Seiya Suzuki, a Japanese Major League Baseball player who has been playing for the Chicago Cubs since 2022, is a renowned player in Japanese professional baseball, having achieved the league’s top batting average twice and the league’s highest on-base percentage twice. Furthermore, he has achieved a batting average of .300 or higher and 25 or more home runs for six consecutive years in Japanese professional baseball. This is a record achieved by only three players in Japanese

My initial interest in 3,000 career hits in Major League Baseball was sparked by Stan Musial (who died in 2013 at the age of 92). My interest in 3,000 career hits grew stronger, and I became interested in their relationship to single-year hits, thanks to Al Simmons (who died in 1956 at the age of 54). And with the move of our Japanese hero, Ichiro, to Major League Baseball, my interest in the relationship between 3,000 career hits and single-year hits increased even further.

This is a sequel to my last column. In my last column, I wrote about my personal analysis of the “rankings in eight batting categories.” Every year, I research each player’s league ranking in eight batting categories: hits, walks, home runs, runs, RBIs, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage. I believe that players who achieve the top five in the league in all eight categories can be considered the best hitters in MLB. This is merely one example of wha