2006 All Star Voting Results

As for the CL, it's a lot more balanced than last years ridiculous Hanshin dominated starters.

Would like to have seen Aoki in the outfield in place of Akahoshi though. And Furuta got in on a "respect" vote as there has been no dominant catcher in the CL this year. Nice to see him in there for possibly the last time nonetheless (as I imagine he will become solely a manager from next season).

All I'll say for the PL is that it's a bit of a joke that Matsunaka's not in there to be honest. But what do I know, being predominantly a CL watcher.

Other than that, the managers picks should make up for any other omissons.

Honma?! .262, 2 HR, 23 RBI, 1 SB. I mean, I remember this guy once going 5 for 5 in Kobe in 2000, but that's about the highlight of his career.

As a fair observer (I'm a Hawks fan) almost every other 2B (other than maybe Hori for Lotte) in the Pacific League has better numbers:

Takasu (Rakuten) .300, 0 HR, 21 RBI, 8 SB
Mizuguhi (Orix) .280, 3 HR, 22 RBI, 0 SB
Kataoka (Seibu) .306 3 HR, 29 RBI, 17 SB
Tanaka (Nippon Ham) .281, 3 HR, 15 RBI, 13 SB

My nod would go to Kataoka.

Yeah, it's a very strange pick. Kataoka got screwed.

Central League

Pitchers- Hitoki Iwase- Chunichi, Kenta Asakura- Chunichi, Daisuke Miura- Yokohama, Masanori Ishikawa- Yakult, Masao Kida- Yakult, Testuya Utsumi- Yomiuri, Hiroki Kuroda- Hiroshima, Katsuhiro Nagakawa- Hiroshima
Catchers- Akihiro Yano- Hanshin, Shinnosuke Abe- Yomiuri
Infielders- Shuichi Morita- Yokohama, Akinori Iwamura- Yakult, Tomohiro Nioka- Yomiuri, Seung-Yeop Lee- Yomiuri, Akihiro Higashide- Hiroshima
Outfielders- Alex Ochoa- Chunichi, Norichika Aoki- Yakult

Manager- Akinobu Okada- Hanshin
Coaches- Hiromitsu Ochiai- Chunichi, Kazuhiko Ushijima- Yokohama

Pacific League

Pitchers- Masahide Kobayashi- Chiba Lotte, Kazumi Saitoh- Softbank, Hideaki Wakui- Seibu, Yoshihisa Hirano- Orix, Masato Yoshii- Orix, Hisashi Takeda- Nippon Ham, Tomoya Yagi- Nippon Ham, Kazuo Fukumori- Rakuten
Catchers- Takeshi Hidaka- Orix
Infielders- Tsuyoshi Nishioka- Chiba Lotte, Kazuya Fukuura- Chiba Lotte, Nobuhiko Matsunaka- Softbank, Hiroyuki Nakajima- Seibu, Alex Cabrera- Seibu, Jose Fernandez- Rakuten
Outfielders- Hichori Morimoto- Nippon Ham

Manager- Bobby Valentine- Chiba Lotte
Coaches- Sadahuru Oh- Softbank, Tsutomu Itoh- Seibu

[Full Japan Ball Story]

Kiyohara? You're kidding me!

Average .243, 5 HRs, 19 RBIs

Matsunaka's numbers? .363, 17 HRs, 58 RBIs

While I'm on it, Cabrera also easily tops Ogasawara at first in these three categories, but, oh yeah, he's a gaijin.

My sentiments exactly.

All Star voting is always a bizarre popularity contest on both sides of the Pacific. Nothing much to get worked up over.

You're trying to attribute to racism that which can be explained by popularity. Kiyohara, no matter how awful he plays, is tremendously popular. He was a high school star in 1985, had his teammate Kuwata drafted by the Giants instead of him, played for the Lions (who drafted him) despite his strong desire to only play for the Giants, finally made it to the Giants when he qualified for free agency, outlived his usefulness after hitting his 500th career home run, then joined Orix to honor Ohgi-kantoku postmortem. Kiyohara lives, eats, and breaths baseball.

I don't expect anyone who has only seen Kiyohara play over the past several years to understand why he is so loved. He's arrogant beyond his current (and arguably past) abilities. He's a relic from a different generation. But it's people who remember Kiyohara as the future superstar in 1985 who are turning out to vote for the All Star Series, not people who started watching Pro Yakyu past Kiyohara's prime.

