NPB Notes -- Seibu Lions

Founded: 1950 as the Nishitetsu Clippers, became the Nishitetsu Lions in '51, the Taiheiyo Club Lions in 1973 and the Crown Lighter Lions in 1977. They've been the Seibu Lions since '79.
Owner: Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former world's richest man -- kind of the George Steinbrenner of Japan, only with more money
Home base: Invoice Seibu Dome, half an hour west of Tokyo
Titles: 20 Pac League titles, 12 Japan Series titles (most recent: 2004)

The Lions are a team trying to come out clean from a scandal after longtime owner Tsutsumi, long known for his iron fist in running his companies, was arrested in April 2005 for insider trading and fraud involving the books of another Seibu company. He was convicted in October and given a big fine and suspended jail sentence. Rumors of the sale of the franchise have circulated but no actual action has been taken. Team officials have denied thus far any plans to sell the team. Tsutsumi resigned as chairman of the board so his status is kind of cloudy at this point. The 2006 season marks the first season coming out of the situation and Seibu's doing all right so far. Entering play 4/27 the Lions are 16-9 and 1 1/2 games up on Softbank in the Pacific League.

The scandal has clouded a winning history for the franchise, which is second in Japan Series titles behind Yomiuri. One of Japan's pitching greats - Kazuhisa Inao - pitched for what was then Nishitetsu and holds the NPB record for wins in a season (42 in 1961) and the Pacific League record for ERA in a season (1.06 in 1956). In his career, "Iron Man" Inao also had season win totals of 35, 33 and 28 games and took 5 league ERA titles ('56-58 *3 championship seasons*, '61 and '66 -- all with ERAs under 2, including a 1.69 ERA in the 42-win season -- the 5 titles are another NPB record). Inao won 20 straight decisions in 1957 (another NPB record) and won 276 games in his career with 2,574 Ks. In one season he pitched 404 innings (PL record) and also had 353 Ks in one season (PL record). Through his career, he wasn't even necessarily the best pitcher in Japan as Masaichi Kaneda was dominating the Central League and eventually ended up with 400 career wins. NPB aficionado Jim Albright of BaseballGuru.com marks Inao as the third greatest Japanese pitcher of all time behind Kaneda and Russian Victor Starffin, who starred for Yomiuri in the late 1930s and through the 1940s. Osamu Higashio helped pitch the Lions to a 1982 Japan Series championship before winning the victory and ERA titles in repeating the feat in 1983. Kimiyasu Kudo, who at 43 now plays for Yomiuri, was perhaps the next big pitcher for Seibu in the 1980s and early '90s as the Lions have consistently had great pitching. Kudo won 3 ERA titles ('85, '87 and '93 *MVP season) for Seibu while teammate Hisanobu Watanabe won victory titles in '86, '88 and '90 and the Lions took each Japan Series from '86 to '88 with Kudo winning two of three series MVPs.

The Lions' latest pitching hope is "gyroball" pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka (pictured above), who has won 3 victory titles and 2 ERA titles in his career. If his name sounds familiar it's probably because he helped pitch Japan to the WBC title in March. He is set to potentially be the next huge export to MLB from Japan. Through Tuesday he was 3-1 with a 1.16 ERA and 35 Ks in 31 innings for Seibu in 2006. Second-year pitcher Hideaki Wakui is also pitching well this season for Seibu as he is 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA over 37 IP and is holding the opposition to a .202 BA. He struggled in 2005 with a 1-6 record and 7.32 ERA. Veteran Fumiya Nishiguchi had a 17-win season for Seibu in '05 but has a 4.37 ERA and 2-2 record through 35 IP thus far in '06. The Lions' rotation has deadly potential and if Nishiguchi and fellow starters Kazuyuki Hoashi and American Alex Graman (a 2006 import from the Yankees organization) can provide good seasons behind Matsuzaka and Wakui, Seibu could be looking at its 13th title run.

As for Lions hitters, perhaps the best of the past was Futoshi Nakanishi back in the Nishitetsu days. Nakanishi won two batting titles, five home run titles and three RBI titles in the '50s in helping the Lions to their three '50s titles. Perhaps the next Lions big bat was Orestes Destrade, who is now known as a former and original Florida Marlin and current ESPN commentator. In the early '90s Destrade won three home run titles and two RBI titles and helped lead Seibu to three titles from '90-'92. Tony Fernandez also played for Seibu at one point and current Met SS Kaz Matsui came to America from his days in Tokorozawa playing for Seibu. For Seibu, Matsui lodged a .309 career BA, .847 career OPS and 150 HR over 9 seasons with 3 SB titles, an MVP in 1998, selection to the PL "Best Nine" each season from '97 to '03 and a selection as best SS of the 20th century by Japanese fans.

The Lions' biggest power threat today is 1B Alex Cabrera, a former D-Backs player who is now in his 6th year in NPB. Cabrera tied Oh's single-season homer record of 55 in 2002 and last season hit .300 with 36 HR and 92 RBI. Through Tuesday he leads the team with 5 HR and is fourth among regulars with a .306 BA. Other Seibu batters to watch are OF Kazuhiro Wada (currently hitting .310 with 4 HR and 24 RBI and the reigning PL batting champ), IF Yoshihito Ishii (hit .312 in 2005) and IF Hiroyuki Nakajima (only 24, hit 11 HR and 60 RBI in '05 and, through Tuesday, is batting .326 with 4 HR and 15 RBI).

NOTE: Got my copy of the 2006 Japan Pro Baseball media guide in the mail Tuesday via JapanBall.com and, I gotta say, it's a cool book to have handy. Wayne Graczyk, who writes for the Japan Times, puts the glossy, full-color guide out yearly and I'm pleased with the purchase. It's got everything from full rosters to past stats to capsules on the foreign players (non-Japanese) in the league. All that media guide stuff is in there, so anyone interested should pick one up.

Pro Yakyu site for 2006 with stats