Sadaharu Oh | jballallen.com

Munetaka Murakami did not set a home run record this season, but the 22-year-old phenomenon’s season was, by one measure, the best offensive year of any player in the history of Japanese pro baseball, and NPB’s best season since Hall of Fame pitcher Kazuhisa Inao’s astonishing 1961 campaign for the Nishitetsu Lions.

Bill James’ Win Shares credited Murakami with contributing 16 wins to the Swallows’ ledger for a total of 48 win shares, surpassing ever so slightly the previous high, catcher Katsuya Nomura’s 1965 season.

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 dead-ball era, particularly two-way star and Hall of Famer Jiro Noguchi.

An excel file download of the win share values for every player from the 1936 autumn season to the present is available to paid subscribers.

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

Sadaharu Oh had two 47 win share seasons in 1965 and 1973, but according to these calculations, Murakami’s was the best total by a position player ever.

But because seasons have varied so much in length, the record for win production per game by a position player probably goes to Yomiuri’s Taiwan-born outfielder Shosei Go, who produced 34 win shares in an 84-game 1943 season. Japan’s original two-way star, the Tigers’ Masaru Kageura, also might be No. 1, although his value was evenly split in the spring of 1937 between the outfield and the mound.

Prorating it by season length, Murakami’s 2022 season comes out ninth best in history and is the best since Oh’s 1974 season.

Today’s game is different, however. Pitchers are no longer able to throw as much or as often. A look at the best 20 seasons, ranked by win shares per team game, shows 20 position players.

Continue reading →

Twenty-two-year-old Munetaka Murakami was praised to the heavens Monday for becoming Japan’s youngest triple crown winner, and for surpassing Sadaharu Oh’s best single-season total.

Hitting more than Oh ever did is really something, but not the record the media is telling us it is. Depending on who you ask, Murakami set the record for home runs by a Japan-born player, or the record for a Japanese citizen.

NPB separates its players into those who can be activated without restriction and “others” who have been subject to roster and activation quotas. NPB does not currently recognize its unrestricted players as “Japanese citizens” or “Japan-born” although definitions were used in the past.

Through 1975 players were defined as:

Japanese citizens with no roster restrictions.
Everyone else.

From 1976 it was:

Japan-born with no roster restrictions.
Everyone else.

Currently it is:

Those turning pro through the draft—because they are Japanese citizens or amateur ballplayers with sufficient residence time in Japan–or those with nine years of major league service time. These have no roster restrictions.
Everyone else. These are currently restricted to four active players and an unlimited number of inactive players.

Oh was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and ineligible for birth citizenship. According to Robert Whiting, as a non-citizen, Oh was an “other” when he broke Japan’s single-season home run record with 55 in 1964, and remained subject to quotas until 1976, when the Yomiuri Giants had the rules changed in order to keep Oh and free agent signing Isao Harimoto, a Japan-born South Korean citizen, from counting against Yomiuri’s “other” quota.

The sole record holder from 1964 to 2000, Oh was an other until he became a “Japan-born” player in 1976 for the final five years of his career. Calling Oh’s 55 the Japan-player record is not unlike calling Wladimir Balentien’s 60 the Japan-player record, since like Oh, he was an “other” when he set the record, but finished his career in the unrestricted category.

Before Murakami, the record for a player with no roster restrictions was the 52 hit by Katsuya Nomura in 1963 and equaled by Hiromitsu Ochiai in 1985. Murakami broke their record on Sept. 9, but which no one talked about because the sports media wants to pretend Oh is Japanese.

As I told Mr. Whiting a couple of weeks ago, it is a damned shame Japan-registered outfielder Chen Ta-feng (Yasuaki Taiho) never hit 55 for the Chunichi Dragons, because then the media would have to explain how his record was different, even though he was a domestically registered player from Day 1, having joined the Dragons through the draft after playing amateur ball in Japan.

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