Category: Analysis
NPB Starting Pitcher Rankings (April 7)
Here are my updated NPB starting pitcher rankings as of April 7, 2025. Click here to go 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…
Which Baseball Season Had the Least ‘Action’?
Major thanks to @LinesInDirt (Andre) for their assistance in writing this article! What is baseball? It’s a very silly sport – the clown of the major sports world- but what is baseball really made of? Sadly, it isn’t whoopie cushions, but it is (Savannah) bananas. Nerds like me have been a part of the sport for…
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…