NOTE:  Anyone looking at the "all player decade teams" should be aware clicking on the player name takes you to the index, and clicking on the "Leagues" link takes you to the comment(s) on the player that decade. I apologize for this somewhat clunky arrangement, but I don't want to use space on repeats and any other scheme I came up had drawbacks as well.

One League Era (before 1950)

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

I chose to make the whole period before 1950 a "decade" for several reasons:
   1)  NPB didn't exist until 1936;
   2)  The 1936 "season" was simply a series of tournaments and therefore doesn't fit well with my analytical system. Accordingly, I disregard it unless the player's career absolutely requires I consider it;
   3)  Disruptions in player careers because of World War II;
   4)  The very short (35 game) 1944 season and the cancelled 1945 season;
   5)  The generally shorter schedules before 1950; and
   6)  It would have been a mess to try and do a 1930's team for a mere three or four years.

Takeshi Doigaki     c   264 points
His best looking seasons are quite good years, but not as good as they look because they came in years when things strongly favored hitters. As a result, he never had a "Hall of Famer" type season of 24 points or more.

Masaki Yoshihara     c   150 points
Led the league in walks once, and his .237 career average is more impressive than it looks before you take into account the deadball nature of the game in which he played. He was only 22 in his last season of 1941, and had risen to sixth in the batting race. Clearly, he had the potential for a fine NPB career if WW II hadn't intervened.

Tetsuharu Kawakami    1b   388 points
The best position player of this era. He had five of his seven Hall of Famer type seasons of 24 or more EWS in this era. He doesn't get a great deal of boost from the system for the three years he missed to the war, only 36 points. He probably should get more than that, but any rating system has problems like that.

Akira Noguchi     1b-p   272 points
His monster season came as a pitcher in 1937. In the whole year (both the spring and fall halves), he was 34-22 in 492.1 innings (almost 2/3 of his career total) with a 2.21 ERA. Unfortunately, the heavy usage seems to have ruined his arm, so he became a first baseman. In 1949, he went to the Dragons and became a full-time catcher at age 31. He led the league in triples and RBI in 1942.

Shigeru Chiba     2b   369 points
William McNeil's Baseball's Other Stars said Chiba was "a defensive standout for 15 years." He lost 4 years to the war, from ages 23 to 27. My approach gives him 60 points for those years, but I suspect that's conservative. He never had a "Hall of Famer-type season" of 24 or more points, but he had some near misses of that standard. Thus, a better analysis of his defense might get him one or two such years.

Yasuji Hondo     2b   234 points
He had some speed, with four seasons of 15 or more steals. He also had decent averages, finishing in the top eight in the batting race three times.

Kazuto Yamamoto     3b   402 points
He lost six seasons to the war in what should have been the prime years of his career. My method gives him 118 points for those missing years because of the length of the lost time; his "Hall of Famer" type season in 1939, his last before military service; his good return year; and his high average score for the seasons he did play. All in all, I think that 118 point adjustment is realistic, if not even conservative.

Fumio Fujimura     3b   391 points
He lost five years to the war, but because of his awful 1943 season, he only gets 65 points for them. That number is quite conservative in my view, and I subjectively think he should rate ahead of Yamamoto. He had two of his three Hall of Famer type years in this period.

Toshio Shiraishi     ss   322 points
He had three seasons which just missed the 24 point "Hall of Famer" standard, but a better analysis of defense might get him a couple of those seasons. He missed 1944 and 1945 because of the war, and missed 1947 for reasons I am unaware of.

Fujio Ueda     2b-ss   227 points
The only year he lost to the war was the one everybody in Japan lost, 1945 (because they suspended play that year). He would have been 33 that year, so it wasn't likely to be one of his best. He came to NPB at age 25, so he might have lost a few of his early years before NPB came about. Even if you give him every reasonable break for those missing seasons, he's still not particularly close to the standard for the Japanese Hall of Fame.

Shosei Go     of   404 points
He didn't make any franchise all-star team because he split this era between the Giants and the Tigers, and then spent his declining years with the Orions. In short, he didn't stay with any one team long enough to get on its franchise all-star squad. He was close with the Giants, but the standard to make their squad is quite high.

Michinori Tsubouchi    of   291 points
The only year he missed to the war was the suspended season of 1945. He was 22 when he came to NPB in 1936, so he probably didn't miss too much time because of when NPB began. My opinion is that his career falls short of being JHOF caliber, but that's not what the Japanese Hall decided.

Den Yamada     of   290 points
The suspended year of 1945 may have been more costly to him than it was for most players. In the three years before that season, he was fourth, second and seventh in the batting race and added the league leadership in walks in 1944. In 1946, he fell to 25th, and he was ineffective in his last two years. He was 31 in 1945, and it may be that without consistent practice and/or top-level competition that age took a particularly heavy toll on his talents.

Masaru Kageura     of   262 points
He was only 24 when he went into the military, and only two years removed from a marvelous pair of 1937 campaigns that together score 39 EWS, a very high figure.

Haruyasu Nakajima    of   258 points
He was 27 when NPB began, and his best years in NPB were in his first few NPB seasons. He had a big dropoff in 1943 at age 33 and never recovered. He may well be a legitimate Japanese Hall of Fame caliber player, but not based solely upon his work in NPB. He won batting titles in both halves of the 1938 season. From 1937 to 1942, he was always in the top nine in the batting race.

Makoto Kozuru     of   247 points
He's another player who moved around too much to make any franchise all-star teams. He won two Best Nines and a MVP, one of the Best Nines and the MVP coming in 1950. His first monster season was 1949 when he won his only batting title with a .361 average. He added 15 steals, 24 homers and 75 walks to that .361 average, yet the 1949 season is only his second best. The 1950 season was even better, but we'll cover that one in the next decade.

Victor Starffin     p   646 points
Starffin is the most valuable player of this era. As I noted elsewhere, the best season I've seen in NPB under the EWS system is Starffin's 1940 campaign. He scored 53 points then. That year, he went 38-12 in 436 innings with a 0.97 ERA. He had monster years each year from 1937 to 1940, then again in 1942, and one last time in 1949.

Jiro Noguchi     p   627 points
His best season as seen by the EWS rating system was also in 1940, when he scored 51 points. He was 33-11 that year with a league leading 0.93 ERA in 387 innings. All of his first five years were monsters, the lowest rated among them scoring a hefty 35 points. He was 33-19 in that year in 459 innings, but was "only" sixth in the ERA race.

Tadashi Wakabyashi    p   553 points
He had five Hall of Famer type seasons (24 or more points) and three more near misses (22 or more points). The rating system picks as his best the 1943 season when he went 24-15 in 415.2 innings with a 1.05 ERA, good for third in the league. That one scores at 43 points. The system thinks that his 1939 season is almost as good at 41 points. That year, he went 28-7 in 330 innings with a league leading 1.09 ERA.

Hideo Fujimoto     p   419 points
He had a season that scored 52 EWS points in 1943 when he led the league in wins (34), winning percentage(.756), strikeouts (253), innings pitched (432.2), and ERA (0.73). He had two other seasons of over 30 points, one in 1949 and the other in 1950.

Akira Bessho     p   347 points
He had three Hall of Famer type seasons in this era, the best being a 33 point effort in 1947, when he was 30-19 with a 1.86 ERA in 448.1 innings. He led the league that season in wins, innings pitched and strikeouts, and was fourth in ERA. He had the bulk of his best years in the 1950's though.

Takao Misonoo     p   339 points
He never had a Hall of Famer type season. His two best seasons were almost equal parts hitting/position play on one hand and pitching on the other. If he didn't combine the two parts, he'd have only been an above average player. It's a unique combination, but it helped his teams and should be counted that way.

Kotaro Mori     p   321 points
His three big seasons are from 1940 to 1942 and are the sole reason he rates this highly. For more details on those years, please see the comment on him in the Blue Wave's franchise all-stars article.

Teruzo Nakao     p   312 points
He had three "Hall of Famer type seasons" of 24 EWS or more in 1940. 1941, and 1948. The 1948 system is the highest rated basically because he led the league in ERA that time and he didn't in the others. Probably the main reason he reached that pinnacle in 1948 was his control was the best of those three years, at 3.04 walks/9 innings. His next best in those three years was 5.45 walks/9 innings. On the other hand, his hits/9 innings was the highest of the three in 1948 at 6.43, the next worst being at 5.78.

Juzo Sanada     p   286 points
He had the first of his two Hall of Famer type seasons in 1948, when he scored 32 points. His other such season was 1950 and was even better, but we'll discuss it next decade. The 1948 marks were 25-19 in 392.2 innings with a 2.22 ERA, which was good for sixth in the ERA race. His 1950 ERA was higher, but runs were much more plentiful that year. Also, in 1950 Sanada was much more effective at the plate.

Sadayoshi Fujimoto    mgr   30.50 points
He won 4 pennants and two split seasons in this era without playoffs. His record in this era was 547-306-26 for a .641 winning percentage as calculated by the Japanese, who ignore ties. One of the key aspects of his building the Giants into a powerhouse was a harsh training camp in September 1936 to toughen them up. It was called "vomit practice" because players were forced to exert themselves to the point of vomiting in 90 plus degree (Fahrenheit) heat.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

1950's

From this point on, we will do a team for each league, and then a team for "all players", without regard for the NPB league(s) they played in. The reason for the "all players" league is to see that players traded between leagues are treated fairly. However, I will only provide additional commentary for a player on the "all players" team when circumstances warrant.

Shigeru Fujio     c   185 points
He won 4 Best Nines at catcher. He twice finished fifth in average and had 11-15 homers four times. He had 12-14 steals three times, and his career average was .253.

Akira Noguchi     c   143 points
He was 32 by the time the decade started, so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise he only had 2 AB after 1954. He hit almost exactly half of his homers in this decade in 1950 when he hit 18 of the 37 he would get in this decade. His hitting was definitely on a downward slope this decade, which isn't surprising given his age. Even so, he was good enough to win two Best Nines at catcher in this decade. Also of note is this is the second decade all-star team he made, the first being as a reserve at first base in the one league era.

Tetsuaharu Kawakami     1b   325 points
This is his second all-decade team. He starts for the Central League, but is on the bench for the overall 1950's team. His averages are higher in this decade, but his seasons in the 1950's aren't as impressive because 1) his power is down, and 2) runs were more plentiful in this decade.

Michio Nishizawa     1b   298 points
He's far more valuable in this decade than he was in the one league era. Both of his Hall of Famer type seasons came this decade and he came close another time.

Shigeru Chiba     2b   251 points
By the middle of the 1950 season, he was 31. He played regularly through 1955 and lost his job with a poor season that year. In this decade, he had three of his league leaderships in walks and was twice in the top six in average. I'd say he managed to age rather gracefully. This is his second all-decade team, and he even makes the 1950 overall team as a reserve.

Noburu Inoue     2b   235 points
He was in the top seven in average four times, though one of them came in 1961. He had 14-18 homers four years in his career, but two of them were in the 1960's. His two seasons of twenty or more steals came in the fifties as did three of his other six seasons with double digit steal totals. The method selects 1958 as his best year, when he hit .280 to finish sixth in the league in average and added his career highs in homers (18) and steals (26). He was only 24 at that time. However, when Morimichi Takagi came up, the Dragons traded him to the Hawks, who promptly put him in the outfield. His career withered after that.

Fumio Fujimura     3b-1b   324 points
He also achieved the high honor of making his second all-decade team, as a starter for the Central League and as Nakanishi's backup in the overall 1950's squad.

Hiroji Okajima     3b   231 points
He had a Hall of Famer type year in 1958 when he lead the league in steals and walks to go with a .269 average and a career high 16 homers. He led the league in steals and walks again in 1959, but his average dipped to .243, and was only over .247 once more. He led the league in walks in 1957 as well.

Yoshio Yoshida     ss   285 points
He had an excellent year in 1964 to lead the Tigers to the pennant, but my rating method says his Hall of Famer type year came in 1956, when he hit .290 and stole 50 bases.

Tatsuro Hirooka     ss   229 points
He had a super rookie season at age 22, but he went backward as a player in his sophomore season and never moved forward from that point. He remained a solid player through his sixth season and then declined seriously after that. Those first six seasons all came in the 1950's and are responsible for this rating.

Wally Yonamine     of   383 points
He came to Japan in 1951 as a 26 year old. His career was essentially over as the decade ended. In 1959, he finished third in the batting race with a .287 average, which was his lowest average to that point. After that, he played in three seasons but never got his average over .228 for a year. He was also gracious in giving up his planned move to first base so that Sadaharu Oh could play, though one wonders if he wouldn't have been pushed aside had he not been gracious about it, because of his poor play and Oh's potential. He played well enough this decade to be a starter on the overall 1950's decade team.

