The Sawamura Award and the Best of the Rest
The 2009 season concluded with Hideaki Wakui of the Seibu Lions being honored with the Sawamura Award, but a number of pitchers had outstanding years and we wanted to take a closer look at them. Sawamura Award candidate are judged on how close they get to the following seven criteria:
- Game Appearances… 25 or above
- Complete Games… 10 or above
- Wins… 15 or above
- Winning Percentage… .600 or above
- Innings Pitched… 200 or above
- Strikeouts… 150 or above
- ERA… Under 2.50
Obviously the only pitcher surpassing each of the criteria is Wakui with 11 complete games which made him the only true candidate for the award. An unwritten criterion necessary to win the Sawamura Award is strength and the ability to stay healthy. Even though Yu Darvish started out the season with a stellar performance, his injury in the second-half cost him his chance to win his second Sawamura Award.
| G | CG | W | Win Pct. | Inn. | K | ERA | |
| Hideaki Wakui | 27 | 11 | 16 | 0.727 | 211.2 | 199 | 2.30 |
| Yu Darvish | 23 | 8 | 15 | 0.75 | 182 | 167 | 1.73 |
| Toshiya Sugiuchi | 26 | 6 | 15 | 0.75 | 191 | 204 | 2.36 |
| Masahiro Tanaka | 25 | 6 | 15 | 0.714 | 189.2 | 171 | 2.33 |
| Wei-Yin Chen | 24 | 5 | 8 | 0.667 | 164 | 146 | 1.54 |
| Dicky Gonzalez | 23 | 2 | 15 | 0.882 | 162 | 113 | 2.11 |
| Kazuki Yoshimi | 27 | 5 | 16 | 0.696 | 189.1 | 147 | 2.00 |
The Best Nine Awards are still up still unannounced, and there are a lot of worthy candidates for the top pitcher in both the Central and Pacific Leagues. Who is most deserving of the award?
19/11/2009 at 5:11 pm Permalink
“criteria” = plural
“criterion” = singular
19/11/2009 at 5:47 pm Permalink
Appreciate the eyes, even if it’s a little pedantic.