In the Excel File below are all the Bill James Win Share values for every player’s season from 1936 Autumn, when NPB BIS begins giving official data, ostensibly because that was the first season in which the Giants competed, until the most recent one.
NPB’s top-20 seasons
The top 20 individual seasons in NPB history, given by position, Offensive Win Shares, Fielding Win Shares, Pitching Win Shares, and Total Win Shares. The list is dominated by pitchers from japan’s deadball era, particularly two-way star and Hall of Famer Jiro Noguchi.
| Season | League | Team | Name R | Name J | Pos | Off WS | Fld WS | P WS | WS Float |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 | 1L | Taiyo | Jiro Noguchi | 野口 二郎 | 1 | 3.4 | 0.9 | 58.8 | 63.1 |
| 1939 | 1L | Senators | Jiro Noguchi | 野口 二郎 | 1 | 7.9 | 1.0 | 46 | 54.8 |
| 1940 | 1L | Tsubasa | Jiro Noguchi | 野口 二郎 | 1 | 10.1 | 0.9 | 42 | 53.1 |
| 1942 | 1L | Asahi | Yasuo Hayashi | 林 安夫 | 1 | 4.1 | 0.0 | 46.7 | 50.8 |
| 1961 | PL | Lions | Kazuhisa Inao | 稲尾 和久 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 49.9 | 49.9 |
| 1959 | PL | Hawks | Tadashi Sugiura | 杉浦 忠 | 1 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 49.1 | 49.5 |
| 1954 | CL | Dragons | Shigeru Sugishita | 杉下 茂 | 1 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 47.8 | 49.1 |
| 1950 | CL | Robins | Jyuzo Sanada | 真田 重男 | 1 | 5.7 | 0.0 | 43 | 48.7 |
| 1946 | 1L | Senators | Giichiro Shiraki | 白木 義一郎 | 1 | 6.5 | 0.5 | 41.2 | 48.2 |
| 2022 | CL | Swallows | Munetaka Murakami | 村上 宗隆 | 5 | 44.6 | 3.6 | 0.0 | 48.2 |
| 1965 | PL | Hawks | Katsuya Nomura | 野村 克也 | 2 | 42.8 | 5.0 | 0.0 | 47.8 |
| 1965 | CL | Giants | Sadaharu Oh | 王 貞治 | 3 | 45.2 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 47.2 |
| 1973 | CL | Giants | Sadaharu Oh | 王 貞治 | 3 | 45.2 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 47.2 |
| 1958 | CL | Swallows | Masaichi Kaneda | 金田 正一 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 46.3 | 46.3 |
| 1940 | 1L | Kyojin | Viktor Starffin | 須田 博 | 1 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 44.0 | 46.1 |
| 1958 | PL | Lions | Kazuhisa Inao | 稲尾 和久 | 1 | 2.2 | 0.0 | 43.4 | 45.6 |
| 1961 | CL | Giants | Shigeo Nagashima | 長嶋 茂雄 | 5 | 40.3 | 4.9 | 0.0 | 45.2 |
| 1961 | CL | Dragons | Hiroshi Gondo | 権藤 博 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 45.2 | 45.2 |
| 1959 | PL | Lions | Kazuhisa Inao | 稲尾 和久 | 1 | 0.1 | 0 | 44.9 | 45.0 |
| 1962 | CL | Tigers | Minoru Maruyama | 村山 実 | 1 | 0.0 | 0 | 44.9 | 44.9 |
NPB Park Adjustments
To calculate the win shares, I first needed to calculate park adjustments for each team for each year. These are not “park factors” but adjustments, representing the effect on runs scored and home runs hit for each team in all the parks it plays in that season. The figures are influenced slightly by the two previous and two future seasons.
A key influence on Japanese pro baseball from Day 1 was the lack of suitable ballparks, and even in the early 1950s some local games were played on school grounds. When the first pro league started, teams hosted games in the few existing large stadiums, so the Tigers weren’t the only team that called Koshien home and the same went for the Braves in Nishinomiya.
There were also remarkably unbalanced schedules until the mid-1950s, where some teams played relatively few home games. So the park adjustments were a huge challenge, and all I can say is I gave them my best shot.
