Daisuke Matsuzaka: Best Japanese Picther of All Time?

No, Shigeo Nagashima is Mr. Baseball. Either him or Tom Selleck. Take your pick.

Matsuzaka has a long way to go to catch up to Yutaka Enatsu (206 wins, 193 saves, and 2,987 Ks) and Masaichi Kaneda (400 wins and 4,490 Ks). In fact, ranking up there with the great Japanese pitchers of the past is almost impossible now. There are so many, Matsuzaka would just be one among many amazing pitchers.

If he's to be even considered in the same league as some of the legends, he'll have to keep pitching well into at least his late 30s. He's done a lot so far, but still has a long way to go.

He is one of the best pitchers, but is he the best NPB pitcher of all-time? Hardly.

Kaneda, Inao, Starfin, Keishi Suzuki, and Bessho easily take that title. Matsuzaka, while he is one of the best current pitchers, is no where near them.

- His nickname is Mr. Baseball!

Since when has Matsuzaka been called Mr.Baseball? I think you have it confused with the 1992 movie of the same name about an aging MLB player who plays with the Chunichi Dragons.

If you leave out Russian Victor Starffin, there's still a fair number I'd put in front of Matsuzaka at this point of his career. Kaneda, Inao, and Bessho would head that list.

I think Matsuzaka will be a fine major leaguer if he can stay healthy (it's always a special concern with pitchers), but several were both more dominant in Japan and over longer periods of time than Matsuzaka has been.

If you want to find out more, look at this list to see the pitchers I've rated in the top 100 of all time [Baseball Guru] (I haven't caught up on Matsuzaka's ranking, but he's almost assuredly not in the top 60 yet, if that). Then go over to this article [Baseball Guru] and read about those guys.

Jim Albright

Is he even the best pitcher in Japanese baseball? He has only won the "Best Japanese Pitcher" award once, and ranked 4th in ERA last year. Why is he getting all of this hype? He seems good, but not the guy everyone is making him out to be.

As much as I like Matsuzaka, I wouldn't even consider him the most exciting and promising player in NPB last season. I give that award to Kyuji Fujikawa, who is probably the most exciting pitcher I've watched in my short baseball watching life. After that, I'd probably put Kazumi Saitoh in front of him, just because Saitoh seems to win every single game he's in, even with a very weakened Hawks batting order.

The Matsuzaka hype is largely due to his high school legend, and it just transferred over through Internet gossip and finally the American media. The WBC performance helped a lot, too.