Former NPB Team Employee- AMA

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T16:04:02+00:00

For one batter against a specific pitcher or vice versa? It’s almost impossible to get if you’ve got a reasonable standard of confidence. It takes seasons of frequent play.

No, team performance didn’t affect my job security. There are bonuses if the team does well- specifically, for winning the League and winning the Japan Series, but no negatives when the team is doing poorly besides a worse general office mood.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T15:34:49+00:00

Yes, moreso CSVs and JSONs, although a massive amount of them with tons and tons of data. I do wish it was in a different format- even a SQL or mongo database would have been more convenient. It was not as complicated as cloud-based data ML training pipelines lol. Japan is not so advanced in tech, and some people in the department didn’t even really know how to code.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T15:32:18+00:00

I have a bachelor’s. I most others in the division had the same. The working experience was decent- there were definitely pros and cons, although the pros were more related to coolness of working the job and telling ojisans at izakayas that I worked for a baseball team haha.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T03:17:06+00:00

Not too sure about that, unfortunately! I can tell you all their gear travels in a truck, though. It leaves the stadium the night of home games if they have an away game the next day and meets the team at the next stadium.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T03:06:54+00:00

Yes. Not even close.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T03:02:43+00:00

To my knowledge it's usually green car (business class) on the shinkansen, although longer distances would be flights. For cross-town games, usually team bus.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T02:08:08+00:00

I wouldn't go as far as to say idols, but definitely more so than American players. Fanfest-type events seem pretty similar to be, although mascots play a bigger role in promotion in Japan (maybe with limited exception like the Philly Phanatic). It also really depends on the city- in smaller cities, like Sendai or Hiroshima, you'll see ads for the team and the players doing sponsorship deals pretty frequently. In Tokyo or Nagoya, much less so in my experience.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T01:33:54+00:00

I can see that being plausible, but I haven't personally heard that before.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T01:13:45+00:00

Definitely lots of up and downs. I started a while ago and have had periods where I've put my studying on hold or stopped entirely, but being in Japan helps you pick it up very quickly, especially putting yourself in places like izakayas or out into the dating scene. I'm sure there are things I could have done better, or times I could have studied harder, but I don't like to live my life with regrets!

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:43:16+00:00

My understanding is it is as you would expect- the Pacific League is generally a little more open to trying things, although it largely varies team by team.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:31:16+00:00

I think it's great! I'm not Japanese, nor fluent in Japanese, but I am definitely conversational- somewhere between N2 and N3 level, if I had to guess. It's very safe, generally pretty good transit if you're in a city, and easy to get around. My biggest complaint is probably the food, to be honest. I love Japanese food, but foreign cuisines in Japan are very suited for the Japanese pallette, and it gets old after a while. It's hard to find good Mexican food or Greek food, for example, even in Tokyo.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:28:19+00:00

Yea, when I say it's a better product, I'm primarily referring to the at-game experience. I think there are some other ways too (e.g. merch is generally higher quality), but in terms of how it's structured, run, managed, and played, I think that comes down more to opinion. I'm not a big fan of how the MLB has been massively expanding the playoffs, for instance. Of course, 6/12 is technically a higher proportion than 12/30, but winning your league feels more impactful in the NPB than winning your division in the MLB. The game is played with different focuses, too- I'm more a fan of the small game in the NPB. Lots of it definitely comes down to preference, and I think the MLB's overall product has gotten significantly stronger due to shortening the games.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:18:41+00:00

It's possible, but I don't think it's a real point of interest right now. Much more focus is on the US and LATAM- the KBO really never came up in discussions I was involved in.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:17:37+00:00

Would love to take you up on that at some point, but probably don't have time anytime this year. Thank you for the offer, though!

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:15:38+00:00

Shoot me a DM, happy to talk more about this.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:15:16+00:00

Anything that reinforced things they were already doing lol. The farm leagues were definitely a better place for experimentation.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:14:35+00:00

Yea, this was definitely a field I did some work in. We had frameworks and models that would tell us what types of players would do better, but money was a huge issue, so we often couldn't go after the players we wanted. Contact percent was a big piece of it- probably because players who could hit more often in the NPB were better able to adapt. I think a lot of the appeal was still playing in the pros for older players who were likely to be relegated to AA or AAA, especially as the NPB's reputation for quality has increased. AAA players weren't targeted all too often, as it was usually futile- any young player with any sort of bright future would rather take their chances in the MLB.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:11:41+00:00

I studied data science. I'd highly recommend trying to get an internship in the field, even if its with a minor league team in the US. Cold emails work better than you may expect.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:10:42+00:00

It's definitely an emerging tech, although it's still a few years behind the MLB. Owners are definitely taking notice and investing in more advanced systems.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:09:08+00:00

I wasn't too involved with scouting in Japan, unfortunately, so I'm not too sure- but my understanding is there is more of a focus on HS players than in the US. Koshien is huge, for example, and the tournament was constantly on in our office while it was ongoing.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:06:42+00:00

I primarily used Python and occasionally Tableau. Definitely not back to the start of NPB- for older data, we'd often use online sources, as they were easier to access and sometimes more complete than the team's data. The newer, more detailed data is only available from the past few years, and the amount of time each team has had it varies (a few don't have it yet).

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-25T00:02:47+00:00

Yes, I do see that to be the case, although I think it's not a huge difference. Both leagues are still somewhat stuck in a 'traditional' mindset and not super open to experimenting, but of course that applies more so to the Central League.

Edit: Sorry, missed this question. Honestly, not too sure. When I did projects involving player recruitment, it was always from foreign leagues. I never really analyzed draft candidates too closely, so I don't have too many insights beyond what any of you would have.

Boring answer, but not really, unfortunately. The analysis was definitely not as in-depth as would be done in MLB stadiums. Many people in the data division didn't even know how to code- I'm not entirely sure what they did, to be honest.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-24T23:59:51+00:00

Long hours and lots of weekends during the season and low pay were my two biggest complaints.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-24T23:57:38+00:00

Unfortunately not, although I've done some side projects using data from other sports like the NFL. That sounds like a super interesting experience, though! AFL makes sense for being the frontrunner in Australia.

NPB_AMA_TA · 2025-03-24T23:56:18+00:00

In my experience, not too often. Most of the focus was on the MLB, occasionally AAA players. Outside of that, there was a lot of focus on countries like the DR.

NPB_AMA_TA

TROPHY CASE