Makoto Kozuru     of   321 points
He had his career year in 1950 when he hit .355 to finish second in the batting race, and led the league in homers, RBI and slugging percentage. He also walked 89 times and stole 28 bases. Obviously, he was a key to the Robins' success that season. He's a starter on the 1950's CL team and a reserve on the overall 1950's team, the second decade in which he made a decade all-star team.

Kenjiro Tamiya     of   317 points
He went to the Orions in 1959, and his season there moves him ahead of Kozuru in the overall all-decade team, though not into a starting role on that squad. He only had 467 AB before 1954, because he began his NPB as a pitcher and turned out to not be very good at it (12-12 with a 4.65 ERA). Once he got into the outfield, he turned in four Hall of Famer type seasons of 24 or more EWS.

Noburu Aota     of   303 points
There are two major reasons he didn't make any team's franchise all-star squad. The first is that he played for four teams, which hurt his chances of making any one of them. The second is that the team he played best for was the Giants, and they're so stocked with talent that their standards are higher than almost everyone else's. He had two Hall of Famer type seasons in 1948 and 1950. He won one batting title and finished third another time. He had a .290 or better average five times, excluding seasons of 125 or less AB. He led the league in homers five times, RBI twice and slugging percentage once. He hit 20 or more homers in seven seasons. I think he has a legitimate Japanese HOF resume, and wonder why he still hasn't gotten that honor.

Masayasu Kaneda     of   270 points
He had one Hall of Famer type year, in 1953 at age 32. That year, he hit .324 to finish second in the batting race and led the league in walks with 87. He also led the league with 11 triples and stole 27 bases in 36 attempts and added his second best ever season in slugging percentage at .473.

Satoshi Sugiyama     of   263 points
He never had a Hall of Famer type season. He led the league in slugging percentage and homers in 1952 and in RBI in 1954. He slugged .500 or better four times.

Masaichi Kaneda     p   534 points
He's the best player of the decade, the last time a pitcher has held that distinction. He had at least 20 wins every year in this decade except for his rookie year of 1950, twice leading the league in that category this decade. He was 234-183 in that time, and if he hadn't worked for the generally poor Swallows teams, he almost certainly would have done better. He led the league seven times in strikeouts during the decade, twice won the ERA title, and except for his rookie year, was always in the top 10 in ERA. From 1955 to 1958, his highest ERA was 1.78, and he pitched at least 332 innings in each of those years. I'd love to know how he performed in the 332 games he finished in relief, just as I'd like to know that data for other top Japanese pitchers before 1974. For one thing, that data could shake up the rankings among the top pitchers.

Akira Bessho     p   523 points
He had six Hall of Famer type seasons in this decade, the best being his 1952 campaign, when he was 33-13 with an ERA of 1.94 (second best in the league) in a league leading 371.1 innings. His run in the fifties is quite impressive, and was a major factor in the success of the Giants in this decade. This is his second all-decade team, but this time he's the second best pitcher overall instead of the fifth best.

Shigeru Sugishita     p   517 points
Only two seasons in his career fall outside this decade. His best year was 1954, which the system scores at 46 points. It is only one of the five years he had a Hall of Famer type year. That year, he led in appearances, games finished in relief, shutouts, wins, winning percentage, innings pitched, strikeouts, and ERA. He was 32-12 with a 1.39 ERA with 273 K's in 395.1 IP.

Ryohei Hasegawa     p   413 points
He makes the overall all-decade team, but not its starting rotation. He had two Hall of Famer type seasons according to the rating system in 1954 and 1955. He finished fourth in ERA both years and led the league with 30 wins in 1955. The main reason the system prefers 1955 is that he pitched 387.1 innings that year versus 310.2 in 1954. In those two seasons, he went 48-34 for teams which won a total of 114 games in those two years. The teams in those two years were so bad he had to record a 1.75 ERA over those two years to win as many as he did.

Takumi Otomo     p   359 points
He had three consecutive Hall of Fame type seasons from 1953 to 1955. In those three years, he was 78-27 in 863.2 IP with an ERA of 1.76. Unfortunately, he burned out soon after that. Still, he's good enough to make the overall all-decade team.

Masaaki Koyama     p   275 points
He came up as an 18 year old in 1953 and was lightly used by Japanese standards in his first three years (only one season over 131 IP, and only 166 at that). Thereafter, he was used in a more typical fashion for Japan, 1139.2 innings over the next four years. He had a total of four Hall of Famer type seasons, two of which came in this decade. He performed well enough this decade to make the overall all decade squad.

Hideo Fujimoto     p   263 points
He pitched until 1955, but only 24.2 innings in his last two seasons. It's enough to get him on to his second all-decade team, though not the overall 1950's squad.

Takao Fujimura     p   254 points
He came up as an 18 year old in 1940, but from 1942 to 1948 he pitched just 115.1 innings in NPB. The only season that jumps out at you in his record is 1952, when he went 25-6 in 260 innings with a 2.63 ERA, which was seventh best in the league that year.

Juzo Sanada     p   248 points
This is the second decade in which he makes an all-decade team, but not the overall decade team this time. His 1950 season is scored at 40 points, and it was a monster. He was 39-12 in 395.2 innings and while his ERA was 3.05, runs were so plentiful that year he finished eighth. He led in wins and innings pitched and added an excellent year at the plate as well. He didn't play in the field that year, but he still had 172 AB, a .314 average, 22 walks and a .448 slugging percentage. His on-base percentage was a marvelous .392 that year. That would be a nice contribution from a part-time position player, but such a contribution from a pitcher like him is spectacular.

Shigeru Mizuhara    mgr    45.23 points
The Central League and overall decade team manager of the 1950's is the man who led the Giants throughout the decade. He won 4 Japan Series titles and 8 total pennants this decade. The main difference between him and Tsuruoka for the overall team managerial position is three Japan Series titles and three pennants. His record for the decade is 815-438-26, which is a .650 winning percentage when ties are ignored as per the Japanese custom.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Katsuya Nomura     c   230 points
He's the best catcher of the decade despite having only 11 AB before 1956. After that, though, he hit 101 homers and his lowest average was .253. He had his first Hall of Fame caliber year in 1957 when he led the league with 30 homers to go with his .302 average and .538 slugging percentage while catching in all of his team's games. Don Blasingame says Nomura's arm wasn't "real strong", but he was able to throw out a lot of runners by being quite good at calling pitchouts when guys were running. In short, Nomura played smart ball.

Takeshi Doigaki     c   216 points
He's not only the backup catcher of the 1950's PL all-stars, he's the backup catcher of the overall all-decade team as well. That puts him on his second overall all-decade team, a significant achievement, to say the least. It's probably more impressive that he was the very best catcher of the one league era, but finishing a reasonably close second to Nomura is hardly a disgrace.

Tokuji Iida     1b   332 points
He scores a little better for the overall decade than for the PL alone because in 1957 he went to the Central League's Swallows and stayed with them to the end of his career. His Pacific League accomplishments alone are enough to make him the best first baseman of the 1950's in NPB, though. The system rates 1955 as his best season because 1) he played in 143 games, 2) compared to earlier in the decade, many fewer runs were scored in Hawk games that year, and 3) he hit .310 with 72 walks for a .394 on base percentage. The ability to get on base also means a player has avoided using up one of the team's precious 27 outs, so a high on base percentage is a very important attribute.

Kihachi Enomoto     1b   274 points
He first played in 1955 as an 18 year old, and was a force from the outset. He led in walks in each of his first two seasons to go with top ten batting averages and decent power (16 and 15 HR, respectively). Those two years are two of his five Hall of Famer type seasons, the only two in this decade. His third through fifth years in NPB were good but still a step down from his freshman and sophomore seasons.

Isami Okamoto     2b   286 points
He came up as a 19 year old in 1950 and by 1952 he was a regular. Even though he never had a Hall of Famer type season, he still is the best second baseman of the 1950's.

Chico Barbon     2b   211 points
He came to Japan at a young age for a Western gaijin, 22. He won a Best Nine in 1958. He had very little power, with a career high of 8 homers. He had two solid years of hitting for average, his rookie year, 1955 (.280), and 1958 (.268). Otherwise, he only hit over .239 once, and that was in only 172 AB. He did have decent walk totals, and he also had speed. He led the league in steals three times (one of the was in the 1960's) and triples twice. In each of his first six seasons he stole at least 32 bases and 245 total for the six years.

Futoshi Nakanishi     3b   457 points
The best position player of the fifties in NPB. He arrived in NPB as a 19 year old in 1952. He was good as a rookie, and spectacular from 1953 through 1958, registering Hall of Fame caliber seasons in all six years. Then came the wrist injury in 1959, and he was not able to make a big contribution ever again.

Kazuo Kageyama     3b   286 points
He never had a Hall of Fame caliber year. His ability to draw walks made his first five seasons quite good, and kept his last five from being of minimal value.

Yasumitsu Toyoda     ss   398 points
The third best position player of the decade played right beside the best (Nakanishi) from 1953 to 1959. He had three of his seven Hall of Fame caliber seasons in this decade, including what is rated his very best season, 1956. That year, he hit .325 to win the batting title and added 76 walks and stole 31 bases. He was well below his best in HR with 12, but he had his career high in triples with 12 to compensate.

Chusuke Kizuka     ss   212 points
He never had a really big season because he didn't walk much and had little power. Thus, his value resided almost exclusively in his defense and batting average. When the average declined from 1953 on, he was an ordinary player at best.

Kazuhiro Yamauchi     of   423 points
According to Fitts and Engel, he had 216 at bats against touring major leaguers and hit .301 but with only 3 HR. He's the best outfielder of the 1950's in NPB.

Hiroshi Oshita     of   341 points
He had seven seasons in which he qualified for the batting title and hit over .300 (of the nine in his career) and also had four of his career seven seasons of slugging over .500 in this decade. Such a standout performance wins him a spot among the starters on the all-decade team.

Seiji Sekiguchi     of   288 points
He was a valuable piece of the 1950's Lions dynasty, though not a big star. A powerhouse like those Lions clubs usually needs guys like Sekiguchi who make a significant contribution because then they're getting production from almost everywhere instead of having to deal with holes in the lineup. Any hole is a weakness which another championship caliber club will try to exploit--and those Lions had to combat the Giants and the Hawks of their time.

Kaoru Betto     of   258 points
His peak came in his second and third seasons, at ages 28 and 29 (he actually turned 30 late in the third season). His first five years are rather good, but because he started late, there's not a lot to back it up. This decade even misses his first two seasons, which is why he doesn't even start for the Pacific League all decade team.

Shoichi Busujima     of   241 points
His rookie year was 1954, which is a bit of a handicap in this decade's all-star teams because he gets nothing from the first four years of the decade. His 1957 season is the only one which the rating system sees as a Hall of Famer-type season. Even so, the only stat that year which impresses you is his .307 average, which put him in third place that year.

Katsuki Tokura     of   234 points
He was a 35 year old rookie in 1950 and had an excellent career for a player 35 and older. I'd love to know why he didn't play in NPB sooner. I'd suspect WW II played a part in that. He slugged .500 and hit 21 homers in 1950. Considering his age, he had good speed, stealing 20 or more bases three times. He hit .293 or better four times, finishing in the top eight in average each time. He could only manage 8 seasons before Father Time caught up with him.

Kazuhisa Inao     p   472 points
The rating system gives him enough credit for his exceptional performances that he ranks #1 among Pacific League players despite the fact his rookie year was 1956. Of course, in those 4 seasons he pitched 1411 innings and led the league in ERA three times and "slipped" to second in the fourth. He finishes fourth among pitchers for the whole decade solely due to his late start.

Atsushi Aramaki     p   368 points
He never had an ERA over 2.42 this decade despite pitching throughout the decade. He was washed up when it ended, going 0-2 in 66.2 IP with a 3.51 ERA in the 1960's even though he was only 33 when the 1950's ended. He appears to have been another casualty of Japanese training methods for pitchers and the usage patterns for pitchers (i.e. make them throw until their arms fall off, then get a new guy).

Takao Kajimoto     p   292 points
He was a rookie in 1954, which keeps his value in this decade down. He did have Hall of Fame caliber years in three of his first four seasons, but few of his seasons after that could reasonably be called better than "solid". He won nearly half his career victories this decade (117 of 254) while only collecting less than 37% of his career losses (94 of 255). This decade isn't the problem for his JHOF case, to be sure. He's good enough to make the overall all-decade staff despite his late start.

Yasuo Yonekawa     p   272 points
He loses a lot of points because of the rating system's use of the best five consecutive season element. He wasn't much outside of the 1950-1955 seasons, and while he had two excellent years in 1950 and 1951, he pitched only 23.2 innings in 1952, had a decent 1953, and then had two of his best three seasons. As a result, he loses one of his four best seasons and in return gets very little from 1952 for the five consecutive season element. The system rates 1955 as his best. That year, he went 22-21 for a 51-89 team, pitching 353.1 innings with a 2.26 ERA, his best in a season of at least 24 innings.

Tokuji Kawasaki     p   268 points
He turned 29 early in the 1950 season, so he makes his only all decade squad based on the final eight years of his career. By the time the Lions were a powerhouse, he was fading.

