Players Who've Switched From NPB to MLB

Is there a project you're working on in particular? I can sense that all of your questions in the last few weeks are leading to some NPB-MLB projection system, but it might help if you actually come out and say exactly all the input data you need for it are.

Anyway, this particular question has several parameters I'm unclear on: one, do you need the information in English or in Japanese, and two, what level do you want to know about? MLB at the major or minor league level? NPB at the top or farm team level? Or elsewhere in Japan? (College, high school, etc. - ie, are you counting guys like Kazuhito Tadano or Mac Suzuki? What about weird cases like Ryohei Shimabukuro?)

Thanks for your response. That's actually a good summation of what I'm working on. I'm really only interested in players who've played at the major league level in each league. I'm looking for guys who've played at least three years in NPB, then switched to MLB. I'd prefer the information in English, but I can read katakana, hiragana, and some kanji as well. Do you know if such a website exists?

I apologize for asking so many questions; this is a work in progress and I'm realizing things as I get further along with this project.

Thanks again for your help.

- I'm looking for guys who've played at least three years in NPB, then switched to MLB.

As for the players with 3 years in NPB, then switched to MLB:

• Shigetoshi Hasegawa
• Tadahito Iguchi
• Hideki Irabu
• Kazuhisa Ishii
• Kenji Johjima
• Takashi Kashiwada
• Masao Kida
• Satoru Komiyama
• Hideki Matsui
• Kazuo Matsui
• Norihiro Nakamura
• Hideo Nomo
• Takahito Nomura
• Tomokazu Ohka
• Akinori Ohtuska
• Takashi Saitoh
• Kazuhiro Sasaki
• Tsuyoshi Shinjo
• Ichiro Suzuki
• So Taguchi
• Shingo Takatsu
• Keiichi Yabu
• Masato Yoshii

JapaneseBallplayers.com is probably what you're looking for. There are a few others you might be interested in in this thread as well.

Don't forget Ty Van Burkleo, Robinson Checo, Timo Perez, and Alfonso Soriano. They all spent 3 or more years in NPB without MLB experience before making the big leagues. Soriano played mostly on Hiroshima's farm team though.

Thank you all very much for your guidance here. It's greatly appreciated!