For those unfamiliar, OPS is regarded as one of the better ways to correlate run production. It combines getting on base (OBP) and hitting extra bases (SLG). These two abilities combined, correlate the closest to creating runs. OPS+ is weighting this statistic against the league average. A score of 100 is considered average while a score of 95 for example would be 5% below average. A score of 120 would be 20% above average and so on. Understanding how a hitter stacks up against the average allows us to get a better sense of how good they were in eras where to ball flys a lot or not much at all. 20 homeruns may not look impressive on paper, but in context, in a low offensive environment, it becomes all the more impressive. Essentially you want your player to be at 100 or better as a starting point. However, the level of acceptable offense for a position is often different, hence why I want to look at OPS+ position by position. A 110 OPS+ might be pretty bad for a first-baseman, but extremely good for a short-stop. 95 might be acceptable for a catcher, but terrible for a left-fielder. I have been able to average out the OPS of at each position in the Central League for starters at those positions. This does not take into account players that were subbed in or moved in-game. It is also worth keeping in mind, if you have a team full of 100 OPS+ hitters, you will likely be pretty middle of the pack offense wise. Ideally, you want players that have an above average OPS+ at their respective positions.
The plan for this post is to first look at how each team did per position, then I will give a run-down of the best 9 and the worst 9 based on these findings. Then, I will give you a top 10 of hitters in the Central League.
To kick things off, Central League OPS average this season was 0.645, 23 points lower than last season. Given the increasingly difficult hitting environment, contextualising statistics is even more important. You can still be an amazing player just perhaps not in the way that jumps off the traditional stats page.
First of all, let's look at catcher.
The average OPS+ for catchers was about 94. Shogo Sakakura has been lauded as one of the best, hitting catchers in the league, and this supports it. The Carp's troubles with production at first-base saw him sharing time with Shota Dobayashi with Tsubasa Aizawa seeing time behind the plate as well. Given Sakakura has the highest share of appearances at catcher for the Carp, I've kept him here. In a more traditional catcher role however, Yudai Yamamoto of the Baystars had a remarkable breakout year playing 108 games with a .291/.340/.383 slash. The most disappointing was the combination of Seishiro Sakamoto and Ryutaro Umeno of the Tigers, but with both being ostensibly defensive catchers, it does make some sense that they would not be great hitters however being 12% worse than the average catcher in the league, is something that ultimately hurt the Tigers offense this year.
Unsurprisingly, the highest average production was found on the first base bag; 118 OPS+.
First base contains the best hitter in the league, that being Tyler Austin of the Baystars. He was a monster in leading the 'Stars to their Japan Series victory. Austin had a .316/.382/.601 slash over 106 games popping 25 home runs and 34 doubles. Squeezing out any kind of offense from first base proved to be a challenge for the Carp however with Shota Dobayashi having the greatest share of opportunities for Hiroshima but only mustering a measly 89 OPS+. Not many teams however got the greatest production out of first-base this year with only Austin and Kazuma Okamoto of the Giants being above average. Osuna of the Swallows and Oyama of the Tigers were not too far off though, but both fell 5-6% below league average. I think the sheer quality of Okamoto and Austin really pushed the bar quite high here.
Second base had the third-lowest average production across the league at an average 100 OPS+.
Shugo Maki of the Baystars was a cut above the rest. While not as defensively able as his second-base peers, Maki has one of the biggest bats in the Central League. Not too far behind his team-mate Austin, Maki hit a .294/.346/.491 slash with 24 homers and 33 doubles. The slugging percentage was somewhat behind Austin, but Maki was 19% better than the next-best second baseman in the Giants' Naoki Yoshikawa. If you want a more rounded 2B, you might settle for Yoshikawa, but with a bat as good as Maki's you might as well put up with the defensive short-comings. The ninja, Mikiya Tanaka was the worst of the Central but somehow maintained a neutral value at the position for the Dragons compared to last year. Tanaka was unfortunately almost as bad with the bat as Maki was good with it.