Giichi Hayashi     p   254 points
He got a late start in NPB, at age 29 in 1949. All but 25 of his career innings pitched came in the 1950's.

Sadaaki Nishimura     p   251 points
His career was toast by age 22. From that point on, he pitched 317 innings over five seasons, going 18-21 with a 3.01 ERA. Craig Wright wrote in The Diamond Appraised about how important it is to be careful with talented young arms, and this guy is a great example of what often happens when you aren't. He was excellent in 1954-1956 while being used rather hard (60 games finished in relief plus 77 starts) and it looks like he paid the price for it.

Susumu Yuki     p   239 points
He got his start in NPB in 1948 at age 27. He was 93-40 with a 2.36 ERA in the decade in only 1067.1 innings. Even so, he was an important part of the Hawk powerhouses at the start of the decade.

Hisafumi Kawamura     p   231 points
He was a valuable part of the Lion dynasty at the end of the decade. He was 102-61 with a 2.42 ERA in 1348.1 innings from 1953 through 1959. Actually, he was washed up by 1959, pitching only 64 innings that year with an ERA of 4.08.

Kazuto Tsuruoka     mgr   35.47 points
He won 1 Japan Series in five tries this decade. His record was 814-450-34 for the decade, a .644 winning percentage. He beats out Mihara essentially because he had a strong team when the decade started and kept it there, while Mihara had to build an expansion club up to that level first.

Osamu Mihara     mgr-honorable mention   27.60 points
He won 3 Japan Series in four tries this decade, and had a 680-458-51 record for a .598 winning percentage for the decade.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

NOTE: HM means "honorable mention"

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

1960's

Masaaki Mori     c   187 points
This method estimates his defensive contributions to comprise almose 2/3 of his value, and even that is probably low. He managed to play twenty years for many championship teams without making much of an offensive contribution, so you have to believe he was seen as a defensive stalwart.

Tatsuhiko Kimata     c   178 points
His rookie season was 1964, so the fact the first four years of the decade give him nothing is not helpful in his ranking for the decade. Furthermore, his power didn't come until 1967, when he hit 15 homers, and he finally got his average over .248 when he hit .289 in 1968. He was a far better player in the next decade.

Sadaharu Oh     1b   699 points
The fact Oh is the best player of this decade is one of his most impressive accomplishments because of the caliber of competition he faced for that distinction. All the top four players in NPB history (Oh, Nomura, Nagashima, and Harimoto) were all in or at least very near their primes during this decade, yet Oh was better than all of them.

Tatsuo Okitsu     3b-1b   245 points
Realistically, he's the best of a mediocre bunch of options for the first base backup for the 1960 Central League. He once hit .300 and finished in the top five in the batting race that year. He hit 15-21 homers in four of his 13 seasons, but that said, there's not much more to say for him.

Morimichi Takagi     2b   290 points
He starts for the Central League team but is a backup on the 1960 all-decade team. He began the decade as a 19 year old rookie and played until 1980. He didn't win an every day job until 1963. He never walked much, never taking more than 34 in a season. That limits how much of an offensive contribution he made. He was still a fine player, especially with the glove.

Takeshi Koba     2b-ss   216 points
He's much more famous for managing the great Carp teams of 1975-1985. He might have been much more famous as a player but for a serious beaning which broke his jaw late in 1963. He was never the same player after that incident. He won two stolen base crowns.

Shigeo Nagashima     3b   623 points
He finishes second for the decade to Oh, edging out Nomura for that honor. That fact makes it even clearer that the reason I ranked Nomura over Nagashima overall is due solely to Nomura's much greater longevity. Nagashima swept all ten Best Nine awards for third basemen during this decade.

Takeshi Kuwata     3b-ss   346 points
He also makes the all decade team. He led the league in RBI once and HR once in this decade and also finished in the top six in average three times. He showed speed in his first three seasons, with 25, 16, and 20 steals, but after that never stole more than 7 in a season.

Sadayuki Tokutake     3b   254 points
He only makes the team because of the weak crop at shortstop. Only had five plate appearances outside of this decade.

Yoshio Yoshida     ss-2b   248 points
He was already 26 when the decade began, so the tail end of his career is a bit of a drag on his rating for this decade. His managers loved to have him bunt, even though he hit leadoff-- he had seven seasons with over 20 sacrifice bunts.

Shinichi Eto     of   450 points
He played with the Dragons until 1970, when he forced a trade over disputes with his manager, Osamu Mihara. After that, he was a bit of a nomad, playing for three teams in seven years of fairly consistent decline. During the sixties, though, he was one of the three best outfielders of the decade in NPB and the best outfielder of the Central League for the decade.

Kazuhiko Kondo     of   354 points
He makes the all decade team as a reserve. He was in the top four in average six times, all in this decade. Really, he was as good as done in 1969, but he didn't retire until after the 1973 season.

Mitsuo Naka     of   329 points
He makes the overall all decade team because the weakness at shortstop combined with the multipositional skills of Hirose and Kuwata open up a spot, and Naka is the best player not on the team. His career didn't take off until this decade, partially because he was only 24 in 1960. It seems he took a few years to acclimate himself to this level of play, which isn't shocking, especially for a young player.

Kazuhiro Yamauchi     of   297 points
He ranks higher for the overall team of the decade because then you get to combine both his Central and Pacific league accomplishments. He was traded for Koyama for the 1964 season. Please note that the overall score is lower than the Central League plus the Pacific League scores because the league scores each have their three best seasons and their best five consecutive seasons counted, while the overall decade rating counts the three best seasons of the decade and the best five consecutive seasons of the decade. Yamauchi is the second best outfielder overall in the decade and the fifth best player of the decade.

Isao Shibata     of   246 points
He led the league in steals six times and stole 20 or more 15 times in his career. He also led the league in triples three times. He hit 10 or more homers eight times in his career, but only three of them were over 15 (18, 18 and 26). He didn't play much until 1963, which doesn't help his score for the decade.

Dave Roberts     of   223 points
He came to NPB at age 33 and turned 34 that June. In his first six seasons in NPB, he slugged over .500 all but one time, always hit at least 19 HR with four seasons of 28-40. Age caught up to him in 1973. His rating is this low because the first season that counts in this decade is 1967, so his rating is based on only three seasons.

Masaichi Kaneda     p   395 points
This is his second decade as the best pitcher in the game. He spent his last five seasons as a member of the "V-9" Giants. According to Robert Whiting in The Meaning of Ichiro, he was "notoriously short-tempered and combative." As good a book as The Meaning of Ichiro is, it contains what I regard as at the very least a misleading comment about Kaneda. On page 67 of my copy, it says Kaneda "dictated to his coaches when he would pitch, demanding no less than three days' rest." This may be true of Kaneda's time with the Giants, as he pitched in many fewer games than he did as a Swallow. However, when Kaneda was with the Swallows, this statement is much harder to accept. From 1951 to 1963, Kaneda pitched in at least 47 games each season, over 1/3 of his team's games. Usually, he was in over 40% of the Swallows' games and on occasion he was even in over half their games. It's hard to imagine a usage pattern which would accomodate these facts and the above quotation from Mr. Whiting.

Minoru Murayama     p   348 points
He's the third best pitcher of the decade. Oddly, though he only pitched in four seasons outside of this decade, two of his three league leaderships in ERA and his leadership in winning percentage all fell outside the 1960's. It is also interesting that he wasn't at his best in the Tigers' 1964 pennant season, goint 22-18 with a subpar 3.32 ERA. He was wonderful in the other Tiger pennant year in the decade, 1962. In 1962, Murayama went 25-14 while leading the league in innings pitched and ERA.

Kunio Jonouchi     p   253 points
He makes the overall all decade pitching staff, but not by much. By the end of the decade, he was nearly finished. A quick summary of his career would be that up through 1968, he was a valuable pitcher who played for the "V-9" Giants.

Noburu Akiyama     p   245 points
By the time this decade started, he was in his fifth season. His 1956-1959 period was quite valuable with league leaderships in innings pitched in each of his first three seasons (at least 359 IP each time) and then he "backed off" to 300.1 in 1959. As a result, he pitched nearly half his career innings before the 1960's started (1445 of 2993). He remained an effective starter through 1964, winning his one ERA title and finishing fourth in that category in two other seasons. He was 101-61 from 1960 through 1964. He only pitched 103.1 innings in 1965 and was ineffective (ERA's over 4) in 1966 and 1967.

Hiroshi Gondo     p   223 points
He pitched almost 800 innings in his first two seasons and had only three ineffective seasons after that. You have to suspect arm troubles from overuse killed his career, and The Meaning of Ichiro confirms that Gondo had arm troubles after those first two years. It's a shame, because those first two years showed great promise.

Gene Bacque     p   222 points
He was a big factor in the Tigers' success in 1964. He had four other quality seasons in NPB to add to that 1964 campaign. He was in the top seven in ERA four times after arriving in Japan at a young age for a Western gaijin, 25.

Minoru Kakimoto     p   211 points
His career is exactly this decade, from 1960 to 1969. He won an ERA title and twice won 20 games. He pitched for four teams, though over 70% of his innings were with the Dragons. I suspect his arm was hurting after 1964. He logged 856 innings in 1962 through 1964, and after that he never pitched effectively in over 85 innings in a season again.

Kiyoshi Oishi     p   202 points
He was used as a reliever from 1967 to 1969 by the Braves, finishing 58 games in relief and only starting 6. It would be interesting to know how many of those finished games would qualify under the standards used for saves.

Masaaki Koyama     p   190 points
This score represents what Koyama did before he was traded for Yamauchi. It's interesting that to date, only two players have ever made the all-decade team for both leagues in the same decade, and they were traded for each other in the decade they accomplished the feat. This rating only gets to use four seasons, and 1963 with its 3.59 ERA isn't a big help in boosting the score. However, from 1960 through 1962, he threw 1006 innings with a 2.13 ERA, which is quite valuable. Overall, he is the fifth best pitcher of the decade.

Tetsuharu Kawakami    mgr   38.68 points
He's the most successful manager of the decade, which is no surprise given the fact he won seven Japan Series in his seven pennant winning seasons in this decade. Such success in winning titles puts him well ahead of the most successful manager of the Pacific League for this decade, Kazuto Tsuruoka. His won-loss mark for the decade is 706-478-32 for a .596 winning percentage.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Katsuya Nomura     p   609 points
He had 13 Hall of Famer type seasons, and six of them scored over 30 EWS. All the 30 point seasons were in this decade, as were 3 more of the 24-30 point seasons. His only "off" season was 1969, when he played in 106 games with a .245 average but added 22 homers. This fine record earns him his second start for an all-decade team, which is a rare feat an any position, much less catcher. He's also the best Pacific League player of the decade, the only catcher so far to earn that honor.

Hiromi Wada     c   213 points
He's a five time all-star who was overshadowed by Nomura. He probably would have won a few Best Nines if Nomura hadn't blocked the way, and I think he's among the best 20-25 catchers in NPB history. Of course, the competition at catcher is rather weak. In any event, Wada is the second best catcher of the decade and thus gets a spot on the overall all-decade team.

Kihachi Enomoto     1b   447 points
This is his second appearance on a Pacific League decade all-star team, this time as a starter. He is also good enough in this decade to back up Oh on the overall all-decade team. In fact, his mark this decade is better than any first baseman not named Oh scores for any of the decade all-star teams thus far.

Katsuo Osugi     1b   222 points
He had only five seasons in this decade, and his rookie year was pretty much a wipeout (.192 average, 1 homer). His 1968 season wasn't spectacular either because of a .239 average, but he did hit 34 homers that year to give it some significant value.

Daryl Spencer     2b   323 points
He played seven seasons in NPB, 1964-1968 and 1971-1972. He retired after 1968, but in 1971, the Hankyu Braves called and asked him to be a coach. He had gotten out of playing shape, but his coaching duties in spring training included running infield practice in the traditionally vigorous manner. All the exercise he got doing this helped him get in better and better shape, and he soon tried taking batting practice. The team asked him to be a part-time first baseman/pinch hitter in addition to coaching, and he agreed. He worked in those multiple capacities for two seasons, and then became a full-time coach for the Braves for a few more years. Spencer's 1964 and 1965 seasons were Japanese Hall of Fame quality, and the next two were quite impressive. The formula says hes's the best second baseman of the 1960's in NPB, and I agree. (Thanks to Wylie Wong, the author of an planned book on former San Francisco Giants for the information on Spencer in 1969-1970).

Jack Bloomfield     2b   264 points
His 1962 season is a JHOF caliber year, which isn't hard to believe for a season in which he hit .374 to lead the league. He spent five seasons with the Buffaloes and two more with the Hawks. Overall, his NPB career began when he was 27 in 1960 and ran through 1966.

