MLB-Japan All Star Series

Pitchers (12)
No. Player Club
43 Miguel Batista Arizona Diamondbacks
56 Mark Buerhle Chicago White Sox
40 Bartolo Colon Montreal Expos
39 Mike Fetters Arizona Diamondbacks
38 Eric Gagne Los Angeles Dodgers
50 Brian Lawrence San Diego Padres
13 Rodrigo Lopez Baltimore Orioles
24 Tomo Ohka Montreal Expos
31 Brad Penny Florida Marlins
33 J.C. Romero Minnesota Twins
60 Scott Schoeneweis Anaheim Angels
43 Randy Wolf Philadelphia Phillies

Infielders (8)
No. Player Club
12 Roberto Aloma New York Mets
5 Eric Chavez Oakland Athletics
22 David Eckstein Anaheim Angels
25 Jason Giambi New York Yankees
11 Eric Hinske Toronto Blue Jays
25 Derrek Lee Florida Marlins
11 Jimmy Rollins Philadelphia Phillies
37 Junior Spivey Arizona Diamondbacks

Outfielders (6)
No. Player Club
25 Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants
5 Pat Burrell Philadelphia Phillies
48 Torii Hunter Minnesota Twins
11 Jacque Jones Minnesota Twins
51 Ichiro Suzuki Seattle Mariners
51 Bernie Williams New York Yankees

Catchers (2)
No. Player Club
16 Paul Lo Duca Los Angeles Dodgers
33 Benito Santiago San Francisco Giants

The 2002 Nichi-Bei rosters are posted here for both teams - in Japanese. It looks like somebody has taken care of the MLB side (I'd never be able to figure out most of the spellings from Katakana), so I'll translate the All Nippon side here.

Manager (Team) No.
Tatsunori Hara (YG) 83

Pitcher (Team) No. Throws/Bats
Koji Uehara* (YG) 19 R/R
Kei Igawa* (HT) 29 L/L
Ryota Igarashi (YS) 53 R/R
Hirotoshi Ishii (YS) 61 L/L
Hisashi Iwakuma$B!!(B(OKB) 48 R/R
Yasuhiro Oyamada (HC) 39 R/R
Kenshin Kawakami (CD) 11 R/R
Masahide Kobayashi (CLM) 30 R/R
Chih-Chia Chang (SL) 99 R/R
Kiyoshi Toyoda (SL) 20 R/R
Shugo Fujii (YS)$B!!(B18 L/L
Shinji Mori (SL) 19 R/L

Catcher (Team) No. Throws/Bats
Shinnosuke Abe* (YG) 10 R/L
Masaumi Shimizu (CLM) 8 R/R
Motonobu Tanishige (CD) 7 R/R

Infielder (Team) No. Throws/Bats
Norihiro Nakamura* (OKB) 5 R/R
Kazuo Matsui* (SL) 7 R/S
Makoto Imaoka* (HT) 7 R/R
Alex Cabrera* (SL) 42 R/R
Takuro Ishii (YBS) 5 R/L
Akinori Iwamura (YS) 1 R/L
Michihiro Ogasawara (NHF) 2 R/L
Hiroki Kokubo (FDH) 9 R/R

Outfielder (Team) No. Throws/Bats
Hideki Matsui* (YG) 55 R/L
Kosuke Fukudome* (CD) 1 R/L
Takayuki Shimizu* (YG) 9 R/L
Yoshitomo Tani (OBW) 10 R/R
Kazuhiro Wada (SL) 5 R/R

* marks voted into lineup.

[Shinohara corrected to Shimizu on Oct 29, 2002 10:57 PM JST]

Is this the first time they called the Japanese team NPB all-stars instead of the Japanese all-stars? The selection of Cabrera and Chang kind of calls for that name change, but if it's NPB all-stars, where are Petagine and Rhodes?

> Is this the first time they called the Japanese team
> NPB all-stars instead of the Japanese all-stars? The
> selection of Cabrera and Chang kind of calls for that
> name change, but if it's NPB all-stars, where are
> Petagine and Rhodes?

Well, if it's the MLB All-Stars, where are Alex Rodriguez and Sammy Sosa? It's a crowded team. Not everybody who could or should be on can get on.

That said, it's great that Cab and Chang were selected. I think this will help the Japanese team do better, since I think it's a little unfair to have all the world's best (including some Japanese players) play against a purely Japanese team. As far as I know, though, it's always been the NPB All-Stars vs. the MLB All-Stars. It's the American press that always forgets the NPB abbreviation. They always refer to it as "the Japan League" or "the Japanese Leagues."

Also, it's nice to see Derrek Lee along for the Series, since his father, Leon Lee, spent so much time in Japanese baseball.

Now, with MLB, they send out invitations to players and they have the rights to accept or decline, with A-Rod. and Sosa it's almost certain that they either declined or MLB simply did't try to invite the best team. With the two I mentioned, (of course they could've just declined the invitation which voids my point) they absolutely deserve to be on the team if NPB really wants to be at their best, which seems to be the case in every series (barring injuries, etc...).

I also like the fact that they decided to give gaijin a shot this year to even the playing field... But why stop half-way (at Cab and Chang) if they decided to do that? If they really fielded the best team from NPB, there might be 3 or 4 gaijin in the line-up (Caberera, Petagine, Rhodes, and isn't there a 2nd baseman on Hiroshima who hits 30+ homers a year), but so what? It's the NPB all-stars, not "Team Japan."

