2008.5.12 Pitching and Batting leaders

Just a quick run down on pitching and batting leaders in NPB as of 5/12 after the slew of Golden Week holidays games.

 

FIP	ERA	Pitcher	Team
	防御率
1.89	1.66	Iwakuma	TRGE
1.93	3.17	Sugiuchi	FSH
2.20	2.2	Lewis	HC
2.31	2.77	Greisinger	YG
2.57	2.22	Komatsu	OB
2.75	2.26	Shimizu	CLM
2.77	3.45	Utsumi	YG
2.79	2.31	Tanaka	TRGE
2.81	1.46	Darvish	HNF

 

 

OPS	Batter	Team
1.051	Yamasaki	TRGE
1.009	Sato	SSL
0.983	Tanaka	HNF
0.949	Hashimoto	CLM
0.945	Rhodes	OB
0.94	Arai	HT
0.93	Ramirez	YG
0.927	Matsunaka	FSH
0.921	Morino	CD
0.898	Nakajima	SSL

 

Yes, I know that both metrics are far from perfect, but since there’s no information like this out there right now for NPB, I thought I’d provide one (hopefully periodically). I used the constant of 3 for FIP because NPB is a low power, small ball, low scoring league.

No surprises that some Giants like Greisinger and Utsumi show up as being underrated when you compare their FIP to ERA, the team doesn’t value defense.

And there are no surprises on the OPS side, either they’re proven sluggers or hitters who have started off the year hot. Yamasaki is an interesting case, he may just be continuing his hot streak which lasted all of last year, or maybe proving that he turned a corner in his age 38 season last year when he suddenly regained his form from 10 years ago when he battled Hideki Matsui for the homerun title when he was a Dragon. He won the homerun title last season, and is currently leading the league in AVG and OPS.

Bocachica hasn’t reached the number of plate appearances to qualify, but he’s doing great at .950 OPS. And despite his major slump the last few weeks, Guiel is still 24th in NPB in OPS at .801.