Akitoshi Kodama     3b   278 points
He had already finished six seasons before this decade began and he was 25 when it did. He finished in the top eight in average eight times, five in this decade. This rating misses his last two years because he was in the Central League with the Tigers.

Tony Roig     ss-3b   244 points
He played for the Lions in the first five NPB seasons, and for the Buffaloes in his last. He won a Best Nine at third in 1966. Since 1) Roig qualifies at third base, 2) there isn't another third baseman this good in the 1960's in the Pacific League, 3) Roig is one of the top three shortstops in the Pacific League in the 1960's, and 4) those three shortstops are separated my a mere two rtg2 points, it's easy to put Roig here and keep all three shortstops. Frankly, I think that if I had to drop one of the shortstops, Roig would have been the one I'd select on the theory his defense should have suffered from his age.

Yasumitsu Toyoda     ss   246 points
This rating is based on only three seasons, 1960-1962, because after that, Toyoda went to the Central League's Swallows. I chose him to be the starter because he is a more brilliant player than Koike. When you combine his performance in this decade from both Leagues, Toyoda is the best shortstop of the decade overall. That is his second start for an overall all decade team, a most impressive accomplishment.

Kenji Koike     ss   246 points
He loses very little because his last five years aren't included. That is the case because in those last five years, he only hit .217 in 695 AB with only 9 homers--which is to say he didn't do much of note. He had only three seasons in which he hit better than .238, and one of them was .269 in only 201 AB. He qualified for the batting title in the other two seasons with an average over .238. He did have some speed early in his career, stealing 24, 20 and 30 bases in 1962-1964.

Isao Harimoto     of   544 points
He's only the fourth best player in this decade, but except for Oh in the 1970's, this score would be the best among position players in every other decade. He won a Best Nine in the outfield every year in this decade. There's no question he's the best outfielder of the decade.

Yoshinori Hirose     of-ss   352 points
Tsuruoka must not have been too impressed with his fielding at shortstop, because otherwise it makes little sense to move a shortstop who could hit as well as Hirose to the outfield. Therefore, he might make an acceptable backup shortstop for an all-decade team, but I don't think he's a good choice to start at that position for such a team.

Masahiro Doi     of   342 points
He makes the overall all decade team as a reserve while he is a starter for the 1960's PL stars. He had six JHOF quality seasons, all for the Buffaloes and half of them in this decade.

Kazuhiro Yamauchi     of   301 points
He was traded at age 31 and turned 32 in his first season with the Tigers. Granted, he only had four seasons in the PL before the trade, but the advantage in age should be the more significant edge. Instead, Yamauchi was just about as valuable in his six years in the CL in this decade as he was in his four in the PL. It's safe to say he aged rather gracefully.

Shoichi Busujima     of   273 points
This is his second all PL squad, a quite significant achievement. He never made the overall all decade team, but that is mostly due to the fact his timing wasn't good for him to do so, with his rookie season falling in 1954. As such, he got no credit for the first four years of the 1950's, and the sixties wind up losing some of his prime years and putting in their place some seasons when he was in decline due to age.

Teruyuki Takakura     of   231 points
He started this decade as a 25 year old veteran of seven seasons. As a result, a good bit of his decline phase makes it into this decade. He only had more than 2 steals once after 1963, with seven in 1966.

Kazuhisa Inao     p   383 points
This is the second decade in which he is the highest rated pitcher in the Pacific League, and it is also the second decade in which he is in the starting rotation of the overall all decade team. Both of these accomplishments are very impressive. Because he was used so heavily, his career ended with this decade. The only question is if he had been used less, would the resulting greater length of his career give him more innings at his high level of effectiveness? Keep in mind, too, that in 1958, 1961 and 1963 it made sense to push Inao hard in those close races to win a pennant. It didn't work in 1961, when they finished four back, but unless they only made it close after the pennant was no longer in doubt, it probably made sense to try to let your best pitcher get you the pennant. His 402.1 IP in 1959, however, is simply inexcusable since it came for a team which was 22 games off the pace. I am reluctant to comment on 1957's 373.2 innings without knowing more about how the race developed. I know the Lions won by seven, but were they able to coast a couple of weeks to the finish, or did they open up the big lead in the last week, increasing their lead even after they clinched the title, or was it some other scenario? The nature of that scenario has a huge impact on how defensible it was to ride Inao so hard--the closer the race, the more reason to give the ball to your ace. On the other hand, the more of a runaway it is, the more reason to save your ace for another day. In 1962, he led the league in innings pitched, but with "only" 320.2. Even so, it probably should have been less in view of the fact the Lions finished 16 games out.

Mitsuo Minagawa     p   317 points
His 31 win 1968 season came in the midst of a pennant race which Minagawa's Hawks came up a game short. He pitched almost 100 more innings that year than in any other season in his career. Without that heavy usage, I think there's a good chance he would have been effective into his forties, since he turned 33 that year and pitched three more years anyway. He was ineffective in the last two years, though. It's awfully hared not to chase a pennant with your best when you are that close, though.

Tadashi Sugiura     p   288 points
After 1964, he never pitched more than 111.1 innings in a season, becoming almost a pure reliever. He maintained his number of games finished in relief from 1965 to 1969, but only started 24 games over five seasons, with a maximum of 8 starts in a season. His career ended with only 35.2 IP in 1970 at age 34. This rating leaves out his stellar freshman and sophomore seasons of 1958 and 1959, or he would certainly rate higher.

Tetsuya Yoneda     p   284 points
He only makes this one all decade team because he only played four years in the 1950's and by the seventies, he was in decline, starting that decade at age 32. If he'd been born 2 or 3 years earler, he'd surely make the fifties squad, and if he'd been born 2-3 years later, he'd have made the 1970's team. Anyway, he's the last member of the starting rotation of the 1960's PL all-stars and makes the bullpen of the 1960's all-decade team.

Masaaki Ikenaga     p   245 points
He came to the Lions in 1965 at age 18, turning 19 in August that year. He pitched at least 253.2 innings in each of his first five seasons for a total of 1425 innings. In 1970, he pitched 52.1 innings to conclude his NPB career at age 25. In 1966, the Lions finished only four out, so I won't criticize his 267.2 IP for that year. In 1967, they finished second, but nine games out. Unless the Lions were close until a late season swoon, it's hard to justify loading 335.1 innings on so young an arm. In the other three years in the 1960's, the Lions were never closer than 11 1/2 games behind the pennant winner. If the Lions had not loaded so many innings onto Ikenaga's young arm when they weren't even serious contenders for the pennant, he would have been around much longer and might have helped them later on. Ikenaga is good enough in his five years this decade to finish in a tie with Akiyama fot the last spot on the all-decade team.

Yukio Ozaki     p   241 points
In his three seasons of heavy use (at least 286 IP), the Flyers were on the fringes of the pennant race each time, but no more. The 378 innings in 1965 is by far the hardest to justify since it is 86 more innings than he pitched in any other season, and while the Flyers came in second, they were 12 games back. Take those extra 86 innings away, and it could well have paid off in several hundred more innings for the franchise in other years.

Mitsuhiro Adachi     p   234 points
He was used in a much more reasonable manner than many of his contemporaries--never more than 270.1 innings, for one thing. He was able to pitch 21 years and 3103 innings for the Braves, and I believe the way he was used helped him do that.

Masayuki Dobashi     p   231 points
His rating would be much higher if you could shift his second through fourth seasons into this decade. You'd only lose his sorry farewell season (15 IP, 5.40 ERA), and you'd gain 746 innings with a 53-34 record and an ERA of 2.28.

Masaaki Koyama     p   218 points
I believe that one of the secrets to his 21 years of pitching in NPB can be found in the fact he avoided the combination of pitching more than 250 innings in a season and finishing more than 16 games in relief. When he had more than 16 games finished in relief, he pitched under 250 innings, and when he pitched more than 250 innings, he never finished more than 16 in relief. That usage pattern gave him more rest than many of his contemporaries got, which gave his arm a chance to recover, which likely led to greater longevity.

Kazuto Tsuruoka     mgr   25.08 points
He won 4 pennants but only 1 Japan Series in this decade. His won-loss record for the decade was 715-499-37 for a wonderful .589 winning percentage.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

NOTE: HM means "honorable mention"

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

1970's

Koichi Tabuchi     c   485 points
He's the best catcher of the 1970's, and had to beat out two other formidable candidates in Kimata and Nomura for that honor. Tabuchi's best years in homers mostly came in the same seasons which were his best for walks. In his most patient years at the plate, Tabuchi drew 60-70 unintentional walks in 130 game seasons, a very nice total.

Tatsuhiko Kimata     c   354 points
The rating system says Nomura beats him out as the backup catcher of the 1970's all-decade team by a single point. It's questionable whether that verdict would hold up on a closer examination of the defense of the younger Kimata (who began the decade at age 25) versus the defense of the much more veteran Nomura (Nomura was a full decade older). Whichever man misses out on the backup catcher spot is the only Honorable Mention (minimum 350 rtg2 points) we have among players in the decade all-star teams thus far. Subjectively, I think Kimata would slip past Nomura into the backup catcher spot. Either way, Kimata is on his second CL all-decade team.

Sadaharu Oh     1b   688 points
He's almost as good in this decade as the previous one, partially because it took him 2-3 years in the 1960's to find his true level of skill. Even so, he winds up as clearly the best player of the decade even though he played almost all the decade after age 30 (he turned 30 in May, 1970). He's the only man to be the best player in two separate decades.

Makoto Matsubara     1b   330 points
He settled in at first base after 1970. His power matured in this decade, as he had all three of his thirty or more homer years this decade along with 5 of his 6 20-29 HR years. He also had 3 of his top five finishes in average this decade, including both of his seasons over .300 He also had all of his five seasons in which he slugged over .500 this decade.

John Sipin     2b   343 points
He had seven seasons with an average of .295 or better, four of which placed him among the top six in the league in average. Except for his last season, his slugging percentage was never lower than .489, and five seasons were over .500. He smacked 30 or more round trippers 3 times and added three more seasons of 20-25 homers. He came to Japan at age 25 and was finished by age 34. Only his poor last season (.224, 9 HR in 219 AB) misses this decade. He's the best second baseman the NPB had in this decade.

Morimichi Takagi     2b   244 points
He started this decade and played throughout it. He had five seasons of 16 or more steals this decade and four 15-20 HR years (of his career total of seven seasons of at least 15 homers) as well. He had three seasons of .291 or better this decade. The real brake on this decade appears to be his slow return to form from his serious 1968 beaning as his worst years with the bat came early in the decade.

Sachio Kinugasa     1b-3b   346 points
He had five broken bones during his 2215 consecutive game streak, including a hairline fracture of his left shoulder blade he received from being hit with a pitch. He even disobeyed his doctor's orders not to play with that injury. He swung hard and for the fences: 504 career homers and the Japanese record of 1587 career strikeouts. His coaches weren't too fond of that swing. It was even hard on Kinugasa physically, because according to You Gotta Have Wa he suffered from whiplash for many years as a result of his fierce free swing. He also gets a backup role on the all-decade team as well.

Masayuki Kakefu     3b   302 points
He would rank higher except that he debuted in 1974 (thus having four empty years to start the decade) and really wasn't good until 1976. Of course, he only turned 21 in 1976, so he can be forgiven for having some growing pains. He closed the decade with four seasons that all saw him in the top seven in average, with lows of a .318 average and .570 slugging percentage. He hit 23-32 four baggers in the first three years of that run, then exploded to his career high of 48 in 1979. He slugged over .600 in two of those years. The only piece of his game that wasn't top-notch in those four years was his patience at the plate. His walk totals were good, but not top-notch in those four years. He added that element to his game in the 1980's.

Taira Fujita     ss   356 points
This man was the best shortstop of the seventies. If you could rearrange his career to substitute 1969 for 1979, he'd be better primarily because he only played 18 games and 40 AB in 1979, probably due to injury. Seven of his nine best years in homers are in this decade as are four of his top seven finishes in average. His two Gold Gloves at short came this decade as well as four of his six Best Nines at shortstop. In 1978, he played more at first base than at shortstop, and he never played at shortstop thereafter, playing exclusively at first.

Toshiyuki Mimura     ss-2b   296 points
The second best shortstop of the decade. His first year as a regular was 1970 and his last in that capacity was 1979. He hit over .260 in all but one of his 100+ game seasons and never over it (usually a fair amount under it) when he played in less than 100 games.

Koji Yamamoto     of   438 points
Toward the end of the decade, he started putting up excellent walk totals. In average, he hit .240 in his rookie year of 1969 and slowly crept up to .275 in 1974. He then began a run of 10 seasons in which hit no less than .293. After that run, he concluded his career with averages of .288 and .276. In 1974, he began a string of 12 consecutive years with a slugging percentage of at least .500, and was over .600 from 1977 to 1983 in all but 1982. He had his first 30 homer year in 1975, slipped back to 23 in 1976, and had at least 30 every year from 1977 through 1984. He's the best outfielder of the 1970's.

