This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
1950
1953
1983
1989
1995
2000
2002
Iwamoto (Shochiku)
Nakanishi (Nishitetsu)
Minota (?) (Hankyu)
Akiyama (Seibu)
Nomura (Hiroshima)
Kanemoto (Hiroshima)
Matsui (Seibu)
.319
.314
.312
.301
.315
.315
.325
39
36
32
31
32
30
30
34
36
35
31
30
30
31
Of course, the line on Matsui isn't final, but it's highly unlikely that he'll drop .026 points in the Lions' last 19 games. And the home runs and stolen bases have no where to go but up.
As an added bonus, Matsui has hit 38 doubles, the only player in the above list to have 30 or more in the same season, making it quadruple three's for this all around shortstop.
As for the Lions, team mates Alex Cabrera and Kazuhiro Wada both have above .300 averages, with Wada reaching 30 home runs last night (Sept. 15) together with Matsui. This is the first Pacific League team and only second in Pro Yakyu history to have three players at .300 with 30 homers since the 1985 Hanshin Tigers.
Now the world awaits the Matsui-Matsui match-up in the Nihon Series next month.