Third-base was perhaps surprisingly the second most productive position on average among Central League teams with the bar being set at 111 OPS+. It is however somewhat unsurprising that the perennial beast, Munetaka Murakami took out the honours here. Despite the Swallows being fairly unimpressive this year, Murakami kept his stock high with a league-leading 33 homers and .244/.379/.472 slash. Inner-circle hall-of-famer Hayato Sakamoto was however the worst of the league in his first season playing full-time at third-base. The almost 36-year-old is starting to show his age and put together a fairly poor season by his high standards. Other big numbers here by Toshiro Miyazaki of the Baystars and Hiroki Fukunaga of the Dragons put three of the top ten hitters at third base.
Short-stop as a universal understanding is very high on the defensive spectrum where athleticism and the ability to defend the position will be valued higher than at other positions. This has proven the case in the Central League this year as well, as short had the equal lowest bar to clear with an average OPS+ of a little over 94. As per my mid-season review where Hideki Nagaoka led the standings, he does so again by the end of the year while Masaya Yano is possibly the most improved ending the year with a slightly above league-average OPS. Nagaoka played 143 games this year with a .288/.325/.368 slash. With a good glove and above-average offense, the Swallows have found a really good shortstop who at only 22 years of age, still has room to improve. Seiya Kinami was the worst of the Central falling 9% short of being average at the position. That drop in production in the middle infield may have had some bearing on where the Tigers ended up this season.
Into the outfield with centre-field first up. If we are to theorise that the defensive spectrum starts with short and catcher, then the next-up is likely going to be here. The production at this position is also third worst on average at 103 OPS+. The leader here was Elier Hernandez of the Giants. This was a difficult decision given Hernandez only had 240 plate appearances through the season, but his production at centre-field was clearly the highest with a .294/.346/.453 slash line where he popped 8 homers and 11 doubles. If I were to limit this to 300+ plate appearances, then the top would be Koji Chikamoto with his .285/.365/.363 slash. Chikamoto swiped 19 bags while hitting a few extra bases but perhaps most remarkable was his 68 walks, the second most in the league. For a contact hitter, this is quite impressive. It was not his best year, but it was still the best of the regular-regular centre-fielders. Yuki Okabayashi of the Dragons was conversely not at his best and it marks a worrying trend as his OPS has decreased each year since he became a regular in 2022. Back from an injury, there is still some room for optimism about improvement, but he was the worst of the regular centre fielders this season.
Right field had a semi-high bar as the third most productive position this year averaging 108 OPS+. The Dragons' Seiya Hosokawa led the category this year as he marked an improvement on his 2023 season. Hosokawa smacked 23 homers and 30 doubles on his way to a .292/.368/.478 slash showing his credentials as one of the top five hitters in the league. Hosokawa went from strength to strength this year outshining his .780 OPS in 2023. The Swallows had the worst production out of right-field this year with Domingo Santana seeing all of his time in left. Kazuya Maruyama was played in right the most this year and was largely very disappointing with the bat.
If it weren't for Santana, the bar to clear for being average in left field this year would have been extremely low, surprising for what has traditionally been a place to put your worst or second-worst fielding bat. 106 OPS+ was the bar set this season with only Domingo Santana of the Swallows and Yoshihiro Maru of the Giants proving to be above average. Santana was once again one of the best hitters in the league with a .315/.399/.506 slash popping 17 homers and 29 doubles. Santana led the league in on-base percentage picking up 57 walks. The worst was unfortunately Orlando Calixte of the Dragons, who was a utility man for the majority of the season but ended up being the most often deployed left-fielder on the team.
And now, for the bonus round. It what we all love to talk about PITCHERS WHO RAKE. This is more for fun than anything but I also crunched numbers on who's pitchers hit the best. Firstly, because the sample size is just so small, I've ranked by each team rather than by each hitter.
