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Best Seasons in NPB

Discussion in the Pro Yakyu History forum
Best Seasons in NPB
Okay! Well I'm a MLB fan and it is always fun to think about the best seasons ever. Like Pedro Martinez in 1999, Babe Ruth in 192[insert number here], Ted Williams in 1941, Greg Maddux in either 1994 or 1995.

I can't think of anything more enjoyable than pondering the dominance that some players' achieve in certains periods of time, when they can do anything they imagine.

So I was wondering, what are some of the best seasons ever performed by Japanese League stars?

The catagories with MLB equivlent (IMO):

Best Offensive Season (Ted Williams 1941)

Best Pitching Season (Pedro Martinez 1999)

Best Baserunning Season (Rickey Henderson 1983)

Best All Round Athletic Season [SB+DEF+OPS] (Barry Bonds 1996)

Okay! Pretty straight forward?

I'm interested to hear what Japanese seasons most stand out. Thanks.
Comments
Re: Best Seasons in NPB
[ Author: Guest | Posted: Feb 23, 2006 12:10 PM ]

I'm doing this largely off the cuff, but here goes:

For hitting, I'd nominate one of Oh's Triple Crown seasons - take your pick between 1973 and 1974. I think I'd take 1974 with its .332/.527/.761 line with 49 HR and 107 RBI in 130 games.

I'll divide the pitching into pre 1945 and post 1945 categories (before 1945 was a deadball era in Japan):

Pre 1945,
Victor Starffin in 1940: 38-12, 0.97 ERA, 436 IP, 16 shutouts, 41 CG

Post 1945
Kazuhisa Inao, 1961 42-14 404 IP 1.69 ERA, led league in strikeouts, CG wins and ERA.

Running:
Yutaka Fukumoto 1972: 106 steals 25 CS in 122 games

Jim Albright
Re: Best Seasons in NPB
[ Author: Guest | Posted: Feb 25, 2006 2:56 AM ]

- Post 1945
Kazuhisa Inao, 1961 42-14 404 IP 1.69 ERA, led league in strikeouts, CG wins and ERA.

Holy Mama!

How does one win 42 games with 404 IP in a 150 game season or something and still have 14 games left to lose? That is amazing! 50 starts? 400/ 8IP/G?

I didn't realize NBP stabilized so quickly into MLB stat lines - from that a few decades ago. Or was this guy not just a product of the times and some sort of super pitcher?
Re: Best Seasons in NPB
[ Author: Kiyoshi | Posted: Feb 23, 2006 12:53 PM | HAN Fan ]

Straight forward - nothing in the discussion or anaylis of baseball is straight forward - before we get to NPB I doubt if you could get complete agreement about your MLB "Best" catagory selections - good luck!
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