese pitchers who succeed in America honed their skills, not in a vacuum on their own, but in partnership with their batterymates here.

“It’s just so intriguing to me that there are so many amazing Japanese pitchers that have had success in the big leagues,” Kendall said. “But who’s catching them?”

“At the end of the day, the pitchers are the ones who have the ball in their hand, but at the same time, if you don’t have somebody behind the plate that has that control, it would be difficult. So, I love coming over here and watching the Japanese catchers. I really do because I would love to start trying to get more of them (in MLB).”

Regardless of what country you play the game, players end up at the most critical defensive position they can handle with any degree of competence. Quality hitters who are poor defensively at short typically get moved to second, third or the outfield whether they are in MLB or Italy.

But because Japan’s tolerance for below-average defense is extremely low, teams will move good-hitting players at catcher, second, short and center to less demanding positions at the drop of a cap.

Hiroyuki Nakajima is a great example. One of only 38 players in NPB history with 1,000 games at the shortstop*, Nakajima was, according to former Seibu Lions teammate Scott McClain, banned from the position in the 2001 preseason by manager Haruki Ihara after two errors on a muddy dirt field.

Ironically, catcher Kenji Jojima found himself in unfriendly waters as a Mariner. According to former Seattle manager, John McLaren, some pitchers conspired against Jojima by crossing him up with pitches he didn’t call for in order to make him look bad.

“The way he was treated was unpardonable,” McLaren said recently.

Although often criticized for his pitch selection by Hall of Fame catcher Katsuya Nomura, Jojima ranks fourth in career defensive value per game at the position among the 53 players with 1,000 games behind the plate. Jojima would certainly rank a little lower if we could calculate value by innings, since unlike many other catchers, nobody ever pinch-hit for him, giving him more innings per game played

If, as Kendall asserts, American baseball develops players who are less fundamentally sound than in Japan, it’s because its priorities are different.

“We have the best athletes in the world without a doubt. But what you’re seeing now is  the fact that it (fundamentals) is not really taught,” Kendall said. “I’m not going to say it’s not taught, but it’s not say enforced.”

And if players graduate to MLB after a less rigorous test of their fundamentals in the minor leagues, NPB, Iwamura said, is held back by its inability to develop more elite professional talent.

Iwamura’s Yakult Swallows’ major league career was delayed because of his defensive miscues as a third baseman, eventually won a job because the team could not overlook his incredible offensive potential. He went on to win six Golden Gloves, and then shifted seamlessly to second in 2007, producing an outstanding defensive season at a new position for the American League champions.

Iwamura was a major-league caliber talent out of high school, but NPB’s problem is that it is can absorb only a portion of the talent coming out of Japan’s amateur ranks each year and virtually ignores overseas amateur talent.

“Having just two tiers of pro baseball is not good for Japanese baseball. We really need three or four levels,” Iwamura said.

“I want NPB to study MLB’s best elements and incorporate them one after another in a way that suits Japan.”

MLB’s priorities and those of NPB are always going to be different, because each organization evolved differently, with different constraints and opportunities and appeals to different markets, but baseball DNA is exchanged when players and coaches move from one to the other, and that is all for the good.

“Yakyu has its own particular character and it is not quite the same as American baseball. But we I think it is possible to have the best of both worlds here that would be superior to anything in either country now.”

*-NOTE: Career value, and career value per 100 games at a player’s main position can be found in this searchable and sortable data table.