Top Japanese players in the Major League Baseball- MLB Feature Part 2
Hideo Nomo is probably the most successful Japanese pitcher to play in the Majors. As a starting pitcher, he had a successful period of six years in the NBP as well where he posted a 78-46 winning record with 3.15 ERA. Hideo was representing
the Kintetsu Buffaloes in Japan.
He won several distinctions in the NBP including the Pacific League Rookie of the Year and Pacific League MVP, both in 1990. He was also a part of the Silver Medal winning Japanese team in the 1988 Olympics.
In 1994, Nomo got into a contract dispute with his team and opted to play in the Major League. He was not eligible to be a free agent at that point in time as per rules in the NBP and retired to use a loophole that was present in the agreement between the
Japanese Baseball and Major League Baseball. He joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995.
Nomo had a successful career that officially ended in 2008, though he only played three games in 2008 and his last proper Major league season was 2005.
Hideo played in a total of 12 seasons and posted a 123-109 winning record. He posted a career ERA of 4.24. 2002 was probably the best year of his career in the Majors where he posted a 16-6 winning record with a 3.39 ERA and 1.32 WHIP.
Nomo was an All-Star in 1995 and was also named as the National League Rookie of the Year. He was the first Japanese player in almost 30 years to play in the Majors and proved to be an inspiration for many others to follow. Players such as Ichiro Suzuki
and Hideki Matsui were perhaps inspired by Hideo’s move to the Major League.
Ichiro Suzuki is without a doubt the best player from Japan
that has taken part in the Major League. He has not just performed exceedingly well but also owns records in the MLB.
The 39-year-old made his debut in the NBP at the age of 18 in 1992. Initially he had to spend two seasons in the farm system of the Orix Blue Wave. It took him sometime to settle in but once he did, his performance impressed one and all.
Ichiro posted an amazing career average of .353 and a .421 on-base percentage. He had 1278 hits in 951 games, scoring 658 runs. He batted in 529 runs and went long on 118 occasions.
Suzuki won tons of accolades in the NBP including seven consecutive All-Star appearances, three Pacific League MVP Awards, seven Golden Glove Awards and many more.
He was signed by the Seattle Mariners for a $14 million contract for three years. Ichiro made his debut with the Mariners in 2001 and remained with the team until 2012 when he requested to be traded midseason to the New York Yankees, a wish that was granted
by the Seattle ball club.
He had amazing production for the Mariners and it was rare for him to have a production of under .300 at bats, something that happened only twice in his 12-year-long career. Suzuki had over two hundred hits each year for ten consecutive years and has never
hit less than 178 in a season.
Ichiro has a total of 2606 hits, nearly 400 extra base hits and has batted in 660 runs with 104 home-runs. He also has 452 stolen bases to his name.
His lowest batting average has been .272 in 2011 where as his best has been .372 in 2004, the year he made the record for most hits ever in an MLB season with 262. Ichiro’s career batting average in .322 and has an on-base percentage of .365.
Just like in NBP, he has a long list of awards to his name in the MLB. These include ten All-Star appearances, 10 Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, three Silver Slugger Awards, one American League MVP and American League Rookie of the year.
Ichiro has indeed been one of the greatest players the game has seen, in the MLB and otherwise as well. We hope that he will continue to mesmerise us with his supreme batting skills.
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