As you can see, no one is getting great production out pitchers. the Tigers top things with a 44 OPS+. Collectively, 56% worse than the league average. The Dragons weren't too far behind at 42 while the Giants and Carp hit the average at 38. The least rakey pitchers belonged to the Swallows who were collectively 70% worse than the league average hitter. No wonder managers like to throw out pinch hitters. Who however raked the best in 2024? It was two Meji University alumni that topped the charts.
Yuya Yanagi could almost get a spot at second base for the Dragons as he led the league with an 84 OPS+. His under-classman, Masato Morishita was the second best at 81 OPS+. Takahiro Matsuba of the Dragons was the next best at 65 while Inoue of the Giants rounds out the top 10. Given how small the sample is, it's hard to extrapolate anything but it is said that Yanagi does fancy himself as a hitter and this year's results shows that. However, if there was ever more evidence required for introducing the DH...just look at this. Apart from Yanagi and maybe Morishita there wasn't one player that even approached being good enough to swing the bat and even then, over 300 plate appearances, Yanagi and Morishita would unlikely be this good.
That is the state of the OPS+ leaders at each position. Perhaps unsurprisingly it's the Baystars with 8/9 hitters being above the watermark that set them apart. The league-winning Giants had 7/9 at this mark, while the Dragons only had 3 above-average hitting regulars in their line-up. In terms of just being a regular with an average OPS for the league, the Dragons had 6 hitters underneath 100 while the Tigers had four and the Carp had five. The Swallows and Giants similarly had three hitters below average while the Baystars entire line-up aside from their pitchers performed above average. Now for a bit of fun, let's have a look at a best nine and a worst nine. 
The Swallows somehow have three players in best nine with Santana, Murakami and Nagaoka. The Baystars chip in Maki and Austin. The Dragons and Giants contribute with Hosokawa and Hernandez while the Tigers pitching group props up the bottom of the line-up. The Carp put forward their catcher Shogo Sakakura.
The worst is well, woof. How many runs would this team actually score? The Dragons contribute three players here, perhaps not too surprising, while the Tigers have two in Kinami and Umeno. The Giants with Sakamoto and the Swallows with Maruyama and their pitching group round out the best-worst nine.
Let's now take a look at the leaders this year. I'm going to be a little unkind to the Giants in this case and not include Hernandez given all the other players on this list played 100+ games I don't think it's fair to to include him in a top 10 overall. Therefore, he will make way for Hanshin's Teruaki Sato.
The Carp are the only team not to have a hitter in the top ten with every other team bar the Giants fielding at least two. Perhaps unsurprisingly it is the Baystars with three players in the top 10 including, arguably the MVP of the season, Tyler Austin. The Carp's relative hitting strength came from their contribution as a group rather than any one individual whereas a team like the Dragons have two players in the top 10 hitters in the league, but were the worst team in the league and scored the fewest runs. It is worth saying that the Carp were worse than the Dragons overall where as a team they hit .239/.286/.315 to the Dragons .243/.293/.330. The Dragons hit more extra bases, took more walks but scored 42 more runs over the course of the season. Carp pitching helped out however as they had the third fewest conceded runs over the course of 2024 for a run differential of exactly 42. The Dragons however were overmatched at a run differential of -55 which makes up for the gulf in difference. (It is worth saying however this is 53 runs better than 2023)
That has been my overview of the 2024 season for the hitters. It was a fun year for the Baystars and for many other teams, younger player pulling the offensive sled has been a boon. Players like Nagaoka, Hosokawa, Morishita, Sato and Fukunaga will be in the league for a number of years to come, and it is great to see them blooming. There's plenty to monitor going into 2025 to see who may bounce back, who continues their form and who bottoms out entirely. Given enough time I will try to do some retrospective pieces like this but perhaps not quite as in depth to really give a sense of what a "good" season is for a player relative to the general hitting environment.
Until my next post, ciao.
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