> But if it's NPB all-stars, where are
> Petagine and Rhodes?

With Cabrera, Matsui, Nakamura, Wada et al in the line up, where would those two bats in the order?

I would take Rhodes over Wada any day. Petagine could DH or play 1B and let Caberera DH, or just sit on the bench. The point is, there's no way he's not one of the top 25 players in Japan right now.

> The point is, there's no way he's not
> one of the top 25 players in Japan right now.

Perhaps so... No, undoubtedly correct. However, there are several points to take into account.

1. Position
2. Yoban
3. Popular opinion

Firstly, there are many positions on the field which the bunch of candidates can't play, meaning that Rhodes (or any of the others in question) has to be the best of a much smaller group of players than 25.

Secondly, for better or for worse, the No. 4 position in the batting order is sacrosanct in Japan. To be designated as the yoban batter is a huge honour. Godzilla Matsui is often referred to (deservedly) as Nippon-no Yoban, so there's a slim chance at best that anyone else will take that slot. That leaves both Cabrera and Nakamura out of their regular slots.

Let us imagine that Nakamura is persuaded to take the number 3 spot, and Cabrera 5. What, then, becomes of Kiyohara? No. 6? Okay, let's further assume that he does take that spot. Where are these guys going to field?

Kiyo is famous (even among we Hanshin fans) for being useless at 3rd, and Cabrera's at 1st, so OK, let's say Kiyo's the DH, and we manage to fit all those big hitters in. Don't things seem to be getting a little crowded with sluggers? Who are they going to have to get on base so they have someone to hit home (this is, after all, a game and not a homerun derby).

Little Matsui is a given, but then who? Imaoka? But his position might be taken by one of those sluggers. Top base-stealer Akahoshi? Sorry, Godzilla's already in that part of the field.

The debate, of course, could go on forever, but the obvious point is the number of guys on the field is limited to 9, and the powers-that-be have to leave out guys who might otherwise deserve to be included. Also, given the factor described next, it appears that they've made the right decision.

Thirdly, as this is not a regular season game, but a series of games played purely for the entertainment of baseball fans, teams have to be made up of players who the fans want to see, as well as those who are their on merit.

Regardless of what some of us may think, the majority of Japanese baseball fans are more likely to want to see Godzilla, Cabrera, Kiyohara, Nakamura, and maybe even Wada (who did hit 30 HRs at over .300, it must be said) over Petagine and possibly Rhodes (although after a zillion years in Japan now, Rhodes is certainly a sentimental favorite).

What, then, becomes of Kiyohara?

Did Kiyohara make the roster? I don't see him listed.

Very good observation. I typed the list up and didn't notice that. I had just assumed that he would be there.

Now that you mention it, though, the only Giants on the roster (Hara-kantoku excluded) were voted in. Nioka will be off in Cuba for the Intercontentental Cup. Otherwise, it looks like the non-voted Giants will play the MLB one game and finally start in on their off season.

> Very good observation.

Indeed. I just assumed that he was in because, well... you just can't leave him out, can you? Anyway, I apologise for the oversight, although I think my opint still stands.

I can live with the "entertainment value" argument, if that's indeed what they were thinking. In fact, it is likely the reason they didn't choose foreign players before.

As for fitting the players I mentioned on the team, it's definitely possible, even though they might not all be on the field at the same time. (But they're not going to have the same line-up for all 8 games anyway.)

They don't need 3 catchers (what's Shimizu doing there anyway? I'm assuming Furuta and or Johjima are injured, so I'll have to live with Tanishige's 0.215 average. So there's a spot to stick Petagine. Shimizu Takayuki is a good player, but you can't pick him over a guy who just hit 55 homers last year. So replace him with Rhodes. Well, what's the line-up then?

SS Matsui S
1B Ogasawara L
DH Caberera R
CF Matsui L
3B Nakamura R
LF Rhodes L
2B Imaoka R
RF Fukudome L
C Abe L

Not only a powerful line-up, it's interleaved with L/R hitters nicely, and K. Matsui and Ogasawara will get on base as well as any traditional leadoff combos anybody can come up with.

I won't go into the pitchers, but it wouldn't be hard to make a case for either Minchey, Powell, or Hodges (who combined over 600 innings and 49 wins!).

Slight digression: a question.

Is it feasible for players to bat out of their normal positions in the line-up?

Dusanh-san's team does indeed appear to be very powerful, but quite a few guys are listed in slots far removed from their normal places.

Imaoka, for instance, bats 1 or 2 for Hanshin; Abe 6-ish, but was 3 for much of this season due to Takahashi's injury; I think I recall Fukudome batted higher up the order and Ogasawara slightly lower (I might be wrong with those two).

Much is made of a batter's position in the order by commentators: does it matter that much?

As for players batting out of order, you can check a study from Bill James, the duly noted statistician of MLB. I forgot exactly which website. Check Google for baseball sites such as www.baseballprospectus.com.

The study does not favor a lineup with batters hitting out of order.

Update on MLB team in the MLB vs. Japan All-Stars Series: information regarding Oakland Athletics representatives.

- The manager for the MLB team will be Art Howe. He was recently released from his contract so that he will be the manager for the New York Mets for next year (2003).

- Pitching coach Rick Peterson will join Howe for the MLB coaching staff.

- Shortstop Miguel Tejada was invited to the MLB team but has declined to go.