The same can be said to a lesser degree for Ogasawara. He had several seasons while Nippon Ham was still in Tokyo where he could do no wrong, with the bat and on the field. His name became well known (for those who only occasionally glance at the Pacific League), and so he's a familiar name to Central League fans (who constitute the majority of the votes).

Look, every All Star team ever put together by human beings in the history of baseball has had some more deserving people left out. People don't get selected for their abilities, they get selected based on popularity.

Of course I know it is a popularity contest, but, of course I also have every right to vociferously complain when gross oversights occur, no matter on which side of the Pacific they occur. Furthermore, I remained unconvinced that the gaijin factor is not real and more of an influence on this side of the pond.

P.S. I have been watching Kiyohara since he joined the Lions from PL Gakuen.

As said above by Westbay-san, the All Star Games are purely popularity contests to a degree.

Kiyohara is extremely popular, and regardless of how awful he plays usually gets elected, thanks to his popularity.

As for Ogasawara, he's also popular as mentioned, but this year is having a pretty good season, albeit not as great as Alex Cabrera. Still, he is extremely popular, which is helped from the Fighters' playing days at Tokyo Dome, and still is a consistent player.

Finally, about Alex Cabrera, Bobby Valentine saw that Cabrera deserved an All-Star selection as he selected as a reserve to the PL squad.

Yes, some people, including myself, get extremely frustrated watching a All Star game where the best players don't get elected, and wonder why the fans don't vote the best players?

You have to understand, players like Kiyohara are extremely popular and always are a lock for the All Star Game due to his high popularity. Second, the All Star Game is for the fans and who they want, and like I said earlier, while it is frustrating, the vote is all about the fans, regardless of how some like it.

If it's a popularity contest, call it the "Dream Game," "Fan's Choice Game," or something. If the best players are involved, call it an "All Star" game. Of course this will never happen, just a "dream." I think that goes for MLB, too.

Interestingly, the commonly used Japanese short form for the All Star games is 球宴 (kyuuen), and it is literally something akin to "baseball party." Though it is used interchangeably with オールスター (all star).

What would be your guys' starting lineups for both leagues?

I would say:

PL :
OF- Inaba, Morimoto and Omura, 1B Matsunaka, DH Cabrera, 3B Fernandez, SS Nakajima, 2B Kataoka, c Yamazaki SP Saitoh , Closer M. Kobayashi.

CL :
OF- Aoki, Ramirez and Akahoshi replacing Fukudome. Lee at 1B, 2B LaRocca SS Nioka and 3b Murata. C Abe, SP Kawakami, Closer Iwase.

Pretty solid teams.

Pacific League

Pitcher - Mastuzaka
Catcher - Satozaki
First - Cabrera
Second - Blah, good question
Short - Nishioka
Third - Imae
Outfielders - I can really only think of Central Leaguers, but I guess I'd have to say Shinjo (for his showmanship and not much more), Inaba, Tani doesn't make it anywhere near my list, and Benny (for the pure and simple fact that I'm a Marines fan and I've only listed one gaijin so far)
DH - Abstain. They shouldn't be allowed in the All-Star Game

Central League

Pitcher - JP
Catcher - Tough pick, but not Furuta
First - Lee or Sheets
Second - Kosaka
Short - Nioka
Third - Iwamura
Outfielders - Akahoshi, Kanemoto, Aoki.

- While I'm on it, Cabrera also easily tops Ogasawara at first in these three categories, but, oh yeah, he's a gaijin.

Ogasawara's at a .384 OBP and .544 slugging and is top 5 in both. Cabrera's at .407 and .573. While he's doing better, it is far from a terrible sin to take the former over the latter.

As for Kiyohara, he's a long-time star. It happens in America, too - guys like Cal Ripken got voted in every year, even when they were no longer the best at their position. Using Kiyohara's raw counting stats also looks worse than it is due to his missing time to injury - his line is .243/.409/.402. Not great, but his OBP is higher than Cabrera's. He hasn't exactly been chopped liver.

Hanshin Tigers outfielder Osamu Hamanaka will replace Hiroki Kokubo on the CL All Star squad [Japan Ball].

Hamanaka is batting .290 with 12 HRs and 34 RBI. Hanshin Hitting Stats [Borisov's Pro Yakyu 2006]