Tuesday, November 24, 2009

2009 NPB Awards (Golden Gloves, Best Nine, Minor Leagues, Everything!)

I have a post about the U-26 vs. College game in my drafts pile, but have been sick the last few days.

I hadn't posted the awards for the year yet, and the nice thing is that since I was a slacker, now I can put them all in one post together! Hooray.

Best Nines

     Central League                         Pacific League
(1) Dicky Gonzalez (G) P (2) Yu Darvish (F)
(4) Shinnosuke Abe (G) C (1) Hidenori Tanoue (H)
(1) Tony Blanco (D) 1B (1) Shinji Takahashi (F)
(2) Akihiro Higashide (C) 2B (3) Kensuke Tanaka (F)
(7)* Michihiro Ogasawara (G) 3B (2) Takeya Nakamura (L)
(1) Hayato Sakamoto (G) SS (2) Hiroyuki Nakajima (L)
(4) Norichika Aoki (S) OF (1) Teppei Tsuchiya (E)
(2)* Seiichi Uchikawa (B) OF (5)* Atsunori Inaba (F)
(5) Alex Ramirez (G) OF (1) Yoshio Itoi (F)
DH (3)* Takeshi Yamasaki (E)

Ogasawara has 2 Best Nines at 3B in the Central League, 2 at 3B in the Pacific League, and 3 at 1B in the Pacific League.
Uchikawa has a Best Nine at 1B in addition to this one at OF.
Inaba has a Best Nine at OF in the Central League, and now 4 in the Pacific.
Yamasaki has a Best Nine at OF in the Central League, this is his second DH Best Nine.

I'm totally fine with most of these choices. Nice to see people recognize the contributions by some of these guys, especially Blanco and Tanoue. My ONLY real argument here is going to be that Kazuhiro Wada might have deserved an OF Best Nine a bit more than the three guys who actually got it:

Name Votes AVG OBP SLG HR RBI G PO A E DP FP
Alex Ramirez 202 .322 .347 .544 31 103 133 147 2 6 0 .961
Seiichi Uchikawa 124 .318 .369 .491 17 66 130 210 1 3 1 .986
Norichika Aoki 121 .303 .400 .444 16 66 141 300 9 3 2 .990
Kazuhiro Wada 110 .302 .382 .532 29 87 144 216 12 2 3 .991

Seriously, how the hell did Wada not end up with a Best Nine or Golden Glove this season? He is basically a right-handed Atsunori Inaba with a tiny tiny bit less range, but for a 37-year-old outfielder he is still pretty dang awesome both with the bat and in the field. Ben-chan, you was ROBBED.

Golden Gloves

     Central League                         Pacific League
(1) Dicky Gonzalez (G) P (1) Hideki Wakui (L)
(4) Motonobu Tanishige (D) C (1) Shinya Tsuruoka (F)
(2) Kenta Kurihara (C) 1B (1) Shinji Takahashi (F)
(6) Masahiro Araki (D) 2B (4) Kensuke Tanaka (F)
(7)* Shinya Miyamoto (S) 3B (1) Eiichi Koyano (F)
(6) Hirokazu Ibata (D) SS (3)* Makoto Kaneko (F)
(4) Norichika Aoki (S) OF (1) Yoshio Itoi (F)
(1) Tetsuya Matsumoto (G) OF (4) Atsunori Inaba (F)
(1) Yoshiyuki Kamei (G) OF (2) Tomotaka Sakaguchi (B)

Miyamoto has 6 Golden Gloves at SS, this is his first at 3B.
Kaneko has 2 Golden Gloves at 2B, this is his first at SS. (WTF! Really?!?)

So the Two-Headed Double Play Monster Arakibata wins its 6th consecutive Golden Glove, which is fine with me as those two are seriously the best keystone combo in the game here. My only question about the Central League choices is, WHAT THE HELL IS KAMEI DOING ON THAT LIST!? Seriously. Matsumoto is awesome, even I have to admit that, but Kamei? I see that the next two choices were Akamatsu and Fukuchi, either of whom would be more deserving of the award. Kamei spent half of his time at 1B anyway! Come on, give Kazuhiro Wada that Golden Glove instead of Kamei, for crying out loud.

