Sawamura Award
The Sawamura Award is given to the top pitcher in Nippon Pro Baseball annually. On a few rare occasions, no pitcher has been found worthy of winning, while on a couple occasions, two pitchers shared the award. The award is named in honor of Eiji Sawamura, the first great pitcher in Japanese baseball history. While many foreign players have won MVP Awards, only two have ever captured the Sawamura - Gene Bacque in 1964 and Kris Johnson in 2016.
The main seven standards used by the committee are 15 wins, a 2.50 ERA, 10 complete games, 200 innings, 150 strikeouts, 25 games and a .600 winning percentage.
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