Hisashi Iwakuma and Yu Darvish at All-Star Workout Day on July 15, 2013 at Citi Field.(Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
(This blogpost updates the list from a year ago: MLB All Star Game 2013. Hisashi Iwakuma and Yu Darvish. American League edged National League 3-0, with Yankees Rivera getting MVP award.
This is Darvish’s second selection to the All Star, and first time for Iwakuma. Iwakuma becomes the 10th Japanese player to be selected for All Star team. Darvish joins Ichiro, Hideki Matsui and Kazuhiro Sasaki for Japanese player selected multiple times.
List of 10 Japanese players that made MLB All Star team
- Hideo Nomo (Los Angeles Dodgers): 1995
- Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Mariners): Ten times – 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
- Kazuhiro Sasaki (Seattle Mariners): Twice – 2001, 2002
- Hideki Matsui (New York Yankees): Twice – 2003, 2004
- Shigetoshi Hasegawa (Seattle Mariners): 2003
- Takashi Saito (Los Angeles Dodgers): 2007
- Hideki Okajima (Boston Red Sox): 2007
- Kosuke Fukudome (Chicago Cubs): 2008
- Yu Darvish (Texas Rangers): Twice – 2012, 2013
- Hisashi Iwakuma (Seattle Mariners): 2013
Hisashi Iwakuma is having an amazing season. As of the All-Star break, he is leading American League in WHIP (Walks plus hits per inning pitched) with 0.94, good enough for third in the MLB (behind Clayton Kershaw of Dodgers with 0.91 and Met’s Matt Harvey, NL starter, 0.92). He is walking only 19 batters while strking out 113 in 131 and 1/3 innings. He has record of 8-4 with 3.02 ERA.
Last year, Yu Darvish was selected by fan’s “Final Vote”. But this year, he was selected by vote of the league’s players, managers, and coaches. He is 8-4 with 3.02 ERA (strange that it is exactly the same as Iwakuma at this point. I thought I messed it up), but leading the MLB with 157 strikeoiuts. Had he not be on DL, he could have started the All-Star game, which would have been first Japanese since Hideo Nomo started the game in 1995, his rookie year. Speaking of Nomo, his name was mentioned in this All-Star because NL Starter Matt Harvey, prior to starting the 2013 All-Star game, had only 29 major league starts, which is the fewest for an All-Star starter since Hideo Nomo with 13 (in 1995).
One more interesting facts about Darvish and All-Star. Darvish was selected twice but have not pitched in the game. There are a total of 22 pitchers have made a team twice without appearing in a game in MLB history according to Dallas Morning News’ Garry Fraley. Johnny “Grandma” Murphy is the only pitcher with three All-Star selections (1937-39) but no appearances.
Finally, Koji Uehara was on the ballot for MLB All-Star “Final Vote”. He finished distant 4th in the voting, but there were total of three Japanese players who was voted into All-Star since “Final Vote” got started in 2002: Hideki Matsui in 2004, Hideki Okajima in 2007 and Yu Darvish in 2012.
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