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.

Continue reading Where’s Kazuma? →