Tag Archives: Kensuke Kondo

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Sugano, Kondo win Japan’s 2024 MVPs

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Yomiuri Giants right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano on Tuesday became Japan’s ninth winner of three or more MVP awards after completing on of the best seasons of his career at the age of 34. And like his last MVP, in 2020, he’s following this one up by attempting to sign an MLB contract.

SoftBank Hawks outfielder Kensuke Kondo, a converted catcher who never seemed to be able to play 120 games a year before joining the Hawks as a free agent last year, produced his second straight MVP-caliber season. “It took a while, but I did feel I might win it someday,” said the 31-year-old Kondo, who was a standout for Japan in the 2023 World Baseball Classic.

Sugano, who failed to come to terms with any MLB teams in the winter of 2020-2021, returned to the Yomiuri Giants for three mediocre seasons. Speaking of his 4-8 2023 season Tuesday, Sugano said, “A year ago, I don’t think anyone thought Sugano could win an MVP. But I believed I could do it. (Next year) I want to take it to the next level.”

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Baseball, Commentary, Free, News

Best Nine Awards

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We all make mistakes

It’s now officially awards season in Japan, with Monday’s announcements of the Best Nine Awards. There are 19, of course, because the PL gets 10 via the DH. Someone on Twitter asked if I was the one who voted for Orix’s Ho Naito for first base in the PL.

If I had it was unintended, because sometimes I fail to notice inputting the wrong player’s name, and I have made mistakes in the past. I think the person meant it as a compliment but I’m not sure.

One of my Golden Glove mistake votes caused former Yokohama second baseman Yutaka Takagi to write a column about someone who should publicly tarred and feathered for such an absurd vote.

Digression aside, here are the winners with my votes (I did in fact vote as intended for the PL first base award. The MVPs and rookies of the year are announced Tuesday.

I have bolded all the players I voted for and given the vote total for each player in brackets. Every asterisk marks a player who finished within 50 votes of the leading total.

There are two of these for the PL pitcher award, where Kohei Arihara won in what Donald Trump would call a landslide, by 11 votes and 37 percent of the total cast. I have listed all the near misses and the votes they received below each league’s winners, with another note below for the three players I voted for who weren’t even near misses.

Although Yakult shortstop Hideki Nagaoka got the most votes in either league, SoftBank third baseman Ryoya Kurihara was a near unanimous decision, getting 257 of the 259 cast for PL players.

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