2022 Pacific League NPB set

 The Orix Buffaloes won their second straight PL crown on their way to the championship. They clinched it on the first pennant tie breaker in NPB history, as the Hawks had an identical 76-65-2 record. Masataka Yoshida helped lead them to the championship before requesting to be posted and signing for big money with the Boston Red Sox. The other big departure to the MLB was long-time Hawks ace, Koudai Senga, signing with the NY Mets. But as talent leaves, talent emerges. Roki Sasaki who was poised to blow up after a cup of coffee last season, certainly did just that. You should know about his perfect game by now, but if not here. He can make a claim already as the best pitcher in Japan at just 21 years old. Although, most still give the edge to the 24 year old, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, due to his longer track record and proven ace status. Yamamoto won the PL MVP (again) and the pitching Triple Crown (again). He's as bona fide as it gets. Both will get BIG pay days if/when they get posted to the MLB. 

2022 NPB Central League

While the cards in this post will focus on the Central League, I wanted to briefly discuss the 2022 NPB season as a whole before we get into it. Not unlike the MLB, offense was way down across the board. In April, Roki Sasaki had a 19 strikeout perfect game and then followed it up with another 8 perfect innings (and 14 strike outs) before being pulled due to pitch count. There were 4 other no-hitters, the first time there have been 5 in a season since 1940. The others were by Nao Higashihama of the Hawks, Shota Imanaga of the BayStars, Yoshinobu Yamamoto of the Buffaloes, and American Cody Ponce of the Fighters. 

The Orix Buffaloes won their first championship since 1996 (back when they were the Orix Blue Waves and Ichiro was leading the team). They defeated the defending champions, Tokyo Yakult Swallows, in four straight games after being down 0-2-1 (yes, there was a tie in Game 2).

Speaking of the Swallows, the player that kicked off my fascination (read: obsession) with the NPB all those years ago, Munetaka Murakami, put up a season for the ages. He broke the Japanese-born single-season home run record set by the legendary Sadaharu Oh (if you don't know him by now, please refer to the super seasons card post). He hit an astounding 56 home runs on the season (The Dragons as a team hit 62). He actually had a chance to get the single season overall record, but after tying Oh, the pressure seemed to get to him and he slumped, going 48 straight at-bats without a home run before hitting number 56 on the final day of the season. For good measure, he won the Triple Crown. It was the first offensive triple crown in the NPB since 2004, first in the Central League since 1986 (Randy Bass)Nobuhiko Matsunaka), and he was the youngest to ever win it at 22 years old. He won Central League MVP unanimously as well. This offseason he singed a 3-year deal with the Swallows, which stipulates that he will be posted to the MLB after the 2025 season. So 3 more years of NPB cards, before we see what the Showdown Bot has for him! 

Quick Note: Generally Pennant Run is for cards that had less than ~250 PAs, and partial seasons for pitchers.