The Seibu Lions are coming off back-to-back Pacific League championships, but have not been to the Japan Series since they won it in 2008.

• Manager: Hatsuhiko Tsuji
• 2020 Finish: 1st, lost to SoftBank Hawks in final stage of PL Climax Series 4-1, including 1 win as league champs.

Manager’s record: Hatsuhiko Tsuji

Tsuji, an eight-time Golden Glove winner at second base during the Lions’ golden era, was brought in as manager to rectify the club’s defensive woes, and though the PL league ERA increased from 3.65 to 3.74 in 2017, the Lions’ dropped from 3.85 to 3.53, largely with the help of rookie shortstop Sosuke Genda.

In 2018, however, Tsuji gave considerable playing time behind the plate to Tomoya Mori, a big-hitting catcher who had become a prodigious hitter, and made Hotaka Yamakawa his regular first baseman. That year, Seibu became the second NPB team in history to win a pennant while finishing last in ERA. In 2019, after letting their best starting pitcher, Yusei Kikuchi go to the majors, they did it again, this time with Mori as MVP.

Key players

• Shogo Akiyama CF > Cincinnati Reds
• Yuji Kaneko RF, LF
• Fumikazu Kimura RF
• Shuta Tonosaki 2B
• Hotaka Yamakawa 1B
• Sosuke Genda SS
• Tomoya Mori C
• Takeya Nakamura 3B
• Takumi Kuriyama LF, DH

Strengths and weaknesses

The Lions have no glaring offensive weaknesses. They are Japan’s best base-stealing team, they get on base, they hit for power, they stay out of double plays, partly because they hit the ball on the ground less, steal bases better and have great team speed.

Team Offensive rankings

• Best in the league: runs, doubles, stolen bases, walks; Highest SB Pct, Avg, BABiP, OBP, Slug, Iso P
• 2nd best in: triples, home runs

Their primary defensive strength is the ability to turn ground balls into double plays. Last year was the first full season in which Genda at short was paired with Shuta “Name a position and I can play it” Tonosaki at second, and they were pretty darn good — even with Genda having an injury-plagued off year.

Rankings against opponents’ offense

• Best in the league: Fewest triples allowed, most GDP
• Next to worst in the league: Walks allowed
• Worst in the league: Runs, doubles, home runs, Avg, OBP, Slug allowed

Although the pitching and defense as a whole has been the Lions’ weakness over the past two seasons, the pitching side has been far more culpable — despite leading the league in errors for three of the last four seasons. According to Delta Graphs, Seibu opponents had the highest percentage of hard contact in NPB last year (33.5%).

Other rankings

• Worst in the league: Errors committed, wild pitches, passed balls, holds; ERA
• The Lions used the fewest relievers (463), issued the fewest intentional walks (10), tied for the fewest sacrifice hits (78) with Nippon Ham.

Roster

Notes: Names in all caps are imported players; names with asterisks still qualify as rookies, hyperlinks are to the player’s NPB English language page.

2019 team data

Batters

Pitchers