Tsutomu Wakamatsu     of   378 points
He hit at least .291 in each of his first fifteen seasons. He was in the top eight in average 12 times. He stole at least 12 bases five times in this decade. As good as he was, he just makes the overall all decade squad.

Isao Shibata     of   297 points
He captures the third starting outfield spot on the 1970's CL all-stars. This is the second time he makes the CL all decade team, but it is his first as a starter. He was showing his age by 1979, when his average dipped to .241. He played part-time two more years after that.

Kenichi Yazawa     1b-of   292 points
He couldn't make the team at first base, but he qualifies for the outfield because that's where he played his first three years. He only hit 20 homers once in this decade, when he smacked 22 in 1974. His average was his key attribute this decade. His rookie year was 1970, and he hit .251. He progressed to .260 in his sophomore year. From 1972 through 1977, he always hit at least .290. He had only 196 at bats in 1978 and 1979 combined due to his Achilles injury. When he returned, he kept the average and added power for five seasons, and then age caught up to him.

Shigeru Takada     of-3b   257 points
This decade began with his third season and by the time the decade ended, he was done, hitting .189 before retiring in 1980. He had eight seasons of 10-19 homers with a career high of 19. He had three seasons where he qualified for the batting title with an average of at least .294 with a career high of .305.

Gene Martin     of-1b   247 points
This man came to Japan at age 27 amd played six seasons in NPB. He slugged .529 in his NPB career, with four seasons over .500 and another at .496. He hit at least 22 homers in each of his NPB seasons, with 4 of at least 30 and a high of 40. He had 28 in his remaining season. His averages weren't special, ranging from .254 to .288. Half of his seasons had an average over .280, and the other half had averages under .270.

Yutaka Enatsu     p   274 points
He began the first six seasons of the decade with the Tigers. Then he went to the PL Hawks and became a reliever. He stayed with the Hawks only two years before moving to the CL's Carp for three years. He's the best pitcher in the CL even without the PL seasons, but once those years are added in, he's the second best pitcher of the decade. When he began his career, he was able to consistently stop Sadaharu Oh, but even after he lost some of his effectiveness due to heavy use, he continued to challenge Oh in keeping with the Japanese tradition of shobu with generally unhappy results for Enatsu and his club.

Masaji Hiramatsu     p   259 points
If you choose to use Enatsu as a reliever on the overall all decade team, he's the fourth starter on that team. He was durable, pitching 18 seasons and 3360.2 career innings.

Hiromu Matsuoka     p   249 points
He went 137-132 in this decade, which is better than it appears at first glance because his team was only over .500 twice in the decade. He's nine games better than I'd project an average pitcher would have been for his teams with the same number of decisions each season as Matsuoka actually had.

Tsuneo Horiuchi     p   233 points
He makes the overall all decade team. His ERA was never over 3.30 in a season before his 312 inning season in 1972. After that, it was only under 3.54 once (2.66 in 1974). He was only 24 in 1972, and that 312 innings raised his career total at the time to almost 1600 IP. He was as good as done in 1979, though he pitched to 1983. From 1979 on, he pitched a total of 210 innings witha record of 9-15 and an ERA of 5.27.

Senichi Hoshino     p   211 points
He was 119-86 with 33 saves in the decade, finishing in the top eight in ERA three times in that time. He led the league in winning percentage with his 17-5 mark in 1975.

Hisao Niura     p   205 points
He led the league in saves twice and in ERA twice. He also finished third in ERA in another season. He won 15 games twice.

Takamasa Suzuki     p   197 points
He was pretty much exclusively a reliever this decade, with 76 of his 96 career saves in this decade and 34 of his 41 wins this decade coming in relief.

Shigeru Kobayashi     p   172 points
He finished in the top five in ERA four times in this decade out of the five times he did so in his career. He led in wins once, with 22 in 1979. His career was over in NPB before his 31st birthday.

Yoshiro Sotokoba     p   161 points
The one time he led the league in ERA didn't come in this decade. He led in wins in 1975 with 20.

Tetsuharu Kawakami    mgr   20.99 points
He only managed five seasons in this decade, but won the Japan Series in each of the first four. His record was 360-261-39, which comes to a .580 winning percentage.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Katsuya Nomura     c   355 points
This is his third start for a PL all decade team. He's the only player who can do this before the 2010-2019 all star team at the earliest. Whether or not he beats out Kimata for the job as Tabuchi's backup on the overall all decade team, this is the second decade in which he passes the 350 point mark needed to earn an Honorable Mention if he doesn't capture the backup spot. Any way you look at it, this decade adds luster to his terrific career, even if it amounts to gilding the lily.

Toshio Kato     c   178 points
He didn't play enough to qualify for a batting title until 1977, when he was 29 years old. He qualified for the batting title through 1980, and that was it for him as a full-time player, as he never again played in more than 67 games in a season.

Hideji Kato     1b   388 points
He's the third first baseman I put on the 1970's overall all decade team behind Oh and Osugi (Osugi played in the CL in this decade as well). The outfield has only five guys over 350 points, so it made sense to carry five outfielders and three first basemen because the third first baseman was significantly more qualified than the sixth outfielder was. He starts for the PL all decade team since he spent the whole decade in the PL. Leaving out his 69 AB 1970 season, he slugged over .500 nine times in his career, seven of them in this decade.

Katsuo Osugi     1b   319 points
This is his second all decade team, but this time he makes the overall all decade team once his play with the CL Swallows for five years is figured in. All but two of his seven seasons over .300 are in this decade, as are his three career 40 homer years and 4 of his five years of 29-36 homers. Seven of his 10 seasons slugging over .500 are also in this decade.

Hiroyuki Yamazaki     2b   302 points
He was a member of the Orions until 1979. He didn't find his game until his fourth year as a pro, which was the first time he hit over .224. The only time he didn't hit at least 10 homers was when he hit 9 in 1973. His total in homers for the decade was 157.

Mitsuo Motoi     2b   293 points
He played in the CL in 1979, and his accomplishments there put him ahead of Yamazaki for the overall all-decade team. He led his league in walks twice in this decade.

Michiyo Arito     3b   392 points
He's the best third baseman of the decade. He won a batting title in 1977, but that is the only time he finished in the top five in average. He had at least 10 steals in each season from his second to his fifteenth in NPB.

Kiyoshi Morimoto     3b   210 points
When the decade started, he was a veteran of five seasons and turned 28 in April of 1970. By 1976, he was washed up, though he did play five more seasons and once hit 16 homers. However, he never got his average over .228. By comparison, in his first five years of the decade, his average for the period was .275 and he had 76 homers total with 267 walks for a .392 on base percentage. His last five years of the decade were a wipeout, but the first five weren't.

Toshizo Sakamoto     ss-3b   214 points
He had good speed, stealing 161 bases from 1968 to 1971. He hit 10 or more homers five times, four of them in this decade. Excluding seasons in which he didn't play enough to qualify for a batting title, he had five seasons between .278 and .284, three of them this decade. He was 26 when the decade started and became part-time by the end of the decade. He won four Best Nines, all of them in the years 1968-1971. He never won a Gold Glove even though they were first awarded in 1972.

Shigeru Ishiwata     ss   157 points
He wasn't an overwhelming player by any means, but had only 213 at bats before 1975, even though he was 26 by that time. He only hit .209 in 1975, but then followed that with averages of .259, .285, .266, .281 and .265 before sinking back below .230 again, except for his .297 in 37 AB in 1984.

Yutaka Fukumoto     of   412 points
Fukumoto was a teammate of Daryl Spencer's, and according to an article by Katsuya Nomura quoted in Warren Cromartie's Slugging It Out In Japan, Fukumoto learned a lot about stealing bases from Spencer. Fukumoto led the league in runs scored in nine straight years. Excluding seasons of 40 or less AB, he slugged over .500 once. He led the league in triples seven times. He clearly deserves a starting spot on the overall all decade team.

Isao Harimoto     of   389 points
He went to the Giants in 1976, which keeps him out of the top outfield spot on the Pacific League all decade team. He was the best outfielder of the decade when both leagues are counted, however, the second decade in which he holds that distinction.

Masahiro Doi     of   385 points
This is both the second time he earned a starting outfield spot for a Pacific League all decade team and the second time he earned a spot on the overall all decade squad.

Tokuji Nagaike     of   344 points
He slugged over .500 six times, all but one of them in this decade. He also adds two of his three league leading performances in each of the following categories this decade: slugging, homers, and RBI. He also had all but one of his six seasons in which he hit at least .290 in this decade.

Hiromitsu Kadota     of   341 points
This is the decade in which he played in the outfield, before the injury. He had four seasons in the top five in average, but his power improved after this decade. He led the league in RBI once in the seventies, though he never slugged over .536 nor more than 31 homers this decade. He was a superb player this decade, but he was even more valuable the next decade despite making much less of a contribution defensively because he was a monster at the plate in the 1980's.

George Altman     of   275 points
His first two NPB seasons don't count in this rating because they preceded this decade. That means this rating is based solely on his last six years in NPB, starting at age 37. He was a fantastic player in NPB for a man of his age. The saga is even mor amazing because during the 1974 season, Altman learned he had cancer. He went back to the States and had surgery, missing the last 1/3 of the season. He was able to return in 1975, but became embroiled in a dispute with his manager, Masaichi Kaneda, who wanted to cut his salary. Altman resisted, and eventually signed with the Tigers, as gaijin weren't bound by Japan's reserve clause. Kaneda responded by publicly attacking the Tigers on the grounds they were endangering Altman's health by letting him play. Altman had to hold a press conference to tell Kaneda to mind his own business, and that finally put the issue to rest.

Hisashi Yamada     p   337 points
He was very good in the eighties, but all four of his twenty win seasons, including his three league leading win totals, came in this decade. He also had his 3 leaderships in winning percentage and his two ERA titles in the seventies. Overall, he had five top five finishes in ERA this decade four of them coming in 1976-1979.

Keishi Suzuki     p   292 points
The Meaning of Ichiro says he not only had a potent fastball, but also a "world-class" forkball. He had good control, pitching 340 games without giving up a single walk. He frequently pitched on two days' rest and from time to time pitched in relief the day after a complete game. If he didn't pitch in a game, he usually went to the bullpen to throw. After facing Suzuki in 1968, Ted Simmons said Suzuki was the "greatest pitcher he had ever seen anywhere."

Choji Murata     p   263 points
According to The Meaning of Ichiro, Americans who faced him in this and the next decade said he had a top-notch forkball. This is by far his better decade for two reasons: 1) in the next decade, he lost a lot of time to injury, and 2) while he was effective after the injury, he was far better before it. He had only one season with an ERA under 2.93 in the eighties, while he had five in the seventies. Three of his four strikeout titles and two of his three ERA titles came in the seventies, as did his only 20 win season and three of his 5 career seasons with 17 or more wins. Furthermore, of the league leading performances he had in the eighties, only the 1989 ERA title came after the surgery. Five of his seven finishes in the top six in ERA also came in the seventies. At his best, he was superb. Leron Lee says that except for Bob Gibson, Murata was the best pitcher he ever saw. Lee was Murata's teammate, and says he could consistently throw a fastball 90-96 mph and added a great forkball. After Murata's injury, he regained his speed. Boomer Wells says Murata also posessed a "devastating" slider. Wells also indicates Murata worked fast, in part because he never exchanged signs with his catcher on what he was throwing.

Tomehiro Kaneda     p   243 points
He was a rookie learning his craft before the decade began and was finished by the end of it. He never pitched more than 130.2 innings after 1974. From 1970 through 1974, he pitched a total of 1227.2 innings with a 3.06 ERA with a 82-65 record. All three of his top five finishes in ERA as well as his two league leaderships in wins came in this 1970-1974 stretch.

Fumio Narita     p   226 points
Three of his good years (1967-1969) don't count in this decade, and from 1977 to the end of the decade, he pitched a total of 78 innings with a 4.85 ERA. He rebounded for two decent years in 1980 and 1981. He's the last man to make the 1970's overall all decade pitching staff.

Osamu Higashio     p   225 points
He had both his 20 win seasons this decade along with one of his two leaderships in complete games and three of his four leaderships in innings pitched. This is also the decade in which he led the league in strikeouts. Obviously, he had some real positives as a pitcher in this decade, but he pitched for some awful teams and thus his record for the decade is 134-155.

Naoki Takahashi     p   209 points
He had three of his top five finishes in ERA this decade. He had a fine rookie season before this decade began, with a 2.42 ERA (good for fourth place in ERA) in 223 innings. He pitched 2036.1 of his career 2872 innings in the seventies. He was quite good in 1979 as well, going 20-11 and finishing third in ERA with a 2.75 mark in 254.2 innings.

Mitsuhiro Adachi     p   199 points
This is his second PL all-decade team and the second time he missed the overall all decade team. He pitched to 1979, by which time he was 39. He finished in the top seven in ERA four times in this decade, pitching at least 190 innings each season he finished that high. He had seasons of 19-8, 16-6 and 17-8 this decade as well.

