2008 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award

The 2008 Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award was unusual in that it went to a player from a 5th-place team; that was the only the third time in Nippon Pro Baseball that such an event had happened. Hiromitsu Ochiai and Hiromitsu Kadota had won MVP honors from 5th-place teams in 1982 and 1988 respectively. In 2008, the honor went to Hisashi Iwakuma, who had struggled his first three years with the Rakuten Golden Eagles after joining them in their first year of existance. Iwakuma dazzled, going 21-4 and leading the Pacific League in wins and ERA (1.87, .01 ahead of 2007 MVP Yu Darvish) and finishing third with 159 strikeouts.

Iwakuma got 73 first-place votes, 44 second-place votes and 24 third-place votes. His 521 points led Seibu Lions SS Hiroyuki Nakajima (460 points) and Seibu 3B and PL home run king Takeya Nakamura (322 points).

Voting Results

Finish	Name	Team	Position	1st Place Votes	2nd Place Votes	3rd Place Votes	Points
1	Hisashi Iwakuma	Rakuten Golden Eagles	Pitcher	73	44	24	521
2	Hiroyuki Nakajima	Seibu Lions	Shortstop	56	52	24	460
3	Takeya Nakamura	Seibu Lions	3rd Baseman	32	37	51	322
4	Yu Darvish	Nippon Ham Fighters	Pitcher	8	24	37	149
5	Yasuyuki Kataoka	Seibu Lions	2nd Baseman	1	2	6	17
6	Alex Graman	Seibu Lions	Picher	0	3	4	13
7	Tuffy Rhodes	Orix Buffaloes	Designated Hitter	0	2	2	8
8	Kazuyuki Hoashi	Seibu Lions	Pitcher	0	1	4	7
9	Toru Hosokawa	Seibu Lions	Catcher	0	0	1	1