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2002 All Star Rosters Announced

Discussion in the NPB News forum
2002 All Star Rosters Announced
The first thing you'll notice is that the fans were pretty much split between the Giants and Tigers in their selections: 5 players each. One Dragon, Inaba, rounded out the 11 fan selected players for the Central League.

The Pacific League had a little more variety in fan selection, the Lions and Hawks both getting the most vote-ins with 4 apiece, then Kintetsu taking two positions, and the Fighters and BlueWave each getting one player voted in.

Those of you worried about a 'Star-less All Star Series don't have to worry. Miura has been selected by Wakamatsu-kantoku to represent Yokohama.

Because many of you tend to be mostly concerned about the foreign players, I note that no foreign players were selected in the Central League by the fans, yet Pacific League fans voted in Pedraza, Rhodes, and Cabrera. Kintetsu's Jeremy Powell is the 4th foreign player for the Pa-League, and Wakamatsui-kantoku selected his own Hodges and Ramirez along with Hanshin's Moore and Arias to represent the Ce-League.

Now, I'll present the players with links to their profiles here. I'll be working the rest of the evening entering career statistics for the players who have 1-gun stats in Japan from past years. The only goal I'll guarantee is having them all entered by the All Star Series.

Central LeaguePositionPacfic League
NameNumberTeamTimes
Participating
NameNumberTeamTimes
Participating
Tsutomu Wakamatsu75YS1-12Manager Masataka Nashida73OKB1-8 (1)
Tatsunori Hara
Msaaki Mori
83
81
YG
YBS
1-13 (1)
10-22
Coach Sadaharu Oh
Haruki Ihara
89
73
FDH
SL
8-29 (1)
1-1
*Kei Igawa29HT2Starters*Daisuke Matsuzaka18SL4
*Hideki Okajima28YG3Middle
relievers
*Shinji Mori19SL3
*Junichi Kawahara15YG1Closers*Rodney Pedraza50FDH4
Ryota Igarashi
Kevin Hodges
Hirotoshi Ishii
Koji Uehara
Daisuke Miura
Yasuhiro Oyamada
Kenshin Kawakami
Trey Moore
53
58
61
19
18
39
11
17
YS
YS
YS
YG
YBS
HC
CD
HT
2
1
1
4 (1)
1
1
2
1
Pitchers Akira Okamoto
Jeremy Powell
Kenichi Wakatabe
Shuji Yoshida
Kiyoshi Toyoda
Masahiko Kaneda
Kazuo Yamaguchi
Hiroyuki Kobayashi
Hayato Nakamura
16
25
14
49
20
11
14
41
35
OKB
OKB
FDH
FDH
SL
OBW
OBW
CLM
NHF
2
1
1
2
3
2
1
1
1
*Akihiro Yano39HT2Catchers*Kenji Johjima2FDH6 (1)
Atsuya Furuta
Motonobu Tanishige
27
7
YS
CD
13
7
Tetsuya Matoyama
Tsutomu Itoh
Takeshi Hidaka
2
27
47
OKB
SL
OBW
2
16
3
*Kazuhiro Kiyohara5YG17 (1)1st Base*Michihiro Ogasawara2NHF4
*Makoto Imaoka7HT22nd Base*Tadahito Iguchi7FDH2
*Atsushi Kataoka8HT63rd Base*Norihiro Nakamura5OKB6
*Hirokazu Ibata48CD2Shortstop*Kazuo Matsui7SL6
Shinya Miyamoto
Takahiro Arai
Kazuyoshi Tatsunami
George Arias
6
25
3
14
YS
HC
CD
HT
1
1
9
1
Infielders Yuji Yoshioka
Hiroki Kokubo
Makoto Kaneko
3
9
30
OKB
FDH
NHF
1
7 (1)
1
*
*
*
Hideki Matsui
Yoshinobu Takahashi
Shinjiro Hiyama
55
24
24
YG
YG
HT
9
5
2
Outfielders*
*
*
Tuffy Rhodes
Koji Akiyama
Yoshitomo Tani
20
1
10
OKB
FDH
OBW
6
18
2
Alex Ramirez
Takayuki Shimizu
Kosuke Fukudome
3
9
1
YS
YG
CD
1
2
2
Naoyuki Ohmura
Saburo Ohmura
7
2
OKB
CLM
2
1
Designated
Hitter
*Alex Cabrera42SL42
Comments
Re: All Star Rosters Announced
[ Author: Guest: null | Posted: Jul 6, 2002 12:28 PM ]

One thing I really like about the way the All-Star team is selected here in Japan is that unlike the MLB All-Star team, the Japanese All-Star team is comprised of players who have done well throughout the years, not players who had just happened to have a good 1st half like the players on the MLB All-Star team.

I am so sick and tired of seeing or hearing about players who are just a flash in the pan but are touted as "deserving of a spot on the All-Star team" in the U.S. just because the player played well in April and May and June. That is horse manure.

The All-Star team should be selected on the basis of what the player has done not only in the 1st half of the season, but also what he has done throughout the years. I mean, who wants to see a flash in the pan play in the mid-summer classic?

A classic case in point: former Seibu Lion Scott Cooper. I tell everyone this, but here was a guy who was just unstoppable in the 1st half yet he always slowed down in the 2nd half and always put up mediocre numbers for a full season. He was selected for the All-Star team twice-in '92 and '93 when he was with the Red Sox.
I always say, here was a guy who was an All-Star who ended up in Japan 3 seasons later and was out of baseball 5 years later. Is that the kind of player you want to see play in the All-Star game?

He's not the only one either. There are so many undeserving players in the All-Star game every year in MLB. Tony Gwynn should've been on the team last year instead of some stiff who'll never amount to half of Gwynn, but he was left off since he didn't have a good 1st half.

I guess the American public has a short attention span so they have a hard time remembering who's been really good throughout the years and only remember who was hot in the 1st half of the season. This BS has to stop.
Re: All Star Rosters Announced
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: Jul 9, 2002 4:01 AM ]

The good thing about having so few teams in each league as compared with MLB is that if you're having a good first half you have a real good chance of getting on the team whereas that's not true of MLB (Jamie Moyer, for example). Therefore, the only quibbles I have with the rosters is that neither Hideki Okajima nor Atsushi Kataoka belong there by a long shot. But just about eveyone else who was deserving did.
Re: All Star Rosters Announced
[ Author: Guest: Gary Garland | Posted: Jul 9, 2002 4:03 AM ]

I forgot to mention that one place where they did blow it completely, though, was the omission of Koo Dae-sung
for the PL. He is leading the league in ERA and yet Nishida didn't choose him. I wonder what happened there? He'd have a better W-L record if his team actually had an offense.
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