Latinos Leading the NPB Central League in Batting and Homers

Every so often I like to look across the big pond known as the Pacific Ocean to take a look at the progress of the Latinos that play over in the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB). As in years past, I have spent extensive time looking at Alex "Rami-Chan" Ramirez. Though Ramirez made history earlier this season when he became the first foreign player to reach the 2000 hit plateau (which I profiled in my blogpost Rami-Chan First Foreign Player in NPB to Reach 2000 Hits), there have been a new crop of Latino players to make their mark in Japan.

As of Saturday June 29th, three of the top six hitters in the Central League are from Latin-American countries with a fourth player being from Curaçao. Take a look at the batting race below (courtesy of the NPB Batting title statistics website):

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Minimum plate appearances equal to 3.1 times the number of games played by that player's club
Rk	Player		AVG	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	TB	RBI	SB	CS	SH	SF	BB	IBB	HP	SO	GDP	SLG	OBP
1	Luna, Hector		.377	69	295	268	41	101	22	3	8	153	45	3	0	0	0	26	2	1	44	9	.571	.434
2	Murton, Matt		.350	67	286	260	28	91	17	1	7	131	44	6	1	0	3	23	1	0	35	8	.504	.399
3	Blanco, Tony		.331	67	284	236	41	78	7	0	25	160	67	0	0	0	1	40	6	7	62	3	.678	.440
4	Nakamura, Norihiro		.311	62	247	222	22	69	9	1	9	107	33	0	0	0	1	21	0	3	33	12	.482	.377
5	Balentien, Wladimir		.310	55	239	200	40	62	8	0	25	145	56	0	0	0	1	38	2	0	46	5	.725	.418
6	Lopez, Jose		.310	65	259	242	30	75	16	0	11	124	29	1	0	1	0	11	0	5	32	6	.512	.353

In at the top is Dominican Hector Luna who is leading the Central League with a .377 average in his first season playing in Japan for the Chunichi Dragons. Luna has 101 hits (22 2B/3 3B/8 HR) with 45 RBI, 26 walks, 44 strikeouts and an OPS of 1.005 (.434 OBP/.571 SLG). For those of you who aren't familiar with Luna, he last played in MLB for the Philadelphia Phillies during the 2012 season.

- Click Here to access Hector Luna's career statistics in NPB from the NPB website

- Click Here to access Hector Luna's career statistics in MLB from Baseball Reference.com

Third in the batting race is Dominican Tony Blanco who is not only batting .331 but is tied for the Central League Home Run race with 25 homers (with Wladimir Balentien of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows) in his first season with the Yokohama DeNA Baystars (he played the last four seasons with the Chunichi Dragons). Blanco has 78 hits (7 2B/0 3B/25 HR) with a league leading 67 RBI, 40 walks, 62 strikeouts and an OPS of 1.118 (.440 OBP/.678 SLG). Blanco last played in MLB in 2005 for the Washington Nationals.

- Click Here to access Tony Blanco's career statistics in NPB from the NPB website

- Click Here to access Tony Blanco's career statistics in MLB from Baseball Reference.com

Tied for fifth in the batting race is Venezuelan Jose Lopez who is batting .310 in his first season playing in Japan for the Yomiyuri Giants. Lopez has 75 hits (16 2B/0 3B/11 HR) with 29 RBI, 11 walks, 32 strikeouts and an OPS of .865 (.353 OBP/.512 SLG). Lopez is a veteran of MLB having played the majority of his career with the Seattle Mariners and last played in the league last season with the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago White Sox. 

- Click Here to access Jose Lopez's career statistics in NPB from the NPB website

- Click Here to access Jose Lopez's career statistics in MLB from Baseball Reference.com

I'm going to give a special mention to Wladimir Balentien who is from Curaçao. Balentien is tied fifth in the league with a .310 average and tied for the league lead in home runs with the aforementioned Tony Blanco. 

- Click Here to access Wladimir Balentien's career statistics in NPB from the NPB website

- Click Here to access Wladimir Balentien's career statistics in MLB from Baseball Reference.com

So there you have it. I'll make sure to check in on the progress of these and other Latinos that might be playing in Asia. 幸運の兄弟。(Buena suerte hermanos).

Baseball Sisco

Return to Japan to look at Rami-Chan

I've decided to take a trip back to the "Land of the Rising Sun" (well figuratively, not literally, LOL) to take another look at arguably the best Latino hitter in Japanese Baseball history: Alex Ramirez. In a prior post on April 8, 2010, I said that Ramirez has placed himself in a position to make history in Japan. As it is, he is the 2-time defending Central League MVP and this season he is working on his 3rd straight. (Photo Credit Kyodo Photo)

As of June 30, 2010, Ramirez is batting .280 with 26 Hr, 70 RBI and an OPS of .915 (.599 SLG/.316 OBP) in 71 games played. Ramirez is the 2nd foreign player to hit 20 or more homers for 10 consecutive years (Tuffy Rhodes is the 1st with 307 homers in Japan). Ramirez has also surpassed the 300 HR and 1000 RBI plateau for his career in Japan.