Masaaki Kitaru     p   197 points
He gets no credit here for his 1969 ERA title in this decade and he only pitched seven seasons in the seventies. He still has two 20 win years in the seventies. An interesting aspect of his career is he turned 19 in his rookie year of 1966, and by 1968, he only pitched 14.1 innings. I'd love to know if he was on a minor league club, just plain ineffective but with the parent club, had a sore arm or some combination of the above that year.

Toshiharu Ueda     mgr   21.85 points
He nips both Kawakami and his predecessor with the Braves, Nishimoto as the most successful manager of the decade. He won three Japan Series, four pennants, and lost one Pacific League playoff one year after winning the title from one of the two halves of the split season format they used in the PL at the time. He beats out Nishimoto because of his greater success in the Japan Series, and he beats Kawakami because his winning percentage in his five years in this decade is better than Kawakami was in his five years (.597 to .580). Ueda's won-loss-ties record for the decade was 363-245-12.

Yukio Nishimoto     mgr   21.29 points
He won three Pacific League titles and lost two more Pacific League playoffs after winning one of the split season halves in the Pacific League. Throughout his career, Nishimoto was unable to finish a season with a playoff win. He managed the entire decade, and after he and the Braves parted company, he built the Buffaloes into a pennant winner. His record for the decade is 689-533-78, which is a .564 winning percentage.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

NOTE: HM means "honorable mention"

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

1980's

Kazuhiro Yamakura     c   205 points
He's the best catcher of the 1980's. He only had three seasons in his career in which he hit over .250, and one of them was .254. The other two were both .273. Warren Cromartie joined the Giants as Yamakura turned 30, and Cromartie's observation about Yamakura was: "Yamakura was tired most of the time, because he caught almost all the games. Even on off-days, he'd be down in the bullpen catching."

Mitsuo Tatsukawa     c   167 points
He hit for a little higher average than Yamakura, but he had less power, as his career high in homers in a season was nine.

Randy Bass     1b   350 points
Warren Cromartie is quoted in You Gotta Have Wa as saying,"In America, Bass was a good hitter who never got much of a chance to show what he could do. But he improved a hell of a lot in Japan." Even though Bass had only five full seasons in NPB and 78 AB in his sixth and final NPB season, he starts for the CL all decade team and makes the overall all decade team as a backup.

Sachio Kinugasa     1b-3b   335 points
This is his second CL all decade team. Warren Cromartie said of Kinugasa's iron man streak: "What impressed me was that Kinugasa accomplished his feat while having to go through Japanese-style pregame practices every day. It was as if he had played 4,000 games in a row." (i.e. Japanese pregame practices were the equivalent of another game).

Akinobu Okada     2b   347 points
The system I used chooses Okada as the best second baseman of the decade over Shinozuka, but the margin is so thin and its evaluation of defense is crude enough that a better evaluation of their defensive contributions might put Shinozuka on top. Okada's last good season was 1990. He played regularly in 1991 at age 34, and then had four generally poor years as a part timer to finish his career.

Toshio_Shinozuka     2b   339 points
Warren Cromartie says Shinozuka was his first friend on the team and that he had "an inside-out swing that was perfect for Japan." Cromartie also says that Shinozuka "compiled an impressive set of statistics with members of the opposite sex." Shinozuka makes the overall all decade team at second.

Tatsunori Hara     3b   407 points
Excluding years of 200 or less AB, he slugged .492 or better in 11 straight seasons with a high of .616 in 1986. In 1989, the Giants began a three year experiment of making Hara into an outfielder, but they gave up on that idea and returned him to third for his final four years. He's the best third baseman of the decade.

Masayuki Kakefu     3b   393 points
He slugged over .500 nine times in his career, 4 of them over .600. He led the league in that category twice. This is his second CL all decade team, and this time he even makes the overall all decade team.

Yoshihiko Takahashi    ss   390 points
According to the rating system, he finishes second to Ishige by one point for the honor of being called the best shortstop of the decade. Frankly, the system isn't precise enough in its evaluation of defensive contributions to be able to say with any confidence that this verdict is the right one. It's clear both men deserve to be on the overall all decade team, though, and they are.

Masaru Uno     ss    344 points
He slugged .498 or better in eight seasons, all but one of which came in this decade. He had a terrible year in 1986, when he hit only .211. It's the only season between 1981 and 1990 where he hit below .253. He only slugged .341 in 1986, while in every other season between 1981 and 1990, he slugged at least .454.

Koji Yamamoto     of   429 points
The second best player of the decade, and the best outfielder. That makes him a starter for the second time on both the Central League and overall all decade teams. The three times he led the league in walks came this decade.

Akinobu Mayumi     of-ss   350 points
He hit .300 three times in this decade, excluding seasons of 250 or less AB, finishing first, fifth and seventh in the batting title race. He slugged .500 five times, excluding seasons of 250 or less AB, all of which came in this decade as well. He also starts for the overall all decade team.

Warren Cromartie     of   331 points
If the overall all decade team doesn't try to use Kadota in the outfield, he's the third starter for them as well. The CL is certainly dominant in the 1980's all decade team. At the end of his autobiography, Slugging It Out in Japan, Cromartie credits his time in Japan with teaching him to be a better team player and to be more patient. Also in the book is a scouting report which was written about him and can be found near the end of the chapter on 1987. That scouting report says he was a lowball hitter who almost never hit down the lines. Defensively, the report says he often got a bad jump on fly balls, but could run them down anyway. This report also indicates another weakness of his was a tendency to arch throws back to the infield.

Toru Sugiura     of   308 points
Excluding seasons of 125 or less AB, he slugged over .500 three times. He was in the league seven years before getting more than 125 AB in a season, which occurred when he was moved to the outfield from first base. The main problem seems to have been that Osugi had the first base spot locked up. You've got to wonder if his managers tried him in the outfield and found his defense there too poor to tolerate, or if they just saw him as a first baseman and never made the effort.

Yasunori Oshima     of   271 points
He spent the last two years of the decade and the last seven of his career with the Fighters. In his career, he slugged over .500 five times while qualifying for a batting title.

Carlos Ponce     of   264 points
This rating is based on only four seasons of play. He only had 57 AB in his fifth and final year, though. He slugged .565 or better in his first three years and .496 the fourth. He led the league in slugging, doubles, triples, and homers once each, and RBI twice. He had two finishes in the top four in average.

Akio Saito     p   258 points
According to the rating method, the best pitcher of the 1980's. He was a reliever from 1982 to 1987 and saved 118 games in that time. He also won 43 games in relief in that span while collecting one win as a starter. He lost only 32 games total in that stretch with an ERA of 2.84 for the period. By contrast, he never had an ERA under 3.14 in the years he was used as a starter.

Genji Kaku     p   247 points
In the four seasons he had more games in relief than starts, he saved 105 games with a 21-27 record and a 2.76 ERA. In the other seasons, he only had two seasons with an ERA under 3.00 and his overall record was 85-79 with a 3.36 ERA. The Dragons probably can be forgiven for not putting him in the bullpen earlier--but I can only describe the decision to switch him back to starting as unwise at best. If they had a better closer on hand, they should have traded him and gotten better value than he gave them as a starter.

Suguru Egawa     p   237 points
Cromartie says he had a 93 mph fastball, a big sweeping curve, and a lot of poise. Egawa challenged the draft when he finished college, vowing to only play for the Yomiuru Giants. He got his wish, though he had to play a season of semipro ball in the US and had to have the aid of a threat by the Giants to leave NPB and form their own league if they didn't get him. He only pitched for nine years, but led in wins and winning percentage twice each, in strikeouts three times, and in ERA once. He finished in the top three in ERA five times. I can't recommend him for the JHOF primarily because his career was too short, though I suspect the controversies he aroused won't help him attain that honor either.

Kazuyuki Yamamoto     p   220 points
He began his career in NPB as a reliever and was reasonably successful at it through 1977, leading the league in saves once and winning quite a few more in relief in 1976 and 1977. At that point, the Tigers, like so many other NPB teams, couldn't resist the temptation to make a starter out of him. They tried him in that role for four years, in which time he was 46-40 with a 4.07 ERA. After that, they gave up and let him relieve. His career marks are 116-106 with a 3.66 ERA, so it's safe to say he was better as a reliever, especially when you realize that his time as a reliever encompasses the time he was learning the league and refining his pitching as a young player, and when he was an older player in decline.

Takashi Nishimoto     p   216 points
He led the league in wins and winning percentage in 1989. He was in the top five in ERA five times, four of them this decade. He was, according to Cromartie, at least partly Korean. This didn't make him popular with his Japanese teammates. He was very superstitious, using a new pair of batting gloves each start, but refused to wear them until one of the team's translators tried them on for luck. Once the game was over, he'd throw away the batting glove. He also threw salt in various places for luck, and after each inning he pitched, he'd pour cold tea on his neck for luck. He also allowed his temper to show, unlike his Japanese teammates.

Kazuhiko Endo     p   211 points
He finished in the top four in ERA three times. He had only two years before this decade began and three after. Of those, the only one worth much was 1990, when he had 21 saves and a 2.17 ERA.

Tatsuo Komatsu     p   210 points
He was switched, successfully, from relieving to starting after five seasons in that role. This is one time a team probably made the right move in changing a reliever into a starter, since he was in the top five in ERA four of the next five years and twice led the league in wins.

Yutaka Ono     p   208 points
A JHOF candidate, with five top five finishes in ERA in the six seasons he qualified for the ERA title. His career ERA of 2.90 is quite good, and the league leading performances give his candidacy a real boost. He started from 1980-1983. You can't say he was a failure either as a starter or a reliever. His ERA was better as a starter, but at least a lot of that comes from his early years as a reliever when he was perfecting his game.

Manabu Kitabeppu     p   190 points
He had five seasons in the top six in ERA, all but one of them in this decade. He led the league in winning percentage three times, two of them in this decade.

Motoshi Fujita     p   16.19 points
He won 2 Japan Series and three pennants in only four seasons of managing this decade. His won-loss mark for the decade was 295-192-33 for a .606 winning percentage.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Tsutomu Ito     c   192 points
He had a lot of sacrifice bunts, fitting for a player of his less than overwhelming offensive skills. He just retired at age 41 after 22 seasons of catching. He caught at least 110 games in 15 seasons. He's good enough to serve as the backup on the overall all decade team.

Fujio Tamura     c   179 points
He didn't become a regular until his fifth season, 1985. Beginning with that year, he caught at least 100 games a year for ten years.

Boomer Wells     1b   344 points
He came to Japan in 1983 at age 29. He slugged over .600 three times, and between .500 and .599 twice more.

Toru Ogawa     1b-of   295 points
This decade encompasses the final five years of his career. Even so, the decade has two of the three seasons in which he hit at least .295 while qualifying for a batting title as well as the only season in which he slugged over .500

Daijiro Oishi     2b   290 points
This decade has his four seasons of 40 or more steals and two of his three league leaderships in triples. He also had one of his two seasons of slugging over .500 this decade, hitting 91 of his 148 career homers this decade. He also won all but one of his awards this decade.

Hiroyuki Yamazaki     2b   233 points
This rating only covers the last five years of his career. It's the second time he makes the PL all decade team but misses the overall all decade team. The decade does include 1980, which is one of his finest with the bat, his only season of slugging .500 while qualifying for a batting title. He also added a league leading number of walks to a .294 average that year for good measure.

Hiromitsu Ochiai     3b-1b-2b   420 points
The very best player of the eighties. Cromartie says Ochiai was one of the rare Japanese who did things his way. "During the season, he'd do about five minutes of pregame [practice]. Sometimes he'd take BP [batting practice] with no bat. He'd just stand there 'getting the feel' of the strike zone." Of course, the fact he won three Triple Crowns helped him get away with it. He wasn't in the PL all decade, so his overall all decade score is 100 points higher.

Hiromi Matsunaga     3b   326 points
He hit over 300 (excluding years of 100 or less AB) seven times, five in this decade. He slugged .492 or better six times, all in this decade. Also, he had five of his seven seasons of 20 or more steals this decade.

Hiromichi Ishige     ss-3b   391 points
He had three of his best four years in average this decade, as well as all five of his 20 HR seasons and .500 slugging marks. He also had his eight best seasons of steals and his only year leading the league in walks this decade.

Yoshio Mizukami     ss   186 points
He won one Best Nine and a Gold Glove. He twice hit 15 homers, but otherwise no more than 10. He had a season of 20 steals, but otherwise his base stealing wasn't special. His career average is .244, though he did record a .302 season in 1983. He's not a bad player by any means, but certainly isn't a big star, either.

Yutaka Fukumoto     of   324 points
This is the second decade in which he's the PL's best outfielder and makes the overall all decade team. His walk totals were better this decade, and he retained his speed until at least his last two seasons, stealing at least 23 bases a season. He was more consistent in hitting homers this decade, again until his last two seasons. An impressive aspect of these accomplishments is the fact that when the decade began, Fukumoto was 32.

