Q: Is it true that NPB position players coming to MLB have all been busts other than Ichiro?
A: No!
Player | Position | Age | Posting | Contract | 3 Yr fWAR | 3 Yr PA | 3 Yr Value | 1st Yr fWAR | 3 Yr Net Val. | $5M/W Val. |
Ichiro Suzuki | OF | 27 | $13M | 3/$14M | +16.2 | 2191 | $42.7M | 6.1 | +$16M | $81M |
Tsuyoshi Shinjo | OF | 29 | FA | 3/$2.5M | +3.4 | 960 | $8.5M | 2.0 | +$5M | $17M |
So Taguchi | OF | 33 | FA | 3/$3M | +1.5 | 284 | $4.3M | 1.7 | +$1M | $7.5M |
Hideki Matsui | OF/DH | 28 | FA | 3/$21M | +6.0 | 2079 | $19.6M | 0.2 | -$1M | $30M |
Kazuo Matsui | SS/2B | 28 | FA | 3/$20M | +1.0 | 1069 | $3.4M | 0.4 | -$17M | $5M |
Tadahito Iguchi | 2B | 30 | FA | 3/$5M | +6.8 | 1742 | $25.1M | 3.4 | +$20M | $34M |
Norihiro Nakamura | 3B | 31 | ??? | 1/$0.5M^ | -0.4 | 41 | -$1.2M | N/A | -$2M | $0M |
Kenji Johjima | C | 29 | FA | 3/$16.5M | +5.3 | 1464 | $20.7M | 2.9 | +$4M | $26.5M |
Akinori Iwamura | 2B/3B | 28 | $4.5M | 3/$7.7M | +6.6 | 1562 | $25.5M | 2.7 | +$13M | $33M |
Kosuke Fukudome | OF | 30 | FA | 4/$48M | +5.8 | 1622 | $25.4M | 1.6 | -$24M | $29M |
Tsuyoshi Nishioka | SS | 26 | $5M | 3/$9M | -1.4 | 240 | -$6.2M | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Norichika Aoki | OF | 30 | $2.5M | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
This is looking at NPB position player productivity over their first three seasons and/or the life of their initial MLB contract. Things to note: So Taguchi was handled weird (the Cardinals kept him in the minors for a few years) and for a variety of reasons his numbers may not be a very useful comparison; Norihiro Nakamura was signed on a minor league deal and only had a cup-of-coffee in the majors, so ignore his numbers; Tsuyoshi Nishoka was horrible last season but he's relatively young and was injured so it's very possible he turns things around and earns his contract; Hideki Matsui would have been worth much more if the Yankees hadn't stubbornly kept him in the OF (including CF) where he totaled more than -50 UZR (roughly -5 WAR) over his first three seasons; Kaz Matsui was similarly bad at SS (-12 UZR) before he was moved to 2B where he struggled with injuries, but he later had some very solid seasons in Colorado and Houston.
If you ignore the players who barely played (<300 PA) and adjust for a more realistic 2012-14 Dollar/WAR of $5M, the average production over their first three years in MLB for NPB position players has been worth $31,900,000. If you throw out Ichiro for being a robot, the average production drops to "just" $24,900,000 over their first three seasons, but that's including Hideki Matsui lumbering around CF for some reason. If you throw out the high (Ichiro) and the low (Kaz Matsui), the average 3-year production has been $28,250,000.
Q: Did Doug Melvin pay Norichika Aoki anywhere close to $25M-$32M?
A: Doubtful! Ask again later.
Q: Were all of these players way better than Aoki?
A: No! Career stats at time of NPB->MLB jump:
Player | Position | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | wOBA |
Ichiro Suzuki | 3B/OF | 0.353 | 0.434 | 0.522 | 0.956 | 0.420 |
Tsuyoshi Shinjo | OF | 0.249 | 0.307 | 0.422 | 0.729 | 0.315 |
So Taguchi | OF | 0.277 | 0.334 | 0.387 | 0.721 | 0.318 |
Hideki Matsui | OF/DH | 0.304 | 0.413 | 0.569 | 0.982 | 0.424 |
Kazuo Matsui | SS/2B | 0.309 | 0.361 | 0.486 | 0.847 | 0.367 |
Tadahito Iguchi | 2B | 0.271 | 0.349 | 0.471 | 0.820 | 0.355 |
Kenji Johjima | C | 0.299 | 0.360 | 0.517 | 0.877 | 0.376 |
Akinori Iwamura | 3B/2B | 0.300 | 0.366 | 0.519 | 0.885 | 0.380 |
Kosuke Fukudome | OF | 0.305 | 0.389 | 0.542 | 0.931 | 0.401 |
Tsuyoshi Nishioka | SS | 0.293 | 0.364 | 0.426 | 0.790 | 0.348 |
Norichika Aoki (pre-2011) | OF | 0.336 | 0.411 | 0.472 | 0.883 | 0.390 |
Norichika Aoki (post-2011) | OF | 0.336 | 0.401 | 0.454 | 0.855 | 0.379 |
By "wOBA" I just mean a rough estimate using the formula: (OBP*1.75+SLG)/3
Obviously Ichiro is the best, but one could argue that Aoki is third best or even second best, factoring in defense and the fact that NPB used a different ball pre-2011. It's important to note that the main thing that seems not to translate is power and SLG. Fukudome was a slugger in Japan; his OBP did not actually fall that much when he jumped to the states, relatively speaking, but his SLG plummeted.
Q: Did Aoki have a poor 2011 in Japan?
A: Yes, so what!
Q: Only three players on that list have a career .400+ OBP: Ichiro, Hideki Matsui, and Aoki. Is one of these players near the prime of his career and currently on the Milwaukee Brewers?
A: Yes!