Many teams in the Major Leagues consistently work on stocking their Minor League systems with exciting prospects. These prospects can often define the future of organizations, and teams watch their top prospects quite closely to determine when they may be ready for the big leagues. There are a number of young players in the Minor [...]
In 1936, Japan’s first professional league (Nippon Professional Baseball, or NPB) was formed, and by 1950 its popularity had grown so much that a second league was formed. The fundamental rules are the same, but NPB rules stipulate that each team can have no more than four foreign-born players. The first Japanese player to appear [...]
For the 2012 major league baseball season many fans will be watching Yu Darvish of the Texas Rangers. Behind him there are several other Nippon League stars that are ready to cross the Pacific Ocean. Shinnosuke Abe currently is a star catcher for the Yomiuri Giants. This thirty year old star plays on the best [...]
American baseball fans know all about Nipponese superstars like Ichiro Suzuki and productive players like Hideki Matsui. They probably have some familiarity with American ballplayers like Randy Bass, who crossed the Pacific and became extremely successful in the Land of Rising Sun. They may not know just how long Nipponese baseball has been an international [...]