Koji Akiyama     of   311 points
He's the last outfielder to make the overall all decade team. He only had 145 career AB when the 1985 season started. The next four seasons were his four best in homers. He added five of his eight seasons slugging over .500 and four of his seven 20 steal seasons.

Koji Minoda     of   290 points
In this decade, he had four of his five seasons in which he slugged over .500, all five of his 20 homer years, and four of his six seasons of 26 or more steals. Four of his five 60+ walk seasons also came this decade as did six of his eight Gold Gloves.

Makoto Shimada     of   280 points
Other than have his 1979 career high 55 steals outside this decade, this decade is Shimada at his best. He wasn't much in his first season of 1977 nor in his last two, 1990 and 1991.

LeRon Lee     of   278 points
This rating is based on eight seasons, leaving out his first three, which are among his best. He slugged over .500 in eight of the ten seasons in which he qualified for the batting title. In those 10 qualifying seasons, he hit .300 or better nine times. He finished in the top four in average seven times.

Hiromitsu Kadota     dh   362 points
He didn't play an estimated 1500 defensive innings at any spot this decade, but was an awesome hitter much of the decade. His bat is so good that the Pacific League and overall all decade teams are improved by keeping him. He had all but two of his nine 30 homer seasons, including all of his years over 31 HR. He also adds all three of his league leading walk totals, and his three slugging titles. He had all five of his .600 slugging seasons this decade, and adds one of his two RBI titles for good measure. This is his second PL all decade team, and his first overall all decade team.

Hisashi Yamada     p   201 points
The PL's best pitcher this decade, yet he doesn't even make the overall all decade team because Enatsu and Ushujima overtake him when their CL play is included. This is the second time he is the Pacific League's ace for a decade.

Osamu Higashio     p   183 points
He had four of his five finishes in the top five in ERA this decade, including his ERA title. He played for better teams this decade than the last, and his record reflects it at 117-90.

Yutaka Enatsu     p   181 points
He makes his second overall all decade team because he adds in his CL performance this decade. In the previous decade, he made the CL all decade team, and now he adds a PL all decade team to his accomplishments.

Shigekazu Mori     p   173 points
His first three years were as a starter, then he became a reliever in 1982. He led the league in saves in 1983 and had a good year in 1984. He ballooned to a 4.30 ERA in 1985, and only pitched in two more seasons, never reaching 30 IP in either.

Yoshinori Sato     p   169 points
His manager(s) experimented with him as a reliever in 1982 and 1983, but after a 4.12 ERA in 1983, he went back to starting. A useful enough pitcher, but that's about it.

Hisanobu Watanabe     p   164 points
He only had six years in this decade, but had two of his three years as runner up in ERA as well as another when he was fifth in that category. He adds two of his three seasons of leading the league in wins, his league leadership in strikeouts, and his league leadership in winning percentage. He also pitched a no hitter in 1996. He'd have a much better case for the JHOF if he could have put up 2 or 3 ERAs under 3.81 after 1990 instead of the none he actually got.

Hideyuki Awano     p   158 points
This rating only covers three years, but they are his best three by far. After this, his ERA was only as low as 3.00 in one season, and that in a mere nine innings. He had one year at 3.36 in 93.2 innings, but no others under 4.30. By contrast, his worst in these first three years was 2.88.

Yuji Inoue     p   149 points
After four generally ineffective seasons as a starter in 1981-1984, Inoue was switched to relief and was left in that role the rest of his career except for 1990. That season was right after he had led the league in saves and saved 20 the year before that. In 1990, he had a 4.70 ERA and only one season thereafter with an ERA under 4.64. He had a 2.68 ERA in 77.1 IP in 1995, but other than that, he never pitched more than 45.1 innings in a season after 1990. Sometimes, leaving well enough alone is definitely the best policy, and it seems that the Hawks learned the hard way that was the case with Inoue.

Yukihiko Yamaoki     p   147 points
He led the league in strikeouts and wins once each, and finished third in ERA once, all in this decade.

Masaaki Mori     p   16.48 points
The most successful manager of the decade by a small margin over the CL's most successful manager, Fujita. Each man only managed four seasons in the decade and took over good teams. Both won three pennants. Fujita's winning percentage is a little better, .606 to Mori's .587 (281-198-41), but Mori trumps that advantage with three Japan Series titles to Fujita's two.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Kazuhiko Ushujima
Ushujima led the league in saves three times, all in this decade. He pitched in 1980-1987 for the Dragons and then 1988-1993 for the Orions/Marines. In 1989, the Marines made a move I've detailed so often as a failure in NPB by trying to convert Ushujima to a starter. He had led the league in saves the last two seasons for them and had pitched his whole career to that point aa a reliever. However, in 1988, his ERA was a less than stellar 4.47. In 1989, they got a 12-5 record with a 3.63 ERA in 148.2 innings. This was 32 more innings than he had pitched in any other season in his career, and he wound up pitching 12.2 innings total in the next two seasons. In 1992, he started 8 games and relieved in another, going 3-3 with a 2.67 ERA. In 1993, his ERA ballooned to 5.32 in 44 innings and his career was over. If they'd have just left him in relief, but only in the closer role if he was pitching well, he could have easily given them more than they got by making him a starter. The pattern is clear: Japanese managers and coaches have been slow to accept the value of ace relievers.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

1990's

Atsuya Furuta     c   388 points
He's slugged .500 in two seasons, and had an on base percentage over .400 three times. That means he takes a good number of walks in addition to his excellent career average (.295 through the end of 2003). The best catcher of the decade.

Motonobu Tanishige     c   203 points
He had two seasons with an average over .264 so far, both in this decade. They were both well over that mark, at .295 (1999) and .300 (1996). He finally reached double digits in homers in 1997, putting up 13, 14 and 11 before dipping to 9 in 2000. Since then, he's hit 20. 24 and 18. He's 33 entering the 2004 season, so we'll see how much he has left.

Tom O'Malley     1b   350 points
An excellent foreign born player. He won one batting title and finished in the top eight in average every one of his six NPB seasons. His lowest average for a season was .302! He slugged .500 or better four times, and led the league in walks three times. He won a MVP, a Best Nine at first, and a Gold Glove at third. His career is short for the JHOF, but otherwise, he's got the credentials.

Hiromitsu Ochiai     1b   342 points
He finished his career in the PL, so he'll surpass O'Malley on the overall all decade team. This is his second league all decade team, but this time with the CL. He also makes his second overall all decade team, once again as a starter. His unwillingness to conform to the NPB way of doing things meant he didn't get to NPB until he was 25, and he didn't get to play regularly until he was 28. His batting form was unorthodox, and included stepping in the bucket when he swung. Even so, he was a great, great player in NPB history.

Bobby Rose     2b   398 points
He slugged over .500 six times and had four seasons with on base percentages over .400. His career as a Bay Star ended over his desire for a multiyear contract, which historically have been given quite infrequently to non-Asian players. He retired rather than take a one year deal, and had only an abortive spring training comeback attempt thereafter.

Kazuyoshi Tatsunami    2b   362 points
He had all of his eight seasons with an on base percentage over .375 in this decade and seven of his nine double digit homer totals as well. When you add to that the fact he was playing a key defensive position, you've got an exceptionally valuable player.

Akira Eto     3b   386 points
He had three seasons with an on base percentage of at least .397 and twice this decade slugged over .600. He also added six more batting title qualified seasons in which he slugged over .500, four of them this decade.

Leo Gomez     3b   218 points
His rating is based on only three seasons. He arrived in Japan at age 30 in 1997. His first NPB season was the only one he qualified for a batting title and hit over .300. His willingness to take walks pushed his on base percentage over .400, and his 31 homers helped him to one of his three batting title qualified seasons of slugging over .500. In the three rated years as a whole, he hit 93 homers, batted in 266 runs, averaged .296 with an OBP of .388 and slugged .542. He played for three more good years in Japan after this decade, though not quite at the level of his first three years.

Kenjiro Nomura     ss   386 points
He hit over .280 in all but one season in the nineties, and except for 6 homers in 1999 and 32 in 1995, he had between a 10 and 16 homers a season. He also stole at least twelve bases in this decade except for 8 in 1996. On the other hand, he had four years of over 30 steals. It's no surprise that he's the best shortstop of the decade when he has all those things going for him.

Takahiro Ikeyama     ss   338 points
He slugged over .500 three of his four career seasons of doing so this decade and adds his one season over .300 (excluding seasons of 157 or less AB), five of his six seasons of double figure steals and eight of his ten seasons of 18 or more homers (though the two missing years are two of his five 30+ HR years). Still, he's got a superb resume for a man who all decade played a middle infield spot.

Hideki Matsui     of   406 points
According to The Meaning of Ichiro, he initially got the nickname "Godzilla" as a teenager and as much for a severe case of acne as for his tape measure homers. He became a lefty because he was so much better than even older boys in school that he was forced to handicap himself by hitting left handed. He's the best CL player of the decade, but "only" second best overall because of Ichiro. Neither Ichiro nor Hideki Matsui played much until 1994, but Hideki took until 1996 to even hit 22 homers, while Ichiro began cranking out superb batting averages in 1994. Hideki had only two of his five NPB seasons with a slugging percentage over .600 this decade, but added two more over .560. He had only one of his three 40 HR seasons, but 3 of his 4 seasons between 34 and 38 homers. He also had two of his five NPB career 100 RBI years and two of his five years over .300 as well as three more years over .290 in the nineties. He also had four of his seven NPB seasons with an OBP over .400 along with two of his five 100 walk seasons. All three of the seasons he finished in the top three in average came the next decade.

Tomonori Maeda     of   310 points
He makes the overall all decade team. His rating would be higher except that he only had 88 AB in 1995. Although it doesn't matter for this rating, he also had a slump in performance in 2000 and only got 27 AB in 2001. All four of his seasons finishing in the top five in average plus both his seasons slugging over .500 as well as all three seasons with an OBP of .375 or better came this decade. Six of his seven seasons so far over .300 were in the 1990's as well.

Tomoaki Kanemoto     of   278 points
He had five of his six seasons slugging over .500 while qualifying for a batting title in the '90's. Oddly, though he turned 32 in April 2000, he's had three of his best four seasons in steals starting with 2000. He also has had three of his five years with an OBP over .400 since 2000.

Koichi Ogata     of   278 points
Even though Ogata finishes tied with Kanemoto, Kanemoto was more brilliant and thus I'd choose him first. Ogata only had two seasons in the 1990's with 20 or more homers and only qualified for four batting titles, though he hit .300 two of those times while having an OBP over .400. He stole 146 bases from 1995 to 1997 while only being caught 26 times, which you've got to like.

Alonzo Powell     of   268 points
He qualified for four batting titles and won three of them while finishing third the other time. He slugged over .500 in each of those four years as well, leading the league once. His two best seasons in homers were 20 and 27. From 1992 to 1996, his average was .330. He captured four Best Nines. He started to decline in his sixth season, 1997, and concluded his NPB career in 1998, before his 34th birthday in December that year.

Takanori Suzuki     of   250 points
He won two batting title and has finished in the top four in average a total of four times. He has slugged over .500 three times and has had an OBP of .395 or better 3 times.

Kazuhiro Sasaki     p   288 points
He's the best NPB pitcher of the nineties. He was nicknamed "Daimajin" after a mythological 50 foot tall stone statue of a samurai who was brought to life by the prayers of peasant villagers. Once awakened, he went forth to fight various villains. The biggest difference between the mythological daimajin and Sasaki was the mythological character smashed and trampled his foes, while Sasaki left them flailing helplessly at a forkball. See The Meaning of Ichiro for more information about him.

Shinji Sasaoka     p   240 points
He finished in the top five in ERA three times. He yoyoed between starting and relief and has been effective either way. I grant they had Yutaka Ono and they both couldn't close, but I wonder if they couldn't have done better by trading one of them. Sasaoka's ERA when most of his appearances in relief was 2.91 and when most were starts it was 3.57. About half the difference between those marks is the normal 10% drop in ERA by relievers (think runs by runners inherited by relievers and also if a reliever is ineffective, he'll usually get a quicker hook than a starter). However, the other half is simply that Sasaoka pitched better in relief.

Masaki Saito     p   225 points
He began his career in 1984, but was used rather lightly until 1989. He was a major force throughout the nineties and therefore belongs on both the CL and all decade teams.

Shinji Imanaka     p   192 points
Another problem with Japanese methods of handling pitchers is in the form of allowing pitchers to run up very high pitch counts. According to Jim Allen's 1994 guide, Imanaka pitched 193 innings in 1991. In his first three starts of the next season (the guide says 1993, but I'm sure it's a typo and should read 1992), Imanaka had pitch counts of 151, 129 and 132. He then missed over four months of the season. What's even more is Imanaka had just turned 21, which makes such a workload even more abusive since younger arms are less able to handle such stress. Imanaka recovered to put in four more full years. I can't say if such usage effectively ended his career by age 26, but it couldn't have helped. Furthermore, I see no justification for such high pitch counts so early in the season.

