Author: Yuri Karasawa
NPB Starting Pitcher Rankings (April 7)
Here are my updated NPB starting pitcher rankings as of April 7, 2025. Click here to skip to the complete list and skip the write-ups. These are essentially rest-of-season rankings, not power rankings. In other words, I’m ranking pitchers based on where I believe they truly belong moving forward, not just on season-to-date results. Recent…
2025 Preseason Starting Pitcher Rankings
Tier Descriptions Tier 1: Elite AcesConsistently dominant with the highest peaks. Tier 2: Star PitchersGood enough to be the ace on most teams. Tier 3: Top Rotation CaliberFront-line ability but some question marks. Tier 4: Mid Rotation with UpsideFlashes of excellence but lower floors. Tier 5: Gate KeepersDependably average, unlikely to be much more. Tier…
2024 NPB Draft Preview
These are my top 30 prospects in the class. Tier 1 players — Yumeto Kanemaru and Rui Muneyama — are the faces of the draft. Five years from now, 2024 will be remembered as the “Kanemaru and Muneyama Draft.” They are guaranteed to be heavily contested in the lottery. Everyone wants them. Tier Descriptions Tier…
The Best Pitching Seasons Since 2020
Last time, we looked at the top ten hitting seasons of the 2020s in Nippon Professional Baseball. This time, we flip over to the pitchers. Batting can be analyzed pretty easily by viewing production through OPS+ or wRC+. Players can overperform or underperform their expected numbers due to batted ball luck, but things typically start…
The Best Hitting Seasons Since 2020
The early 2020s will be remembered as a very unusual time in Nippon Professional Baseball history. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 marked the fewest games played in a season since 1950 (though the 120-game schedule still doubled what Major League Baseball could muster). In 2021, NPB returned to a full 143-game schedule, but extra…