When it comes to professional baseball players like Kosuke Fukudome, Yu Darvish and Koji Uehara, what country do you think of? That is Japan.
Since I’ve played and watched Japanese baseball for more than 10 years, I am a big fan of baseball, including the MLB. Who do you think the best Japanese player is? Referring to Wins Above Replacement (WAR), the best Japanese player is Ichiro Suzuki, followed by Nomo Hideo. This measurement, however, is based on a player’s total contributions for their team. Thus, people do not agree with the result of the data.
“Ichiro Suzuki is the best Japanese player in the history of Major League Baseball,” Cory Stevens, the assistant baseball coach at NCC, said, “He’s had a fantastic career and should be inducted into the Hall of Fame.”
Jordan Bradley, sports editor at the Chronicle, also considers Suzuki a favorite player. “He was so fun to watch and one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen.”
Suzuki is one of the best-known baseball players to come from Japan in the MLB. Kengo Watanaebe, who has played baseball with me for six years and been a pitcher in Japan. He hopes that Shohei Ohtani will be one of the best Japanese players since he is expected to do very well. Watanaebe also added, “Japanese players are more likely to be successful as a pitcher than a batter, except for Ichiro. We should keep our eyes on Japanese player too in coming wildcard.”