Shingo Takatsu     p   186 points
He's one of a new breed of pitcher in Japan which was rarely seen before him: a career relever. From 1993 to 2003, he had only two seasons with an ERA over 3.24. One was 2002 at 3.89, and the other was 1998, when it was 5.53. He's the last CL pitcher to make the overall all decade team.

Yutaka Ono     p   182 points
He was rather successful as a starter and a reliever. This decade he spent more in a relief role as 1991-1994 were in that role. He started thereafter, but his high in innings this decade was 135.2, which limits his value as a starter.

Masahiro Yamamoto     p   167 points
He's been in the top three in ERA four times and as of the end of 2003, has a nice winning percentage of .578. He's won two Best Nines so far as well as one ERA title.

Masumi Kuwata     p   166 points
Warren Cromartie indicates his best pitch was the split-fingered fastball, at least early in his career. Kuwata won a MVP, a Best Nine and seven Gold Gloves. He won two ERA titles and finished second in that category two other times. He had ten seasons of ten or more wins. That's a heck of a resume, but I still don't see him as a JHOF candidate since his Estimated Career Win Shares are just too few to merit the honor.

Hiroshi Ishige     p   154 points
He was with the Pacific League's Buffaloes from 1997 through 2002, but wasn't much good there with the possible exception of 2000--and that is not a part of the 1990's anyway. His career began in 1991, so that leaves him six seasons for the purposes of this rating. He led the league in saves twice.

Katsuya Nomura     mgr   20.07 points
He won three Japan Series and four pennants in this decade. Unfortunately, he also had five losing seasons in the decade. Two of the losing years came when he joined poor clubs (the Swallows in 1990 and the Tigers in 1999), but the other three, while close to .500, all came on the heels of good seasons, sometimes championship seasons. As a result, his winning percentage for the decade is .519 (683-632-7), and he finishes second, though with Honorable Mention, to Mori as the most successful manager of the decade.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

Koichiro Yoshinaga     c   286 points
The best PL catcher of the decade and the second best overall in the decade. His bat is so much better than Ito's that Ito is too far behind to catch up with his defense. Yoshinaga had three seasons with a .390 or better on base percentage, and excluding seasons of 180 or less AB, he had three with a slugging percentage of .490 or more.

Tsutomu Ito     c   214 points
This is his second PL decade all star team. Jim Allen said in his 1996 Guide that Ito was "a heads-up player who knows the game."

Kazuhiro Kiyohara     1b   353 points
He spent the last two years of the decade in the CL with Giants, so his overall decade score is higher than his PL only score. He's clearly the best first baseman of the decade. Kiyohara was "famous for his long line of girlfriends and nighttime escapades, but also for his respect toward the game--he always bowed upon entering and leaving a park," quote from the notes section of The Meaning of Ichiro.

Hiroo Ishii     1b   258 points
He only qualified for three batting titles in his career, in 1992 through 1994. That lack of durability is one thing that keeps his rating down. In 1995 and 1996, he had a combined total of 159 AB, which doesn't help, either, and after that he went to the CL Giants. His first five seasons were excellent, even if the first two were a little low in AB (263 and 331 respectively). If those five years hadn't been excellent, he wouldn't rank this high.

Koichi Hori     2b-ss   280 points
Bobby Valentine worked a lot with him when Valentine managed in Japan, and Hori blossomed as a hitter and improved defensively as well. Hori didn't stay at short after Valentine departed, because the only man with any authority in the Marines' organization who was committed to playing him there was Valentine. The team left him at short for a year after Valentine's messy firing, and then moved him back to second.

Hiroki Kokubo     2b-3b   238 points
He won two Best Nines and a Gold Glove, all at second and in this decade. He slugged over .500 five times, but only twice in the 1990's. He would rate higher but for the gaping hole left in his career in 1998 by his prison sentence for tax evasion.

Atsushi Kataoka     3b   280 points
The second best third sacker in the 1990's and the best in the PL for the decade. He had two of his three seasons so far with an OBP over .400 this decade, as well as both of the seasons he hit over .300, including the time he finished second in the batting race.

Kiyoshi Hatsushiba     3b   276 points
Given the fact that he's 37 before the 2004 season starts, it's unlikely he will be a regular again. In 2003, he was relatively effective as a pinch hitter and occasional player, and I think it is possible he will be useful in that role for a few years. He might have been better defensively than Kataoka, and that could push him ahead of Kataoka. However, the Gold Glove awards would suggest the opposite, as Kataoka won two Gold Gloves at third and Hatsushiba none. That being the case, I'll leave them the way they are.

Yukio Tanaka     ss   334 points
He might be the second best shortstop of the decade since he's so close to Ikeyama. They're certainly close enought that defense could tip the balance, and Tanaka has five Gold Gloves to Ikeyama's one.

Kazuo Matsui     ss   267 points
He finishes behind Tanaka because his first year in NPB was 1995 and he only had 204 AB and hit .221 that year. That leaves K. Matsui only four productive years this decade to build his rating on. He was quite productive in those four years after converting himself to a switch hitter in 1996 because he couldn't hit right handers well. The Meaning of Ichiro also details a number of superstitions he follows.

Ichiro Suzuki     of   420 points
The best player of the decade. He won seven consecutive batting titles and had 199 career stolen bases in NPB and was caught stealing only 33 times. For much more on him, please see The Meaning of Ichiro.

Koji Akiyama     of   370 points
He makes his second overall all decade team, but this time he starts. In 1994, he and two pitchers were traded for Makoto Sasaki and two pitchers. Even though Sasaki is three and a half years younger, Akiyama outlasted him. Not surprisingly, Akiyama was more valuable in Estimated Win Shares, 98 to 57. I'm sure the pitchers the Lions got weren't that much better than the pitchers the Hawks got, and so the verdict is clearly that the Hawks won that deal.

Makoto Sasaki     of   282 points
He's good enough to be the fifth and last outfielder to make the overall all decade team. There was so much talent at first in Kiyohara, Ochiai, and O'Malley that it made more sense to keep all three of them than a significantly lesser outfielder. Sasaki is also the third starting outfielder for the 1990's PL all decade team.

Matt Winters     of   261 points
He played only five years in NPB, from 1990 to 1994, playing at least 120 games each season. He never got his OBP over .400, but his career OBP in NPB is an excellent .377.

Yasuo Fujii     of-1b   260 points
Of the seven times he qualified for the batting title, he slugged over .500 three times, It appears he had trouble staying healthy during the season or was used in a platoon role because he qualified for the batting title in less than half his career seasons. Also, though he played in 16 seasons, he only had 4787 career at bats.

Tuffy Rhodes     of   259 points
The final outfielder on the 1990's PL all decade team came to Japan at age 27 in 1996. Thus, his score for this decade is based on only four seasons. He two highest homer seasons this decade were 27 and 40, with the record-tying year in the next decade. He began to lift weights once he got to Japan, which helped him add 35 pounds of muscle to his frame, with a noticeable increase in power, according to The Meaning of Ichiro.

Motoyuki Akahori     p   262 points
A career reliever, and the best pitcher in the PL in the nineties. Jim Allen's 1995 Guide included the following on him: "He allows very few homers in a good park for home run hitters. He has great control and he'll get his share of double plays because he keeps the ball on the ground."

Hideo Nomo     p   229 points
The Meaning of Ichiro has a lot of information on his departure from Japan, including the idea that a key reason Nomo wanted to leave for the majors was his rocky relationship with manager Keishi Suzuki. Nomo preferred a more American-style of training, i.e. rest between starts combined with weight training. Keishi Suzuki, befitting a man who enjoyed great success under the traditional Japanese thinking of throw, throw, and throw some more, was wedded to that mode of training. Nomo threw over 140 pitches in 61 NPB games, and under Suzuki, he had games of 191 and 180 ptiches. Unsurprisingly, Nomo developed arm troubles severe enough to require surgery. Nomo had been interested in going to the majors before this, but now he knew he wouldn't have a quality pitching arm left if he didn't force the issue quickly.

Tetsuya Shiozaki     p   188 points
He began as a most effective reliever, and then in 1997, they converted him into a starter. He rewarded them with one season of 12-7 and third place in ERA. The next year, he pitched 122.1 innings and hasn't pitched more than 82 innings since, and only once had an ERA under 3.89. Up through 1996 and the switch from relief to starting, his career ERA was 2.55. Obviously, I think the move backfired. Jim Allen's Guides indicate he had a good screwball that ran in on right handers that he used to set up batters for his wide assortment of "junk" pitches. His velocity was never great, so when his control was off, hitters could sit on his fastball and pound it. He usually could find the strike zone, and his pitches moved a lot, which helped him amass a good number of strikeouts.

Kimiyasu Kudo     p   180 points
The last man to make the 1990's overall all decade team pitching staff. He's won 4 ERA titles, 2 MVPs, 3 Best Nines and 3 Gold Gloves. He's won two strikeout crowns and three times led his league in winning percentage. He has been in the top six in ERa nine times. At the end of 2003, he is 191-111, a .632 winning percentage. This is a JHOF resume, folks. He doesn't make the all-time Lions pitching staff due to the limiting effect of lower IP totals on the scores for the three best seasons and the best five consecutive seasons, and he wasn't with the Hawks long enough to make their all franchise team. Finally, making the Giant all franchise pitching staff when he didn't join the club until the season he turned 37 is out of the question.

Yoshitaka Katori     p   165 points
He's a career reliever who led the league in saves once. He served in the closer role for the Giants from 1987 through 1989, then 1990 to 1993 for the Lions. He misses out on the overall all decade team because they needed a starter, not a reliever(they already had four who were primarily relievers). His career ERA is 2.76 in 1306.1 innings, an excellent mark.

Yasuyuki Kawamoto     p   159 points
He hasn't been effective since 1998, and even that season is questionable in terms of effectiveness: a 3.42 ERA in a mere 26.1 innings. Since then, he hasn't pitched more than 27 innings in a year and only once had an ERA under 4.50, at 4.18. He led the league in saves in 1997 and had 84 career saves at the end of that season but only 11 since. His career ERA was 2.85 at the end of 1997. According to Jim Allen's 1996 Guide, he had a great curve as a rookie, but then lost his ability to throw it for strikes.

Hideki Irabu     p   138 points
The Meaning of Ichiro has a good account of his career, especially with respect to the contentious departure for the majors. When he was 19, the Japanese press called him "Schwarzengger" because of his muscular build. He was also called the Jellyfish for the stinging effect his inside pitches had on batters' hands. On the other hand, he had a temper and "a sensitive streak as wide as Tokyo Bay", according to the book.

Takehiro Ishii     p   137 points
Jim Allen's 1996 Guide said about him: "has been effective . . . .He's not always an overpowering pitcher but gets the job done with great control." He only qualified for 3 ERA titiles, but finished second, fifth, and seventh when he did. He once led the league in winning percentage, and his career ended in 1998.

Shigetoshi Hasegawa    p   130 points
Jim Allen's 1996 Guide described him as a "finesse pitcher who succeeds by getting hitters to keep the ball on the ground." The Meaning of Ichiro says he "compensated for a low octane fastball with a confusing array of breaking pitches he could locate with remarkable accuracy," among much information that book contains on him. He wasn't immediately successful in the majors, but he studied the hitters and began using weights. The added strenght he got gave him a 90 mph fastball.

Masaaki Mori     mgr   24.39 points
He only managed five seasons this decade, but won the pennant each time. He won three Japan Series as well, and his won-loss mark was 432-240-18, a sterling .643 winning percentage. Those factors are what makes my rating system call him the most successful manager of the decade.

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

NOTE: HM means "honorable mention"

Decade	League	League	All Players
One League Era (pre-1950)			All Players
1950 through 1959	Central	Pacific	All Players
1960 through 1969	Central	Pacific	All Players
1970 through 1979	Central	Pacific	All Players
1980 through 1989	Central	Pacific	All Players
1990 through 1999	Central	Pacific	All Players

My sources for the ratings and the articles based upon those ratings are:

Bill James' Win Shares Book
The New Bill James Historical Abstract
The Bill James Handbook 2004
The Official Baseball Encyclopedia (for Japan)
Japanese Baseball: A Statistical Handbook by Dan Johnson
All-Time Japanese Baseball Register ed. by Carlos Bauer
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting
The Meaning of Ichiro by Robert Whiting
Slugging It Out in Japan by Warren Cromartie
Chrysanthemum and the Bat by Robert Whiting
Remembering Japanese Baseball by Robert Fitts
Jim Allen's Baseball Guides
Baseball's Other Stars by Bill McNeil
Japanese Baseball Superstars by Rob Fitts and Gary Engels
and special thanks to Michael Westbay of japanesebaseball.com for filling in much of my missing data, especially for 1999-2003.