I am not complaining about the PL choices because they're all Fighters :)
No, seriously, though, everyone who got a GG on the Fighters IS pretty solid defensively. It's kind of what our team is known for -- especially this season with the way we've been holding Sho Nakata at ni-gun because he can't even adequately play first base defensively.

Other awards/leaders:

     Central League                         Pacific League
(2) Alex Ramirez (G) MVP (2) Yu Darvish (F)
Tetsuya Matsumoto (G) ROY Tadashi Settsu (H)

(1) Wei-Yin Chen 1.54 (D) ERA (1) Yu Darvish 1.73 (F)
(1) Kazuki Yoshimi 16 (D) WIN (2) Hideaki Wakui 16 (L)
(1) Shohei Tateyama 16 (S)
(1) Dicky Gonzalez .750 (G) WP% (1) Yu Darvish .750 (F)
(1) Toshiya Sugiuchi .750 (H)
(2) Colby Lewis 186 (C) K (2) Toshiya Sugiuchi 204 (H)
(3) Hitoki Iwase 41 (D) SAV (1) Hisashi Takeda 34 (F)
(1) Tetsuya Yamaguchi 44 (G) HLD (1) Tadashi Settsu 39 (H)

(1) Alex Ramirez .322 (G) AVG (1) Teppei Tsuchiya .327 (E)
(1) Tony Blanco 39 (D) HR (2) Takeya Nakamura 48 (L)
(1) Tony Blanco 110 (D) RBI (1) Takeya Nakamura 122 (L)
(2) Kazuki Fukuchi 42 (S) SB (3) Yasuyuki Kataoka 51 (L)
(2) Norichika Aoki .400 (S) OBP (2) Hiroyuki Nakajima .398 (L)
(3) Alex Ramirez 186 (G) H (1) Hiroyuki Nakajima 173 (L)


Special Awards
Championship Manager: Tatsunori Hara (CL / G), Masataka Nashida (PL / F)
Speed Up Awards: Daisuke Miura (Baystars pitcher)
CL Special Award: Kazuyoshi Tatsunami (Dragons, for his 22-year career)
PL Distinguished Achievement Award: Katsuya Nomura (Eagles manager)
CL Umpire Award: Kazuaki Nakoh
PL Umpire Award: Masami Yoshikawa

Matsutaro Shoriki Award: Tatsunori Hara (Giants manager, 2nd time)
Sawamura Award: Hideaki Wakui (Seibu Lions)

Ni-gun Awards/Leaders
Eastern League                       Western League
Hitoshi Fujie 1.97 (R) ERA Daisuke Yamai 2.38 (D)
Hiroshi Kisanuki 9 (G) WIN Daisuke Yamai 7 (D)
Ryoji Katsuki 9 (M) Shoji Nagamine 7 (D)
Hitoshi Fujie 9 (R) Ikketsu Sho 7 (T)
Hitoshi Fujie .750 (R) WP% Daisuke Yamai 1.000 (D)
Hiroshi Kisanuki 94 (G) K Shingo Tatsumi 80 (H)
Kentaro Hashimoto 13 (M) SAV Hiroki Kondoh 13 (D)

Juan Muniz .342 (M) AVG Aarom Baldiris .358 (T)
Sho Nakata 30 (F) HR Takahiro Okada 21 (B)
Sho Nakata 95 (F) RBI Takahiro Okada 59 (B)
Masayoshi Miwa 36 (S) SB Takaaki Matsumoto 23 (C)
Masayoshi Miwa .397 (S) OBP Ryota Arai .426 (D)
Yuki Takamori 112 (R) H Aarom Baldiris 93 (T)

Team MVPs
Wilfin Obispo (G) Yudai Kawai (D)
Ryoji Katsuki (M) Aarom Baldiris (T)
Yuta Naitoh (R) Takahiro Okada (B)
Hiromitsu Takagi (S) Akira Nakamura (H)
Sho Nakata (F) Tsubasa Aizawa (C)
Ryo Sakata (L)
Jobu Morita (E)

(R), by the way, is the one-letter abbreviation for the Shonan Sea Rex, for lack of a better one.

Special Awards:
Yoshiyuki Noguchi, Yakult: For hitting a cycle on 6/25 against the Fighters
Sho Nakata, Fighters: For the record of 30 homeruns in a minor-league season

Eastern League umpire: Kazuki Kudoh
Western League umpire: Ryotaro Sakai

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