2012 in Japanese Baseball

From BR Bullpen

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]

Statistic Central League Pacific League
Leader Team Number Leader Team Number
ERA Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Carp 1.53 Mitsuo Yoshikawa Nippon Ham Fighters 1.71
Wins Tetsuya Utsumi Yomiuri Giants 15 Tadashi Settsu SoftBank Hawks 17
Winning Percentage Toshiya Sugiuchi Yomiuri Giants .750 Tadashi Settsu SoftBank Hawks .773
Losses Bryan Bullington
Minoru Iwata
Hiroshima Carp
Hanshin Tigers
14 Takayuki Kishi Seibu Lions 12
Saves Tony Barnette
Hitoki Iwase
Yakult Swallows
Chunichi Dragons
33 Hisashi Takeda Nippon Ham Fighters 32
Innings Pitched Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Toyo Carp 206 1/3 Yoshihisa Naruse Chiba Lotte Marines 200 2/3
Appearances Tetsuya Yamaguchi Yomiuri Giants 72 Hirotoshi Masui Nippon Ham Fighters 73
Hits Allowed Masanori Ishikawa Yakult Swallows 175 Yoshihisa Naruse Chiba Lotte Marines 176
Home Runs Allowed Daisuke Miura Yokohama BayStars 15 Yoshihisa Naruse Chiba Lotte Marines 21
Strikeouts Atsushi Nomi
Toshiya Sugiuchi
Hanshin Tigers
Yomiuri Giants
172 Masahiro Tanaka Rakuten Golden Eagles 169
Base-on-Balls Orlando Román Tokyo Yakult Swallows 69 Hiroki Yamada Softbank Hawks 57

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.

Central League Position Pacific League
Player Team Player Team
Tetsuya Utsumi Yomiuri Giants P Mitsuo Yoshikawa Nippon Ham Fighters
Shinnosuke Abe Yomiuri Giants C Shinya Tsuruoka Nippon Ham Fighters
Tony Blanco Chunichi Dragons 1B Dae-ho Lee Orix Buffaloes
Hiroyasu Tanaka Yakult Swallows 2B Kensuke Tanaka Nippon Ham Fighters
Shuichi Murata Yomiuri Giants 3B Takeya Nakamura Seibu Lions
Hayato Sakamoto Yomiuri Giants SS Hiroyuki Nakajima Seibu Lions
Hisayoshi Chono Yomiuri Giants OF Yoshio Itoi Nippon Ham Fighters
Yohei Oshima Chunichi Dragons Katsuya Kakunaka Chiba Lotte Marines
Wladimir Balentien Yakult Swallows Seiichi Uchikawa SoftBank Hawks
DH Wily Mo Pena Softbank Hawks

Gold Gloves[edit]

The following players were the recipients of the Gold Glove Award in 2012.

Central League Position Pacific League
Player Team Player Team
Kenta Maeda Hiroshima Carp P Masahiro Tanaka Rakuten Golden Eagles
Motonobu Tanishige Chunichi Dragons C Ginjiro Sumitani Seibu Lions
Kazuhiro Hatakeyama Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1B Atsunori Inaba Nippon Ham Fighters
Hiroyasu Tanaka Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2B Yuichi Honda Softbank Hawks
Shinya Miyamoto Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3B Eiichi Koyano Nippon Ham Fighters
Hirokazu Ibata Chunichi Dragons SS Hiroyuki Nakajima Seibu Lions
Hisayoshi Chono Yomiuri Giants OF Dai-Kang Yoh Nippon Ham Fighters
Sho Aranami Yokohama BayStars Yoshio Itoi Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters
Yohei Oshima Chunichi Dragons Yoshifumi Okada Chiba Lotte Marines

High School Baseball[edit]

The 94th National High School Baseball Championship featured a total of 3,985 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

Tokyo Big6 Baseball League[edit]

Season First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
Spring Waseda Hosei Keio Meiji Rikkio Tokyo
Fall Hosei Waseda Keio Meiji Rikkio Tokyo

Kansai 6 University Baseball League[edit]

Season First Second Third Fourth Fifth Sixth
Spring Ritsumeikan Kindai Kansai Kwansei Gakuin Doshisha Kyoto
Fall Kwansei Gakuin Ritsumeikan Kansai Kindai Doshisha Kyoto

International Baseball[edit]

Japan finished 1st at the 2012 Asian Championship.

Japanese Players in Other Countries[edit]

Italics indicate a Major League appearance

Hall of Fame[edit]

The following people were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame: