Money, Money, Money or Yen, Yen, Yen
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+--------+------+-----------+---------+
| League | Team | Avg | Players |
+--------+------+-----------+---------+
| CL | CD | 5263.3333 | 69 |
| CL | HC | 2717.5000 | 68 |
| CL | HT | 3788.3099 | 71 |
| CL | YBS | 4116.5882 | 68 |
| CL | YG | 6762.9412 | 68 |
| CL | YS | 3459.3284 | 67 |
| PL | CLM | 3343.5075 | 67 |
| PL | FDH | 3575.8462 | 65 |
| PL | NHF | 3244.1538 | 65 |
| PL | OBu | 3876.6176 | 68 |
| PL | OBW | 3098.7692 | 65 |
| PL | SL | 4392.3438 | 64 |
+--------+------+-----------+---------+
+--------+-----------+---------+
| League | Avg | Players |
+--------+-----------+---------+
| CL | 4351.6131 | 411 |
| PL | 3587.4492 | 394 |
+--------+-----------+---------+
Note: This does not include all of the players in 2003. Some players signed after the data I used was gathered. Some were traded after signing, but are listed with the original team they signed with for 2003.
The average salaries are in units of 1-man yen. So if you shift the decimal four places to the right, you'll have them in units of 1 yen.
I don't deal with US dollars or any other currency, so please ask your local Japanese embassy what the going rate is to convert it to your local currency.
As an added bonus, here are the top 10 salaries for 2003 for the information I have:
+--------------------------------+--------+
| Name (Team) | Salary |
+--------------------------------+--------+
| 1. Petagine, Roberto (YG) | 72000 |
| 2. Nakamura, Norihiro (OBu) | 50000 |
| 3. Kiyohara, Kazuhiro (YG) | 45000 |
| 4. Rhodes, Tuffy (OBu) | 36000 |
| 5. Matsui, Kazuo (SL) | 35000 |
| 6. Cox, Steve (YBS) | 32000 |
| 7. Millar, Kevin (CD) | 30000 |
| 7. Ogasawara, Michihiro (NHF) | 30000 |
| 7. Kudoh, Kimiyasu (YG) | 30000 |
| 10. Gaillard, Eddie (CD) | 26000 |
| 10. Etoh, Akira (YG) | 26000 |
+--------------------------------+--------+
Again, units are in 1-man yen. Everyone knows that 1-man is 10,000 and can do the mathematical convertions in their heads by now, right?
The minimum yearly salary is 440-man yen, which isn't enough to do anything with unless you live in a dormatory with food, lodging, and transportation taken care of (or at a very reduced price), which I believe the minor league teams do.
The land in the area I live in is rather expensive. It costs upword to 3,000-man yen for a 100 square meter plot without a house on it. Some smaller plots with a house cost 3,500-man yen, and the house itself is smaller than many cheap collage area apartments in the U.S. A good sized plot and house will run at least 5,000-man yen. So, when I see salaries in the average range above, I compare them to the type of house one can buy in the area. Petagine can afford to not only live comfortably, but he could probably buy a block or two in the area.
Does that help?
Nonetheless, I've added a number of players and their salaries who I didn't have before, so this is most likely a more accurate snapshot of the current salary status.
Average Salary per Team
+--------+------+-----------+---------+
| League | Team | Avg | Players |
+--------+------+-----------+---------+
| CL | CD | 5194.4286 | 70 |
| CL | HC | 2773.0435 | 69 |
| CL | HT | 3788.3099 | 71 |
| CL | YBS | 4082.2794 | 68 |
| CL | YG | 6783.5294 | 68 |
| CL | YS | 3470.2206 | 68 |
| PL | CLM | 3294.0580 | 69 |
| PL | FDH | 3570.3077 | 65 |
| PL | NHF | 3195.0000 | 66 |
| PL | OBu | 3944.4286 | 70 |
| PL | OBW | 3044.2424 | 66 |
| PL | SL | 4470.4688 | 64 |
+--------+------+-----------+---------+
Average Salary per League
+--------+-----------+---------+
| League | Avg | Players |
+--------+-----------+---------+
| CL | 4344.8551 | 414 |
| PL | 3583.4250 | 400 |
+--------+-----------+---------+
Top 10 Salaries for 2003
+--------------------------------+--------+
| Name (Team) | Salary |
+--------------------------------+--------+
| 1. Petagine, Roberto (YG) | 72000 |
| 2. Nakamura, Norihiro (OBu) | 50000 |
| 3. Kiyohara, Kazuhiro (YG) | 45000 |
| 4. Rhodes, Tuffy (OBu) | 36000 |
| 5. Matsui, Kazuo (SL) | 35000 |
| 6. Cox, Steve (YBS) | 32000 |
| 7. Millar, Kevin (CD) | 30000 |
| 7. Ogasawara, Michihiro (NHF) | 30000 |
| 7. Kudoh, Kimiyasu (YG) | 30000 |
| 10. Cabrera, Alex (SL) | 28000 |
+--------------------------------+--------+
Again, all salaries are in units of 1-man yen. Yes, I realize that using foreign units in a foreign currency is difficult for some of you. Consider it educational and cross cultural.
Besides, thinking in units of man yen isn't too difficult. In English, units go ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, then they start to build on each other introducing a new unit every three digits. So next is the ten-thousands, hundred thousands, and a new unit - millions.
In Japanese it's the same, except after thousands (sen) is man. Then jyu-man (10-man), hyaku-man (100-man), sen-man (1,000-man), and finally another unit, oku.
It's as easy as the metric system, another thing for many foreigners to learn to greater appriciate international baseball. They may be confusing at first, but after a while, and with a little effort from you to look up monetary and metric conversions, they'll come to be second nature before you know it.
Gambatte kudasai.
The average salary for all 12 teams is 60.6 million yen. The Yomiuri Giants had the top average salary at 104 million yen and the Orix BlueWave bottomed out at 44.8 million yen per player.
The Giants have a combined team salary of 3.73 billion yen and the BlueWave Orix have a combined 1.67 billion yen per player., the survey showed.
62 players in NPB earn more than 100 million yen per year.
This is a site about Pro Yakyu (Japanese Baseball), not about who the next player to go over to MLB is. It's a community of Pro Yakyu fans who have come together to share their knowledge and opinions with the world. It's a place to follow teams and individuals playing baseball in Japan (and Asia), and to learn about Japanese (and Asian) culture through baseball.
It is my sincere hope that once you learn a bit about what we're about here that you will join the community of contributors.
Michael Westbay
(aka westbaystars)
Founder
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