More NPB Awards - Best Nine, ROY, and MVPs

2006 Pacific League Awards (Japanese):

MVP: Michihiro Ogasawara (Fighters, .313/.397/.573, 32 HR, 100 RBI)
ROY: Tomoya Yagi (Fighters, 12-8, 2.48)

Pretty much everybody predicted Yagi as the PL ROY, I think. He lived up to every expectation anyone could have possibly had of the Soka University graduate, becoming part of a powerful young one-two punch with Yu Darvish that will anchor the Fighters for years to come. Yagi was an almost unanimous ROY candidate (175/180 votes).

I predicted Ogasawara as the HR king before the season started, but even in mid-September I was still figuring he'd only get MVP if the Fighters won the league. Oddly, I thought it'd be between him and Alex Cabrera though, and instead he only edged out Kazumi Saitoh by 20 points in the voting, while Cabrera barely got any at all.

PL Best Nine:
P: Kazumi Saitoh, Hawks
C: Tomoya Satozaki, Marines
1B: Michihiro Ogasawara, Fighters
2B: Kensuke Tanaka, Fighters
3B: Jose Fernandez, Eagles
SS: Munenori Kawasaki, Hawks
OF: Atsunori Inaba, Fighters
OF: Nobuhiko Matsunaka, Hawks
OF: Kazuhiro Wada, Lions
DH: Fernando Seguignol, Fighters

2006 Central League Awards (Japanese):

MVP: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons (.351/.438/.653, 31 HR, 104 RBI)
ROY: Eishin Soyogi, Carp (.289/.332/.422)

I was fairly sure Fukudome would get the award, even though one could make a pretty good argument for Tyrone Woods (.310/.402/.635, 47 HR, 144 RBI), who finished third in the balloting, with Kenshin Kawakami placing second. Woods is not the worst defensive first baseman that has ever lived, but Fukudome's one of the top outfielders in Japan.

Soyogi's not a bad choice for ROY at all, though I actually would have voted for the guy who placed second, Yuuki Yoshimura of the Bay Stars (.311/.336/.573, 26 HR). Neither one really took the league by storm like Norichika Aoki did last year, but both were respectably good players on relatively bad teams.

CL Best Nine:
P: Kenshin Kawakami, Dragons
C: Akihiro Yano, Tigers
1B: Tyrone Woods, Dragons
2B: Masahiro Araki, Dragons
3B: Akinori Iwamura, Swallows
SS: Hirokazu Ibata, Dragons
OF: Kosuke Fukudome, Dragons
OF: Tomoaki Kanemoto, Tigers
OF: Norichika Aoki, Swallows

Yeah, these lists do look fairly similar to the Gold Gloves, don't they...

Pictures: MVP/ROYs, Fukudome and Ogasawara, Soyogi and Yagi
WBC Medal/Ribbon ceremony. Wada and Matsuzaka.

(I also saw that Brandon Webb won the NL Cy Young over on this side of the ocean. AL Cy will be announced Thursday.)

(Yes, I am very specifically not talking about Matsuzaka and the Red Sox, for now. I vaguely debated making a post listing exactly what $51 million is worth in terms of things like tacos, playstations, automobiles, and small countries in Africa, but have other things I need to work on. There's plenty of hibachi coverage on mlb.com right now anyway.)