NPB Player Rates & Ranks Report #1 - For the Week Ending 4/21/2025

I rated & ranked every NPB player and here are the results...

Bozzy Baseball Blogs

Apr 22, 2025

Document : NPB Rates & Ranks Report #1

Level : Professional - International

Source : https://www.fangraphs.com/

Offensive Data pulled : Monday, April 21, 2025 10:52 AM ET

Pitchers Data pulled: Monday, April 21, 2025 10:52 AM ET

Overview : From an offensive perspective, I rated and ranked 68 NPB position players using stats for the follow dates 2025 Season Start - 4/21/2025, using a 50 PA min. Players were assessed using a neutralized Run Value system to measure their overall offensive production, broken down into two core components:

“The Run Tool”— Captures the value generated from non-hit plate appearances (walks, stolen bases, etc.)
“The Hit Tool”— Measures a player’s offensive impact via hitting.
“Overall” — A sum of the Run Tool and the Hit Tool, representing overall offensive contribution.

Each player is rated & ranked in these three categories: Run Tool, Hit Tool , and Overall

Top 10 Players by Run Value

Kazuma Okamoto - Kazuma is a 5'10" / 202 lbs 28 year old RHH 1B/3B. The 8 year NPB vet is this weeks #1 Overall Rank - #1 Hit Tool Rank - #3 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #1 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 16.90% and HR Rate of 8.45%. Kazuma is maintaining a low strikeout rate 10.84% while walking a good rate of 13.25%. We tip our caps to this weeks #1 Overall Rank Mr. Kazuma Okamoto.

Yutaro Sugimoto - Yutaro is a 6'0" / 215 lbs 34 year old RHH outfielder. The 8 year NPB vet is this weeks #2 Overall Rank - #3 Hit Tool Rank - #13 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #2 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 9.43% and HR Rate of 7.55%. His strikeout rate is slightly elevated 19.35% (lowest of his career) and BB rate is slightly below where you want to see at 9.68% . We tip our caps to this weeks #2 Overall Rank Mr. Yutaro Sugimoto.

Yuma Tongu - Yuma is a 28 year old RHH 1B. This is Yuma’s 7th year in the NPB League and he is this weeks #3 Overall Rank - #4 Hit Tool Rank - #11 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #3 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 13.24% and HR Rate of 7.35%. Yuma is striking out at a relatively low rate of 14.10%, and walking in 11.54% of his plate appearances. We tip our caps to this weeks #3 Overall Rank Mr. Yuma Tongu
Teruaki Sato - Teruaki is a 6′ 2″, Weight 209 lbs 26 year old LHH 3B/OF. The 5th year NBP player is this weeks #4 Overall Rank - #2 Hit Tool Rank - #38 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #4 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 16.67% (#2 in the NPB) and HR Rate of 10.61% (#1 in the NPB). Teruaki is striking out at a very high rate 35.21% , and only walking in 8.45%. He’s definitely selling out pull side a bit more this year, with a 48.8% Pull%, 8-10% higher than prior 3 years. We tip our caps to this weeks #4 Overall Rank Mr. Teruaki Sato. Definitely has a ball player build.

Kaito Kozono- Kaito is a 5′ 10″, Weight 201 lbs 24 year old LHH 3B/SS. The 7th year NPB player is this weeks #5 Overall Rank - #9 Hit Tool Rank - #2 Run Tool Rank. His Run Tool is carrying his #5 Rank a bit, 3 net stolen bases at 100% success rate, and 14.29% Walk Rate(#3 in the NPB). His Hit Tool is not carried by tons of power, with an XBH rate of 10.67% and HR Rate of 0.00%. He’s got a 5.95% strike out rate (#1 in the NPB). His .386 BABIP is 70-80 points higher than 3 years prior, could be getting a bit lucky early in the season. We tip our caps to this weeks #5 Overall Rank Mr. Kaito Kozono.

Ryo Ohta - Ryo is a 5′ 11″, Weight 172 lbs 24 year old RHH 1B/2B. The 7th year NPB player is this weeks #6 Overall Rank - #6 Hit Tool Rank - #25 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #6 Rank, with an XBH rate of 5.00% and HR Rate of 2.50%. These number don’t jump off the page page, but his .413 BA does, with a BABIP of .517. 160-200+ points higher than any other time in his career. good chance we see this come down simply a matter of time. His walk rate is pretty pedestrian at 8.51%, and his SO rate is not great at 19.15%. We tip our caps to this weeks #6 Overall Rank Mr. Ryo Ohta.

Trey Cabbage - Trey is a 6'2" / 204 27 year old LHH OF. The 1st year NPB player is this weeks #7 Overall Rank - #5 Hit Tool Rank - #40 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #7 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 14.55% (good for #3 in the League) and HR Rate of 5.45%. He’s striking out a fair bit 22.03% of his plate appearances, and I’m not sure he’s heard of a walk 1.69% BB Rate in 59 PA. We tip our caps to this weeks #7 Overall Rank Mr. Trey Cabbage

Yuki Nomura- Yuki is a 6′ 2″, Weight 198 lbs 25 year old RHH 3B. The 6th year NPB player is this weeks #8 Overall Rank - #13 Hit Tool Rank - #8 Run Tool Rank. His Run Tool is carrying his rank a bit, 10.81% BB Rate and 2 HBP. He has some pop in his bat with an XBH rate of 10.94% and HR Rate of 4.69%. Only a 13.51% strikeout rate. We tip our caps to this weeks #8 Overall Rank Mr. Yuki Nomura. Good frame.
Takuya Kai - Takuya is a 5′ 7″, Weight 192 lbs 32 year old RHH C. The 8th year NPB player is this weeks #9 Overall Rank - #11 Hit Tool Rank - #20 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #9 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 7.46% and HR Rate of 2.99%. Only striking out 16% of his plate appearances and walking at a OK rate 9.33%. his BABIP is 50 points higher than his BABIP last year and 100 points higher than the year prior. Might be getting a bit lucky in terms of base hits. His IFFB% is down drastically so far this year at 5.6%. We tip our caps to this weeks #9 Overall Rank Mr. Takuya Kai
Franmil Reyes - Franmil is a6'5" / 265 29 year old RHH DH/OF. The 2nd year NPB player is this weeks #10 Overall Rank - #10 Hit Tool Rank - #29 Run Tool Rank. His Hit Tool is carrying his #10 Overall Rank with an XBH rate of 11.11% and HR Rate of 3.17%. Only striking out in 15.71% of his plate appearances with a walk rate of 10%. We tip our caps to this weeks #10 Overall Rank Mr. Franmil Reyes

That’s it for the Top Ten Player Breakdown. In addition to the Full List of Rates & Ranks, there is a tab showing the schedule for the top 10 players.

There is also tab in the Spreadsheet for Players Ranking Grouped by Age

Pitching : There is limited data on pitchers in NPB, so I had to use implied probabilities numbers for some XBH values to understand run value, which is why I use the *. From the pitching perspective, I rated & ranked 212 NPB pitchers for 2025 Season Start - 4/21/2025 with a minimum requirement of 0 IP. I will increase the minimum innings requirement as the season goes on. The pitchers are rated the same way in terms of run value but instead of Plate appearance or At Bat, I use Batter Faced.

Top Pitchers by RV/TBF :