2012 in Japanese Baseball
Atsunori Inaba and Shinya Miyamoto (one-time Yakult Swallows teammates) joined the meikyukai just six days apart, each reaching 2,000 career hits in their 1,976th game.
Kenta Maeda pitched the first regular season no-hitter in six years, though he was not the only hurler to toss a no-no this year.
Alessandro Maestri became the first player born and raised in Italy to play in NPB and did his country proud; he turned in a 2.17 ERA in 8 late-season starts for the Orix Buffaloes.
Despite losing star pitcher Yu Darvish to the Texas Rangers, the Nippon Ham Fighters improved from 2011, making it to the 2012 Japan Series before falling to the Yomiuri Giants.
Standings[edit]
- Bold indicates league champion; Italics indicate Nippon Series winner; * indicates playoff team
Central League[edit]
Team | G | W | L | T | WPCT | GB | RS | RA | AVG | OBP | SLG | ERA | Manager(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yomiuri Giants* | 144 | 86 | 43 | 15 | .667 | -- | 534 | 354 | .256 | .326 | .387 | 2.46 | Tatsunori Hara |
Chunichi Dragons* | 144 | 75 | 53 | 16 | .586 | 10.5 | 423 | 405 | .245 | .311 | .334 | 281 | Morimichi Takagi |
Tokyo Yakult Swallows* | 144 | 68 | 65 | 11 | .511 | 20 | 499 | 514 | .260 | .325 | .361 | 3.57 | Junji Ogawa |
Hiroshima Toyo Carp | 144 | 61 | 71 | 12 | .462 | 26.5 | 427 | 454 | .233 | .297 | .330 | 3.15 | Kenjiro Nomura |
Hanshin Tigers | 144 | 55 | 75 | 14 | .423 | 31.5 | 411 | 438 | .236 | .302 | .316 | 3.04 | Yutaka Wada |
Yokohama DeNA BayStars | 144 | 46 | 86 | 13 | .351 | 41 | 422 | 571 | .233 | .298 | .320 | 3.97 | Kiyoshi Nakahata |
Pacific League[edit]
Team | G | W | L | T | WPCT | GB | RS | RA | AVG | OBP | SLG | ERA | Manager(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters* | 144 | 74 | 59 | 11 | .556 | -- | 510 | 450 | .256 | .315 | .363 | 2.89 | Hideki Kuriyama |
Saitama Seibu Lions* | 144 | 72 | 63 | 9 | .533 | 3 | 516 | 518 | .251 | .316 | .353 | 3.25 | Hisanobu Watanabe |
Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks* | 144 | 67 | 65 | 12 | .508 | 6.5 | 452 | 429 | .252 | .304 | .349 | 2.58 | Koji Akiyama |
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles | 144 | 67 | 67 | 10 | .5-- | 7.5 | 491 | 467 | .252 | .307 | .332 | 3.00 | Senichi Hoshino |
Chiba Lotte Marines | 144 | 62 | 67 | 15 | .481 | 10 | 499 | 502 | .257 | .320 | .350 | 3.13 | Norifumi Nishimura |
Orix Buffaloes | 144 | 52 | 77 | 10 | .425 | 17.5 | 443 | 525 | .241 | .301 | .337 | 3.35 | Akinobu Okada |
Leaders[edit]
- Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record
Batting[edit]
Statistic | Central League | Pacific League | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Leader | Team | Number | Leader | Team | Number | |||
Batting Average | Shinnosuke Abe | Yomiuri Giants | .40 | Katsuya Kakunaka | Chiba Lotte Marines | .312 | ||
Runs | Hayato Sakamoto | Yomiuri Giants | 87 | Sho Nakata | Nippon Ham Fighters | 79 | ||
Hits | Hisayoshi Chono Hayato Sakamoto |
Yomiuri Giants Yomiuri Giants |
173 | Seiichi Uchikawa | Softbank Hawks | 157 | ||
Doubles | Hayato Sakamoto | Yomiuri Giants | 35 | Aarom Baldiris | Orix Buffaloes | 31 | ||
Triples | Sho Aranami | Yokohama BayStars | 7 | Shogo Akiyama | Seibu Lions | 8 | ||
Home Runs | Wladimir Balentien | Yakult Swallows | 31 | Takeya Nakamura | Seibu Lions | 27 | ||
Runs Batted In | Shinnosuke Abe | Yomiuri Giants | 104 | Dae-ho Lee | Orix Buffaloes | 91 | ||
Stolen Bases | Yohei Oshima | Chunichi Dragons | 32 | Ryo Hijirisawa | Rakuten Golden Eagles | 54 | ||
Walks | Takashi Toritani | Hanshin Tigers | 94 | Saburo Omura | Chiba Lotte Marines | 78 |
Pitching[edit]
Award Winners[edit]
The winner of the 2012 Sawamura Award was Tadashi Settsu of the SoftBank Hawks. He had a 17-5 win-loss record, 153 strikeouts, and a 1.91 ERA in 193.3 innings, leading the Pacific League in ERA, finishing third in wins and third in strikeouts.
