Top Five Active Japanese Players in Major League Baseball – Part 1
Major League Baseball prides itself on the diversity which exists throughout the various teams. Players from all different nationalities and backgrounds can be found on all teams. One of the most predominant countries that have contributed some of the most
talented players to MLB over the years is Japan. Many talented Japanese players have crossed the ocean to compete in MLB.
Below are the top five active Japanese players in the MLB:
In the current rankings of the Japanese players, Ichiro Suzuki is on the top. He is acting as a right-fielder for the Seattle Mariners. Suzuki is the only Japanese player who served the Mariners since last decade. He made his MLB debut on April 2, 2001 for
Seattle and displayed an outstanding performance in the first game.
Suzuki has also won many awards due to his impressive play like Gold Glove Award, 2007 All-Star MVP Award. He has an exemplary record in MLB statistics through June 29, 2011 as he raised his batting average to .328 and struck 91 home-runs in his career.
Suzuki has 580 RBIs, 2336 hits, 1089 runs and 403 stolen bases in his overall baseball career.
In the American League, Suzuki earned fame by mounting 200 hits in two consecutive seasons during 2002 and 2003. There was some downfall in the performance of Suzuki in 2006 season as he ended it with an average of .322. However, in 2009, he regained his
form and led the Major Leagues with 225 hits. In the last season during 2010, Suzuki won a Rawlings Gold Glove Award. He broke the all-time career hits record in the current season by hitting a scoring shot against the Oakland Athletics.
The Athletics’ designated hitter, Hideki Matsui is on the Number two spot in the Japanese Top Players rankings. He joined MLB on March 31, 2003 for the New York Yankees. He helped the Yankees in winning the 2009 World Series by dominating the defending champion
Philadelphia Phillies.
In the end of 2009, Matsui signed a one-year contract worth $6.5 million with the Los Angeles Angels and gave them thrilling wins by his amazing performances. After the end of one-year deal, he became a free agent and then he inked another one-year deal
worth $4.25 million with the Oakland Athletics. Although the Athletics were at lower spot in the MLB Team Rankings but Matsui put all his efforts for the team and hit some valuable shots.
Matsui has an outstanding record in MLB statistics through June 4, 2011 as he has batting average of .286, 164 home-runs, 701 RBIs, .365 on-base percentage and .838 on-base plus slugging. He improved the position of the Athletics with respect to batting.
Boston Red Sox pitcher, Daisuke Matsuzaka is the Number three Japanese player in the current rankings. He joined MLB on April 5, 2007 and signed a long-term contract with the Red Sox. He provided some tricky pitches to stop the scoring runs of the batters
and pitched his first shut-out game in the 2007 Major League season. Matsuzaka had a better record than any other pitcher in that 2007 World Series as he was the first Japanese pitcher to get an award of MLB playoff game.
Matsuzaka has a Win-Loss record of 46-27, ERA of 4.18 and 542 strike-outs throughout 2010 season. In his overall baseball career, he struck-out 1355 batters with an ERA of 2.95.
As a consequence, it is cleared that if all these Japanese players performed according to their team’s requirements, then there would be chances of their separate MLB team. Suzuki, Matsui and Matsuzaka each had promising last series as they had game-winning
performances.
Continued in Part 2
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