On Wednesday, Nippon Professional Baseball announced its Most Valuable Player and Rookie of the Year Awards, decided as the Best Nines and Golden Gloves are, in a poll by members of Japan’s baseball media with five years under their belts.
Let’s start with the MVP voting, and I’ll get to the rookie stuff tomorrow.
Munetaka Murakami, who finished second in WAR in the CL to Seiya Suzuki (8.7-6.8), according to Delta Graphs became, at the age of 21, the youngest MVP in Japanese pro baseball history.
Suzuki did get five first-place votes, which is pretty darn impressive for a player who didn’t set any big records on a team that finished out of the playoffs. I love the vote distribution on pennant-winning teams, since seven voters ostensibly thought Swallows setup man Noboru Shimizu, who did set a record for holds, was the best player in the CL.
The Central League vote
| Name | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Munetaka Murakami | S | 287 | 10 | 7 | 1472 | .962 |
| Tetsuto Yamada | S | 1 | 98 | 49 | 348 | .227 |
| Noboru Shimizu | S | 7 | 57 | 49 | 255 | .166 |
| Kazuma Okamoto | G | 1 | 34 | 28 | 135 | .088 |
| Seiya Suzuki | C | 5 | 21 | 32 | 120 | .078 |
| Robert Suarez | T | 0 | 26 | 27 | 105 | .068 |
| Yuhei Nakamura | S | 1 | 16 | 24 | 77 | .050 |
| Norichika Aoki | S | 2 | 8 | 6 | 40 | .026 |
| Yasutaka Shiomi | S | 1 | 3 | 7 | 21 | .013 |
| Ryoji Kuribayashi | C | 1 | 2 | 8 | 19 | .012 |
| Scott McGough | S | 0 | 4 | 6 | 18 | .011 |
| Koji Chikamoto | T | 0 | 2 | 9 | 15 | .009 |
| Koyo Aoyagi | T | 0 | 1 | 11 | 14 | .009 |
| Yasunobu Okugawa | S | 0 | 3 | 3 | 12 | .007 |
| Yuya Yanagi | D | 0 | 2 | 5 | 11 | .007 |
| Ryuta Kono | S | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .001 |
The Pacific League vote
I understand people voting for Yutaro Sugimoto over Yamamoto, but I don’t get the Hiroya Miyagi vote. One voter left Yamamoto off his ballot, which I also don’t particularly object to, unless it was the same voter who thought the rookie was the best pitcher on the team.
| Name | Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yoshinobu Yamamoto | B | 283 | 1 | 1 | 1419 | .992 |
| Yutaro Sugimoto | B | 2 | 120 | 90 | 460 | .321 |
| Masataka Yoshida | B | 0 | 107 | 100 | 421 | .294 |
| Hiroya Miyagi | B | 1 | 29 | 39 | 131 | .091 |
| Naoya Masuda | M | 0 | 4 | 4 | 16 | .011 |
| Takashi Ogino | M | 0 | 1 | 8 | 11 | .007 |
| Yuki Yanagita | H | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | .007 |
| Brandon Laird | M | 0 | 1 | 4 | 7 | .004 |
| Hiroaki Shimauchi | E | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | .003 |
| Takahiro Norimoto | E | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .002 |
| Takuya Kai | H | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .002 |
| Tomoya Mori | L | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | .002 |
| Leonys Martin | M | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | .0014 |
| Kotaro Kurebayashi | B | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
| Takahiro Okada | B | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
| Yoshihisa Hirano | B | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
| Yuma Mune | B | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
| Chihaya Sasaki | M | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
| Kaima Taira | L | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .0007 |