As Ramirez continues to climb the ranks of the NPB record books, he continues to cement himself as one of the best Latino players, if not the best Latino player in Japanese Baseball history. I'll keep you guys posted as the NPB season progress

FH

For Further Reading
- Click Here for Alex Ramirez's webpage
- Click Here for the English Language Japan Times Online Article dated June 30, 2010 for Ramirez's 3-homerun game against the Hiroshima Carp
- Click Here for Jason Coskrey's article dated June 23, 2010 called Consistent Ramirez Reaches a Milestone
- Click Here for the official Nippon Professional Baseball League 2010 season webpage in English with up to date scores and statistics

Rami-chan, the Dominant Latino Gaijin in Japan

For today’s post, I’ve decided to take a little trip to the Land of the Rising Sun to profile the Latino player that is currently dominating the Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) with the Yomiyuri Tokyo Giants of the Central League. Known to the Yomiyuri fans as Rami-chan, this individual is the current 2-time defending MVP of the Central League and helped the Giants to both a NPB championship (the first for the Giants since 2002) and the Asia Club Title. Entering his 10th year in the NPB, he has a chance to achieve a rare milestone in the NPB by attempting to win his third MVP award in a row. His name is Alex Ramirez, of Caracas, Venezuela (Photo Credit http://japanesebaseballcards.blogspot.com/) .

Ramirez was originally signed as a free-agent by the Cleveland Indians in 1991 and spent the better part of seven years within Cleveland’s minor league affiliates before making it to the home club for a brief stint in during the 1998 season. Ramirez played for the Indians in 1999 batting .299 in 97 at-bats with 29 Hits (6 2B, 1 3B, 3HR) with 18 RBI and 11 Runs scored. Ramirez also had an OPS of .801 (.327 OBP/.474 SLG). Ramirez split time between the Indians and the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 2000 season (Ramirez was traded with Enrique Wilson for Wil Cordero). Ramirez batted a combined .247 in 227 at-bats with 56 Hits (11 2B, 2 3B, 9HR) with 30 RBI and 26 Runs scored. Ramirez’s OPS dropped to .716 (.285 OBP, .432 SLG) while struggling against National League pitching (.286 BA in AL/.209 BA in NL). Ramirez’s contract was sold to the Yakult Swallows of the Central League. Ramirez thrived in Japan since he was given the opportunity to play every day in a new environment.

From 2001 to 2007, Ramirez bloomed into a dominant offensive force with the Swallows. Ramirez won the league homerun title in 2003 with 40 and won two RBI titles with 124 in 2003 and 122 in 2007 and in 2007 Ramirez became the first Gaijin (foreign player) to have more than 200 hits in a season. During his years with Yakult, Ramirez averaged 26 HR and 92 RBI with a .304 BA. As with the baseball economics that we see here in the United States, Ramirez had reached superstar status and the Yakult Swallows were not able to keep him. Ramirez looked toward the Tokyo rival Giants for the 2008 season. Wayne Graczyk of the Japan Times noted in his December 16, 2007 article named Readers Chime in About Giants ‘Jinx’ that fans worried about the supposed "Giants jinx":

It seemingly afflicts foreign players who play in Japan for one team, then cannot reach agreement on a new contract, so they move to the Yomiuri Giants, only to find bad luck, coincidental injury or other problems that keep them from performing as they did for the old club.

Well, if there was a jinx Ramirez seemed immune to it. In the two years that Ramirez has been with the Giants, he’s won two straight Central League MVP titles, an RBI title with 125 in 2008 and a batting title with a .322 BA in 2009. As I stated earlier, Ramirez helped lead the Yomiyuri Giants to the NPB Championship during the 2009 Climax Series against the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters of the Pacific League and led the Giants to an Asia Club against the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) champion Kia Tigers. For those of you who don’t know what the Asia Club Tournament is, it replaced the Asian Series (2005-2008) that pits the champions of the NPB, the KBO, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL in Taiwan) and the Chinese National team in a round robin tournament.

I’m not sure how long Ramirez’s contract is with the Yomiyuri Giants, but he has the potential to hit for over 300 HR and more than 1000 RBI for his career in Japan. His productivity seems to not be waning since he is still hitting for power and is striking out less and less per year. Whether or not he ever decides to leave Japan for one last stint in the Majors is also unknown, but given the opportunity that Ramirez has fully capitalized in Japan, why would he? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Here are Ramirez’s career statistics in Japan:

Alex Ramirez's Yearly Statistics in Japan (Bold Denotes League Leader)

Yr	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RB	BB	K	BA	OB	SLG	OPS
01	138	510	60	143	23	0	29	88	27	132	.280	.320	.496	.816
02	139	539	65	159	25	0	24	92	22	146	.295	.325	.475	.800
03	140	567	105	189	34	3	40	124	34	104	.333	.373	.616	.989
04	129	525	79	160	30	2	31	110	23	118	.305	.341	.547	.888
05	146	596	70	168	19	1	32	104	23	121	.282	.315	.478	.793
06	146	603	79	161	28	2	26	112	19	104	.267	.289	.449	.738
07	144	548	80	204	41	3	29	122	23	106	.343	.371	.569	.940
08	144	548	84	175	28	0	45	125	39	90	.319	.373	.617	.990
09	144	577	66	186	35	0	31	103	21	88	.322	.347	.544	.891
Tot	1270	5059	688	1545	244	10	287	980	231	1009	.305	.339	.532	.871

For Further Reading:
Grazcyk, Wayne Japan Pro Baseball Fan Handbook & Media Guide, 2010 (Available at www.japanball.com and www.yakyushop.com)

Whiting, Robert You Gotta Have Wa (New York, Vintage Books, 2009);

- Click here for the Alex Ramirez statistics page on Baseball-Cube.com
- Click Here for the English webpage of the Nippon Professional Baseball League
- Click Here for the Japanese Yomiyuri Tokyo Giants webpage
- Click Here for the Japanese Yakult Tokyo Swallows webpage
- Click Here for Wayne Graczyk's article listings on the Japan Times website
- Click Here for the Japan Times Baseball News Page in English
- Click Here for this cool blogpage about Japanese Baseball Cards
- Click Here for Jim Albright's Informative Japanese Baseball Page
- Click Here for Bob Bavasi's Awesome Guide to Japanese Baseball
- Click Here for Rob's Japanese Baseball Cards page in English