Top 50 NPB Players in 2023 

3B Munetaka Murakami RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto OF Yuki Yanagita RHP Roki Sasaki C Tomoya Mori 2B Hideto Asamura OF Kensuke Kondoh 2B Shugo Maki OF Koji Chikamoto 3B Kazuma Okamoto 2B Tetsuto Yamada SS Hayato Sakamoto OF Yasutaka Shiomi 1B Hotaka Yamakawa RHP Koyo Aoyagi CF Yoshihiro Maru OF Hiroaki Shimauchi LHP Hiroya Miyagi RHP Shosei Togo LHP Shota Imanaga LHP Yudai Ohno RHP Masato Morishita 3B Teruaki Sato RHP Hiromi Itoh RHP Hiroto Takahashi C Shogo Sakakura OF Keita Sano 3B Eigoro Mogi OF Takashi Ogino 1B Yusuke Ohyama RHP Naoyuki Uwasawa 2B Shogo Nakamura RHP Tomoyuki Sugano SS Sosuke Genda CF Ryosuke Tatsumi OF Ryoma Nishikawa OF Ryoya Kurihara RHP Yasunobu Okugawa LHP Haruto Takahashi LHP Keiji Takahashi LHP Shinnosuke Ogasawara RHP Masahiro Tanaka UTL Ukyo Shuto OF Yuki Okabayashi 3B Toshiro Miyazaki RHP Yuya Yanagi OF Shogo Akiyama OF Tyler Austin LHP Takayuki Katoh RF Yutaro Sugimoto

Sorry just got to the end and saw the full list. All good. Thanks again, this is stellar!

Matsumoto just missed the cut for me. He was around the 53-55 range. His BABIP was crazy high so I don’t think his production is sustainable. His batting average will probably dip below .300 and his OPS will be in the low .700s if his BABIP luck runs out. I still think he can be a quality player, especially with the excellent speed and bat control, but considering that he was a 28 year old breakout, I need to see more to buy him.

Unlikely. I don’t include foreigners that are yet to debut in NPB. But not saying he won’t be top 50 in terms of performance this season.

One explanation might be that there’s a culture of fighting for foul/HR balls in MLB, where fans really want to get their hands on one. In Japan, most people don’t care that much. If it rolls towards them, they’ll pick it up and maybe share it with the people around them.

あんた日本人だろｗ

I think Hiroto Takahashi will be very coveted by MLB teams in 3-4 years. If he continues to develop, any big market team would probably spend $100+ million.

茂木とか荻野とか佐藤輝明より下って言いたいの？wwww

@@user-pc1sr7gt8j そうだね

柳田なんて甲子園で20本も打てないだろ

It’s a bit of a confusing situation as there’s been conflicting reports over the off-season but the last I heard, he did not get surgery and will attempt to be ready for opening day. Not sure how long that elbow will hold up though.

I don’t rank players that have never played in NPB before. Too much unknown. In terms of talent potential, he’s probably in the 20-30 range but could be outside of the top 50 since he hasn’t played professionally in a year.

Ogawa is a nice innings leader but his run prevention and talent are not on the level of the pitchers in the top 50.

@@YakyuCosmopolitan Jesus