Japanese HOF Project

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Yasunori Oshima was a 1B/OF who played mostly for Chunichi (and a while with the Fighters) from 1971 to 1994. He had a very long career, but many of his seasons were abbreviated, and indeed failed to clear 100 hits in many seasons. That makes Meikyukai membership all the more impressive. Lots of players just barely qualify – it seems likely to me that they hang on just to get their 2000th hit – but Oshima got up to 2200. No threat to Harimoto or anything, but it looks like he was active for four seasons after qualifying for the Meikyukai. He had power (382 career home runs) but no speed; about what you expect from a corner outfielder/first baseman. Oshima’s best season was 1979, in which he hit 36 home runs, drove in 103, posted a 317/376/603 line, and recorded 302 total bases. Pretty good given a 130 game season. Superficially he reminds me of David Justice, but the fact that Oshima played ten years longer than did Justice suggests that he’s not the best comp.

Some of the part-time seasons were due to taking a long time to find a regular gig with the Dragons. He was originally drafted as a pitcher. Many of his early seasons involved a lot of pinch hitting. So even if he was appearing in nearly all of his team’s games, he still wasn’t getting a whole lot of playing time.

The trade from Chunichi to Nippon Ham was for Tomio Tanaka and Tatsuo Omiya. Tanaka was a lousy starting pitcher. Omiya was a catcher who had been decent, but by 1987 was a rather poor back up. Oshima was quite old at this point. I guess Nippon Ham got the better end of the deal – neither of the guys they gave up were any good – but it wasn’t the most consequential of trades.

Oshima ranks in the top 20 in a bunch of offensive categories, but that’s mostly a result of his extraordinarily long career. He was good – don’t get me wrong – but he wasn’t the kind of transcendent talent you think of when someone tells you that he’s top 20 in hits (and 22nd in home runs). He was a multi-time all-star, but never made a best-nine.

As near as I can make out from his Japanese Wikipedia page, Oshima had been a fan of sumo and the Hanshin Tigers when he was a child. Despite his affection for the Tigers, it was the Dragons who drafted him, and after he was drafted it was Shigeru Mizuhara who turned him into a position player. Post-retirement he managed the Fighters briefly and unsuccessfully, and served as a baseball commentator.

Meikyukai: Yes – Hall of Fame: No

1977 Calbee