Award | League | Player | Team | Position | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | OBP | SLG | W - L | SV | IP | HA | HRA | BB | SO | ERA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Most Valuable Player | CL | Shinnosuke Abe | Yomiuri Giants | C | 467 | 72 | 159 | 27 | 104 | 0 | .340 | .429 | .565 | Did not pitch | |||||||
PL | Mitsuo Yoshikawa | Nippon Ham Fighters | P | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 14 -5 | 0 | 173 2/3 | 108 | 6 | 45 | 158 | 1.71 | |
Rookie of the Year | CL | Yusuke Nomura | Hiroshima Carp | P | 42 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .095 | .174 | .119 | 9 - 11 | 0 | 172 2/3 | 143 | 6 | 52 | 103 | 1.98 |
PL | Naoya Masuda | Chiba Lotte Marines | P | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | 2 - 2 | 0 | 75 1/3 | 61 | 2 | 19 | 57 | 1.67 |
Best Nine[edit]
The following players were part of the 2012 Best Nine teams.
Gold Gloves[edit]
The following players were the recipients of the Gold Glove Award in 2012.
High School Baseball[edit]
The 94th National High School Baseball Championship featured a total of ???? schools competing for 49 spots in the finals at Koshien. In the championship game Osaka Toin High School (Osaka) defeated Kosei Gakuin High School (Aomori by a score of 3 - 0 in the championship game.
The 84th National High School Baseball Invitational Tournament featured 32 schools competing in the tournament at Koshien. In the championship game Osaka Toin High School (Osaka) defeated Kosei Gakuin High School (Aomori) by a score of 7 - 3.
Osaka Toin became the 6th school to win both tournaments in the same year.
University Baseball[edit]
All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series[edit]
The 2012 All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series featured schools competing in the tournament at Meiji-Jingu Stadium. In the championship game Waseda University defeated Asia University by a score of 4 - 0.
Meiji Jingu Baseball Convention[edit]
In the Meiji Jingu Baseball Convention Toin Yokohama University defeated Hosei University
International Baseball[edit]
Japan finished 1st at the 2012 Asian Championship.
Japanese Players in Other Countries[edit]
- Italics indicate a Major League appearance
- Norichika Aoki: Milwaukee Brewers
- Yu Darvish: Texas Rangers
- Yoshihiro Doi: Maui Na Koa Ikaika (North American League)
- Kosuke Fukudome: Chicago White Sox, Charlotte Knights (CWS-AAA) and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (NY-AAA)
- Ryota Igarashi: New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees (NY-AAA) and Las Vegas 51s (Tor-AAA)
- Hisashi Iwakuma: Seattle Mariners
- Munenori Kawasaki: Seattle Mariners
- Hiroki Kuroda: New York Yankees
- Hideki Matsui: Tampa Bay Rays and Durham Bulls (TB-AAA)
- Daisuke Matsuzaka: Boston Red Sox, Pawtucket Red Sox (Bos-AAA), Portland Sea Dogs (Bos-AA) and Salem Red Sox (Bos-A)
- Tsuyoshi Nishioka: Minnesota Twins and Rochester Red Wings (Min-AAA)
- Takashi Saitoh: Arizona Diamondbacks, Reno Aces (TB-AAA), Visalia Rawhide (TB-A) and AZL Diamondbacks (TB-R)
- Ichiro Suzuki: Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees
- Hisanori Takahashi: Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh Pirates and Salt Lake Bees (LAA-AAA)
- Yoshinori Tateyama: Texas Rangers and Round Rock Express (Tex-AAA)
- Junichi Tazawa: Boston Red Sox and Pawtucket Red Sox (Bos-AAA)
- Koji Uehara: Texas Rangers and Round Rock Express (Tex-AAA)
Hall of Fame[edit]
The following people were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame:
- Tsunemi Tsuda, by the Sportswriter Committee
- Manabu Kitabeppu, by the Sportswriter Committee
- Kiro Osafune, by the Special Committee
- Osamu Omoto, by the Special Committee
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