Best Player?

I think he's trying to use non gender specific language. But as far as I'm aware, there are no female pro players in Japan.

The question "Who's the best current NPB player?" was last asked in January of 2003 [Link]. Since then, both Matsuis have crossed the Pacific. That leaves Cabrera, Nakamura, and Ogasawara from that thread for starters.

This related thread was a good idea, but it degenerated into an MLB Dream Team discussion before getting very far. There are a number of NPB dream teams.

Then there's the All Time Greatest thread [Link]. But after looking at Albright-san's article at the BaseballGuru [Link], there isn't much to discuss. (Unless somebody comes up with an alternate formula.)

Personally, I think it's kind of hard to tell who the best current player is right now because nobody is playing full time yet. Sorry if that's not the answer you're looking for, but it's too early yet to answer with any confidence.

The question posed may well depend on whether you mean, who will have the greatest future (which wouldn't help Ogasawara, Cabrera, Nakamura, Petagine, or Rhodes)? Or, who will be the best in 2004? If you want the latter question, I might lean toward Cabrera. If you want the former, I'd have to do a lot of research to figure it out, because the younger group like Tani and Fukudome, to name just two, has to be considered, and their exact ages have a huge impact on who I'd select.

As for the greatest ever, I do have a new, and IMO, much better rating system. I'm over halfway through writing all the articles I plan to do using this system, and I'm much happier with the results. However, I want to write all the articles using the system first, and I also want to do some work to provide a central place in baseballguru.com where one can access everything I've written on a player.

Jim Albright

Petagine, Takahashi, and Rhodes this year play for Yomiuri, so they will make the Top Three guys in Yomiuri.

I don't understand why it is difficult to identify the best player in Japanese baseball. In MLB it is easy to say "A-Rod, the best player today." So far, MLB have more talented players than NPB and it is easy to say that one is the best.

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No entiendo porque es dficil identificar al mejor jugador del beisbol japones. En Grandes Ligas es facil decir "A-Rod, el mejor jugador de la actualidad". Por mucho, las Grandes Ligas tienen mas jugadores super estrellas que la NPB y aun asi es facil decir que uno es mejor que los otros.

The difficulty is that each person puts a different weight on what's important. If you asked 20 people at random, you'll probably get over half that disagree about A-Rod being the top MLB player. We aren't just casual fans here who will drop a name without anything to back up such a claim.

Making an informed decision to say that one player is better than all others isn't easy. And before the season has even started, at a time when players are still getting ready, there is too little information available to make an informed decision.

- I don't understand why it is difficult to identify the best player in Japanese baseball. In MLB it is easy to say "A-Rod, the best player today." So far, MLB have more talented players than NPB and it is easy to say that one is the best.

It might be much easier if we could pick the guys who are in the majors, but that's not the question. Even so, in the majors, if you're looking for the guy who will do the most in his career from this point, I think I'd like Pujols over A-Rod, because Pujols is younger. If A-Rod is a third baseman, is he still more valuable than Bonds or Pujols, even if we assume A-Rod was (is) more valuable if he's a shortstop? There's been much more research of this kind on MLB, which certainly helps.

The bottom line for me as an analyst is that it is easy to say such things, but I want to be able to objectively back such statements up. Even then, if I am going to make such a definitive statement, I'd like the difference between the best and second best to be greater than the "fudge factors," i.e., bigger than the effect of varying degrees of reasonable assumptions upon which we assess value.

Really, I rarely make such definitive statements -- I qualify them by saying things more like: such and such a method chooses player X as the best player. I do not wish to go through the complete figuring of Win Shares to answer such a question each year, and if I don't, the gray area is too large to make meaningful statements, IMO.

Jim Albright

I can understand the point about selecting one player over the rest. It is difficult in any league and any sport (Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods are exceptions to the rules) to have one best of all the better. I think the departure of Ichiro, two Matsuis, and some pitchers to MLB made the selection of any player as the "best" in NPB more difficult.

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Puedo entender el punto de ustedes sobre seleccionar un jugador sobre el resto. Es algo dificil en cualquier liga o cualquier deporte (Jordan y Woods son la excepcion) tener a alguien que todo el mundo considere como el mejor. Pienso que la salida de jugadores como Ichiro, los dos Matsui y algunos lanzadpres, pone mas dificil la seleccion de un jugador como "el mejor".

Note: My favorite player in MLB is Jose Guillen, not A-Rod or Pujols.

Well,Sadaharu Oh can be the All-Time Best Player in NPB, but that's the past.

Actually, I find it easier to answer such questions on a historical level, because there the focus is on what a player did rather than what he will do. When you focus on that, you won't run into difficulties over future value or things like Cabrera's broken arm. Yes, Oh is clearly the best in Japan, as I have written many times, and at inordinate length.

Jim Albright

What about Alex Ramirez of the Yakult Swallows? He almost had the triple crown last year (dang Imaoka), and he filled in very nicely in the #4 spot when Petagine left for the Giants. I know Rami-chan has only been here for a limited time, but you gotta admit, he's a very good player over here in NPB.

Other's I would consider are Daiei's Iguchi and the Giants' Takahashi. Nippon Ham's Ogasawara is a good player, but lacks a little in the power area.

Of course, they play so well. But for a best player, he needs to play long (more than 5 seasons) steadilly good. Just one season isn't enough to know if the next season that player will still do well or not.